[axxs-sysadmin] SPAM, (was No Database connection for A-IMC)

[aketus]

Thanks Meela,

I figured that would be the case with no IP logs for Indymedia sites.

I'm probably going to shake some dangerous ground here, but what about  
enabling logs long enough for some spam to come in, grab the IPs, do  
the .htaccess blocking, and then delete the logs again?

Whilst I fully respect the concept of no IP logging, I even more  
heartily approve of the use of IP logs to defend an Indymedia site  
against spam, at least temporarily (i.e an hour or so) to gather the  
required information.

Naturally I expect this will meet some disagreement - whatever the  
solution, hopefully someone can recommend something to AdelaideIMC..

No IP logging is great, but when it's only the site itself that is  
suffering due to a nice theory, well I think we know who the loser is.  
Remember that the spambots don't care if there are IP logs or not - it  
will bring the site down either way. If our own rules are detrimental  
to the running of an Indymedia site, then our own laws are too strict  
and need to be wavered.

aketus

Quoting meela davis <meela.davis at gmail.com>:

> Not sure about other imcs, but Sydney definately has a "no ip logging"
> policy. So AFAIK, it would be hard to determine who's doing the spamming,
> and impossible to block them.
>
> We recently had a bit of trouble with our drupal spam module going haywire
> and marking almost everything as spam. So we turned it off for a while,
> reset some of the strings it searches for, and re-enabled it on the weekend.
> Fingers crossed, but so far, so good.
>
> You're right, aketus. Captcha only reduces amount of work that a person
> needs to do to deactivate and remove spam. It doesn't actually stop spam.
> There's some info on (where else?) wikipedia about trapping spammers, etc.
> Someone else who knows more than I should comment on the methods described
> there, though.
>
> Meela
>
>
> On 11/13/06, aketus <aketus at anarchobase.com> wrote:
>>
>> Despite the rep for Adelaide IMC installing Captcha to prevent the
>> massive spam overloads (which I believe have been contributing, if not
>> are the cause, of the mysql crashes), there have still been way too
>> many connections to the adelaideimc database, as well as some other
>> strange
>> 'mysqlmail4php2you4me2006flunkkeldenjuliebrianshirldeanwaynecrai'
>> processes - anyone know what these are?
>>
>> It's been a noted concern of mine that *after* captcha was installed
>> on Adelaide IMC, much of mysql's resources have been taken up by the
>> site regardless.
>>
>> Thus I don't think captcha is doing the job - captcha will only stop
>> the spam comments actually being processed - but it doesn't stop the
>> hundreds of spambots actually visiting the site and hence racking up
>> database connections. I think what would be more effective would be
>> checking some logs to find the IP(s) or IP range of the spambots
>> hitting AdelaideIMC and block their entire access to the site using
>> htaccess.
>>
>> Or is my logic flawed? I confess I don't know that much about captcha
>> or mysql and how/when spam affects the server.
>>
>> aketus
>>
>>
>>
>> Quoting Cameron Gregg <cam at earthanarchy.org>:
>>
>>> Danyl Strype wrote:
>>>> Kia ora
>>>>
>>>> We are getting an error message with Indymedia.org.nz:
>>>>
>>>> "Database Error
>>>>
>>>> Could not establish database connection."
>>>>
>>>> Anyone know why
>>>>
>>>> RnB
>>>> Strypey
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Seems ok for me right now.
>>>
>>> We've had lots of waves of spam lately. In particular Adelaide IMC is
>>> suffering. If anyone can offer them some tech assistance in getting
>>> captcha working (or another solution), that would be good.
>>>
>>> Cam
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> axxs-sysadmin mailing list
>>> axxs-sysadmin at lists.indymedia.org
>>> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/axxs-sysadmin
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> aketus
>>
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>> axxs-sysadmin at lists.indymedia.org
>> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/axxs-sysadmin
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Power to the sisters and therefore to the class
> http://dev.anarchafem.org



-- 
aketus