Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

Yoda · 2020-05-09 14:22:32

For Tahanson Re #225,

If you're up for trying something new, you can run a server on your computer. The website won't be available outside your WiFi network, but with your private IP any computer signed on to the same WiFi as your computer an access what you've got running on the server.

Just look up, "WAMP server tutorial," provided you run Windows. If you run MacOS, I believe you'll have to run WAMP's Apple cousin MAMP.

After that, you'd have to look into the FluxBB documentation to install it on the server. It should be about the same as installing it on a normal server.

Just a suggestion. I hope that's helpful!

tahanson43206 · 2020-05-09 15:25:49

For Yoda re #226

Thank you for your interest in FluxBB .... I'll have to go back to find the reference, but many Moons ago, the Mars Society IT Director asked for a volunteer to learn about FluxBB ... I found that invitation in the archive while looking for something else (as often happens).

The present complement of members active in the forum is a nice mix of talents and backgrounds, but (until now) I appear to be the only member with experience in IT.

If you are interested in the specific topic of the FluxBB package as it relates to this forum, and specifically how we can improve security, I would be happy to work with you.

My experience is with machines and software that are no longer relevant, which transitioned to working with Microsoft products and ultimately Linux.

I would like to suggest a collaboration, if you are interested.

Cloud services are now available, and I am partial to two of the many from which we might choose:

Microsoft Azure has a free offer of one year of use of their cloud service. There are some limitations but they are not severe, and I don't think they would limit this project.

Linux has a cloud service that costs $5 per year, and would have the distinct advantage of not going away after a year.

One the other hand, we may learn everything we need well within a year, and the extended service may not be needed.

Having put together many workstations and not a few servers, I am no longer particularly interested in dealing with hardware on premises, although I do keep a small stable of various OS's around for various legacy applications I still use.

Edit#1: I have an account on Github, but don't know how to use it << sigh >>

I picked up an eBook overview of the topic, and learned Github arose from/within the Unix environment, so I am familiar with the terminology, but at present I have nothing set up for anyone to look at.

Most of the young whipper-snappers I hang around with have Github accounts (and many other kinds of accounts), so I understand the potential.

(th)

Last edited by tahanson43206 (2020-05-09 15:29:19)

SpaceNut · 2020-05-09 15:29:30

Sounds like you both are going to have some fun with learning. Hope it all works out.

tahanson43206 · 2020-05-09 17:27:54

For SpaceNut re #228

Thank you for your encouragement!

***>>> re topic ...

If you have time, please take a quick look at Space Advocacy again.

A spam artist dropped off another payload.

The payload intrigued RobertDyck, so he appended a question, and I added another post.

If you decide to keep the sequence, please move it to the Wuhan topic, or some other topic you think might make sense.

It does NOT belong in Space Advocacy, Polish language or otherwise.

Thanks << grin >> / << sigh >>

(th)

Yoda · 2020-05-09 19:07:48

For Tahanson Re #227,

Thanks Tahanson. I'd love to help out in keeping the forum spam free.

As for the part about cloud services, your plan is to host a test forum then try security measures on it, right? If so, I personally think a year should be all that's necessary to figure things out.

Once the test forum is running, you'd then just have to install various anti-spam plugins to see if they work. I doubt it would take to long to find a suitable one.

I think a Captcha of sorts would keep most of the auto-spammers away. Captchas can be a little irritating, but a user only has to do it once to sign up. Over all, it's a small price to pay for a spam free environment.

These are just my thoughts on it, of course. Ultimately up to you.

SpaceNut · 2020-05-09 19:54:29

Much like the captchas there are some that test twice for bots when going through them. We can also make the password a specific requirement that you only see when creating the account to make a bot not capable of knowing the rules.
We did have several anti spam programs installed and we still got spammers even then.

tahanson43206 · 2020-05-09 19:58:41

For Yoda re #230

Thanks for your interest in this little project!

To clarify ... this is offered as a research/learning initiative. The decision maker for actual implementation is ultimately the Mars Society IT director.

I assume (and hope) he would consider recommendations from SpaceNut, kbd512 and the other moderators.

Also, to save you some time (if you were to visit the FluxBB web site to find out) ... Captcha is NOT an option for FluxBB. I saw a discussion to that effect in the forum there. Instead, a number of anti-spam patches have been developed, and I gather that a number of them are in active use at the many FluxBB web sites around the world.

In particular, there is a highly recommended patch that is pretty simple in concept, but which is (apparently) quite effective.

That patch installs a hidden field in the registration form, and then looks at the completed form to see if there is anything in the field. Humans cannot see the field, so they don't enter anything. Apparently robots do not check to see if a field is displayed or not, so they (apparently) tend to put text into the field.

It is then easy for the registration procedure to automatically ban the applicant.

Regarding a test site ... do you have a preference where you'd like to gain Cloud experience. I am interested in either Azure or Linux.

If you're feeling ambitious, and want to open your own Azure site, I would be happy to help you develop it. FluxBB runs on php, so the server you set up would need that framework, as well as one of the many supported databases. I ** think ** the NewMars forum is running on MySQL, so compatibility would be a good idea.

SpaceNut ... do you know of a way to verify that?

(th)

SpaceNut · 2020-05-09 20:03:48

Not sure of the current version level of the mysql data base we are currently on but in the past it was 5. James Burke would be the one to contact for more data.
There are several canned programs that work via the php script programming solutions.

