RIP Codestore Wiki
Egged on by long-time supporter Jerry Carter I made a difficult decision this morning and got rid of the Codestore Wiki. Got rid of as in deleted all the source files that rendered it and dumped the database that stored it. All that's there now is a 404 message.
Why? Spam mainly. It was getting spammed to death. Not only might this affect my overall Google status but also looks unsightly and unprofessional to visitors.
The other reason is that it just never took off and had become a bit of a white elephant. Over the years I've learnt to accept that just because I think something is a good idea, it doesn't means any of you will share my enthusiasm. It's a shame the wiki never got used, but, as it was, it served no purpose and probably won't be missed.
The upsetting part is that this effectively means that the spammers have "won" and forced me to do something I didn't really want to. Why should I have to!? Next on my to do list is getting rid of an email address that receives 99% spam and 1% legit communication. To do so will be a headache. Put me in a room with a spammer and I'll give them more than a headache in return... ...well, maybe not. I probably haven't got it in me to intentionally cause pain to another person, but I like to think I could in this case.
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The consolation is, I guess, that the spammers probably have no idea that you've removed the wiki as most spam emanates from zombie PCs.
Therefore it wasn't personal and you can take comfort from the fact that you will no longer have to log in daily to clean out all the junk!
Hows the garage coming along? Us DIY projecteers want some more pictures!
In the end, it was the humane thing to do, Jake. Like a lame horse, keeping it alive for sentimental reasons would only have prolonged the suffering.
Tsun Tsu said, (heavily paraphrased) some enemies can only be defeated by denying them battle.
It's not an admission of defeat, it's a display of wisdom. Rather than fritter resources and time fighting a losing battle, you are wisely preserving your time, image, and resources to fight better battles another day. Victory, I say!
The spammers and spam bots will have their day (when linux desktops gain 100% server and desktop share perhaps), eventually, at least we hope.
Jake,
You did the right thing and no, the spammers didn't win. They only win if you succumb to their marketing.
Jake, if you run your own mail server, drop me a note. I can make a recommendation that has eliminated about 98% of all the spam I was receiving. I was on the verge of discarding an e-mail address too but have been able to salvage it.
Everything has a silver lining - Spammers want your money and a free outlet to market this fact.
You're doing your bit to fight back ;)
Keith,
Share your solution with the rest of us. By utilizing DNS Blacklists I've got rid of probably 70% of the spam coming into my server, but I'm always on the look out for other ideas.
Roger.
I'd still like to have the ability to block comment spammers based on user agent string (using Domino's native HTTP stack).
Shameless plug: {Link}
We used to have a lot of problem with spam mail, but not any more. We use an external 'spam scan' service for all our incoming mail. Works great! I can really recommend Softscan, {Link} which is the company that we use.
I'm sure you all have heard of Chris Linfoot - {Link} - he maintains the Domino Spam Fighting Bible. Obviously mostly only useful if you use Domino, but he has tonnes of practical spam fighting advice in general that applies to other mail systems as well.
I've recently installed NoSpamToday! from BytePlant. Liked it so much I bought it after the trial. It took about 15 minutes to install and config on my server and immediately cut my spam load.
Hi Jake,
Have a look at kSpam. It is an openntf project.
My spam problem is the contact form. Spammers seem to think that their links get posted for the public to see, but it only gets sent to the backend, where it gets deleted.
It's not unsightly, but it's rather annoying.
Maybe these comments will urge us all to share some of our best spam-tastic defenses.