Apologies for Gene Gunston
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 1:15 am
We would like to apologize for letting Gene Gunston into the Alpha Agora and the discomfort he caused. He is gone.
Every day about 100 attempts are made to register for the Alpha Agora. About 5-10 a month are legitimate. The rest are spammers trying to get in to peddle their smut and other tawdry wares.
To filter out the undesirables, we have to check the email addresses, home pages (if any is listed), even the usernames. We search the Web for users who have signed up at dozen other discussion groups the same day and have made no contributions. They are lying in wait for the moment to insert their ads. It is a complicated and time-consuming process but worth it to keep our site functioning.
We have done a pretty good job, I think. Gunston, however, is not a spammer, just a snarky little smellfungus cowering in the guise of a cockalorum. There is not much we can do short of banning any further memberships to exclude his likes. However, as soon as we hear from the rest of you that we have such a member, we can expel them and remove their comments, as we have done in this case.
Every day about 100 attempts are made to register for the Alpha Agora. About 5-10 a month are legitimate. The rest are spammers trying to get in to peddle their smut and other tawdry wares.
To filter out the undesirables, we have to check the email addresses, home pages (if any is listed), even the usernames. We search the Web for users who have signed up at dozen other discussion groups the same day and have made no contributions. They are lying in wait for the moment to insert their ads. It is a complicated and time-consuming process but worth it to keep our site functioning.
We have done a pretty good job, I think. Gunston, however, is not a spammer, just a snarky little smellfungus cowering in the guise of a cockalorum. There is not much we can do short of banning any further memberships to exclude his likes. However, as soon as we hear from the rest of you that we have such a member, we can expel them and remove their comments, as we have done in this case.