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Visit The *EVEN NEWER* Barrow-Downs Photo Page |
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#1 |
Wight
Join Date: Jun 2023
Location: Treading the Narrow Way
Posts: 187
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I Do Believe We've Been Invaded
It seems there is an attack of bots.
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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 |
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#2 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,359
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Ah, I remember these feoul creatures. They would come in my youth, and raid our forum where the defenses were weak...
ETA: holy cow, they made over a page of spam threads on N&N and Mirth? That's prolific. That's bot talent...
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera Last edited by Galadriel55; 12-08-2023 at 08:45 AM. |
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#3 |
Wight
Join Date: Jun 2023
Location: Treading the Narrow Way
Posts: 187
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It seems they've returned in force, and with newfound vigour.
😂
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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 |
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#4 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,359
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Thankfully it looks like the mighty Mithadan and fellow admins prevailed, and the forum has been scoured of this spam-filth. All hail the great defenders of the Downs!
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#5 |
Wight
Join Date: Jun 2023
Location: Treading the Narrow Way
Posts: 187
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Indeed. The devious foes have been vanquished by the valour of our guardians!
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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 |
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#6 |
Spirit of Mist
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Tol Eressea
Posts: 3,352
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Much credit belongs to Estelyn and others, who did most of the pruning. Thanks to all.
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Beleriand, Beleriand, the borders of the Elven-land. |
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#7 |
Emperor of the South Pole
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: The Western Shore of Lake Evendim
Posts: 616
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It's nice to be a part of a legacy Middle Earth forum that hasn't been abandoned to the AI spambots Well done killing them off.
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#8 |
Newly Deceased
Join Date: Mar 2024
Posts: 1
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I value that you wrote this great post for us. I promise that this will be good for most people mapquest driving directions
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#9 | |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,359
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Quote:
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#10 |
Wight
Join Date: Jun 2023
Location: Treading the Narrow Way
Posts: 187
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Quite so.
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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 |
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#11 |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,506
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That lefthand turn direction into the Dead Marshes was regrettable.
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
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#12 |
Overshadowed Eagle
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: The north-west of the Old World, east of the Sea
Posts: 3,857
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The parade of Socratic bots continues; WCH has attracted two in a row to say "Oh yes, [Insert User Here], you are so wise." My assumption is that they're powered by current-generation 'AI' chatbots.
I've mostly been ignoring the ones that don't drop links, but is it worth reporting them on sight? They seem to mostly make one or two posts, but it's occurred to me they might be waiting to reach a critical mass and then spam the forum massively. (The other option is that they try to spam right away, but the one-post-per-minute block catches them.) hS
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Have you burned the ships that could bear you back again? ~Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#13 |
Emperor of the South Pole
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: The Western Shore of Lake Evendim
Posts: 616
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I find it amusing that a couple of the AI Bots posted to the discussion thread for my old fanfic story.
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#14 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,359
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I started paying more attention to the numbers too, and it's visobly noticeable that the amount of 508s correlates. I hardly get them at 2000, but get them at every turn at 4-5K. And each time I observe, relatively few are sitting in specific fora - less than a thousand total. Most are just hanging out. The sad thing is that they really don't appear to be falling off. The numbers fluctuate, but aren't really decreasing. Would a captcha "capture" these rogues, do you think?
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#15 |
Animated Skeleton
Join Date: Aug 2023
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 42
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Not sure if this is helpful, but dropping this here:
https://forum.vbulletin.com/forum/vb...09#post4482109 |
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#16 | ||
Overshadowed Eagle
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: The north-west of the Old World, east of the Sea
Posts: 3,857
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Quote:
Quote:
hS
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Have you burned the ships that could bear you back again? ~Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#17 |
Overshadowed Eagle
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: The north-west of the Old World, east of the Sea
Posts: 3,857
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I don't want to jinx it, but the numbers I wrote a few posts above were all 3000+; since I stopped recording them, I've only seen one 3000+ guest count, with everything else being in the 2000s. (I think I saw a 2400 at one point!) Maaaaybe the bots are slowly winding down?
16 Aug, 09:48 GMT+1: 2874 guests. 16 Aug, 11:43 GMT+1: 2750 guests 16 Aug, 12:54 GMT+1: 2855 guests 16 Aug, 14:14 GMT+1: 2806 guests 16 Aug, 22:36 GMT+1: 2803 guests 17 Aug 14:32 GMT+1: 2755 guests 17 Aug 21:34 GMT+1: 2747 guests 17 Aug 22:47 GMT+1: 2675 guests 19 Aug 10:25 GMT+1: 2817 guests 19 Aug 13:48 GMT+1: 2949 guests 20 Aug 13:48 GMT+1: 2604 guests. Earlier today I noticed another 26xx and a 27xx. 20 Aug 14:36 GMT+1: 2651 guests hS
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Have you burned the ships that could bear you back again? ~Finrod: The Rock Opera Last edited by Huinesoron; Yesterday at 07:37 AM. Reason: Data logging |
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