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Microstock Photography Forum - General => Symbiostock => Symbiostock - General => Topic started by: Leo Blanchette on December 24, 2013, 16:44

Title: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Leo Blanchette on December 24, 2013, 16:44
www.symbiostock.org/community/ (http://www.symbiostock.org/community/) <--- registrations open again :D

I had to mod it a bit to stop spammers
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: cidepix on December 24, 2013, 17:11
a bit off topic but I am getting quite a few spam registrations on my site these days..

I just don't get it.. Why would anyone want to create a spam account on my site? since the comments are disabled and the only thing a registered user can do is "buy" images?..

Seriously, why register just for the sake of registering?  Am I missing something?

I see the logic of spamming a forum, but a site where the only thing a user can do is "buy stuff"?!.. that's puzzling!  ???
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: leaf on December 24, 2013, 17:13
a bit off topic but I am getting quite a few spam registrations on my site these days..

I just don't get it.. Why would anyone want to create a spam account on my site? since the comments are disabled and the only thing a registered user can do is "buy" images?..

Seriously, why register just for the sake of registering?  Am I missing something?

... probably because the spam bots don't know that comments are disable.  They just go through their auto spam process.
1. find a wordpress site
2. sign up
3 post a comment automatically and hope it shows up
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: cidepix on December 24, 2013, 17:18
a bit off topic but I am getting quite a few spam registrations on my site these days..

I just don't get it.. Why would anyone want to create a spam account on my site? since the comments are disabled and the only thing a registered user can do is "buy" images?..

Seriously, why register just for the sake of registering?  Am I missing something?

... probably because the spam bots don't know that comments are disable.  They just go through their auto spam process.
1. find a wordpress site
2. sign up
3 post a comment automatically and hope it shows up

if it's an automatic spam bot and not a human, how does it get past the captcha plugin?

probably I should complicate the captcha options a bit.. then I don't want to make the process harder for legit customers..
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Leo Blanchette on December 24, 2013, 17:56
I'm all for off-topic! I'm using the last year's experience and building to finally perfect things --

Related to this post:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/symbiostock-general/symbiostock-centralization-call-to-developers-companies/msg358274/?topicseen#new (http://www.microstockgroup.com/symbiostock-general/symbiostock-centralization-call-to-developers-companies/msg358274/?topicseen#new)

And this post:
http://www.symbiostock.org/community/viewtopic.php?pid=9217#p9217 (http://www.symbiostock.org/community/viewtopic.php?pid=9217#p9217)

The first response is trepidation! I know the Symbio-crowd well.

I will say this much -- We're not changing much - simply dividing things into modules. Its being simplified and heavily documented. ALL documentation will be accessible right within the admin.

Things will be cleaner and ready for a bigger market, if all goes well. It will be installable with a "converter" plugin which brings you from the old site to the new.

The end result is that Symbiostock will be able to put its little symbiotic roots into any aspect of this business.

I rather hope I can avoid the forums and too much magic-geanie co-dependence in this phase of development so I can focus on a clear and perfected product.

Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: marthamarks on December 24, 2013, 18:47
I, for one, am "enjoying the stability" right now. Soooo sweet!

Merry Christmas, Leo, and thanks for all you did for every single person in the SYS network in 2013.

Best of everything to one and all in 2014!
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: peresanz on December 25, 2013, 04:51
Hi Leo,

 What happens with those that where registered previously and where banned because they hadn't place a single post on the forum? Are you going to activate their account again? Right now I'm still banned because of that drastic reason and I even can't logout, so I'm trapped!

Regards
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: UncleGene on December 25, 2013, 13:42
[url=http://www.symbiostock.org/community/]www.symbiostock.org/community/[/url] ([url]http://www.symbiostock.org/community/[/url]) <--- registrations open again :D

I had to mod it a bit to stop spammers


http://www.symbiostock.org/community/register.php (http://www.symbiostock.org/community/register.php)

Info
This forum is not accepting new registrations
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on December 25, 2013, 13:43
Sorry about that - I probably banned you by mistake when I looked at a page of junky names and didn't notice a real one in the middle. Let me know your user name and I can un-ban you
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on December 25, 2013, 13:45
[url=http://www.symbiostock.org/community/]www.symbiostock.org/community/[/url] ([url]http://www.symbiostock.org/community/[/url]) <--- registrations open again :D

I had to mod it a bit to stop spammers


[url]http://www.symbiostock.org/community/register.php[/url] ([url]http://www.symbiostock.org/community/register.php[/url])

Info
This forum is not accepting new registrations


The minute Leo opened registrations, the spammers started again. I banned them all but as Leo didn't want to install the anti spam bot add-on made for that forum, he turned off registrations again

I'm a moderator but I can't (I don't think) add users, so I"m sorry, but you'll have to wait until Leo can do something to stop the spammers and turn registrations back on
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Leo Blanchette on December 25, 2013, 14:18
I've installed 3 made for that forum...

I'm working on the issue now.

For instance, when I set up the wiki, it was discovered by spammers within 1 hour, and immediately I had all sorts of adds popping up on it. So I solved it by having it share accounts with the forum database. Spammers of course are not programmed for that unique scenerio. So perfect silence.

I think I'm going to set up the community to somehow generate accounts based on whether or not you have a symbiostock site...will get back to you.
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: peresanz on December 25, 2013, 14:20
Sorry about that - I probably banned you by mistake when I looked at a page of junky names and didn't notice a real one in the middle. Let me know your user name and I can un-ban you

Thank you Jo. My username is peresanz. I'm having some time now for Christmas holidays that I will use to work on my symbio site so expect me posting on the symbiostock forum this time :-)
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on December 25, 2013, 15:49
Sorry about that - I probably banned you by mistake when I looked at a page of junky names and didn't notice a real one in the middle. Let me know your user name and I can un-ban you

Thank you Jo. My username is peresanz. I'm having some time now for Christmas holidays that I will use to work on my symbio site so expect me posting on the symbiostock forum this time :-)

The interface doesn't - apparently - let me un-ban someone, but I can set a ban expire date. I tried yesterday, but it said it had to be one day in the future. I tried today as well (it's the future somewhere!) but no go, so your ban expires tomorrow, Dec 26th.

Very sorry for the inconvenience.
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Leo Blanchette on December 25, 2013, 15:52
I'm almost done. I'm putting out a new plugin which connects your site to your account.

Symbiostock site = account. I'll be throwing in a few perks like a daily update of how many images you have and such.

That way we are immune to spammers plus have an exclusive community going on.

When I'm done that I'll lift all bans :D
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: peresanz on December 25, 2013, 17:45
Sorry about that - I probably banned you by mistake when I looked at a page of junky names and didn't notice a real one in the middle. Let me know your user name and I can un-ban you

Thank you Jo. My username is peresanz. I'm having some time now for Christmas holidays that I will use to work on my symbio site so expect me posting on the symbiostock forum this time :-)

The interface doesn't - apparently - let me un-ban someone, but I can set a ban expire date. I tried yesterday, but it said it had to be one day in the future. I tried today as well (it's the future somewhere!) but no go, so your ban expires tomorrow, Dec 26th.

Very sorry for the inconvenience.

That's fine. Thank you for un-banning me.
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Leo Blanchette on December 25, 2013, 18:03
Everyone is unbanned now
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Leo Blanchette on December 25, 2013, 18:18
...
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: peresanz on December 26, 2013, 04:36
Everyone is unbanned now

Thank you. It works :-)
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Ron on December 26, 2013, 04:40
So buyers wont be able to come on to the forum, and the image request forum is also obsolete now?
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Kerioak~Christine on December 26, 2013, 04:43
So buyers wont be able to come on to the forum, and the image request forum is also obsolete now?

I think it was only other Symbiostock members that used it to date anyway  :)
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: peresanz on December 26, 2013, 12:50
Everyone is unbanned now

Thank you. It works :-)

Banned again!! (??)
I logged into the forum this morning without problems and now I got the same message about being banned. it says: Last visit: Today 12:56:34 (this is UT+0 time) You are banned from this forum. Please direct any inquiries to the forum administrator at [email protected].



Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on December 26, 2013, 12:59
I'll fix it later. Leo literally unbanned all 3,000 spammers and they started posting again.

