Ah, thank you for that explanation. I somehow didn't catch that my Bugzilla account had been disabled by a human.
"Common pattern is to post ... something copied from a generic bug report" - that sounds very annoying. Frederick On Sun, Feb 07, 2016 at 11:54:11AM +0100, peter dalgaard wrote: > Unfortunately, the spammers in question appear to be human (of sorts). > > We're not sure what they're up to, but a common pattern is to post random > text, or something copied from a generic bug report (like "able to add 6 > item"), later followed by a comment containing a link or a file attachment. > > Presumably, it is some sort of click-bait scheme, but it could also be a > covert channel for contrabande files. At any rate, it is very hard to > distinguish by mechanical means. So it is done by eye, with some risk of > Type-I error. Thus, the Bugzilla maintainers are pretty vigilant to stamp out > spammers, sometimes edging on being ham-fisted (er, -footed?). > > -pd > > > > On 07 Feb 2016, at 00:25 , frede...@ofb.net wrote: > > > > No problem. > > > > Another suggestion would be to simply validate user input like most > > websites, and reject invalid submissions immediately, rather than > > blocking the user's account. I don't know what kind of spambots you > > are up against, but unless they are very intelligent I doubt they'll > > be able to understand a message like "You submitted a bug with no body > > text, please enter something and try again." There may also be the > > option of using Captchas. > > > > Not sure how hard it is to get Bugzilla to do these things. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Frederick > > > > P.S. (I now see that all errors on the bug tracker are displayed with > > a red background) > > > > On Sat, Feb 06, 2016 at 03:00:21AM -0500, Duncan Murdoch wrote: > >> Thanks for the suggestions. > >> > >> Duncan Murdoch > >> > >> On 05/02/2016 10:07 PM, frede...@ofb.net wrote: > >>> Hi Duncan Murdoch, > >>> > >>> Thanks for your time. I apologize for not telling you that my email > >>> address on the bug tracker is slightly different - > >>> "frederik-rproj...@ofb.net" vs "frede...@ofb.net". I was going to > >>> follow up with this information, but then I thought, he probably knows > >>> how to find a tagged email address. > >>> > >>> I do hope that you are able to fix the bug tracker. In particular, > >>> people should be made aware that their account is blocked before being > >>> invited to submit a bug. The error they get should be less rude - no > >>> need to make it red - and the email address in the error should be > >>> filled in. You complained about wasting time having to look for my > >>> email address - well, I wasted time looking for yours. The error > >>> message could even hint at what triggered the ban. I don't think that > >>> you're going to get very far by trying to scare off actual spammers > >>> with a big red accusation - I imagine they all have pretty thick skin. > >>> > >>> Reading the first line of my bug report was generous of you, but if > >>> you read the rest, you'll see that, indeed, after checking with the > >>> knowledgeable i3 guys, it appears to be an R bug. So I would like to > >>> submit it. What appears at the top of my bug report is a copy of the > >>> original bug I posted to i3, at the linked URL (are links OK or will I > >>> get banned again?). > >>> > >>> The reason a bug appeared with the subject "til" is because I noticed > >>> that when typing into the subject field, some "related bugs" come up. > >>> However, this "suggestion" process appeared to be stalled when I typed > >>> "til" (for "tiling" or "tilable"). I tried hitting "enter" and it > >>> ended up opening a bug with that subject, which I never submitted, > >>> because I clicked "back" and figured out that *four* characters are > >>> actually necesary to start getting suggestions. The whole point of > >>> doing this was to see if another bug had been submitted with the same > >>> topic, and thereby save you time! I'm not going to try to reproduce > >>> this error, because you said it will get me banned again, but I think > >>> somebody should try to fix the site so that people don't get banned > >>> for any content which is not submitted. Especially people with > >>> months-old accounts, like me. > >>> > >>> I definitely sympathize with the spam problem, and thank you for your > >>> hard work. Best wishes, > >>> > >>> Frederick > >>> > >>> On Fri, Feb 05, 2016 at 08:19:40PM -0500, Duncan Murdoch wrote: > >>>> On 05/02/2016 7:26 PM, frede...@ofb.net wrote: > >>>>> Dear Dirk Eddelbuettel and Duncan Murdoch, > >>>>> > >>>>> Thank you for your work on the wonderful R project! > >>>>> > >>>>> I recently attempted to submit a bug with your Bugzilla interface: > >>>>> > >>>>> https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi > >>>>> > >>>>> I created an account, typed in all my information, first checking > >>>>> details with another project. Then I clicked submit, and was taken to > >>>>> a web page with a big red banner, it said > >>>>> > >>>>> Spammer > >>>>> If you believe your account should be restored, please send email to > >>>>> explaining why. > >>>>> > >>>>> What a hostile thing to say to your users! I tried resubmitting my > >>>>> bug, but removing any links, and I still get the message - so it looks > >>>>> like my account has really been blocked. Please do something to warn > >>>>> your users about this so they can avoid the upset. > >>>> > >>>> Your account isn't blocked now, but it wasn't easy to unblock it: you > >>>> used a > >>>> different email address in the submission, not the same one you used in > >>>> this > >>>> email. At least one of the people who can deal with this kind of thing > >>>> would now demand an apology from you before ever reading your email > >>>> again. > >>>> I won't do that, but I have to admit, I don't like the fact that you > >>>> wasted > >>>> 10 minutes of my time. I'm Bcc'ing a couple of people who are working on > >>>> putting together a better interface to the bug reporting system, so they > >>>> know to deal with this kind of issue as well as all the others. > >>>> > >>>> I'm not hostile, I just sound that way, because I've wasted a lot of time > >>>> this week on issues like this. > >>>> > >>>> Duncan Murdoch > >>>> > >>>> (Here's my previous email to you, for the benefit of those who are Bcc'd: > >>>>> You posted a bug report, but it had no content other than "til". That's > >>>>> what many abusers of the system have done, so you were blocked. > >>>>> > >>>>> I have read the first line of your bug report, and it says " I'm not > >>>>> sure if this is a bug with i3 or R ". If you're not sure if it's a bug > >>>>> or not, then please post to R-devel. That's a moderated list so if this > >>>>> is your first post, it may take a while to appear. > >>>>> > >>>>> This probably seems unreasonable to you, but a lot of abuse is sent to > >>>>> the bug list, so we block it quite early. I'll unblock you now, but > >>>>> please don't post there again unless your discussion on R-devel > >>>>> indicates this is a problem with R rather than i3. > >>>> Duncan Murdoch > >>>>> > >>>>> Well, I don't know what it means to "email to explaining why", so I > >>>>> tried to subscribe to R-devel. However, it's been ten minutes and no > >>>>> confirmation email. So I tracked down your email addresses from the R > >>>>> website. I'm still cc'ing r-devel. > >>>>> > >>>>> I hope it is OK to send the bug by email. I really want to get back to > >>>>> what I was doing, but I don't want to lose the work I put into writing > >>>>> this bug report, so I'm attaching it to this message. > >>>>> > >>>>> Thank you, > >>>>> > >>>>> Frederick Eaton > >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>> > >> > > > > ______________________________________________ > > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > > -- > Peter Dalgaard, Professor, > Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School > Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark > Phone: (+45)38153501 > Office: A 4.23 > Email: pd....@cbs.dk Priv: pda...@gmail.com > > > > > > > > > ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
