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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
What do the following web sites have in common?

What do http://www.popjustice.com/, http://www.alienexperience.com/, http://bbs.freetalklive.com/, http://forum.virtuemart.net/ and http://www.btiteam.org/ have in common? Need a further clue - the things that's in common is not shared by http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/. Still not got it ;-) ?? Try adding the following to the "common" list. http://pixelation.wayofthepixel.net/, http://www.vwdiesel.net/, http://forum.ubuntu-nl.org/ and http://www.rotorwashinternational.com/ . They all run online forums where a leonardbritter has registered today, and (with the exception of /www.firstgreatwestern.info ) his registration has been accepted.

I do some of the admin work for the First Great Western Coffee Shop - that's the exception, and I was the one who decided to reject Leonard's application. Why did I choose to be a goat rather than follow the masses and be a sheep?

Firstly because I believe that if someone registers for eight very different forums in a day that I can see - an probably many more that haven't been trawled by Google yet, he / she isn't going to be a very active poster with us. But that's not the only reason - we have other markers / indicators as to whether a new application should be approved or rejected, and this potential new member gave me two other strong indicators against membership. So I can say that there was a strong probability that the request for an account was not being made to allow someone called Leonard to post to the forum about our subjects ... but rather was for other reasons. Perhaps tha applicant wanted to post adverts? Or perhaps the applicant wants to cream off user contact information to add to his / her mailing lists? We'll never know, because I rejected the account (not even worth sending an email - it was that definite!) and I don't suppose the registrar will even notice.

Even allowing for captcha technology, in which the user has to retype words from a graphic, there are a very large number of signup requests to forums these days which are for purposes other than those that the site moderation team intends, and it's become an increasing job to filter them out. And as well as more signups coming along, they come along more cleverly too - the people who are looking to reap and spam are learning about the triggers that have them rejected, and are sidestepping those triggers. Leonard's was quite a clever signup, which ticked a number of positive boxes that many others fail at - if he had failed several of the initial tests (and not just one or two which caught me attention), I wouldn't have bothered to ask Google and provided me with confirmatory evidence that he should not be allowed.

Part of me wants to tell you about our marking scheme (if you can call it that). But my head tells me that I shouldn't give too much away, so I won't do so. Let's just say that a custom written piece of code does wonders for us, as a casting vote that triggers acceptance or suspicion when the request is finely balanced, and being a custom piece of code that's not shared with any other forums on my list above, it's unlikely that anyone will actually plan and code around it in turn to pass our test.

(written 2011-03-03, updated 2011-03-07)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
G909 - Well House Consultants - Spam, Spamming and Spammers
  [259] Responding to spam - (2005-03-27)
  [268] Information request forms, cleaning up spam - (2005-04-05)
  [276] An apology to Mr Boneparte - (2005-04-11)
  [338] OO techniques are hard to teach - (2005-06-06)
  [347] Frightening and from-friend viruses and spams - (2005-06-14)
  [417] Telephone Preference Service - we're registered - (2005-08-17)
  [495] More spam - a success story - (2005-11-13)
  [872] Email metrics - (2006-09-20)
  [1037] Impact Engineering and Backscatter - (2007-01-16)
  [1115] Unexpected visitors to our site - (2007-03-22)
  [1523] Ive just received an email from myself. Should I be worried? - (2008-01-29)
  [1532] Comment spam blocked. Please comment via Forums - (2008-02-05)
  [1763] Co-operating to save, yet we dont - (2008-08-21)
  [1817] Marc Schneider is still having email trouble - (2008-09-30)
  [1978] From spam to mod_alias - finding resources - (2009-01-05)
  [2019] Baby Caleb and Fortune City in your web logs? - (2009-01-31)
  [2177] Preventing forum spam - checks at sign up - (2009-05-12)
  [2179] Offers that I can refuse - (2009-05-12)
  [2276] Who is Marc Schneider of Multilingual Search Engine Optimization Inc - (2009-07-10)
  [2398] Websitemediasolution and a goldfish called Carl Johnson - (2009-09-06)
  [2697] Email metrics and filtering - (2010-03-28)
  [2884] Hotlinked images onto adult material sites - (2010-07-23)
  [3016] The legal considerations of your web presence - revisited - (2010-10-26)
  [3166] Well house is strong - confirmed? - (2011-02-11)
  [3316] Twitter Phishing Trips ... and a great new alert service - (2011-06-04)
  [3352] World Trade Register - Certainly NOT worth 2985 Euros. - (2011-07-09)
  [3506] Cold call contacts - preference services and turning off spam sales approaches - (2011-11-03)
  [3661] Keeping forum and blog comments clean - (2012-03-19)
  [3910] Identifying your real customers and keeping them well informed fast - (2012-11-02)
  [3912] Sand to Arabia, Coals to Newcastle or Woodburners to Russia - (2012-11-04)
  [3946] Moving from a warning system to a control system - PHP, forum spammers - (2012-12-07)
  [4135] Introducing your product to Well House Consultants - single, personally tuned email please - (2013-07-08)
  [4315] Welcoming genuine forum posters quickly - but turning away off topic advertisers - (2014-11-16)
  [4520] No cold sales calls please - but delighted to hear from others! - (2015-09-29)


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Date of the Census (which month and day?)
What do the following web sites have in common?
Tcl - the danger of square brackets in a while command
What proportion of the British Workforce still works a Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, week?
Past and Present - Melksham Station
How to add a customised twitter feed to your site
Day Trip to Hereford, in pictures
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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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