If you want to be a known member with forum privileges and the ability to have your uploads of Census data credited to you.
You need to follow the rules!
Read the top line of the application page...
and fill in honestly the required (*) fields.
failure will cause your application to be rejected.
A failure will cause your email address to be blocked for between three to four weeks before the bad record is purged from the database.
examples that will cause a fail are.
Location: USA
hint.. it is a big country with a number of different time zones.
Timezone: ignoring this field and leaving the default in place.
Hint.. east coast GMT-5, great plains GMT-6, Rocky Mountain states GMT-7,
West coast GMT-8
most EU .. GMT+1
Hint is nice.. but verify your actual default time zone offset.. [ignore any offset for daylight savings time.. Summertime]
if in doubt I recommend the following web site.
http://www.timeanddate.com/
WarcraftRealms.com membership application
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bringoutyourdead
- Forums Admin & general flunky
- Posts: 1432
- Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:11 pm
- Location: Texas, USA
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bringoutyourdead
- Forums Admin & general flunky
- Posts: 1432
- Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:11 pm
- Location: Texas, USA
Yes.. and no.. this has been an ongoing problem.
about 70% (rough guess) of applications have been from spammers.
Since many of the applications are filled in by software, they tend to fake the info requested.
Back when things were less busy a year or so ago, I went through the membership tables and removed all the bogus members.
In the last years that Rollie had the site, a large number of spam records were entered (web links pointing to sales, porn etc.)
I also notice a disturbing trend.. a large number of member accounts where the only visit was to create the application.
When Metalbeast took over the site and I was given administrator privileges we created the ability to add the users IP addresses to the database.
This was a major security advantage... as I could now see if people were lying about a very basic piece of data.
If an application has a web link to unsafe sites.. obvious
If an application is posted from IP address that is currently spamming all over the net.. now obvious (find this from security sites I use)
If someone or some code can't be bother to fill out a few important details specifically requested on the application page... they probably shouldn't be allows to post in the forums.
On the other hand if people are concerned about their privacy and don't want to get their specific location.. I agree.
I have cleaned street addresses out of the membership profiles for some people.. I only want enough detail to match against geolocation records.
Take yourself for example.. you claim to be from Austin, TX (USA)
But I know you are actually from hmmm.. Austin or Round Rock or Pflugerville or Ceder Park or another location nearby.
Austin a nice location, I have been there a few times on work related business, and I have family living [in the same town you live in,, I expect].
As I have stated before there is an ongoing war taking place on the Internet.
While the net has the ability to a tremendous source of good for mankind there are those individuals, groups (criminals), bad ISPs and nation states that use this resource to the detriment of all others.
Many ISPs have been forced to block large portions of the IP address range in order to protect their local networks and their customers.
Metalbeast is an example as his company filters out a number of locations.
When I look at an application I use tools that allow me to see if the IP address has a history of being a source of bad activity, various spamming, hacking, malware sourcing etc.
I can also see if the ISP is cleaning up these bad actors.. or allowing them to continue their bad actions.
Some ISPs have earned such a bad reputation that I now just block the whole network block from that ISP.
And some of these ISPs are not small players... OVH from France has network blocks all over the world.. and each time a new one shows up on an application.. it has current history saying that yet again it is another spammer actor. OVH is so bad about it, that I am almost triggering the blocks without spending any time to do research on the sub-net.
Back a few weeks ago, when Metalbeast added the new NGinx server in front of our normal web server, he broke code that gave the servers the incoming IP address.
This was quickly pounced upon by spammers, and I started having to respond to hundreds of bogus member applications per day.
I don't have time for that pain, and I am certainly not getting paid to handle it (or anything else here at this site).
I can see why Metalbeast wants the NGinx server in place.. but it is still causing problem.. it is blocking Uniuploads... which had been fixed and then broke again.
And for the last two weeks I haven't been able to get Metalbeast's attention..
And yea all of this text is my venting my frustration about all the issues that impact this site.
about 70% (rough guess) of applications have been from spammers.
Since many of the applications are filled in by software, they tend to fake the info requested.
Back when things were less busy a year or so ago, I went through the membership tables and removed all the bogus members.
In the last years that Rollie had the site, a large number of spam records were entered (web links pointing to sales, porn etc.)
I also notice a disturbing trend.. a large number of member accounts where the only visit was to create the application.
When Metalbeast took over the site and I was given administrator privileges we created the ability to add the users IP addresses to the database.
This was a major security advantage... as I could now see if people were lying about a very basic piece of data.
If an application has a web link to unsafe sites.. obvious
If an application is posted from IP address that is currently spamming all over the net.. now obvious (find this from security sites I use)
If someone or some code can't be bother to fill out a few important details specifically requested on the application page... they probably shouldn't be allows to post in the forums.
On the other hand if people are concerned about their privacy and don't want to get their specific location.. I agree.
I have cleaned street addresses out of the membership profiles for some people.. I only want enough detail to match against geolocation records.
Take yourself for example.. you claim to be from Austin, TX (USA)
But I know you are actually from hmmm.. Austin or Round Rock or Pflugerville or Ceder Park or another location nearby.
Austin a nice location, I have been there a few times on work related business, and I have family living [in the same town you live in,, I expect].
As I have stated before there is an ongoing war taking place on the Internet.
