"Rick [Kitty5]" <ric### [at] kitty5com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3ce4b647@news.povray.org...
> Mark Wagner <mar### [at] gtenet> wrote:
> > Lutz-Peter Hooge wrote in message ...
> >> To the creators of the web-interface: Why is this config-page
> >> necessary anyway?
> >> IMO it should just display the newsgroups with the default settings
> >> if it doesn't find a cookie and have just an OPTIONAL link somewhere
> >> to the config-page.
> >
> > This is to keep spammers from scanning the newsgroup web interface for
> > e-mail addresses.
>
> why go to all that trouble when they could just harvest directly from the
> newsgroups

It is trivial to find a web page that is linked from somewhere using the
same method search engines use (of course ignoring robots.txt).  And who
says these nnewsgroups are not protected in some way?  However, more
important is that few spammers find it worthwhile to search the web for
newsserver addresses to then search those newsservers.

Essentially you have to consider those who do email address collecting in
order to sell use use those addresses do so on a very large scale and use
automated tools.  However, with "intelligent" cookies and other tricks one
can keep most out and even those who manage to bypass the cookies will find
access to be so slow (if grabbing the whole site) that the server
administrator will notice and be able to take proper action.

    Thorsten Froehlich, POV-Team

Post a reply to this message