This site has been a real chore. The problems of security, irregular servers, DNS propagation, SPAM, etc, are things they don’t really teach you in school, yet become lessons very quick in life when the fit hits the shan.
Thanks to the good work of Ebb and Flow (our chief web-code-master) the problems have been manageable, (haha, I’m sure he has a different opinion on this matter). Yet something hit the other day that no one thought would be an issue.
I got an IM from Ebb and Flow around 7pm Wednesday night. He said, “if your wondering about all the spam we’ve been getting, I’ve already dealt with it.” I hadn’t checked the site since the night before (believe it or not, I actually work and go to school). When I arrived at beloved Soapblox, I noticed it had been spamed to death.
Everyone of my posts had numerous comments that were meaningless. The topic regarding John Stewart had 17 posts, all from various posters with names like “Texas Holdem Online” or “Online Poker”. Each post had some very bland generic wanabe philosophical saying.
One post said something to the effect of, “Truth relies on the honesty and integrity of those who seek the virtues of life’s greatest rewards, –posted by ONLINE POKER”
Ebb & I laughed profusely to these vague and very hypocritical statements that had invaded our solemn temple of political wisdom (haha, take that with a grain of salt). Ebb told me he had the situation under control and I was very grateful. We parted ways and I began to explore a little deeper.
With the recent election, my dander is easily raised when the words Christian and Republican are in the same sentence. I can become some Japanese Anime character possessed by any given demonic spirit (my voice changes and everything).
Even though I knew it was a bot, I had to respond. When we deleted the previous spam messages, we re-threaded them in the comments area strictly for your enjoyment.
Here is this blatant advertisement pretending to be a poster with a conservative agenda, and it was posted by a site devoted to luring compulsive gamblers into a trap that is much like alcoholism. I found it disgustful that some human being could have such desire for capital, and such disregard for humanity, that they could stoop so low as to manipulate the freedom of speech and the ability of the web to provide it, by using these spiders to creep their way into our website with mediocre humor in a shameful attempt to convince dumb yokels to blow their rent money on games of chance.
I also was very annoyed as well by the simple fact that those who have lots of money to burn would take advantage of this site that doesn’t make a dime, and only displays simple political viewpoints and misc. rants. For God sakes, pay me if you want to promote your worthless casino, otherwise leave this site alone!
What’s next! Where does it end. Will these spiders crawl their way into our computers and flash sublimable advertisements for Cheese Whiz? The new Big Brother isn’t the U.S. Government, it’s the new Aristocratic Oligopoly that is the Corporate Sector. The new authoritarian regime that will dominate our lives and subject us to lame jingles promoting chewing gum, and don’t get me started on how car commercial’s ruin all the good songs from the past. LONDON CALLING so pack up your bags! Forget the revolution, Go buy you a JAG!
My anger flashed into words and I responded to Online TexasHoldem’s declaration of conservative values.
The following thread is how it went down.
Click on the comments to see how I told those corporate spiders that I wasn’t gonna take it anymore (sarcasm).