members list - over a thousand!

[ebb]

When I try to find out something about
"our newest member, huggipinnatup"
I get a notice that I do not have permission to access the page
- that I don't have "sufficient privileges."

Doesn't really matter - if huggipinnatup is not going to introduce theirself I will forget about it, anyway.
Bill, your member list has grown considerably recently. Seems to be a flood of new members. What's going on? Who are these people? Are they People?

I always assume that a new member has a plastic classic and is interested one way or the other in older plastic sailboats and finds plenty of great info in the Forums here.

But these new members don't seem to post.
Any idea what is happening here?
Not some sort of nefarious invasion - they do all have these cute made-up names. This latest seems to be Aztec or Pacific Islander. Hopefully it is not an agency or corporation.:eek:

[Lucky Dawg]

Any idea what is happening here?
Not some sort of nefarious invasion - they do all have these cute made-up names. This latest seems to be Aztec or Pacific Islander. Hopefully it is not an agency or corporation.:eek:

Just stupid spammers - note newest member "pornolook"....

[ebb]

Perhaps an email could be sent to these potential degenerates with a photo of an Ariel 'body' part: such as a close up of the rudder tube, or the rudder shoe, or the OB motor well, or the bilge under the cockpit.

If they can't ID the boat part, then strike them from the list. And send them a bill for lack of imagination and littering.

[Lucky Dawg]

Perhaps an email could be sent ...
.

I think Bill has a good method - just a royal pain to continually apply the necessary pesticide. Probably goes without saying, but don't send them an email - good email addresses are what the fools are looking for.

[Bill]

These "new members" keep us busy banning them. ;) As noted by Lucky Dawg and as noted in earlier threads on this subject, these members are scammer spammers who once gaining member privileges, will post unwanted material or somehow send their spam to other locations while showing PearsonAriel as the source.

We've been trying to see if banning certain IP addresses would work, but so far it appears that the biggest spammers don't have static addresses.

This is not just a problem here, but appears to be a problem on most sites with a discussion board. In some cases, the spammers have caused a board to cease functioning because the board becomes clogged with porn or health or some other scam.

So, please just ignore the latest member names or the membership total. We have a select group of sailors who have posting privileges. :)

[Hull376]

And Bill,

Speaking of memberships--- err, the good ones that is, I can't remember if I sent in my dues for this year! If our Treasurer could email me and I'll attend to it if needed.

[ebb]

Not so sure, then, these are 'stupid spammers'
It is not far fetched to believe, given the track record of the government and corporations, that the internet is subject to psychological assualt and experiments. As it has been pointed out about WATER, it belongs to all of us but the worst polluters and robbers of water are corporations, the goverment and the military.

There is no doubt that the flowerchildren drug culture of the 60s was created in the LSD labs of the FBI. There is plenty of evidence that the CIA flooded the streets with cocaine. And may be still involved in that the problem never changes.
We have the Tuskegee experiments to look back on, the Atomic tests on soldiers in the Nevada desert, radioactive cereal fed to kids. hepatitis experiments on mentally retarded, and the brainwashing experiments started by the OSS with drugs in the 40's that became pernicious in the 60's. The same government disregard for citizen rights have led to rumors of military overflights of populated areas with mysterious chemical spraying.

But these are the overt documented incidents - would you care to imagine the list of covert attacks on the unsuspecting population?

I have no doubt there are federal and state employees out there who still subscribe to "WILD BILL" Donovan's purpose in doping unsuspecting Americans "in order to identify sympathizers, double agents and potential misfits."

I see porn as just another drug foisted on the public by some agency very interested in controling youth. You can 'identify potential perverts'. I see it as a tool to pry the INTERNET away from the public. Like water. Not least by creating rules and laws that will abridge rights to information and free idea exchange.

So I don't see 'peppinhugginpoopup' as a stupid spammer, nor even a young hacker, but a suspicious concerted effort by very sick entrenched bureaucrats to steal the internet from us.;)

I would axe them without ceremony. What are the rules of membership? Why invite the people who want to destroy you into your house??

[Bill]

I would axe them without ceremony. What are the rules of membership? Why invite the people who want to destroy you into your house??

Ebb, we "axe" them without ceremony, but it takes several menus and a bunch of key strokes. And they are axed because they don't follow the "rules of membership" -- i.e., fill in the "Profile" information. FYI - in most cases, these are not live bodies entering the site and registering. Rather, they are "bots" (i.e., robots) programed to fill in the commonly requested reg data, but so far, they are not programmed to complete random profile questions. Also, certain @XXXX mail extensions are banned without even checking the profile section. Why someone in Russia would be interested in the ACYA discussion site is very questionable. Ditto for Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Israel, China, etc, etc.

