Had it with the spammers

I had a very nice little guestbook on my family history website. It was a great feeling to get an e-mail to say that someone had posted an entry on there. But then the spammers started coming. This meant laboriously working through all the spam entries and deleting them (one by one).

I found out a great trick to tackle this from someone else with the same problem and who was using the same webspace. Just change the name of the folder for the guestbook (and the accompanying links) and that would fox the spammers (until two months later they had found you again).

But then I found I could no longer change the folder name on my webspace, nor could I upload a new configuration for the guest book. By this time I was getting ten to twenty entries a day on the guest book. Most of these were for viagra (how did they know of my impotence?) but there were others which I think were related to sex (but in other ways – see below).

Some of the guestbook spam pointed to pages on sites run by educational institutions in the United States. I followed one of these up and pointed out to the owner of the sub-site that this was what was happening. I received a very courteous e-mail in reply which thanked me and promised that the site would be taken down. But it was a just a mere drop in the ocean – and still more came.

I did laugh at a few of these spam entries. Like the example shown above - my boss compels me to post these links on your site. Unfortunately, most of the spam entries didn’t even have cheeky humour to redeem them.

Anyway, it finally got to me, and I secured a new guest book with a spam filter from Smart Guestbook, and saved off the 40 or so legitimate entries from my old guestbook to preserve in aspic and lovingly reproduce on my site. I’ll let you know if the new spam filter works.

Speed must go, with undue haste

What other sport’s governing body but cricket’s can completely mess-up their showcase tournament?

The Cricket World Cup in the West Indies can only be seen as an unmitigated disaster. Granted, the International Cricket Council cannot be held responsible for the mysterious death of Bob Woolmer, but most of the other sins can be laid at their door:

- An interminable competition lasting almost seven weeks

- Near-empty stadiums - Locals priced out of attending the matches

- Regulations that stopped people enjoying themselves – no instruments, no drinks unless bought through official concessions

- A commercial strategy underpinned by an assumption that India would at least survive the first round (they didn’t)

- Rigid application of a standard approach to handling rain-hit matches – which ruined the final as a spectacle

While some of these issues were addressed during the tournament, it was by then too late.

The only bright spot was the fun had by Bangladesh and Ireland in tweaking the noses of their supposed superiors.

The ICC has embarked on a strategy of commercial maximization since Malcolm Speed became their Chief Executive. He should now do the decent thing, and stand down.

Cyndi speaks

The doyenne of genealogy websites, Cyndi Howells, has recently started her very own blog.

So why is Cyndi so important? Her website Cyndi's List is the biggest repository of genealogy/family history research links on the web. It's not just a list, but a sophisticated indexing system, which gives people the opportunity to browse or search in a variety of different ways for what they are looking for.

Cyndi's List has now been going for more than ten years, and it is interesting to read Cyndi's observations (and frustrations) about how people use the web and issues associated with running such an important site.

A lifesaver for timid bloggers

Thomas Hamburger Junior told me about a wonderful site with help for bloggers to adjust their templates to meet their more particular needs. I can heartily recommend it - Tips for New Bloggers.

It's worth reading quite a few of the tips first, before trying anything - and don't forget to download your template before trying anything!