Automatic Litterbox Central

The general litterbox discussion forum is being attacked with spam posts. I hate these things!

i concur.....

We all hate it. Me especially, since I have to delete a dozen users or more each day and clean up the mess they cause

Today I upgraded the 'captcha' algorithm to try to stop more automated registrations.

If it doesn't stop the spam I will try firewalling off the far east. The spam all seems to come from there.

I may try adding moderators too.

At least this board has a moderator. Other boards are being attacked, not just with new threads, but all existing threads. I guess their board owners are too busy to check in.

It's annoying to attempt to have a boring technical discussion when it keeps getting interrupted with posts about a video of Britney Spears being brutally raped.

I hate to think of myself as a moderator. Truth is, I don't check the board that often. I know of many users who check it a lot more often than I do ... thankfully I usually get e-mail when bad stuff happens, and I go check it out. And it is truly rare - maybe once a year on average - that one of the (non-spambot) users here does something that needs moderator intervention.

Oh, the irony - I created this forum so I wouldn't have to answer questions about the Litterfree individually. In the beginning it really was a timesaver. But now there are more than a thousand accounts on here, and a bunch of different kinds of litter boxes ... I can't believe how self-sustaining this has been and how much growth there's been. I saved a lot of work in the beginning only to create a lot more now

I think I am safe in saying that all of us greatly appreciate your hard work, Jeff. You've done a tremendous service for many cats and cat staff members ...(I would never presume to say I "owned" a cat).

Seriously - you've probably saved the lives of many cats who would otherwise have wound up homeless or euthanized because of littterbox issues.

I changed the CAPTCHA again. No spammers got through, but the one new user who did reported:

It was a bit annoying. It took me about 10 tries to finally enter the correct turing code. In fact, I started thinking that the hardest part about owning a CatGenie was registering for this forum.

I think it is much easier now. I hope that does not mean easy for spambots, too.

jeff wrote:Oh, the irony - I created this forum so I wouldn't have to answer questions about the Litterfree individually. In the beginning it really was a timesaver. But now there are more than a thousand accounts on here, and a bunch of different kinds of litter boxes ... I can't believe how self-sustaining this has been and how much growth there's been. I saved a lot of work in the beginning only to create a lot more now

I was very surprised to step into a coworkers cubicle and see "Automatic Litterbox Central" in their web browser. I didn't tell her that I had over 300 posts here. Damn, why did I register with my real name?

That is the funniest thing I have heard all day, Scott. I am afraid.

THat is funny Scott!

Scott Larson wrote:I didn't tell her that I had over 300 posts here.

I'm sure you didn't have to tell her. If she hasn't mentioned it yet, she respects your privacy. After all, Scott Larson is a pretty common name.

Seriously, she won't be able to reveal where she found out about you without revealing her own obsession. In fact, look at the positive side of this, you can go up to her at the water cooler and say something like, "what's new in the litterbox?"

The Spam Squad is back.

Abbeytoo and Scott Larson are our new moderators.

Thanks guys for volunteering to help get rid of the annoying spam, nude britney pictures, etc.

Thanks Jeff, Abbey and Scott

Sure. I guess no one needs one or 300 cell phones. Or more nude Brit pics. How about some Anna Nichol Smith?

My spam gun is loaded and I'm staking out the board.

If you see some spam before we get to it, just drop either me or Scott a pm and we'll take care of it.

Oops, I didn't check with Scott to see if he is open to pms for spam, so pm me until he says hes good with it.