I'll take care of unbanning you once I've banned the rest of the 3,000

I'm very sorry, but they were apparently (according to Christine) flooding the forums.

I am just getting rid of the zero posts
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: peresanz on December 26, 2013, 13:04

I understand spammers are a big issue so no complaints here. As soon as I'm in again I will post a message just to leave the zero posts group :-)
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: lucato on December 26, 2013, 16:17
I'm not getting to install the community plugin, when I click on the link I'm getting this page: http://wp-updates.com/404 (http://wp-updates.com/404) and before it was requesting a login. I've registered, but also didn't go nowhere.

Any help?
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Leo Blanchette on December 26, 2013, 18:08
Registrations are OPEN again! brace yourselves!

The community plugin, I've decided, will be integrated into Symbiostock 3 --- I'm not going to release it now.
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on December 26, 2013, 18:35
And the spam registrations are back too - I just banned 6 who registered but hadn't posted yet between 3:08pm and 3:16. It doesn't take them long. Whatever you've done isn't catching the bad guys.

And peresanz,  you're unbanned as of tomorrow - Dec 27th. I'm very, very sorry about the inconvenience for you.
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Leo Blanchette on December 26, 2013, 19:53
We're talking aggressive spammers here. I have a few systems running:

Bad Behavior
Honeypot
Google captcha
And your math question you'd suggested.

If the spammer software doesn't catch up I'll shut down registration. There could be a dozen spammers running through proxy servers, and its easy for them to over-ride most spam filters. Lets give it a few days to see if we can't recognize the full set of IPs they are using, and things should slow down significantly.

If it doesn't slow down, registration will be linked with Symbio-sites, which will be bullet proof since its such an unorthodox approach.
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Leo Blanchette on December 26, 2013, 20:11
Alrighty - enough of this nonsense.

Fluxbb is not working out. Its ok, I still have the database...I'm converting to another forum software thats more established. Don't panic if stuff is lost...its in the database, and can be converted over. Use MSG until we're converted :D
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on December 26, 2013, 21:16
Spammers are at the new site already. I can't log in to fix it, but in case you read this before the e-mail I sent, you need to cut these guys off somehow
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Leo Blanchette on December 26, 2013, 22:23
I'm still setting up. I'm sure this board software is much more established. I have to put in a few spam controls and we should be at least to average.

Its a beautiful upgrade actually...I just have to symbio-ize it a bit.
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: lucato on December 27, 2013, 01:36
Registrations are OPEN again! brace yourselves!

The community plugin, I've decided, will be integrated into Symbiostock 3 --- I'm not going to release it now.


Thanks Leo. Now I get to register, but there is no forum. I think you're building a new forum and importing the old threads and so on, or will it be a brand new one?

Thanks and have a great day.

P.S.:
Have you seen my e-mail I posted here (http://www.microstockgroup.com/symbiostock-general/symbiostock-centralization-call-to-developers-companies/msg358238/#msg358238)? A feed back via email/PM would be appreciated. Thanks.
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: lucato on December 27, 2013, 01:49
Registrations are OPEN again! brace yourselves!

The community plugin, I've decided, will be integrated into Symbiostock 3 --- I'm not going to release it now.


Thanks Leo. Now I get to register, but there is no forum. I think you're building a new forum and importing the old threads and so on, or will it be a brand new one?

Thanks and have a great day.

P.S.:
Have you seen my e-mail I posted here ([url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/symbiostock-general/symbiostock-centralization-call-to-developers-companies/msg358238/#msg358238[/url])? A feed back via email/PM would be appreciated. Thanks.


Ops, forget it. I need to be logged-in to get to see the forum board.

P.S.: I've sent you a PM over there. A PM reply will be appreciated. Thanks.
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: Leo Blanchette on December 27, 2013, 01:49
I'll try to get back to you soon. I'm still setting up the new board.
Title: Re: Symbiostock.org Registrations Open Again
Post by: lucato on December 27, 2013, 01:52
I'll try to get back to you soon. I'm still setting up the new board.
Take your time Leo, and thanks for all efforts and your attention. I really appreciated.
Wishing luck in the settings.

Have a great day.