I'm sure that there are also government bots viewing our Web pages looking for key words found in bad guy postings. I don't get paranoid about them since we're not constructing any thing more dangerous than bow sprits and refrigerated beer carrying boxes :D Of course, some of Ebb's postings might draw their attention . . :rolleyes:

[mbd]

Why someone in Russia would be interested in the ACYA discussion site is very questionable. Ditto for Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Israel, China, etc, etc.
DOn't be so sure Bill. Whoda thunk some of these boats would turn up in Australia or Greece?


Of course, some of Ebb's postings might draw their attention . . :rolleyes:
No doubt Ebb has already been "flagged" and black listed. :cool:

[ebb]

I realize this is a boat site - but...
the site is under attack.
WHO or WHAT is doing the attacking?
And dig the classic pre-dawn raid scenario!

CHARLES BOOHER is an anti-spam internet folkhero.
Funny, rediculous, tragic - this guy fought back.
PERHAPS going a little too far, VERBALLY.

Type his name onto google and find the two Dan Pulcrano articles.

Federal Marshalls arrived early one morning at his Sunnyvale home, rousted him out of bed and handcuffed him naked in his bedroom!* His wife persuaded them to let her dress him, then they took him to San Jose and booked him on charges that he violated Title 18 of the US Interstate Communications Code prohibiting "any communication containing any threat to injure the person of another." 5 YEARS JAIL. I believe they dropped the charges.

yeah, this is America. And reactions like this by cops reminds me of Germany in the '40s.

But what they did to the guy was meant to intimidate. And I don't believe Booher who had other extenuating issues ever recovered.

Like I said above, I don't believe that there are any innocent porn spammers. They could be spys. There are many sleezey copycats who all market and copy the exact same sleeze produced in the same studios by the same actors. It's just too damn convenient that one kook's over-reaction to porn-spam got the FEDS down on him. Looks to me that the Feds were protecting a venue they had an interest in. Don't tell me there are ANY Amendment Rights involved here!
If it wasn't so grotesque and miserable it could be Alice in Wonderland. Dead serious. What the Federal Marshalls did to Booher was a thousand times more pornographic than the internet porn business they seemed to be protecting.

There is nothing innocent about any of this.
Take a look. If you think I'm overreacting.:eek:
__________________________________________________ ________________________________________
*OK, this didn't happen to YOU. It happens ALL the time on the tube - it's a regular occurence in our society - it's ENTERTAINMENT - it's regular fare for viewing. Kids lap it up. Skinny dudes being chased by overweight angry cops.
But suppose these swat spooks came into YOUR home - GUNS DRAWN - what about your partner and the kids? - and dragged YOU out of bed - and HANDCUFFED you. And crapped on you with threats and yelling and insults. Imagine it. U.S.A.

What caused this incredible over-reaction by the authorities? Totally obscene. Whatever happened to being served a warrent with a knock on the door?

I don't see anything funny in this. I don't see anything legal in this. What Amendment was that???
__________________________________________________ ________________________________________

GUNS DRAWN is the ultimate unzipped pornographic testosterone response authority has for suspected law breakers.

[Lucky Dawg]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Booher

Ebb, Wikepedia says it needs more info on Booher - sounds like you're an authority on the man. If 80 gajillion people have consumed porn (or sought various enlargements...) and one or more of those decided to raise a ruckus towards the government, their individual credibility has an immediate slap, eh? Not a bad ace in the hole for the wrong person(s) to utilize.

Aside from the government plot, spamming to me is like what some people do behind 1/4" of auto glass - behavior towards others that they would never dare to do face to face. If spammers - God forbid - came to your front door, law's "Reasonable Man" theory would support chasing them down the street with a sledgehammer to protect your house and home. Given no recourse - directly - I can see how Booher could have been moved to make such threats.

If you take a look at the visitors on this site http://pearsonariel.org/discussion/online.php , most of the time there are about a dozen yahoo slurp spiders (and others) cruising bot-wise through our forums. These aren't spammers, but these web robots are looking for words to increase Yahoo's referral business, I presume. Not news to you, but bots and other processes (e.g. cookies/etc are installed when you visit sites) can also analyze our individual surfing patterns to sell this info to advertisers/target your web experience to your patterned behaviors. I find this creepy... and Big Brother-esque. Hence, every time my web browser closes, it automatically washes with 12Ghost's Wash program - free via http://12ghosts.com/ghosts/wash.htm

[ebb]

Hey Kyle, I'm supposed to be working
so I'll get back to your post......

My first two google hits come up with this website:
www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.04.03/booher-0349.html

"AND WE'LL BE HAPPY AGAIN, BOOHER SAYS"

[Bill]

Spent the afternoon cleaning out deadwood and viral-based attempted registrations (banned members count in the total). After the banned spammers, the deadwood included those in the "no activity" since 2004 group. Not included were those who had posted a few times in those early years. Obviously, if any of them are really interested, they can re register. Registered lurkers are safe if they have been on the site in the past year.

Due next is a software program update. From what I understand, there will not be a major revision in what we see. It will primarily cover security and operational problems to make things run a little better.