Well here you go.... Spam is more popular than ever! 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444358404577606921965843682.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444358404577606921965843682.html
Rash of Spam Registration
- Thread starter Ben Ruset
- Start date
Ben:
Looks like you may need to throw a few more levers behind the scene; the latest member (marcelolzr) is yet another spammer!
Jerseyman
Looks like you may need to throw a few more levers behind the scene; the latest member (marcelolzr) is yet another spammer!
Jerseyman
That one was registered by someone manually. No way of stopping those unless I wanted to block out all of Europe, Asia, and South America from visiting.
Very interesting.
What person spends their day coming up with ways to post spam on forums?
Some low life, bottom feeding, scum sucker who can't hold a real job. They should spend some time on Redneck F350's electric bleachers!
As a moderator at GPSReview, we have to manually delete a fair volume of spam every day. Almost all of it (maybe 98%) comes from outside the US. Frequently from Russia, Eastern Europe, China, India, the Middle East. I used to wonder whether it could possibly be worth the effort to post spam. But now I think much of it comes from people in countries where the annual income is only a few thousand dollars, so whatever pennies they earn would be more significant to them.
At any rate, that is my optimistic view, an attempt to retain a little faith in humanity.
Much of it is automated too, but that is easier for software to spot. The best spam makes at least some attempt to appear to be a genuine post. And many times you won't see any obvious ads or links in the post. Instead, they bury invisible text with links so the Google's search bots will find them and improve their ratings which are based on the number of links they find to sites.
At any rate, that is my optimistic view, an attempt to retain a little faith in humanity.
Much of it is automated too, but that is easier for software to spot. The best spam makes at least some attempt to appear to be a genuine post. And many times you won't see any obvious ads or links in the post. Instead, they bury invisible text with links so the Google's search bots will find them and improve their ratings which are based on the number of links they find to sites.
It's worth it because if they have links back to their crappy sites from high ranking sites like this one, it raises their ranking in Google. That's really the only reason.
The software they use attempts to make their posts look real. I think most scammers aren't native English speakers so they can't pull it off well. I've heard of spammers going back and finding really old posts and copying the text from there and peppering it with their own links. On a site like this that has 10+ years of posting history, that technique could work well.
The software they use attempts to make their posts look real. I think most scammers aren't native English speakers so they can't pull it off well. I've heard of spammers going back and finding really old posts and copying the text from there and peppering it with their own links. On a site like this that has 10+ years of posting history, that technique could work well.
geezerfinneran
Explorer
They might be "branching out " a bit. This was in my E mail today:
<snipped>
<snipped>
Yes, I know. You posted in that thread, and had it set to get an email notification when someone replied. That's not spam.
I deleted the email you cut and pasted, since it also included the link the spammer was trying to post.
Again, folks can just click the "Report" link at the bottom of a suspicious message on the forums. Please don't cut and paste the stuff into this thread. This is for discussion of the spam attack, not to report individual posts or messages.
I deleted the email you cut and pasted, since it also included the link the spammer was trying to post.
Again, folks can just click the "Report" link at the bottom of a suspicious message on the forums. Please don't cut and paste the stuff into this thread. This is for discussion of the spam attack, not to report individual posts or messages.
It creates stupid backlinks to help them gain a higher SEO rating with google. I hate that crap. However, I am pretty sure google is catching on and will be eradicating it soon. I get it all the time with my site and just laugh. I love the viagraesque spam. Or the Russian mail order brides. They are actually quite funny. Plus, the broken English haha. Yes, this is their job and there are companies that pay people for this crap only to help them get on the first page of google.
I find it all BS and don't buy into the H tags and have not signed up for Alexa because frankly I don't give a shit, but....
Since this forum usually is the first or second website to come up on the first page of google especially for the Pine Barrens and also the age of the website comes into play for its credibility and content which makes this at the top.
It is worthwhile for these guys to try to get their link attached to this forum because this forum would in turn boost their rank because of Ben's SEO rank. it would help to slightly raise theirs.
Former IT consultant/history buff/adventurer here.
