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How best to handle password hack request

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54 replies

by jdclyde

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

I have been thinking about this, and it is MY opinion that the best way is to remove the whole discussion AND kill the users account.

Even if we do a standard reply, it leaves the discussion up where crawlers can find them, bringing MORE scum out of the woodwork looking for hacks.

I would (if I were king) change the "report as spam" to a simple "report abuse". A hack request gets tagged and pulled, without leaving a trace.

How is THAT for a solution? :D

54 replies

by the scummy one

said button would automatically pull the thread, place it in a 'review' area for TR employees to review. If warranted, it gets removed from view quickly. Sometimes (even SPAM and/or answers) these can hang around for some time.

by beth blakely

Because I'm only one person who doesn't work 24 hours a day, and some idiot could go through and quarantine anything and everything.

by the scummy one

You should be working 24/7!!! C'mon, make some clones!

I thought you had some backup there? For a while, when I pushed the button, I would receive several out of office notices...

by tig2

Two password threads have mysteriously shown up from the zombie thread region. Don't see any new activity on them but they've managed to float to the surface. And the participants have a couple of names in common across both zombies- not that it means anything.

Weird. There is strangeness in TR land. But I know the pair of you (JD and PS) so I guess I'm not terribly surprised.

Edit- there's supposed to be an "o" in front!

by the scummy one

what is likely is that someone is trying to revive them by editing their answer. Everything posted from several years ago is being re-posted (before the template and non-help).

by charliespencer

Somebody called MrFreeKey (or something like that) edited multiple older posts in each of those two threads. He either added or updated a link, with all messages pointing to the same place. I worked backward from his profile and smacked the button on all of them. Needless to say, those were the only threads he had participated in.

I advocate ignoring the "hack password" posts.

If I were king, you best believe I'd find something better to do than hang out with this crowd...

by tig2

You know you love us dearly and would rather be here than anywhere else!

We haven't even slapped you for awhile.

Thanks for kicking tail on those. I just glanced at them and couldn't find the problem.

by beth blakely

that completely ignoring the requests is the best thing to do. If you can't do that, the message you guys came up with is terrific.

by beth blakely

It's a great solution, I just don't have time to implement it. :-) I will try to do an end of day sweep to rid us of these requests as time allows, but honestly it's not going to be a priority.

Besides, you guys wouldn't know what to do with yourselves without the scum! ;-)

by tig2

The request and any valid response would help. That way the word isn't used and the post is ignored.

Course we would have a lot of posts that start with "Message has been deleted". But we have lots of those anyway.

by jdclyde

the whole discussion.

We have already seen they can and will pull a whole discussion, remember the "test" last week?

by tig2

They are still there. They're just not visible to the naked eye. That is where replacing anything with the word "password" in it with "message has been deleted" has a somewhat greater value. It is no longer a SEO delight.

Invisible would be good as well. No one would be able to keep adding to the fray. But I don't know if it is still visible to a web crawler.

Hmmm

by the scummy one

a whip :0 in the workplace :^0

But I still like the clone thing. Trying to work it out for myself, that way I have more free time, and can stay on the clock longer....

by charliespencer

cloning Beth is more important than cloning yourself. I'm sure most members would agree we'd rather have two (or more) of her than of you.

True story: I had a dream several months ago where I walked into my bathroom and there were TWO of my wife, naked and giggling in a bath tub full of bubbles. The pathetic, uber-geek part is I was more interested in how she clone herself than in the opportunities presented. Sad, isn't it.

by robo_dev

for 'Interbank Travelers Checks' where not only do they replace your lost and stolen checks, but their commando force hunts down, tortures, and kills the thieves.

I think the approach of giving really bad advice and flaming the person mercilessly is more fun.

by the scummy one

tis FAR more fun. But each time one posts, the chances of it coming back up in a search increases.
It would seem that there have been less recent posts of this nature since the template has been used. In fact, 1-4 year old posts have started resurfacing since! I think the template is actually working, and the scumbags are getting annoyed (excluding me).

by nonapeptide

(quote from jdclyde)

:: Even if we do a standard reply, it leaves the discussion up where crawlers can find them, bringing MORE scum out of the woodwork looking for hacks. ::

Does not the template set a tone that would discourage said scum from posting?

Forsooth, deleting offending posts and user accounts would be ideal, but no user-moderator scheme seems to be in place on TR yet.

Would a different forum software add to the goodness of the TR forums? This format is slightly limited in its display and thread-organizing. Maybe a different administartion scheme could be more easily implemented if it was say, vBulletin (just using that as an example).

Back to lurking for password cracking offenders...

[edited for clarity]

by jdclyde

First, we always have some new twits in here that think it is a chance for them to pretend to be cool and give out a real hack. [i](losers)[/i]

Second, if the other discussions were not here in the first place, when the wanna-bees are doing a google on hacking, it WON'T bring them here in the first place [i](unless there is a reason the PTB [b]WANT[/b] them to come here?)

by nonapeptide

...working around the sparsity of mods and the inability to delete posts and user accounts at the discretion of the currently-non-existent-"community moderator"-volunteer--people's discretion. CNECMVP for short. Rolls off the tongue better. ;)

However, in response to #1, that will exist as long as there are 1337 h@xors in the world. No reason in my book to not give a professionally polite public censure to set a tone. Flaming seems counter productive, in spite of the arguments about its therapeutic nature. My fingernails never stop growing. I still trim them (whether by clippers or tearing them on equipment :) )

In response to #2, my first sentence sums it up. More moderators would help things out. Preferably responsible users who could offload the work from TR staff.

(edited because I didn't proof-read)

by jdclyde

[i]Why it got this song stuck in my head....[/i]

on candystripe legs the spiderman comes
softly through the shadow of the evening sun
stealing past the windows of the blissfully dead
looking for the victim shivering in bed
searching out fear in the gathering gloom and
suddenly!
a movement in the corner of the room!
and there is nothing i can do
when i realize with fright
that the spiderman is having me for dinner tonight!

quietly he laughs and shaking his head
creeps closer now
closer to the foot of the bed
and softer than shadow and quicker than flies
his arms are all around me and his tongue in my eyes
"be still be calm be quiet now my precious boy
don't struggle like that or i will only love you more
for it's much too late to get away or turn on the light
the spiderman is having you for dinner tonight"

and i feel like i'm being eaten
by a thousand million shivering furry holes
and i know that in the morning i will wake up
in the shivering cold

and the spiderman is always hungry...

"Come into my parlour", said the spider to the fly... "I have something here for you"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waia83h6Y2k

by jaqui

I thought you would be working on it also, racing me to see which one could click on the most of them. :D

naive innocents?
where?
I got some fun ahead of me then. ]:)

by jaqui

Dawg isn't playing nice. :(

he thinks corrupting naive innocents shouldn't happen :(

;)

by nonapeptide

It's because I'm used to having a "preview post" ability. The current "Body of reply" text box is so small that it's hard to proof-read your text. Lucida Console isn't attractive for proofreading either. Seeing it in the real message format helps to edit your thoughts to, hopefully, be more cogent.

Think of all the repostings from edits that wouldn't hit the web server and database server if we just had a "Preview Post" function. Why, it'd prolly make a significant impact on the performance in TR's datacenter. Cooling costs would be dropped as would electricity usage and cluster size. TR would have more budget dollars for things like... soda machines and pinball tables. This idea could save millions! Just send me a check. ;)

break;
removeTongueFromCheek();

[edited just because I can't spell]

by jdclyde

Unless you put something in the title to state that it is edited, most only read a post once.

No, there isn't a study to back that up, I just made up the "most" stats on the spot! :D

by nonapeptide

Just noticed about an hour or so of non-availability for most of TR. Sorry everyone. ;)

For a minute there I thought the PTBs got fed up with our whining and pulled the plug on the forums for good.

by absolutely

:: For a minute there I thought the PTBs got fed up with our whining and pulled the plug on the forums for good. ::

However, their fatigue with our whining is entirely unrelated to Jay's klutziness. He keeps tripping on the power cords. They should let him telecommute.

And that, folks, is how rumors get started: with outright lies.

by absolutely

"Kineckamivip" does roll off the tongue better, like swearing in Klingon.

:: ...working around the sparsity of mods and the inability to delete posts and user accounts at the discretion of the currently-non-existent-"community moderator"-volunteer--people's discretion. CNECMVP for short. Rolls off the tongue better. ::

by charliespencer

The two of them just sat in the tub soaping each other up. Not a technical response from either of them. Next time I dream up naked clones, I'm gonna use winners of the Nobel Prize in Biology. That'll teach her.

by jdclyde

And I always thought it was 89%... :(

Did you know that 99% of all constipated people don't give a crap? :0

by jaqui

fiber only makes it worse, for me.
need to eat lots of fresh fruit when I get constipated.
[ and the gay community has shrunk so they notice when I kill one for dinner now :( ]

by jaqui

going to make our circle?

he might only make the first or second circle talking like he is. ;)

by absolutely

:p

Just because it doesn't look like rabbit food/rope doesn't mean that, in dietary terms, it is not "fiber."

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