Yoda · 2020-05-09 20:14:49

For Tahanson,

Somehow I got the idea from #227 that you might be the one in charge of maintaining the New Mars forum. Sorry for the confusion on that... So the project of yours is for learning purposes, and completely independent of New Mars, right? I'd love to hear more about it.

As for the server, I like Azure. I'm fine with either, though.

And you said there's no CAPTCHAS for FluxBB... Might it be possible that some have been developed since last time you checked? I found this on their website:

https://fluxbb.org/resources/mods/captcha-registration/

Last edited by Yoda (2020-05-09 20:19:44)

tahanson43206 · 2020-05-10 07:13:23

For Yoda re #234

Thanks for your continued interest in FluxBB, and how it might be improved for NewMars forum.

For SpaceNut ... thanks for confirming the database is MySQL (version 5 is good to know). Per Google, the current version is 8.0.

For Yoda ... text communication has its perils! << grin >> Asking questions and verifying assumptions seems to be helpful. Perhaps that's true for face-to-face communications as well, but the bandwidth is so much greater there.

Regarding Captcha ... thanks for finding that offer of a Captcha mod in 2011. When I first came to this site, in 2018, Captcha was installed but not working. Subsequently it was removed. I don't know any more than that at this point. It is possible that the version of FluxBB, or the presence of other mods may have something to do with it. Here is the bottom line ... if we can set up a test site and prove that Captcha works, it might be approved for a re-try.

OK ... now I remember something I read about Captcha ... apparently bots have improved to the point Captcha is less useful. That's pretty impressive work on the part of the spammers, if true, but images are (in the end) just bit patterns, so a really smart hacker could (no doubt) code a way to duplicate the pattern matching we humans evolved to do so well.

OK ... I'm going to make the assumption you're willing to have a go at this.

I've been wanting to start an Azure test site for years, so this is an opportunity to do so.

Do you want to do the same?

We can compare notes ... OH! Let's move this discussion to Housekeeping.

This is an example of how a topic drifts .... it happens SO easily. In this case, I started the drift by mentioning FluxBB.

The Okay guys topic is (by past practice) being used for direct communication about spam.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-05-14 09:57:39

For SpaceNut .... our Polish "friend" appears to be back ...

LeliaReima

***
For Yoda ... I'm am hoping your initiative to set up Azure is going well. I am waiting to see you've reached the Ready-to-go point before proceeding.

I am looking forward to parallel progress toward understanding FluxBB and the patches that are available, with benefits and drawbacks (if any).

(th)

kbd512 · 2020-05-14 11:44:55

tahanson43206,

That user was banned and the post deleted. That user's E-mail account was previously reported for posting spam to other sites, thus the heavy-handedness in both banning the account and removing the post.

It's just a thought, but since a few of these accounts are being reported for cause on notification sites like "stopspam.com", then maybe we should bounce our new users list off of that site.

tahanson43206 · 2020-05-14 12:09:20

For kbd512 re #237

Thanks for cleaning up Space Advocacy again << ! >>

Thanks too, for your suggestion of something to look for in FluxBB ... I've seen mention of using spam reference sites, so I know it's been discussed, but (at this point) I'm not sure if there is a patch available. I would assume there is, and will look for it.

(th)

GW Johnson · 2020-05-14 15:45:21

I ran into a problem I've never seen before: the logout button doesn't work.

GW

SpaceNut · 2020-05-14 16:58:47

Try clearing the internet cache...as that should force a fresh login to be needed...

tahanson43206 · 2020-05-18 10:52:02

It's good to see the Phobos Dogleg topic in view again, but disappointing it was lifted by a spammer:

Rezodu

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-05-20 11:49:29

For SpaceNut or kbd512 ...

Pelymskij901 is an ID who might be a candidate for banning.

Even if the information offered is pertinent to this forum, the failure to translate to English is an indication the poster is not honoring the culture of this forum.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2020-05-20 16:18:37

The 26 posting have been removed and user banned.

tahanson43206 · 2020-05-23 06:39:34

For SpaceNut or kbd512

andreybuckey is an interesting new ID for your review ...

This one looks as though it might have used one of the numerous AI language gibberish generators.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2020-05-23 09:09:51

Strange topic content paragraphs for sure.

Vote for removal what do other admins want.

Bot spammers that were going to the outer space topic folder are now seeing the posts for introduction in meta,,

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#226 2020-05-09 14:22:32

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#227 2020-05-09 15:25:49

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#228 2020-05-09 15:29:30

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#229 2020-05-09 17:27:54

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#230 2020-05-09 19:07:48

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#231 2020-05-09 19:54:29

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#232 2020-05-09 19:58:41

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#233 2020-05-09 20:03:48

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#234 2020-05-09 20:14:49

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#235 2020-05-10 07:13:23

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#236 2020-05-14 09:57:39

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#237 2020-05-14 11:44:55

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#238 2020-05-14 12:09:20

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#239 2020-05-14 15:45:21

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#240 2020-05-14 16:58:47

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#241 2020-05-18 10:52:02

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#242 2020-05-20 11:49:29

Re: Okay guys, we need new moderators... - Want a job? Post here or nominate.

#243 2020-05-20 16:18:37

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#244 2020-05-23 06:39:34

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#245 2020-05-23 09:09:51

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