Sorting the wheat from the chaff

There has been discussion recently about whether or not blog comments should be moderated. Some maintain an 'open for all' policy, and allow any comments to be posted on their blog. They do so for a number of reasons. Some wish to make posting comments as easy as possible, and want their blog to be as welcoming as it can be. Others do not have the time to moderate all the comments that are posted to their site. It's a very democratic approach.

Several years ago, I took the decision to moderate comments on my own blog, not because I'm undemocratic, but because there are two kinds of comment I will not allow to be published. The first kind are comments that come from people who will be politely referred to as 'trolls'. Trolls post hateful, destructive, off-topic and inflammatory comments, because they enjoy provoking emotional responses and upsetting others. You can imagine how heart breaking that kind of comment could be for children who are blogging. In the UK, under the Communications Act of 2003 it is an offence to send messages that are of grossly offensive, obscene, indecent or menacing character. Two recent court cases have resulted in internet trolls being successfully prosecuted and sentenced to prison. For whatever reasons these individuals post such comments, I don't want that kind of content on my blog, so I usually screen for them, and delete them if I receive them. I dealt with one of my own personal trolls several years ago by openly writing about them here in Dear eLearning 101.

The second reason I moderate my blog comments is due to the increase in spam comments that are coming through, sometimes several each day. This blog currently has an average of 125,000 visitors each month, so the spam messages can be frequent. You can easily recognise most spam messages because they are sychophantic and painfully complimentary, sometimes very bland, and often written in appallingly bad English. They always contain at least one hyperlink. The example (above) is a fairly clear cut case of some sad person desperately trying to get people to click on their links. Who knows what the links contain? They could take you to dodgy sites or open you up for a virus attack.

I don't want these comments on my blog for a number of reasons. I don't want my readers exposed to dangerous links that may infect their computers with a virus or subject them to hacking. Secondly, I only want relevant and useful comments to appear on my blog. Anyone who wishes to comment constructively on my blog is very welcome to do so, but I won't accept spurious or irrelevant contributions. Finally, look at the example below - probably one of the most subtle spam comments I have received recently. Note that there are two hyperlinks, almost invisible in the post. Can you spot them?

Now you know why I screen all the comments submitted to this blog. I want to promote great discussions here, but to do so, I occasionally have to sort the wheat from the chaff. Do you moderate your blog comments, and if so why?



Sorting the wheat from the chaff by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Seven deadly spams

OK, so it was pure irony and I was having a laugh. My last post 'Twitter made my head explode' was just me letting off a little steam (the picture was a subtle clue). My head didn't really explode, and I don't really believe that overuse of the Internet leads to ADHD or autism, or that prolonged use of screen technologies might lead to diseases such as cerebral vascular accident (CVA or 'stroke') or the big 'C'. I was just having some fun at the expense of a few pompous scientific types who maybe should think more carefully before they commit their unsubstantiated ideas to press. But seriously, there are some potential dangers out there in the social network world. They are more social than physical though...

We have all heard about the employees who have lost their jobs for badmouthing their employers on their blogs. The case of the 'Petite Anglaise' - British worker Catherine Sanderson, who was sacked from her Paris job - is a classic one. She eventually won a court case against her former employers for wrongful dismissal. We don't often hear though, about those bright young things who have left university looking for high flying jobs, yet who cannot find good jobs. We don't hear how their potential employers trawl through Facebook and find images of them engaged in dubious or colourful activities. And then there's the thing we are all affected by: the spam that increasingly invades our e-mail accounts and social spaces. Patricia Wallace once said that the act of daily deleting spam is the psychological equivalent to 'weeding the garden.' It's annoying but necessary. Last month we all suffered a Twitter attack (keep taking the pills), where targeted users had their accounts hijacked, spam messages were sent out in their name, and others lost personal data.

Cloudmark is a company that services the social networking industry, policing its clients servers for spam. They recently released "the seven deadly sins of social networking spam." One of my favourite bloggers Robert X Cringely has expanded it a little in his own inimitable style. It's a real hoot, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

