User talk:Gooniepunk2005

Phantom Hoover 22:13, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Gooooooooooooooonnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeee!!!!!!!!! TheoryOfPractice 23:00, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Very nice. Props for that!Gooniepunk2005 23:11, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Byeeeeeeeee.--Bob M 18:04, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Hello

 * Hello again. As I said elsewhere - any feedback would be most welcome.--Bob M 17:41, 3 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Certainly. I'll be more than happy to get you the data you wanted in some fashion or another. Gooniepunk2005 05:08, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Cool. :-) Thanks for zapping that spam, I've made you a sysop that you can use rollback.--Bob M 06:21, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, though I'm not around here very often. But I will remain vigilant and fight the spammers, just the same. Gooniepunk2005 02:19, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Greetings
Greetings Gooniepunk2005 and welcome to this small, but select, community. Cheers!--Technopat 11:24, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I was a refugee here last summer when the great RationalWiki went offline for a month. Then I disappeared, as I had nothing I could contribute to this site (I am not a teacher of any sort, after all). Now, however, I am busy gathering feedback from a couple ESL teachers I know from the high school from which I graduated that I recommended this site to.  Once I have finished gathering the data, the feedback gained from it will be posted on this site in some fashion. Gooniepunk2005 02:22, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Greetings Gooniepunk2005 - thanks for that. Don't let the fact that you're not actually an ESL language teacher put you off - just think how many other people out there in this big, wide world aren't ESL teachers. And between you and me, given the pretty low level the sector has to offer, the fact that you're not an ESL teacher is actually to your advantage! Input is welcome from all walks of life, be it in the form of external links to articles in the general press or what-have-ye. Content is one thing, but logistical aspects such as formatting and anti-spamming, etc. are just as important in any collaborative work! Cheers! --Technopat 11:14, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * You make some good points, Technopat. Being a watchdog here won't be a problem, as I have prior experience as a sysop/bureaucrat at RaionalWiki (thus where my path collides head on into Bob M). It also looks like, as I am located in the midwestern United States, that having me as an admin is a good idea since I know Bob is about 6 hours ahead of me timewise (I don't know about any other admins here, however), so I'm awake when he's asleep. But, back to topic, I will try to help out where I can here.  But, like I said, right now I'm having a few ESL teachers I know use the site as a resource for a little while, and give me some feedback that I, at Bob's direction, requested of them. Gooniepunk2005 19:25, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Cool Goonie. You may know Technopat from Blightynet as well.--Bob M 19:54, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually, no. I don't edit at BlightyNet as it is a wiki that has yet to pique my interest. Similar to how I feel about a lot of RationalWiki-infected Wikis (see A Storehouse Of Knowledge). Gooniepunk2005 23:11, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Greetings Gooniepunk - now that Bob M, with typical Old World (Brit) naivety, has gone and spilt the beans, I shall have to own up and confess that my take on ESL and Teflpedia is GB English. I had been hoping to save it till later to be able to score a couple of double whammies on your US English friends. Be that as it may, and all things being equal, I appreciate your contribs and presence here and look forward to crossing swords collaborating with you in the future. Cheers! --Technopat 00:34, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Cool, thanks. Unfortunately, my presence here will probably be limited to admin stuff for the time being until some things in my personal life calm down a bit. Although, I may jump in on BobM's piercings and tattoos topic, since it's something I am intimately acquainted with. Gooniepunk2005 06:55, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Ouch! But while you're at it, why don't you also check out other conv. quests. and add yer own viewpoint... Cheers!--Technopat 20:30, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Hi Goonie. I was afraid that you had forgotten about us.--Bob M 10:12, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Nah, just been really busy as of late. Will probably get busier in the future.  But I will not forget about you guys. Gooniepunk2005 08:19, 25 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the spam work. Once the spambot hits on a page they don't let go.--Bob M 07:56, 26 March 2010 (UTC)
 * No problems. All in a day's work of wiki observation. Gooniepunk2005 14:25, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

FYI
Greetings Gooniepunk2005 - In case you have s morbid interest in such things and/or it may be meaningful to you, I also blocked the same one at BlightyNet that you said had hit RWW and at Wikipedia and just blocked here. Cheers! --Technopat 10:16, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Makes sense. I also blocked them at WikiSynergy.  Although its presence there may have been the only thing keeping that Wiki alive. Cheers back at ya! Gooniepunk2005 17:19, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
 * When you have a moment, | this update on block at BlightyNet might mean something to you.--Technopat 11:01, 22 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Hmmmm, indeed that is interesting. I must say that that AssaSom user was blocked by me after spamming RationalWikiWiki with uploads of nonsense. However, when I vandal-binned them on-site at RationalWiki proper for being a spammer, the user (AssaSom themselves) challenged the binning. Quite strange, in my opinion. Simultaneously, I blocked them here. When they challenged their binning at RW, I then unblocked them here, and the AssaSom account here continued the behavior of the account at RWW. Highly unusual, in my opinion. Thanks for the lead. Gooniepunk2005 02:15, 23 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I've seen similar things before, though not here. They make delphic non sequitors to which people may ascribe meaning but don't actually upload spam. My wild speculation is that it's somebody experimenting with wiki chatbots in an effort to get something which will be accepted as human.--Bob M 06:00, 23 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks with your help with the spam. I'm in hospital at the moment, away from my usual desktop and site codes and limited to typing left-handed. If I were at home I would be able to find the spammer and site ban it. It looks like it uses its own range of IPs to identify targets but then uses a completely different range of innocent IP's to deliver the spam. I guess the whole process is automated.

