Chrono Compendium
Zenan Plains - Site Discussion => Chrono Compendium Discussion => Topic started by: Schala Zeal on June 19, 2016, 05:48:39 pm
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I've seen a huge rise in spambots on the forum, and seeing as hardly anyone's around, I was hoping, given my almost decade-long residency here, to apply for mod position? I have a big OCD about cleaning up spam. I used to do it on wikis all the the time
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Seconded, tbh. This spam is literally epic.
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Third-ed. It's ridiculous.
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I could literally sit here for hours cleaning it up. To me it's as fun as popping bubblewrap.
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It sure shot up in occurrence lately, hasn't it?
I don't remember it ever happening this frequent.
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I really hope Zeality and Ramsus doesnt gave up et all.
The latest posts about Compendium's future give me bad feelings
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If they give up, I'll volunteer to help. It'll be up to them to give me all the site assets first if they hang up the mantle though. Afterwards, it may be a few months before I fire up the site again, if it goes down. It depends on how my job goes.
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Schala I've seen you on Twitch haven't I? Avonis' channel for "100%" if I recall.
I hope the Compendium stays strong. Tbh it doesn't take much to revive a forum. :>
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Well, it's not just the forum. There's a large number of files and pages with it.
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this site has slowed way down, but it's hard to avoid that in the current era of reddit and imageboards. it doesn't help that the Chrono franchise is defunct, and a certain company actively discourages creativity.
still, it can always be revived. just like the chrono tarot project could be revived at any time if someone wants to make the art, since I already finished the selections.
whatever happens, I'd like the wiki and all the resources here to be maintained and backed up for the foreseeable future.
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Well I'm actively making an open engine rewrite of Chrono Cross (that can perhaps easily be modded to run PSX FF7 as well?) though I'd need to get in touch with the Triple Tech hackers over the LZSS compression format, because I've hit a roadblock in both coding my own decompressor and trying to use someone else's.
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Well, it's not just the forum. There's a large number of files and pages with it.
Can you link to these? The general public isn't supposed to be able to edit the wiki.
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I didn't say anything about the articles being editable. This was in regards to Frrodo and Xcalibur's posts about you and Zeality possibly retiring the site. I was saying if the forum is to go on, then so should the wiki and what not.
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whatever happens, I'd like the wiki and all the resources here to be maintained and backed up for the foreseeable future.
I would second that. Stuff like the wiki can still have use even these days after all.
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That and there are RAR'd archived files (I won't say where because some are copyrighted) and datamined info that I've relied on for my CC engine reimplementation
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whatever happens, I'd like the wiki and all the resources here to be maintained and backed up for the foreseeable future.
I would second that. Stuff like the wiki can still have use even these days after all.
the wiki has lots of useful content - information as well as theory/analysis. there's also the projects and discussions on the forums. my point is that lots of time and effort has gone into creating content on this site, and I wouldn't want some future event to destroy everything the Compendium built. that means there should be backups (redundancy), a secure foundation for the site (reliable hosting), and a line of succession if the leadership isn't around for some reason.
I've only had peripheral involvement on this site, so maybe I'm overreaching by giving this advice. and Zeality has been as dedicated as anyone I've come across. however, I'm only trying to be helpful, and since the site is really slow now, this seems like a good time to put this out there.
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Well, as I said, if Zeality or Ramsus want to entrust everything to me, I'll have everything safely backed up until me or my fiance can buy server hardware.
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If i can do something to help, I'm at your disposal too!
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Yeah. I mean, holy crap. This spam is getting insane. Wish I had any kind of coding talent so I could help, but I don't. Best I can do is cheer you guys on. :o
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There are better, more modern forums that we could use which would help reduce the SPAM problem, but migrating all the posts, accounts, groups, etc. would be a real pain.
Given the low participation rate in the forum, it may be better to relaunch the forums/community portions of the site using more modern software and provide a read-only archive of old forum posts.
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I see. Well, as long as the technical info on Cross and Trigger datamining is still available (and possibly updated). That's really all I come here for, and possibly with the hope of continued work on the 8th playable character hack patch.
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still, it can always be revived. just like the chrono tarot project could be revived at any time if someone wants to make the art, since I already finished the selections.
I always wondered what happened to the tarot project. Sadly my art skills kinda end at paintings and sprites.
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The majority of the Cross technical info exists elsewhere as well. When I originally compiled it from a bunch of disparate forum threads, back in 2011, I put it in a Tiddlywiki--a Javascript-driven baby wiki contained in a single HTML file. I still have a copy of the last revision in that format (and I'd guess that a few other people do as well). The content of the Tiddlywiki was copied into the wiki at Triple-Tech, and then moved here. You can tell, because a lot of pages still contain Tiddlywiki formatting mark-up, complete with stray ~s.
