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 is
