Irrelevant entries

[proticamp]

Hi and congratulations for your awesome work! The guestbook works fine and the Control Panel is easy and quickly configured! But within the last days I have a problem: my web page is greek and I receive some irrelevant entries from... Afganistan (!!) in english language. One entry was a... viagra ad! So I have to enter the Control Panel every day and delete those entries. I think it's not possible to a foreign user to find and use my guestbook, because it's completely in greek language. Is there a wrong somewhere? Is it possible for a user to add a message to a guestbook and the message go to another one? Maybe a guestbook conflict happens?

[Andreas]

Hi,

Spammers will always find your guestbooks even if you guestbook is in another language. I'm working on a new version of the guestbook system where it will be possible to ban certain words or a predefined list of profainity words. Also, there will be an option to add a CAPTCHA image where everyone signing the guestbook will have to verify that they are not a computer (!) by typing the letters/numbers from an image into a box. (More about CAPTCHA here: http://www.captcha.net/) This will hopefully help...

[proticamp]

Thanks for quick reply! I was not sure that messages were spam, because most of them werel logical (e.g. "your site is good, but not often updated", "keep good work", etc.) The CAPTCHA would be useful but it would be a little more time-consuming for the signer of the guestbook to add an entry... But it's the only solution against spamming. The word baning will be realy good!, OK, "keep good work"!!! (This is NOT a spam!!!)

[Andreas]

Yeah, I see your point. That's why the CAPTCHA function will be turned off by default, but users with lots of computer generated spam will have the option of turning it on. Last function that I forgot to mention is the ability to verify messages before they are made public in the guestbook. ie. I sign your guestbook, but my message does not appear until you verify it manually. Also optional, of course. (IP banning will also be available, but not recommended since innocent users may be blocked and it will most likely not prevent spammer since they are often times using random proxy servers with different IP addresses.)

[Peter Boodts]

Used guestbook for a year now. never had spam

but last 3 days I got three of them:

like this one :

does anyone knows why this happens despite the verificationcode ?

Winnie
Date: 2006-12-14
Message: Try this. Every time you encounter someone new, make it a point to find at least one thing positive about them. Each time you hear a news item, find at least one thing positive about it. When some new situation comes up -- at work, at home, in your community, with your family -- look for at least one positive aspect. Living positively means actively seeking out the positive elements in everything you encounter. Sure, it's easy to be upbeat when everything is going your way. Anyone can do that. It is far more important, however, to take a positive approach in circumstances that most people would view as negative. Winners are not positive because they're lucky. Winners have good luck because they are focused on the positive. There is a positive way to respond, even in the most dire situations. Look for the good. Look for the positive. It is always there.

thanks,

Peter

[Andreas]

Hi Peter,

Please send me a private message (or open a support ticket) where you send me the link to your guestbook. I'll monitor it and see if there is anything I can do about it.