Combating BookMark Site Spam - Scuttle BookMarking Script

November 21, 2006

Over the last few weeks a spammer utilizing an automated spambot has been posting bookmarks at the rate of 800 a day, in our bookmarking sub-domain: mybookmarks.afroarticles.com — mostly bookmarks leading to Finance and Debt Management sites. Our bookmark utility utilizes a script by scuttle - a web-based social bookmarking system that allows multiple users to store, share and tag their favorite links online.

Scuttle which is based on an open-source project does not have a built in admin system, therefore to get rid of spam/spammer — you must delete the user and spam tags directly from your mySQL database — which in most cases is accessible using a utility like phpMyAdmin — available via your website control panel.

phpMyAdmin allows you to administrate all of your mySQL databases. To learn more about this tool, please look at the phpMyAdmin help page and/or refer to your web hosting company’s tutorials.

It’s needless to mention that you must BACKUP your database before chopping off anything from you database.

Using phpMyAdmin, locate the offending users ID as follows: Under the TABLE field look for “sc_users” where “sc” is the table prefix you chose when installing Scuttle — Click on the BROWSE icon and delete the offending user. Next browse “sc_bookmarks”, “sc_tags” and “sc_watched” and delete everything referencing the unwanted bookmarks/tags.

Remember to record the “offending” IP addresses. You may have to do a lot of deleting: We had to delete close to 10,000 tags generated by this spammer.

Someone has come up with an SQL query that you can run on the database – Click here for details (Proceed Carefully!) OR just delete them manually as outlined above.

Other measures you should take include:

Renaming the registration file from the default “register.php” to “somethingelse.php” — just make sure that you make adjustments on all pages where “register.php” is referenced.

Track the IP address of the offender and block it in your .htaccess file or firewall if you are hosting your website on your own server. In our case we blocked the following IPs: 65.11.90.236 [Host Name adsl-11-90-236.mia.bellsouth.net], [5.11.90.236] [70.86.181.226] [72.153.248.224] [72.249.16.14] [207.58.144.162] | You may block a partial IP address, for example: 65.11. — but be careful because you will be blocking a whole lot of people who’s first two IP octets match 65.11. Note: The IP address - 70.86.181.226 reverses to gator50.hostgator.com - Implying that the automated script might running on a HostGator Server (installed by a “spammer client”) - the same hosting company we use for this website - We reported this spammer to Hostgator accordingly.

It would be nice if Scuttle released the next version of their script with some admin tools — not everyone is a programmer! — and/or someone should come up with a MOD with admin functions to help make users “toe the line.”

Note: With Scuttle you don’t have to start from scratch: the application allows you to import your browser and del.icio.us bookmarks. To import bookmarks from your del.icio.us account, go to http://del.icio.us/api/posts/all, log in using your del.icio.us username and password, and save the XML file to your computer — then log into your scuttle account, click on “add a bookmark” followed by — “Import Bookmarks from del.icio.us.” For good measure you can also import your bookmarks(favorites) from your browser — Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Netscape.

As social bookmarking roots itself in Web 2.0, spammers, hackers and vandals will attempt to exploit every weakness in it’s defenses. Email is ruined, in my opinion. Is social bookmarking next?.

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under General Updates, Marketing, Web-Dev-Design | Leave a Comment

Web reaches new milestone: 100 million sites

November 2, 2006

Highlights:

• The Web now has 100 million sites
• There were 18,000 Web sites in August of 1995
• Web sites have become a way to bond and belong

“There are now 100 million Web sites with domain names and content on them,” said Netcraft’s Rich Miller.

Bloggers, small businesses, and simplicity have combined to create the dramatic growth of sites, much of it just in the past two years.

Netcraft uses the domain name system to identify Web sites, check how many of them are in a particular location, such as what operating system and Web server software they’re running, and then publishes its information in a monthly report.

There were just 18,000 Web sites when Netcraft, based in Bath, England, began keeping track in August of 1995. It took until May of 2004 to reach the 50 million milestone; then only 30 more months to hit 100 million, late in the month of October 2006.

Netcraft says the United States, Germany, China, South Korea and Japan show the greatest Web site growing spurts.

Today there are seemingly endless Web sites for shopping, social networking, and, of course, sleaze.

…… More Info

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under General Updates, Web-Dev-Design | Leave a Comment

Introducing MyBookMarks @ Afroarticles.com

October 18, 2006

We have installed a “Social BookMarking Utility” on this website: http://mybookmarks.afroarticles.com/

Store all your favorite links in one place, accessible from anywhere.

Share your bookmarks with everyone, with friends on your watchlist or just keep them private.

Tag your bookmarks with as many labels as you want, instead of wrestling with folders.

Register now to start using BookMarks @ AfroArticles.com!

BookMarks @ AfroArticles.com is based on an open-source project licensed under the GNU General Public License.

BookMarks @ AfroArticles.com supports most of the del.icio.us API. Almost all of the neat tools made for that system can be modified to work with BookMarks @ AfroArticles.com instead.

All are welcome to begin using this utility, although it is still a work in progress - we still need to refine a few things here and there.

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under General Updates, Search Engines | Leave a Comment