Comments on: The Terrible Secret of Spam http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1065 Jason Scott's Weblog Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:22:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: David Lauri http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1065/comment-page-1#comment-146112 David Lauri Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:26:57 +0000 http://ascii.textfiles.com/?p=1065#comment-146112 I found this page while searching for "referer spam" and "ascii.textfiles.com". The reason I was looking for that combination is that every few days, spanning from 4/26/2010 through today, 46 times now, I get a hit in my website log for my site's main page that says the referrer is ascii.textfiles.com. Near as I can tell, however, there's no mention of davidlauri.com anywhere on ascii.textfiles.com (at least not until I submit this comment today). The log entries are always from the same IP address, 69.163.229.105, which resolves to tokyo.dreamhost.com. My logs aren't accessible to the public, so there's no incentive that I can see for SPAMming my logs. Any clue as to why this is happening? I found this page while searching for “referer spam” and “ascii.textfiles.com”. The reason I was looking for that combination is that every few days, spanning from 4/26/2010 through today, 46 times now, I get a hit in my website log for my site’s main page that says the referrer is ascii.textfiles.com.

Near as I can tell, however, there’s no mention of davidlauri.com anywhere on ascii.textfiles.com (at least not until I submit this comment today). The log entries are always from the same IP address, 69.163.229.105, which resolves to tokyo.dreamhost.com. My logs aren’t accessible to the public, so there’s no incentive that I can see for SPAMming my logs.

Any clue as to why this is happening?

]]> By: Jason Scott http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1065/comment-page-1#comment-4168 Jason Scott Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:13:56 +0000 http://ascii.textfiles.com/?p=1065#comment-4168 I see. No, that trick won't work; my address is in too many places and I'm too high profile. I always thought that was a sketchy way to do things, anyway. I see. No, that trick won’t work; my address is in too many places and I’m too high profile. I always thought that was a sketchy way to do things, anyway.

]]> By: Jesse http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1065/comment-page-1#comment-4167 Jesse Fri, 09 Mar 2007 20:15:58 +0000 http://ascii.textfiles.com/?p=1065#comment-4167 Oh, I'm sure you're doing all sorts of fancy things that I've never heard of, having never had to run more than small internal servers. By NOSPAM trick, I just meant getting rid of all the "mailto:" links (or is there only one?) on the site and replacing them with "email me at foo@(NOSPAM)bar.com" or "foo at bar dot com" or some other silly-looking text thing that people can figure out but (most) bots can't. Or is doing it that way admitting defeat? ;-) -Jesse Oh, I’m sure you’re doing all sorts of fancy things that I’ve never heard of, having never had to run more than small internal servers. By NOSPAM trick, I just meant getting rid of all the “mailto:” links (or is there only one?) on the site and replacing them with “email me at foo@(NOSPAM)bar.com” or “foo at bar dot com” or some other silly-looking text thing that people can figure out but (most) bots can’t. Or is doing it that way admitting defeat? ;-)
-Jesse

]]> By: Jason Scott http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1065/comment-page-1#comment-4166 Jason Scott Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:07:38 +0000 http://ascii.textfiles.com/?p=1065#comment-4166 I use a number of tricks and situations to handle the incoming spam. When I say "bounce", I mean that my system returns "no such user". As for "take it in and delete it", then that means you constantly accept all the messages, in total, which can go into many megabytes, and then delete them, which runs down the system notably. Believe me, I'm doing an awful lot in many directions to handle this, and I've minimized it, which means it's merely at apocalyptic proportions. I use a number of tricks and situations to handle the incoming spam. When I say “bounce”, I mean that my system returns “no such user”. As for “take it in and delete it”, then that means you constantly accept all the messages, in total, which can go into many megabytes, and then delete them, which runs down the system notably. Believe me, I’m doing an awful lot in many directions to handle this, and I’ve minimized it, which means it’s merely at apocalyptic proportions.

]]> By: Jesse http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1065/comment-page-1#comment-4165 Jesse Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:19:30 +0000 http://ascii.textfiles.com/?p=1065#comment-4165 Out of curiosity, Jason, why don't you use a NOSPAM trick to lower your bounced email count? On that note, why do you bounce instead of silently deleting? Or at least silently delete the spam with the highest "spam index?" I know some people who avoid doing these things for various reasons (the bouncing emails, particularly, because of what happens should a false positive result in someone thinking you're ignoring them), but I'm curious what yours are. Out of curiosity, Jason, why don’t you use a NOSPAM trick to lower your bounced email count? On that note, why do you bounce instead of silently deleting? Or at least silently delete the spam with the highest “spam index?” I know some people who avoid doing these things for various reasons (the bouncing emails, particularly, because of what happens should a false positive result in someone thinking you’re ignoring them), but I’m curious what yours are.

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