While the net has the ability to a tremendous source of good for mankind there are those individuals, groups (criminals), bad ISPs and nation states that use this resource to the detriment of all others.
Many ISPs have been forced to block large portions of the IP address range in order to protect their local networks and their customers.
Metalbeast is an example as his company filters out a number of locations.
When I look at an application I use tools that allow me to see if the IP address has a history of being a source of bad activity, various spamming, hacking, malware sourcing etc.
I can also see if the ISP is cleaning up these bad actors.. or allowing them to continue their bad actions.
Some ISPs have earned such a bad reputation that I now just block the whole network block from that ISP.
And some of these ISPs are not small players... OVH from France has network blocks all over the world.. and each time a new one shows up on an application.. it has current history saying that yet again it is another spammer actor. OVH is so bad about it, that I am almost triggering the blocks without spending any time to do research on the sub-net.
Back a few weeks ago, when Metalbeast added the new NGinx server in front of our normal web server, he broke code that gave the servers the incoming IP address.
This was quickly pounced upon by spammers, and I started having to respond to hundreds of bogus member applications per day.
I don't have time for that pain, and I am certainly not getting paid to handle it (or anything else here at this site).
I can see why Metalbeast wants the NGinx server in place.. but it is still causing problem.. it is blocking Uniuploads... which had been fixed and then broke again.
And for the last two weeks I haven't been able to get Metalbeast's attention..
And yea all of this text is my venting my frustration about all the issues that impact this site.
-
bringoutyourdead
- Forums Admin & general flunky
- Posts: 1432
- Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:11 pm
- Location: Texas, USA
-
bringoutyourdead
- Forums Admin & general flunky
- Posts: 1432
- Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:11 pm
- Location: Texas, USA
And to refresh this thread...
While I have been active in game.. and paying attention to this site.. I have been checking on new membership applications and cleaning out spam site links.
This window of administration availability is shortly coming to an end.. and you will be back to the tender mercy of Metalbeasts limited time. (i.e. none)
Remember to fill in the requested fields on the membership application (read my messages above on this thread!!!)
Recently someone decided to hide his/her location by saying they did not want to disclose their location... (ip location indicated South Carolina, USA)
Since they have decided to not provide info as requested, I am honoring that application by doing the same.. i.e. I decided to not accept.
While I have been active in game.. and paying attention to this site.. I have been checking on new membership applications and cleaning out spam site links.
This window of administration availability is shortly coming to an end.. and you will be back to the tender mercy of Metalbeasts limited time. (i.e. none)
Remember to fill in the requested fields on the membership application (read my messages above on this thread!!!)
Recently someone decided to hide his/her location by saying they did not want to disclose their location... (ip location indicated South Carolina, USA)
Since they have decided to not provide info as requested, I am honoring that application by doing the same.. i.e. I decided to not accept.
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bringoutyourdead
- Forums Admin & general flunky
- Posts: 1432
- Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:11 pm
- Location: Texas, USA
To continue this ongoing thread.
With World of Warcraft Classic adding many more players (both new and old) back into Azeroth, there has been an uptick in valid membership requests.
But some of them are so bad...
Now should I really allow people like this into our message forums?
UsersID latin girlsraw located in New Yourk actually connected from Brazil and a website that is... hmmm...
either porn or malware (or both)
The sad part is I believe I have seen real applications.. but people just can't be bothered to read the simple instructions and follow them.
With World of Warcraft Classic adding many more players (both new and old) back into Azeroth, there has been an uptick in valid membership requests.
But some of them are so bad...
Now should I really allow people like this into our message forums?
UsersID latin girlsraw located in New Yourk actually connected from Brazil and a website that is... hmmm...
either porn or malware (or both)
The sad part is I believe I have seen real applications.. but people just can't be bothered to read the simple instructions and follow them.
Re: WarcraftRealms.com membership application
It seems BOYD stealth-promoted me to forum admin the other day so I'm working through the backlog of new accounts now. I don't have access to as much information as BOYD did so am taking gambles on some ambiguous ones and going with a policy of letting people through unless they're obvious - basically if Googling your IP gets "known spammer" results you're out, as does being located in countries which seem unlikely to have many WoW players with a name that sounds like a spammer...
The relative inactivity of this site lately means there's not all that many signups (it's a big pile to work through but that's becausenone have been done since february), so hopefully I won't invoke a spam wave by being relatively liberal with approvals: if too much spam starts appearing I'll stop approving signups again, as, after all, we no longer have an active addon or site; I'm only approving these in case someone signing up happens to be an addon writer who might be able to fix it!
(I still only have forum privileges so anyone asking about main website stuff, sorry, even if I had access, I've zero database knowledge so wouldn't dare to mess with anything; I'm scared enough of breaking stuff with the forum admin access...)
The relative inactivity of this site lately means there's not all that many signups (it's a big pile to work through but that's becausenone have been done since february), so hopefully I won't invoke a spam wave by being relatively liberal with approvals: if too much spam starts appearing I'll stop approving signups again, as, after all, we no longer have an active addon or site; I'm only approving these in case someone signing up happens to be an addon writer who might be able to fix it!
(I still only have forum privileges so anyone asking about main website stuff, sorry, even if I had access, I've zero database knowledge so wouldn't dare to mess with anything; I'm scared enough of breaking stuff with the forum admin access...)