Heads-up, folks.

User emile_jensen appears to be testing a PM spam engine with one of those "hello utter stranger, I have absolutely nothing to say" type texts, with link to a spam-like link farm in the signature block.

I'll hang onto the spam for a bit if any mods/admin needed to take a look at it.

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[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

That's the spammer we've been discussing in the "spam delge" thread the last few days.

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

ha ha I've filled up my PM box, he can't send me any spam

Since we've had multiple complaints about emile, I've banned him permanently.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Good job. I see from his profile that he never posted anything to the discussion forums.

Fred

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"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

I'm going to have to reconfigure my PM rules. Having the "Buddy List" active has meant that I've missed out on the fun associated with these PM spammers.

Oh well...

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A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

Don't feel bad. I don't have it so configured, and I don't get them, either.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

hello utter stranger, I have absolutely nothing to say

AHHHHHHHH!!!!! IT'S A SPAMMER!!!!!! RUN!!!!!!



Um, sorry 'bout that. I'll just be over there.

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Carl Matherly

Offical Battlestar Galactica Apologist

Named Time Magazine's 2006 "Person of the Year"

Well, I feel better knowing he was just a random spammer. I don't check my PM box as often as I should, and then when I eventually did, there was this "Happy New Year" thingie from somebody completely unknown to me. So it was a relief that I didn't suddenly have some kind of early Alzheimers onset or something and totally forgot that I know a poster named Emile Jensen. Just another troll. What a blessing.

I had one two days ago in my PM. I sicc'ed Toseek on him and he killed him right away. Used another name but the same non-message.

As I tend to run my face a lot I've developed the nervous habit of glancing up at the PM counter to see if someone wants to inform me if I've crossed a line somewhere. So far it's let me retrace my steps and correct myself a couple of times before any of the grumpier mods caught it.

Except for that one time... I don't believe what I said was wrong, just wrong to say it here. Sadly I used my "one bite" on someone who quit just ten hours later. Got a weeks banning for it too. Ouch.

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"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

every night there seems to be at least one new with some kind of sexual context to it, do not know if there spammers or what.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

I've got a pm from a banned poster. It's dated 3rd Feb (I only noticed it today), but the writer is not on the list of banned posters after that date. Can banned posters still send pms? Or is this particular person not on the log? ie not all banned posters appear on the log if they are banned for spamming and nothing else?

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Carolyn

"All the screens are filled with heroes and losers, but the sky's still filled with stars"
...Midnight Oil - 'Golden Age'

We do not bother to log people banned for spamming, unless they've been members of the forum previously (which might have happened once in the history of the forum). We ban twenty to fifty spammers a day.

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Forming opinions as we speak

Thanks, that explains it. The writer of the pm had no posts but there was a website in the message (which I'm not going to look at).

There's more work involved in running these boards than is obvious to an occasional poster like me!

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Carolyn

"All the screens are filled with heroes and losers, but the sky's still filled with stars"
...Midnight Oil - 'Golden Age'

We ban twenty to fifty spammers a day.

Wow and I though deleting the 13 dead linkers that have crept onto my board over the past 2 months was bad.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

50 sounds kind of high to me, but 20 isn't out-of-range. I typically delete 4 to 8 spammers a day, and I'm just one moderator.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

I usually get five to ten a day, but during the New Year stretch there was one day when the high water mark was about fifty.

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Forming opinions as we speak

I got my first (and only) PM ever from a spammer a few days ago. I thought I was special, but that turned out not to be the case...

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"The usefullness of a glass is in its emptiness."
- Bruce Lee

Oh, I'm sure you're special . . . .

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Here is another PM Spammer

After all 1.8 million emails must count as spam

We now return this thread to it's regular programming

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Van Rijn's original Invisible Elf was running for the North Carolina Senate, but dropped out of the contest after the paparazzi snapped him with a cute pixie just outside Disney World in Florida. Now he has settled down with her as they await their first child, writing his biography of life in Van Rijn's backyard, - Now you prove me wrong