This is from Google's very own site about pagerank:
Webmaster Tools Help
Ranking
Sites' positions in our search results are determined based on a number of factors designed to provide end-users with helpful, accurate search results. These factors are explained in more detail at....
In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages. For more information about improving your site's visibility in the Google search results, we recommend reviewing our Webmaster Guidelines. They outline core concepts for maintaining a Google-friendly website.
updated 04/10/2012
I find it all BS and don't buy into the H tags and have not signed up for Alexa because frankly I don't give a shit, but....
Since this forum usually is the first or second website to come up on the first page of google especially for the Pine Barrens and also the age of the website comes into play for its credibility and content which makes this at the top.
It is worthwhile for these guys to try to get their link attached to this forum because this forum would in turn boost their rank because of Ben's SEO rank. it would help to slightly raise theirs.
Former IT consultant/history buff/adventurer here.
This is from Google's very own site about pagerank:
Webmaster Tools Help
Ranking
Sites' positions in our search results are determined based on a number of factors designed to provide end-users with helpful, accurate search results. These factors are explained in more detail at....
In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages. For more information about improving your site's visibility in the Google search results, we recommend reviewing our Webmaster Guidelines. They outline core concepts for maintaining a Google-friendly website.
updated 04/10/2012
That's exactly why they do it. If you get linked from a "high ranking" site in Google (such as this one) it boosts the "value" of your own links, pushing them higher in Google's page display.
It's very common for spammers to come along and just make a dummy profile with a link on their profile page to whatever BS site they run. Fortunately I've gone though and deleted most, if not all, of those. And the anti-spam forum registration databases and Q&A questions you need to answer when you sign up seem to have stemmed the tide. I did get a fake registration last night, but that was done by a human and not software. There's no blocking that, unless I want to start banning entire countries.
It's very common for spammers to come along and just make a dummy profile with a link on their profile page to whatever BS site they run. Fortunately I've gone though and deleted most, if not all, of those. And the anti-spam forum registration databases and Q&A questions you need to answer when you sign up seem to have stemmed the tide. I did get a fake registration last night, but that was done by a human and not software. There's no blocking that, unless I want to start banning entire countries.
It is good you are getting rid of them. Too many backlinks in time can lessen the "value" of your site. It's good you are being proactive about it. However, content is also key in rankings so you would probably even out. Even though it isn't worth the risk and need to delete these MO-Fo's. Google has got to come up with a better way in indexing sites. Possibly just ranking unique content at the beginning of their list. They are attempting it, but there are all these other factors that come into play. It is kind of crazy to see the "tricks" that these companies do. In fact, major corporations invest millions and millions of dollars to keep their Page Rank or get it higher.
However, google is catching onto the "tricks" and will most likely eradicate it in the future. Just the whole thing is crazy hahahaha. You aren't anything in the web world unless you have a decent rank. Especially if your business is to sell items or have advertisers on your site that pay you for you high volume of traffic.
A dog eat dog Internet world. I must say.
However, google is catching onto the "tricks" and will most likely eradicate it in the future. Just the whole thing is crazy hahahaha. You aren't anything in the web world unless you have a decent rank. Especially if your business is to sell items or have advertisers on your site that pay you for you high volume of traffic.
A dog eat dog Internet world. I must say.
Fortunately I don't really care where I rank in Google. I just run the site. Not having to make a living off of it is liberating.
Haha! I know what you mean, FYI! However, you should have a little sense of accomplishment and a chuckle amongst yourself that you are at the highest google ranking out there. That's a feat in itself. Like I said, corporations pay MILLIONS for this privilege. You get the last laugh at the end of the day!!
I'm 5th in the list when you search for Pine Barrens in Google. Two wikipedia articles, the golf course, and Cathy's site are above me.
I'm numero uno if you look for "Ghost Towns in the Pine Barrens" though.
Woot!
I'm numero uno if you look for "Ghost Towns in the Pine Barrens" though.
Woot!
And number #1 in other searches. Just saying.. You are on the first page. That's where you need to be. For "not trying" that's huge! Congrats on 10 years and this great site.
But then we wouldn't get creationists from the UK signing up here to discuss the age of the earth with Al.