The bastard is probably burning up my bandwidth as well.--Bob M 08:18, 17 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No problem. I'll be about this Wiki more often, then, while you are out. In the meantime, I managed to hijack one of them after following the IP and figured out what that bot in particular was looking at and shut it down. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to have done much. Oh well. I'll remain vigilant just the same. Gooniepunk2005 21:10, 17 August 2010 (UTC)
 * OK. You're a fine man. As an experiment I've just been rolling them back as they never seem to use the same IP twice and they don't seem to be hitting the same article all the time.--Bob M 21:48, 17 August 2010 (UTC)
 * We'll give it a try this next time around. I suppose, in the meantime, I could unprotect everything, as I think I've lock half the Wiki, which is not good. Gooniepunk2005 00:18, 18 August 2010 (UTC)
 * We'll see what happens. My impression is that there are two types of spam bots. One type which locks onto a particular page and spams it the moment it's unprotected.  The only way I've seen to keep them out is to permanently protect the that page.
 * The second type locks on to the wiki and spams pages at random. To keep them out I need to look at the logs and identify who is making hundreds or thousands of access to the wiki. Do a bit more investigation and then range block them.
 * But all this is based on guesswork and trial and error - and not on any profound knowledge of how they operate.--Bob M 05:50, 18 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It's my experience that if the spammer is locked on to specific pages, you lock those pages or block the bot just long enough until after the next time the program runs. Then, the next time the program runs, it will disrupt the spambot by giving the program a "false" in its sequence. It's kinda like removing a gear from a watch. As far as the second type (the random spam type) goes, I'm unfamiliar in dealing with that type, but perhaps a similar method could be applied. As I've often stated to Wiki personnel, one disruption is all it takes to shut down a spam program (thus why I only block spammers and protect pages a couple of months at most). Since IPs change all the time, a rangeblock of a couple of months to a spammer might be highly effective in disrupting it enough for it to move on. This has never been tried (as I have never had server access to a Wiki other than my company's internal Wiki), but it's just a hypothesis from someone who knows a bit about spambots, as I have hijacked a couple in the past so I could disrupt them. Gooniepunk2005 06:33, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

What I've noticed with the page specific ones is they come back the moment that protection expires. But I haven't tested that scientifically. So we'll see what happens.--Bob M 07:23, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

ANOTHER MASS ATTACK
Gp - I've done as many as I can but I'm falling asleep over the keyboard. It's now 7am here. Trouble is that some pages have received up to 4 attacks so there's much duplication going on. In principle, any page that I've marked as revised has had the vandals blocked. But pages that still haven't been marked may have 1 or 2 IPs blocked but a 3rd or 4th not yet blocked. Over to you, I'm afraid. I just can't cope any longer.

They're starting to come in again!!!!!!!!
 * Thanks for all your work guys. I've blocked a couple of Korean sites which were up to something, but the main stuff is coming from someone or something called "c-24-118-247-165.hsd1.mn.comcast.net"  - but I'm a bit wary of blocking all of comcast as it's a big playrt in the US (I think).  Any thoughts?--Bob M 07:19, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * The last wave seems to have come from some IPs In China. They should now get 404. I've also put protection on those that are getting hit most recently. Unfortunately Real Life is interfering.--Bob M 09:47, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Just i'd a couple more.--Bob M 10:00, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I'd have come in and helped sooner, but I was asleep when this one happened. I'll continue to keep an eye out when I can, just the same. Gooniepunk2005 17:15, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Hi there
Thanks for being around. In the sunny summer month of August I'm not really into developing the site but I keep an eye on it anyway. I usually block people with what look like really random alpha-numeric names, do nothing to those with potentially valid names and welcome those with what look like real names. My inclination would be to be err on the generous side. Thanks again.--Bob M 20:51, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Forbidden user page
Apparently, my userpage is forbidden.I get a 403 error every time I try to access it. Gooniepunk2005 (talk) 03:55, 4 August 2016 (UTC)

It's not just you. I added a topic in the Teachers' room. Ghoti (talk) 02:56, 6 September 2016 (UTC)

That's kind of weird - as I'm not seeing it. --Bob M (talk) 11:06, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

AH! sorry userpage. That IS odd!--Bob M (talk) 11:07, 13 September 2016 (UTC)