http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/ Web Architect talks about life in cyberspace en-us Nucleus CMS v3.32 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/ http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=50 General http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=50 Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:15:14 -0400 http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=39 General http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=39 Sun, 27 Apr 2008 07:44:00 -0400 http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=37 General http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=37 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:43:53 -0400 http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=35 General http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=35 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:58:15 -0400 http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=31
A key reason for this may be due to the fact that the computer allows you to 'appear' friendly to someone who may not want to be friends with you. In a typical community you can place a avatar that makes you look handsome, strong or heroic. You can then build yourself up to 'be' something of a societal ideal when in person most may see you as the known loser. The Looking for Friends user will often seek after people who are ready to instantly appease their needs. If things become too complicated or questionable then they move on. A basic example of this is debate. Looking for Friends is not interested in sensible topics, most times topics about self are more entertaining, so long as they are not critical. If you do decide to take on a user who is Looking for Friends, then you need to be agreeable and complimentary, answer their post in an instant and be sure to say how much you like them on the way out.

So, know anyone 'Looking for Friends' online?]]> General http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=31 Tue, 4 Mar 2008 21:29:00 -0500 http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=29 General http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=29 Sun, 2 Mar 2008 21:29:34 -0500 http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=27
1. Stop spam bots from taking up your bandwidth. You can do this through a .htaccess block on certain domains / IPs. You can also set up security checks to ensure that these bots that may be running scripts and injections are not constantly attempting to post rubbish on your sites. You will be amazed that spam bots may actually be 80-90% of the 'guests' that you see in [Who's Online] within your Forum.

2. Stop lower search engine bots from checking out every single link. You can block those through the same method in #1. Really you only need the major search engines to pass through your turf, not the whole crowd.

3. Make sure you default pages are fast loading. In other words when someone cannot find anything or the spam bots are caught then make sure to lead them to a fast page, not a page that loads intense amounts of scripts. I think this is key for people that administer communities as sometimes the default pages of these communities lead them to lots of queries.

4. Make sure your interactive scripts and databases are at optimal performance. Of course I can dedicate an entire page or several pages to that, but that is another issue. I would dare say that numbers 1,2, and 3 are the most critical since no one creates a script or database to fail, generally everyone writes good code and it can just be tweaked afterwards.]]> General http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=27 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:01:10 -0500 http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=25
1. Do not allow the user to see PHP or MySQL error messages. You can change that setting in the php.ini file.
2. Ensure that you learn how interactive scripts work and their vulnerabilities.
3. Stay up to date with your script's patches. If you are using a script published by someone else then check regularly to see if any security issues have come up.
3. Measure and review activity. Are attacks or spammers coming from a certain place, a certain country?

The best way to think is... if I wanted to escape this, by pass that, then what I do? Once you answer that then you will know where you need to secure.]]> General http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=25 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:28:00 -0500 http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=23
The other problem was some of our huge databases, not really the databases themselves, but the fact that with a harvest bot checking a database out several thousand times is going to cause problems. We still have another DB that is large and I am monitoring it... if things get out of hand I will make it a login feature for members only. I would like to thank everyone for their patience.]]> General http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=23 Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:26:52 -0500 http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=19
1. Direct insults from one side or both
2. Breaking policy to satisfy position
3. Silence from one side

What is a Discussion Forum for if people do not give a position and their sources for that position. What is Discussion if you do not bring up a unique or controversial idea and then defend it? Nothing more boring than Discussion where everyone says, "I agree", "I think the same way too"... already I'm falling to sleep. Disagree, share how you feel, let others know that you are not a robot!]]> General http://www.internationaldiscussion.com/blog/index.php?itemid=19 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:40:00 -0500