Greetings to new friends

[elbales]

Hello! A few new people have friended me recently. Say hello. :)

 

Comments

[akk]

Hi, I hope you have some nice new persons around. :)
But if the new ones you are calling have exactly 7 entries in their journal, 1 (or 3) userpics, have opened their account between Dec 08 and Feb 09, and have friended a gazillion people: that's the new generation of spambots. They sometimes come with profiles in English but the entries in cyrillic (or vice versa).
I'm sorry to be that cynical about unspoken friends, but I've got at least six on my (almost unused and clearly labelled so) journal the last four weeks. If you suspect bots on your list, you can enter them in this form for LJ to check: http://www.livejournal.com/abuse/bots.bml

[lady-jem.livejournal.com]

No spambot here. :-) I just ran across you somewhere in Linkspam Imbroglioland, thought your journal was cool, and joined up. Hope you don't mind! :-)

I'm also over at DW as greenmama, FWIW. (I do like their whole subscription/access thing better...I feel so presumptuous clicking a button and announcing to someone who has no idea who I am, "Hi! I'm your new Friend!" ...seems sort of stalker-like. "Subscribe" is much less overt.

Hi!

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

*poke poke* Better not be calling me a n00b, girlfriend. ;)

[elbales]

Pffft.

(Sorry, you're not really a bitch, it was just the sentiment that matched.)

[elbales]

Nah, I get the notice from LJ that "somespambot added you as a friend!" and I check out their userinfo and shake my head and click Help and report their asses. Ta da.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

(All in good fun - after all, we both know that you'd never call me a n00b on your LJ. ;) )

[elbales]

Yeah, I checked your userinfo and it was pretty clear you weren't a bot. :) Welcome to the loony bin.

I did wonder if you added because of the stupid RaceFail thing, but figured if you had it was a good thing. Dharma Slut (username WTF) obvs isn't going to bother, now is she?

[akk]

:) I know you can help yourself. I didn't mean to imply otherwise.
I followed the "development" of the spambots more out of curiosity. The first ones were blank accounts all cyrillic, 1 pic, no posts. They evolve & get more sophisticated with each return. Beware "Return of the Spambots" on a cinema close to yours! ;)
One of the reasons I think Dreamwidth's "invite code or pay" policy is a good idea. It limits the bot issue. If you have to pay at least 3 bucks per bot, which can get reported by the first one to whom it subscribes, certainly wrecks their business method of "money through mass". :)

[elbales]

Oh yeah, n00b? ;P

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Yeah, n00b! >:D

[elbales]

Oh ack, that's not what I meant, sorry. I know that you know (ugh, shades of "Invasion") that I'm not helpless. But yeah, the spambots are indeed getting increasingly SMRT, for some values of "smart."

My only reason for not switching to DW—well, okay, I have two: I'd have to set up crossposting, and I'm lazy way too damn busy.

[elbales]

OH THE LULZ

[akk]

Actually, Dreamwidth comes with a really cozy crossposting tool. In which you basically enter 1 time to which accounts you want to crosspost (I have 3, 2 of which I regularly include) and posts get automatically uploaded to the sites you have entered. The main reason I use it (despite being used to Semagic tool) is, that if you edit an entry (like a posted chapter in which you spot a typo *g*), it gets automatically updated on all sites (instead of having to correct it manually like I did before.
Regarding laziness: use the import tool after you got an account. It transfers *everything* from your LJ onto DW, entries, comments, tags, userpics, bios, etc. pp. It's really easy & stress-free. :)

But I won't go on advertising. You might consider me a spambot. ;)