1) Dating spam. Sorry to break it to you, but "Sultry Svetlana," that 23-year-old hottie from the Ukraine who thinks you're fascinating, is really Ugly Ivan, a 46-year-old scammer from Minsk. Take a cold shower and forget about her.
2) Profile and IM lures. Suddenly, you're Mr. Popularity -- only your newfound friends want to lure you to a fake profile page or IM conversation, where they can steal your information. The moral: candy + strangers = bad news.
3) Redirection to dangerous sites. Uh oh, somebody has posted naughty pix of you at an external site -- better go look. No, you won't find naughty pix (at least, not of you), but you might get a drive-by malware infection.
4) Nigerian attacks. That same deposed foreign minister who wanted to share $35 million in embezzled funds with you on e-mail now wants to do it on Facebook. Let me know how that works out for you.
5) Fake jobs. A fantastic job opportunity awaits you. And if you're lucky, your new "employer" will only clean out your bank account and not steal your identity and/or get you arrested along with it.
6) Competitor social network lure. Lesser social networks may try to steal you away by posting comments on your page pretending to be from your friends. Is that pathetic or what?
7) Religion-based spam. Have you accepted the Alien King Rondelay as your one and true savior? Spammers may use social networking sites to convert users for various religions. God help us all.

Wow, who ever thought social networking could be so exciting?

(Image source: http://blog.smithsonianchannel.com/2008/09/19/spam-tastic/)

Not a fan of spam

All you ever needed to know about spam, but were afraid to ask is on the BBC news site today. It's 15 years since Joel Furr first applied the old Monty Python sketch term to unsolicited e-mails. It's one of those things we all seem to put up with, and no one seems to complain about anymore. Anti-spam software doesn't seem to work. If you reply, they know they have a 'live one'.

When I used to receive junk mail from insurance or credit card companies, my response was to simply bundle up the contents, stuff them all into the pre-paid return envelope and send it back. The junk mailer then had to pay twice for the privilege of discovering that I wasn't interested. The junk mail soon stopped coming.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could do the same thing to spammers as I do when I received junk mail? Send it staright back to them with interest (say 1000 copies) and clog up their freakin' mailbox??? Patricia Wallace - in her book 'The Psychology of the Internet' says that getting rid of spam is the psychological equivalent of 'weeding the garden'. Well, I have to 'weed my garden' every day. If anyone has a solution I think we should all be told....

Petrol, passports and papaya

I'm not happy. I noticed this morning that my petrol gauge was low, so on my way into the office I visited our drive-in garage. The forecourt notice announced that the garage was 'closed due to a technical fault'.

OK. I decided to drive-out of the drive-in and drive back in to fill up later. When the 'technical fault' was resolved. During lunch break I walked into town to grab some passport application forms at our walk-in post-office. All eight (yes 8) shelves labelled 'Passport Application Forms' were empty. Would you believe it? Not a single form. Just a paperclip.

The final straw fluttered silently down onto my shoulder tonight. I was at my local supermarket (name withheld to protect the guASDAilty). I searched high and low. My favourite tinned papaya fruit was not on the shelves! 'Don't do them no more' muttered a spotty youth behind the information desk through a mouthful of bubble gum. He was probably suffering from a technical fault.

What is going on? Nothing I need is available. To cap it all, even my internet connection curled up its toes for a couple of hours earlier this evening, so this blog post has been delayed due to my computer taking leave of its line. No. Normal service will not be resumed as soon as possible. The wheels are coming off - and it's all because everything is becoming far too complicated I think. When I was born my father never had cause to complain to his Internet Service Provider. When I was at school in the 60s living in Gibraltar, we never had interrupted satellite transmissions due to torrential rain. And I only ever once suffered a spam attack when I was in college (and that was in the canteen). Things were so simple then, and they are so complicated now.

I've had enough. I'm off to bed - if it's still available....

BookFaced cheek!

I had a message passed on to me this morning from a trusted friend (my wife, OK?): "Someone with a lot of cheek is cloning FaceBook profiles. This person copies our pictures and creates a profile similar to ours. Then s/he sends scrap, spam or garbage to our contacts or friends in Hi5 and other profile sites. Friends are insulted…or asked for personal information…" (Sounds like the Inland Revenue).

"Send this message to your friends", said the message, "to prevent them from being offended in your name by other people. If you receive some junk mail from me, please inform me first, OK? Send this to all your friends!" (Kind of like spam?)

Well I never. Some people have far too much time on their hands. So if you are one of my friends on FaceBook, and you receive an insulting message from me, it's (probably) not me... right? But of course, you can't be certain. This blog may have been hijacked too.... Sven

...while the iron is hot

We're in the sixth day of the UK mail strike, and I have to say I don't feel at all affected by it. If this had happened five years ago I might have. Now though, I am becoming less and less dependent on the paper based mail system, with much of my communication done electronically. I was throwing out stuff from my office a couple of days ago, and came across a sheaf of paper memos from about 10 years ago. I can't believe I actually used to write memos on a wordprocessor, and then churn them out onto paper, before posting them through the internal mail! I even used to take photocopies of the memos and punch them with little holes so I could keep them in a file!! How sad is that?

One thing I do get through the post all the time is junk mail - usually letters addressed 'to the occupant' - 'cos the sender is a bulk mailer and can't be asked to find out who actually lives in which house. These go straight into the green recycling bin. Those that are addressed to me from credit card companies trying to sign me up get a different treatment. I take the contents out, write 'PLEASE REMOVE ME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST' all over the application form, and send the lot, glossy flyers and all, back to the sender in their pretty little pre-paid envelopes. They then have the pleasure of paying for two mail shots to discover that I'm not interested. It works. I don't hear from the toe-rags again.

I wish it was as simple with e-mail spam. I would love to be able to get my hands on a program that sends spam messages back to the little *********s (like a million times). No such luck (unless anyone knows of something?). The strike will be over soon, and then I will be back to shredding and green binning all the junk mail cascading through my mail box. And of course, weeding the garden of my e-mail box on a regular basis to prevent myself from being completely overgrown...

MyFace or SpaceBook ... or MyFaceBo?

Still the debate goes on. Which is the best, MySpace or FaceBook? And where is Bebo in all this? I know I have already been on my hind legs ranting about this, but I'm coming back to it, as it seems so many are interested in it. I'm getting more hits for my last post on this subject than for all the others put together, so here goes...

There are those who dis FaceBook (see NightMonkeyShines for example) because it is too easy to get caught up in the friends or potential friends list, especially if you fall into the trap of finding out who else you 'know' is already a FaceBook user. Says NightMonkey....

"I tentatively gave that information only to have a list shoot back that had every name checked in the list. If you went too fast through this screen, it would "appear" that the checked boxes were all people who had Facebook accounts but if you read the fine print you see that it defaults to sending everyone in your address book and invitation to open a Facebook account... ergo it sends SPAM!!!"

NightMonkey (who is apparently a cat sat at a desktop) closed down their FaceBook account immediately, but maintains a MySpace account to keep in touch with their students. Well, I shamelessly admit that I keep Bebo, MySpace and FaceBook accounts for similar reasons. But I still prefer FaceBook. Perhaps one day we won't have to choose and they will all merge together into a MyFaceBo space... yeah right, when hell freezes over.

More next time...

Exorcising Caution

Worrying news - it seems that at least a quarter of all Internet connected computers could be used by cybercrims in massive botnets - those suffering such as affliction should seek help as soon as possible. No. It's no laughing matter, as such 'possessed computers' - known as 'zombies' are operating without their owners' knowledge or consent, being used for spam, denial of service attacks, spam, online fraud activities, and did I mention ... spam.

The article, posted today on the BBC News website, also claims that pirated copies of Vista are only adding to the problem, with around half infected with Trojans. Where will it all end? How can we stop from being attacked like this? I think we should be trolled...

The Podfather (Part 1)

A well-known scene from the film 'The Podfather' (Part 1)...Dedicated to a friend who was recently 'hit'. No names, no packdrill.

DON PODLEONE: Nanosera, we know each other for years, but this is the first time you come to me for help. I don't remember the last time you invited me to your blogspot ... even though our wives text each other.
NANOSERA: What do you want of me? I'll give you anything you want, but do what I ask!
DON PODLEONE: And what is that Nanosera?
(Nanosara whispers into the Don's ear.)
DON PODLEONE: No. You ask for too much!
NANOSERA: I ask only for protection!
DON PODLEONE: Your software gave you protection.
NANOSERA: An i for an i...!
DON PODLEONE: But your daughter is still online.
NANOSERA: Then make the spammers suffer as she suffers. How much shall I pay you?
DON PODLEONE: You never think to protect yourself with a firewall. You think it's enough to have McAfee. All right, McAfee protects you, so you don't need a friend like me. But now you come to me and say Don Podleone, you must give me protection. And you don't ask in respect or friendship. And you don't think to call me Podfather. Instead you come to my house on the day I go phishing and you ask me to protect you ...from spammers.
NANOSERA: McAfee has been good to me...
DON PODLEONE: Then install Spamkiller 5.0 with your firewall, the Stinger with the Freescan, Nanosera. But if you come to me with your friendship, your loyalty, then your enemies become my enemies, and then, believe me, they would fear to attack you...
(Slowly, Nanosera bows his head and murmurs.)
NANOSERA: Be my e-pal.
DON PODLEONE: Good. From me you'll get protection.
NANOSERA: Podfather.
DON PODLEONE: Some day, and that day may never come, I would like to call upon you to do me a service in return.
(Don Podleone sits back in his chair and gives a hacking cough)