robots.txt and forum abuse

[I, Brian]

Just for the record, there's now a robots.txt file blocking access to parts of this forum by search engine spiders - especially Google.

The reason is twofold:

1/ I wanted to ensure that duplicated content is ignored, so that search engines would pay most attention to the most relevant source of content - ie, the main threads, rather than variations of them (the HTML arhive, the printer friendly versions, the hybrid versions, etc).

2/ The second is that for quite a few weeks now I've observed porn webmasters joining the membership - just because Google would normally index their profile page, and thus add a backlink to their site.

In other words: this forum was being secretly manipulated to promote porn sites elsewhere on the net. Except that it wasn't being done very secretly - sincere thanks to our SuperModerator, brucegdc, who first alerted me to this issue.

All such offenders had their links removed and then were banned. I watched more just to see how rampant the problem was, and see it in action over time.

There is now a block on the member list, so any such practice of this in future will *not* benefit the porn webmasters in the slightest.

If anyone's interested, I've written a short article about this phenomenon, and termed it "silent spamming":

http://www.britecorp.co.uk/articles/...t-spamming.php

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

I read your article and all I can say is (please excuse the language) damn! I didn't realize how bad it could get (I did know of some people blatently copying from one site to another, then not giving the original site's owner credit for the content, but that's another post elsewhere.)

btw, thanks, brucegdc.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[Susma Rio Sep]

Dear Brian:

If I may:

Seeing that you and colleagues here are quite computer and internet knowledgeable, can you refer me to some good websites where I can find some very useful but free virus scanning operations?

I had some very bad problems with my computer and files and operating system, whatever, recently. Thanks God, I am now back.

Maybe I was hit by some very nasty virus, or something else from the quirks of Windows 98. A lot of my folders ended up with the name DIR0000? and FILE00?.chk. And some other very distressing trials which prevented me from using my computer for many things I had been doing.

I was afraid being normally inclined to imagine enemies or people who don't like me that some unsympathetic chaps might have played some rather vengelul tricks on me. No, I on't think so; it's more probably my own incompetence plus Windows 98 quirks.

It seems so far not some virus, otherwise I would not be writing this message now...

Susma Rio Sep

Originally Posted by I, Brian

Just for the record, there's now a robots.txt file blocking access to parts of this forum by search engine spiders - especially Google.

The reason is twofold:

1/ I wanted to ensure that duplicated content is ignored, so that search engines would pay most attention to the most relevant source of content - ie, the main threads, rather than variations of them (the HTML arhive, the printer friendly versions, the hybrid versions, etc).

2/ The second is that for quite a few weeks now I've observed porn webmasters joining the membership - just because Google would normally index their profile page, and thus add a backlink to their site.

In other words: this forum was being secretly manipulated to promote porn sites elsewhere on the net. Except that it wasn't being done very secretly - sincere thanks to our SuperModerator, brucegdc, who first alerted me to this issue.

All such offenders had their links removed and then were banned. I watched more just to see how rampant the problem was, and see it in action over time.

There is now a block on the member list, so any such practice of this in future will *not* benefit the porn webmasters in the slightest.

If anyone's interested, I've written a short article about this phenomenon, and termed it "silent spamming":

http://www.britecorp.co.uk/articles/...t-spamming.php

[Susma Rio Sep]

Originally Posted by Susma Rio Sep

Dear Brian:

If I may:

Seeing that you and colleagues here are quite computer and internet knowledgeable, can you refer me to some good websites where I can find some very useful but free virus scanning operations?

I had some very bad problems with my computer and files and operating system, whatever, recently. Thanks God, I am now back.

Maybe I was hit by some very nasty virus, or something else from the quirks of Windows 98. A lot of my folders ended up with the name DIR0000? and FILE00?.chk. And some other very distressing trials which prevented me from using my computer for many things I had been doing.

I was afraid being normally inclined to imagine enemies or people who don't like me that some unsympathetic chaps might have played some rather vengelul tricks on me. No, I on't think so; it's more probably my own incompetence plus Windows 98 quirks.

It seems so far not some virus, otherwise I would not be writing this message now...

Susma Rio Sep

I think I have mentioned to you once early on that the CR website is not coming out right in Netscape 4.79 and Mozilla 1.2.1 as it should with my IE5. I use a lot of Mozilla for its text enlargement function which does not cut up the text but wraps it around at the edge accordingly.

Best regards.

Susma Rio Sep

[I, Brian]

I'm afraid I don;t know much about virus guards - but thanks for the browser info feedback. I'll look into that.

[Susma Rio Sep]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

I'm afraid I don;t know much about virus guards - but thanks for the browser info feedback. I'll look into that.

I found a free virus scanner from McAfee, Stinger.com. It can be downloaded from McAfee website. It has helped me to get rid of the virus w31/klez.eml.

For other troubles with win98 operating system, look up help, there is a diagnostic procedure for troubles in closing and in starting win98 in your computer. It has helped me to put win98 to working acceptably.

Susma Rio Sep

[Susma Rio Sep]

Now, for the first time in the history of the universe, breaking into eternity at that point when it has been destined from eons back for Mozilla as used by one Susma, when he is able to access this forum with the Mozilla browser; whereas before it was not capable for him to use Mozilla.

Thanks to Brian.

When I succeed to access this forum also with Netscape 4.75, I'll let you know. I will try it next time when I open the computer again.

Best regards.

Susma Rio Sep

[Susma Rio Sep]

Get your very excellent and free antivirus program from:

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php


It is given to you by Jan Gritzbach, a very good guy who just loves to give things away free, which are good for the advancement of the computer world. Here is the company he founded:

GRISOFT - Company Profile
GRISOFT, s.r.o. (Czech Republic)
Grisoft was founded in 1991 in the Czech Republic by software developer Jan Gritzbach. The founding of a high-tech company specializing in the development of anti-virus software was a natural progression for Mr Gritzbach, whose own interests in the field began in 1988, when he began developing programs specialized in protecting computers from mobile malicious code. Since its founding, the main focus of the company continues to be innovation in the detection of, and protection for computers from viruses!
AVG AntiVirus has evolved substantially from the single-function utilities of those early days. In order to protect computers from viruses today, much more is involved than "merely" a software program. AVG is a comprehensive service which proves itself every day in the world-wide arena. This is more and more important as computers and computer technology become indispensible in our daily lives, and the danger of viruses spreading rapidly across the world's computer networks.
Grisoft, Inc. (Delaware, United States)
With the founding of Grisoft, Inc. in the United States in 1998, Grisoft took a significant step toward addressing the global market. Customer support and sales operations were established to support the growing world-wide base of customers and resellers.
Grisoft has 43 employees, 26 of whom are specialists in the areas of software development, virus analysis and detection, and technical suppport. AVG AntiVirus is currently used by more than 8 million users around the world.

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_firma.php

No, no, no, I have no business interest here. If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself.

Susma Rio Sep

[I, Brian]

Susma, the robots.txt file actually has nothing to do with viruses - it's really just about another form of spamming.

But, really, perhaps we should save talk about anti-virus for another time, yes? Thread closed for now.