Scrambling the P Word

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TulsaJeff

Smoke Whisperer
Original poster
Staff member
Administrator
OTBS Member
Jun 28, 2005
5,435
931
Tulsa, OK
Effective today, I have taken a proactive stance against spam by scrambling the "P" word.

Every forum requires some spam exterminating but anything we can do to help prevent it is quite smart in my opinion.

We are presently voting on a new word for the juicy, mouth watering pics that we love so much but until then we will replace the "p" word with a series of ******.

If you see your post and it is scrambled, feel free to edit it to something different, however this is being scrambled on the fly by the system automatically and not actually deleted.

Once we decide on a proper name for our "food pics", I will try to do a major replace function on the entire database so that wherever the "P" word shows up it will be replaced permanently by the new name.

Please do not take offense to this.. it is something I wish we did not have to worry about. Unfortunately, based on my research and the other moderators research, it is definitely hurting us by sending in spammers who find us in the search engines in places that we should not be.

Thanks for all of you help with this
PDT_Armataz_01_34.gif
 
After all that's been said and done, I like the P word better than anything that's been suggested. What other non-sex related topic uses this word ?

Take http://www.flickr.com/groups/52240578442@N01/

If Yahoo doesn't have an issue............

I say we should use it more rather than less. Then people will relate the P word with food rather than ****ography.

If anyone says the word p*o*r*n, I immediately think of wonderfully slow roasted meat with slightly charred bits on the surface and fat and juices flowing out when you pull it apart. Or some of the excellent pictures of other food that can be found in the above site and this site.

Anyone remember the seven words you can't say on the radio or television ? Well, times change. I'd like to think for the better.

I understand there's a problem with spammers. There will always be a problem with spammers.

In fact, let's use ****. We know what it means. Food **** rules.
 
Or just use * instead. Smoked butt complete with *

Saves at least 75% typing over the p word.


(Please excuse the late night rant / rave)
 
Kueh, instead of fighting to turn the p word to mean food instead of something bad, just use pix. Anything WE can do to help keep the site "clean" will help.

Be creative and come up w/something clean. I think it is more fun comming up w/something else anyway.
 
As I said in an earlier post, I don't like this either. I think it is a nice play on words and has the potential of taking something labeled as bad and turn it into something quite tasteful (pun intended).

Unfortunately, I have been studying and researching the habits of online spammers and what they look for and such and we are basically baiting them to the site.

Many of them have software that uses certain keywords to find relevant sites for their trash. Some of the software even registers them automatically and posts spam to the forum regularly without them having to even log on.

We have taken action against the automated scripts and that is not a problem here. What we CANNOT stop are the small guys who are willing to type away all day on multiple forums, signing up, validating their email address, and then pasting in a spammy post.

The only thing we can do is to try to not bait them here and if a few do find their way, we can ban their username, IP, etc. and delete the post(s).

The world is not like it used to be..

I also wish I could let my kids run all over the neighborhood and have a great summer day just exploring and having loads of fun, like I did when I was a kid but I can't. I keep them close, always in sight and when one of them gets quiet for a second I am off to make sure they are ok.

The world has changed and we have to take proactive stances against the bad guys even if it is an inconvenience to us.

It's a crying shame but that is how it is.

P.S. The vbulletin software that we use has a censorship option. I type in words that we want to censor in the posts and it automatically adds a series of asterisks. The asterisks do not necessarily stand for the number of letters in the word. It is just a symbol that something has been censored.

This is a temporary fix... just as soon as we find a suitable name, I will replace every instance of the censored word food p*** with the new one.
 
Great job Jeff... your efforts are greatly appreciated!
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It's a doggone shame the world has become what it is today. I wish my grandkids could grow up the way I did when I was a kid, but as you suggested, those days are gone.
 
Thanks, Jeff!!

We appreciate the time effort and energy that you have expended for us!

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey
 
To those of you who doubt our efforts on this point please bear in mind that this program was not lightly entered into.

Before I retired to the "quiet life" I directed a database development and information management group for a Federally Funded Research and Development facility; a "think tank" if you will. So I understand Information Management very well. More importantly I understand how it can work for you as well as against you. And what I saw developing on our site was not pleasing.

I initially brought my thinking to Jeff, Dutch and SoFlaQer. We did some research and the results wre eye opening. All concurred that we should not be painting a target on our back and making it easy to be spotted as a potential spot to do that sort of business with. There is only so much time all of us can spend monitoring the site and a post from a "bad guy" can possibly sit for hours till we finally incinerate it.

Jeff's efforts on this have been tireless. He has been driven to learn and understand the spam biz so as to be better able to protect our great site as much as possible.

So, with all that said, please, those of you on the fence get behind us on this project. To those of you who do not want to see this go forward, you're gonna be disappointed. And thanks big bunches to the folks who are supporting us on this project.

We are holding ourselves to a higher standard and striving to be a uniquely different experience. We already stand out among our competing sites and we hope to make it better in a lot of little ways!

Cheers!
 
Jeff, it is a shame that you have to go through so much trouble just to keep this site clean. It like you have to sell your house and move to a better nieghborhood, just so you can raise your kids safe. But the bad part about this whole deal is, no matter where you go, or what you do, they always seem to find you. What ever happened to the go ole days."Times they are a changing"
 
In the best interests of the site and forum, I agree it is time to retire the "P" word.
Better to step on a few toes, than be stomped by spammers and take away valuable moderator time that can be better utilized for the improvement of a strong, growing, and informative site.
 
We appreciate your efforts Jeff I know this is alot of work. To bad we have to put you though it because of some bad people out there on the net.

A agree with the pix word. The other word has gotten be in trouble at work a few times in emails. Apparently the Navy has trigers on that word to find people looking at the real "P" stuff online ... two people have been fired in the past 3 months for it.

I prefer not to use the 4 letter P word ...
 
Hey Jeff,

I applaud your efforts to keep it clean. I don't want to hear about **** on a site about food, even if it has a different meaning. How about "Eye-Candy," or IC for short - it's got similar contextual connotations without the stigma (or spam issues).

Respectfully,
Brizdawg
 
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