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WHAT THE "H'' IS GOING ON??? 21/25ths spam at 9:12 e.d.t.
The headline says it all...except for this. The masthead at the cafe now lists only Josh Marshall. So is the chief minding the store by himself, or is nobody minding the store. For all the fixes proposed, things seem to get worse and worse. And I don't think it can be much worse.
It is so frustrating to feel powerless here.
It is so frustrating to feel powerless here.
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The biggest problem with these spam attacks is posts being forced off bottom of listings. These posts reappear when the spam is removed from page. When some one posts about the the spam, they too are causing posts to prematurely disappear from listings. Might I suggest using email to contact tpm rather than blogging.
September 17, 2009 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
I normally would. But as I tried to say in the post, the person who has been most responsible for removing the spam and making sure it was turned off is no longer listed on the Cafe Masthead. In ths search for what this means I next went to the Cafe areas links at the top right, starting with.
House Brew
From Your Cafe Editor
which seemed a good place to start looking for her or some comment about what's going on.
There hasn't been a post there since MJRosenberg posted on course GI letters back in late May.
There hasn't been a post about software tweaking since February.
The rest seem similarly dead.
Special Guests
Big names and big brains
March 18, 2009
Special Features
Pressing topics and trends
June 4
Table for One
An expert's week-long talk.
April 10
All of these special areas--dead.
There used to be a person with the job title Cafe Editor. The last post from the Last Editor, Lila Shapiro, was May 5.
No editor listed now, no intern listed now, spam gone awry,
Seven Jobs are listed by title under Jobs and Internships. None of them for the Cafe.
The "report abuse" link goes to the same place as the news and tips link does...not to anyone particularly responsible for the Cafe.
I also searched for Versha Sharma's posts on the spam problem. Searching by her name didn't turn up anything.
This makes me feel that the post was justified. There was no direct way to bring this to the attention of the bloggers and readers.
September 17, 2009 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cool.
help@talkingpointsmemo.com
September 17, 2009 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
On another post, Versha has asked us to contact her directly at:
versha@talkingpointsmemo.com rather than at "help" or "info"
September 17, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
amike,
I sent in list via email to Versha.
They thought this was taken care of when they started turning off new registrants at night - I know the other day their tech guy forgot but don't have a clue about this, except someone has been attempting to literally sabotage and hijack the site for over a month.
When you see this type of abuse, best to send email to Versha and 'report abuse' tab on bottom of the cafe page.
September 17, 2009 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
What concerned me, Aunt Sam, is that Versha's name doesn't appear on the masthead anymore. Josh is up there solo. I don't think that was the case before. Am I wrong about that?
September 17, 2009 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
It seems Versha also has a new title.
I don't know if thie change in title changes her responsibilities. I guess time will tell.
Now 11:00 and the spam is still there, alas. I hope those driven off the front page by it will come around and repost.
September 17, 2009 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
When they take off the spam, all previous moves back up...
I'm not sure when the 'change' in masthead re: versha happened, but she's still the one to contact until further notice.
Have no idea why the delay in removal of existing spam, but should be gone soon.
Obviously, there does need to be some immediate type of better resolution to this and hopefully before weekend as that is when they really seem to attack!
September 17, 2009 11:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Earlier todayfor me and oh'dark thirty for you, I saw a bunch of posts by an Anthony Hopkins which was nothing more than a small paragragh about the subject title with tons of links below each and every one. I used the Send Comments and Tips hot button at the top of the page to pass on a heads up.
September 17, 2009 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like the Health care town halls they're trying to shut us up. And like the town halls they are pretty successful. Hopefully Josh and company will figure out what to do to stop them.
September 17, 2009 10:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sniffer technology should be sufficient to capture the data packets. It may be time consuming but there are ways to back-track a data packet once you identify one in the string that makes up the message. I've been out of the loop for a few years, but I use to play with one at the University I worked at identifying addresses flowing thru the network from one end of the state to the other. It was a closed-loop system so it was relatively easy to do. But when the Director found out just how power it was, he had it locked up and we needed his approval to use it.
September 17, 2009 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
amike wrote:
I guess Josh wants to give us the true liberal experience.
September 17, 2009 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink