Foreign invaders

Yeah, X , I wondered about that Sophie88 when I saw it. I must have missed the Mason post. Wonder why Sophie thought we would be interested in such a thing? I guess Martin will take care of it.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

I am on some other woodworking sites and we are getting spammed like crazy from china .

-- John in Cranbrook http://www.extremebirdhouse.com ....http://community.webshots.com/user/cranbrook2

First we sang “I’m a lumberjock and I’m OK….”. Now we’ll be singing “spam, spam, spam, spam, SPAM, spam, spam…”

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

LOL…..I was thinking the same thing Dennis.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Wow…this Cherry is really getting obnoxious. I think we can expect a spam-o-the-day from this one until they finally get tired of it. Actually…she’s probably a spam-bot…...OH NO! This is a job for Spid-ato Man!

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

I bet Darth Tater could wipe this thing out too!

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

Mot must be at the vacation house, he’s been AWOL since the weekend.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

I just wish they would at least bone up on their english before doing it for god sake.

-- Better to say nothing and be thought the fool... then to speak and erase all doubt.

With all the other crap going on in China (food safety problems especially) I”m having a hard time looking forward to the next Olympic Games. So often I think things are on the wrong track in this country, but at least we’re not feeding our countrymen chemical soaked cardboard in lieu of pork.

As entities get bigger they become bigger targets. I work for a (30,000 circulation) daily newspaper and our website (firewall) is under constant attack. I bet it’s really bad for large corporations and govt sites.

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

I just hope all our Olympians come back in one piece and safe.

Don’t drink the water and don’t eat the food!

-- Carpe Lignum - Seize The Wood,

I’ve removed these members but it seems like I’m going to block traffic from some locations to prevent this. sooooooo bad

-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin_Sojka/1357216976

Thanks for doing whatever you can to keep our coummunity safe Martin. Typically inclusion (versus exclusion) is the answer to so many problems… although I don’t want to see our membership number spike from someone signing up a bunch of times just to try to sell things to the wrong crowd (over and over).

At least we’re making the spammers work to contact us, and they aren’t getting our real e-mail adresses! Maybe Martin should have a mini questionaire as part of the sign up process… where correct answers need to be filled in to proceed – common knowledge things that a random word generator or disinterested party would likely not get. Just a thought. Hopefully the percentage on non-jocks stays really low – still less than 1/5th if not 1/10th of percent as best I can tell.

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Martin could start with questions like what is a table saw.

Mot is on vacation this week. He is in Victoria BC.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Thanks for keeping the discussion going, Scott. I could hardly think about anything else in the last hours ;)

I like your idea about answering 1-2 questions.. those random word generators are supposed to prevent “spam robots” posting and registering on other sites. But what about answering 1-2 simple ww related questions hmm.. this would make it at least slightly more challenging since these spammers have mostly no clue about the woodworking.

Another idea is to have “report spam” button on each blog entry, topic, project or message and when member gets certain amount of reports his or her account will be automatically locked… and the reported post would just disappear.

Or radical solution.. charging some symbolic fee like $1-2 / month to be able to post anything.. without it anybody would just be able to register.

Scratching my head ;)

-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin_Sojka/1357216976

Summary execution is the answer….:)

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Thanks Martin. I’m not smart enough about computers to help you but I can congratulate you on a job well done on this web site.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Bob- I see you are no longer straddling the fence on the “final solution” to the spam issue. Told ya I was right there on the firing line on this one. At least “Kathy” was trying to pimp wood products.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

Well….maybe execution is a bit strong. But a long prison sentence (20 years with no chance or parole) in a nasty prison wouldn’t be. The web is one of the greatest inventions mankind has ever seen. A kid in the poorest location in the world can have the opportunity to read the 5 ft shelf at Harvard. We have the pleasure of each others company to share and become friends. The flow of information is growing geometrically, we are still in its infancy and the potential is mind boggling. Yet here we are with individuals and companies that are all but ruining this great resource. Something extreme needs to be done to stop it or at least slow it.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Sic ‘em, Bob. Doug will assist!!

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

I like the site being free for woodworkers. Aside from the great folks who frequent here it is a big part of my being here as well. I would rather have a report spam button and answer some woodworking questions than pay. However, I am sure you will exaust all options before assessing a fee and I admire you for trying to keep a token fee rather than $39.99 a month.

Okay, Tom. I’m calmer now…Especially if that darn Bob isn’t whipping me into a frenzy ;^D

But Bob’s point is well taken and a much broader and refined revulsion against the pollution of a pinnacle point in the ability of human beings to share information. My gripe is more local.

One of the beauties of this site is it’s relative freedom from commercialization. Sure the bills have to get paid, and I’m occasionally drawn to the out of scale pictures that appear in the sponsorship pane. I hit most of the links that lead to product description, new techniques and gizmos, etc. But I feel that this site is driven by it’s membership in a very organic and novel form that I have not found in other on-line wood focused sites. Or maybe I never stuck around long enough to feel akin to the folks there.

The point is, it grieves me when someone gets it so wrong to fire spam around here. Especially when it could have been of little interest to any of the members. Just random evil.

I’m for the bot protection devices, and I do hope we can find away to keep it a free site insofar as is possible. Just makes me upset when someone louses it up (let me tell you this wasn’t my first choice of analogy, the other one had something to do with a punchbowl) for everyone else.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

I hope I don’t get arrested for inciting a riot in Omaha.

Well said Doug. I think we all would have a different opinion of these folks if they took the time to do a well produced blog showing us how their equipment could help us. I’m not against folks with a commercial interest joining the club so long as they play by the rules….unwritten as they may be.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Sounds like you LumberJocks got this one taken care of. Good work! ;^)

-- Jesus is Lord!

Boys, remember what you are dealing with here; these people’s only motivation is their god, the almighty dollar. They will not pay any attention to any thing we say about them. They will only pay attention to what we do to them! They will only go away when it is obvious that there is no profit here for them. They were born without a conscience and will never develop one. In a way Bob’s remark about “summary execution is correct”. Martin effectively did that by dumping them off the site. Some one will have to act as “policeman” and alert him when these events occur. Or, I guess we could all form a “Vigilance Commitee”. It would be nice if some one had a “Spike” which we could send back throught he line and wreck their computer. Now. THAT’S “Summary Judgement”.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

the report as spam, could effectively work as the summary execution. Anyone taking the time to contribute to the community, share some projects and perspective is certainly welcome whether they seek to make a buck or not. People trying to market their wares any and everywhere, just hoping for a mere fraction of 1% return is just wasting their time and ours. “Kathy” could have, and still can do things the right way here, shouldn’t take too long to figure out, or to ask for help. Someone selling a vinyl sign machine, every couple days in blog format, clearly is in the wrong place.
Martin’s right. Any and everyone can sign up and post here (and just about anywhere that’s free…) which is still the beauty of this site. Several blog engines require the “fill in the blank” answer to foil a computer robot, but that wont defeat a carbon based one… I’d be happier knowing we can self police the site, reporting potenial violators to Martin, and he can choose to zap them if deemed appropriate. I know he wouldn’t kick off one of us if we made an errant post in the spirit of capitalism, but someone not contributing in any way shape or form… If they see their wasting their time, they won’t come back (if they’re smart) I can’t think of a need for a vinyl sign cutting machine,... but if someone was doing BOGO’s on routers with free shipping… No, I’d still probably be skeptical.

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

—-hello everyone;
I have watched this thread grow in length over the days and thought that maybe I would add my two cents worth….

Much has been the debate over the years concerning, good spam….bad spam….of use-full spam and non-use-full spam. Why whenever we use a search engine, Google or such, we ourselves are taking on the role of being spammers ourselves and then Google itself has shown us how to be successful spammers since they have in the past manipulated markets and newspapers. One might say that when Google does it, that is good spam and when we do it that is useful spam and when another does it that is bad spam.

When we talk about who wins in a situation such as this, I would say that the spammers have already won! If one notes the time spent on this thread, debating and talking about ‘spammers’, then one has to admit that the spammers have achieved their goals. What was the spammer’s goal here? They I believe were all set on advertising their product, by whatever means they could use to get their product out. I just now googled ’Foreign invaders’ and this page turned up on page two of googles search engine….now that is pretty good manipulation of the public in order to advertise your product. The spammer knows that by coming here they will draw attention to themselves, disrupt the flow of wood talk, cause areas to be mass blanketed out and in the end that they will indeed be removed….but by that time they will have achieved their goal of what they are marketing. And so they will move on to another site or look for another way to inter again.

I believe that it’s better to waste no time talking about them or their product….and then there is no free advertisement on them in the search engines. Remember now, that just because one removes the spammer’s from the site, one can still find them by searching with ‘cache’ on the search engines, so in reality they are never really removed. Just click and remove the blog, one can also read the blog on RSS FEED which we have here on the site and then decide whether to remove or allow to remain. Blocking this site from certain locations is indeed bad as Martin has stated.

Just some thoughts here, but whenever a way is found to block and stop, the other party in time will only find a way to enter by another back door and around and around the game does go.

Thank you.
GODSPEED,
Frank

-- --frank, NH, http://frank.wordpress.com/

I’ve removed one more today… no worries we will find ways to make things better. In the meantime it’s best to ignore them as Frank suggests. I will start implementing some mechanisms as soon as possible ;) Anyways.. they have no chance of ruining the spirit of our LJ family!

-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin_Sojka/1357216976

Actually I think they are kind of humorous at this point. If we start getting 10/day it would get old.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

You guys are funny. It is spam, your brain is pretty fast at deciding what to read and what not to read. Just like changing the channel.

- A mark as spam button is a great idea.
- Someone said the spammers have no conscience, I think that is a bit over the top <grin>. These are people (might even be humans) probably with family to feed, yes they may be miss guided and not my type of people but “no conscience”? Maybe, maybe not. Although I am a fan of exicutions for anyone that offends me these days <laugh> in reality most of the people that I would remove from 4 dimensional reality to some other existence may still have some part to play.
- How does Martin get reimbursed for all the time he puts into this great site? I would not be opposed to a one time life time membership fee if money was ever needed to keep things going, I know that had nothing to do with spam :) but there was talked about paying for posting. I don’t think that is a great idea, it slows the exchange of ideas. The socialists will cry and whine and they sometimes do have good ideas to contribute. I know I am to sarcastic sometimes but I can’t help it, it is just to much fun.

-- "so much to learn and so little time"..

Spam from China? I sure hope it wasn’t tainted with Lead! ;)

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Hehe Dick….They are investigating baby bibs from China that may contain lead…...I think that shows they have no conscience. I don’t think that is limited to China however. They are just manufacturing everything these days and have little regulation. Lots of snake oil salesman here as well….they are just more afraid of getting caught.

Be thankfull you aren’t living there. I just saw a news show that filmed a street vendor in China chopping up cardboard…soaking it in spices and then baking it in a dough pocket. He was selling them as pork dumplings.
The thing that scares me is the fake prescription drugs that are coming into the country.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Things at Mattel aren’t too spanky these days either. Except for those granite tops from Steel City I’m not tremendously happy about much coming out of the People’s Republic of China.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

I have a team of 8 test engineers in China. They are very dedicated, work hard, and do a good job. I think spam is spam no matter where it comes from.

On the other issues I would think the US corporations are the ones who should be accountable for ensureing they are getting and delivering a quality product.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov