That was an amusing bug. I wish I had time to help more directly with this project, which has been very helpful to me.
Frederick On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 08:04:40PM +0100, peter dalgaard wrote: > In case you still care, see > > https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=16726 > > which even our very human spam detector hasn't decided to label as spam (yet). > > -pd > > > On 08 Feb 2016, at 18:34 , frede...@ofb.net wrote: > > > > 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 > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > > -- > 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