I haven't actually attempted to do a systematic evaluation, but I think at least 75% of the technical information is unchanged since 2011. I should probably see if I can compile a list of the changes and revise the old file, just in case.
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Indeed. I'm sure there've been useful updates that I can put to use.
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Found this in one of the recently registered member's profile.
www[dot]botmasterlabs[dot]net/
Now there are bots that deal with textual captcha and there are online services that help you type various captcha (not for free, but still cheap). Captcha questions won't survive forever as long as there are people who can actually register tell/sell the info to the bot makers.
I think maybe it is time to update the captcha questions?
Edit*
Another solution I can think of is changing the register link(maybe also the link text and the address that process the register requests) periodically as well.
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Found this in one of the recently registered member's profile.
www[dot]botmasterlabs[dot]net/
Now there are bots that deal with textual captcha and there are online services that help you type various captcha (not for free, but still cheap). Captcha questions won't survive forever as long as there are people who can actually register tell/sell the info to the bot makers.
I think maybe it is time to update the captcha questions?
Edit*
Another solution I can think of is changing the register link(maybe also the link text and the address that process the register requests) periodically as well.
Wait, wait wait...
Those are a company? If yes, it means someone is hiring its services to attack us (yes, i know something called piracy, but even accounting this, there a chance someone actually paid for the software)?
About the change of CAPTCHA, perharps using Google's reCAPTCHA (https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html) as a provider would be a nice idea. Perharps changing the entire CMS as was stated before (phpBB?).
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More likely someone's hiring them to spam every SMF instance they can find--the Compendium doesn't have high enough traffic that I can see anyone bothering to attack it specifically.
There are a lot of other things that could be done about the spam flood, with varying levels of effectiveness:
-send new users' first posts to a moderation queue for approval, if they contain more than x links or consist only of a link (4-5 is probably a sane value for x. Requires moderators to catch the occasional legitimate post.)
-incorporate an obfuscated timestamp field into the registration and posting forms, and don't allow the submission through if the timestamp is more than several hours old. This defeats one common type of bot that just plays back a previously crafted HTTP POST message.
-incorporate a field in the registration or posting forms which is rendered invisible by CSS and refuse to process the form if it is filled out. Bonus if the name of the widget inside the HTML makes it look like it really should be filled out. This defeats another common type of bot that just fills out all the fields in the form with something that looks vaguely plausible. (You also need to include a hidden instruction for people using screen readers so that they understand what needs to be done.)
-kitten captcha: a type of captcha where you have a randomly ordered set of 8-9 images that look similar to a computer but are easily distinguishable by a human (the standard set is small fuzzy animals--kitten, puppy, bunny, etc.), and ask the user to click on a specific one. Less painful for the average user than a standard distorted-letter captcha, and most bots aren't pre-programmed to deal with it. (Doesn't play well with assistive equipment for the blind, though.)
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I upped the captcha intensity. Let's see if it does anything. There are tons of new registrations and I get an e-mail for each new member, so if it works, I'll know in 1 or 2 days.
Yeah, there's nothing to be done about the series being defunct. There is a basis for old fansites enduring into the modern era (No Mutants Allowed is a favorite of mine), but in their case, it's because new Fallout games keep getting released.
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They're back D:
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My offer is still on the table. Unless I get extraordinarily busy with a job, I can handle it.
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I dont know what is Schala's proposal, but someone is with me to start a sub on Reddit? The spam get so problematic, and i dont think anyone is willing to replace the entire forum CMS.
Maybe a reddit sub plus a github-powered site to store the wiki would be good enough.
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Question: is the akismet mod (http://www.dansoftaustralia.net/products/smf-mods/akismet.htm) installed on this forum? If not, it might help.
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I'm using KeyCAPTCHA (https://www.keycaptcha.com/?refid=122148) on an SMF 1.0 forum elsewhere and it's really done the trick for me. It's not perfect, but it's turned the flood into a trickle. Not sure whether it's compatible with the current forum software here though.
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If only a buddy of mine hadn't tried infecting Hillary Clinton with ransomware and fled to Mexico, I'd be having a lot of fun with his services right now.
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There are better, more modern forums that we could use which would help reduce the SPAM problem, but migrating all the posts, accounts, groups, etc. would be a real pain.
Given the low participation rate in the forum, it may be better to relaunch the forums/community portions of the site using more modern software and provide a read-only archive of old forum posts.
This would be ideal. The only thing that you should even attempt to migrate as far as the forums go would be user accounts and perhaps a few stickies.
Also, greetings after a decade!
If only a buddy of mine hadn't tried infecting Hillary Clinton with ransomware and fled to Mexico, I'd be having a lot of fun with his services right now.
He sounds like the hero this country needs, but does not deserve.