Will pay someone to auto eliminate spam. Substack tech support is non-existent. No API so screenscraping required. Trivial to stop this spam. OK, trying this out with Wayne
Will pay someone to auto eliminate spam. Substack tech support is non-existent. No API so screenscraping required. Trivial to stop this spam. OK, trying this out with Wayne
It would probably need to be someone with admin access to substack. The way the spam works I believe is a bot that auto-creates a fake username for certain substacks on which comments can be written without subscription; then pelts the substacks also automatically via bot, with fake messages which want to seem to be work-at-home scams but ....their main payload is the URL they are trying to entice people to click on.
There are not many of those URL's though they have created one or two more, the past month or so. Therefore a good filter would filter out any posting with one of those few URL's in it. Those URL's are never, ever posted for any legitimate reason.
I still plan to make good on my statement a month or two ago that I'll contact the Abuse Dept. of the ISP's hosting these URL's. We'll see if their abuse response is nothing.
Any other techies who want to reply to this regarding details of the "spam" and anti-spam, you can reply here. If it turns into a long thread maybe it should be its own substack topic.
Hi number 6, currently I'm deleting all the spammers and banning them as I find them. I'm also looking at some screen scraper apps. Is there one you recommend?
I may be a few steps behind you; I could be wrong but am thinking the best that an automated defensive tool could do is to automate recognizing the offending posting, report it, and maybe, if you have found a way already to do this interactively, delete the message and get the user banned. As a general user of this substack, what I see to the right of the Reply/Give gift options is additional options, but there is just one, Report this posting.
If you are not a substack admin and are just a user like me, capability to automate what an interactive user can do when confronted with the "spam", would be nice. Ideally the substack admins and developers would add capability to the comments section code to filter out and prevent "publishing" of offensive/illegal repeat comments given an unambiguous field contained. These perps always supply us with that, via their malware-infested or phishing-soliciting URL's, homjobz or whatever.
So, my main question is whether a screen scraper would be pretty much a counter-bot to automate what we do manually: report the posting and possibly the user, and get the contents to be no longer be displayed. When I report the posting interactively via the menu, the contents are no longer displayed to me, but might be to others.
There is currently a new one of these crabgrass sprouts on another of Steve's postings and for now I didn't report it so that I could study what the browser Developer Mode tools can identify about the objects and their content.
I usually see Selenium suggested as a good scraper tool. I haven't seen any show-stoppers yet when reading about Selenium; For example there are ways to make it "press" the Load More button I believe, to go past any page of comments. It seems (no surprise here) most of the content is gotten via a script in Javascript and so the scraper needs to run the .js, but the general scraper can do that.
I'll work on scraping to automate identifying those posts, though I have not personally used a scraping tool before other than curl inside scripts to interact with web pages via http/html packet traced from browser dialogue.
If you tell me how to go about doing it I'd be more than willing :) Don't know what screenscraping means...but I'm a stay at home mom with all kids now in school so it would be a pleasure to be able to help...
I'm not very smart and I'm having trouble understanding what this video is trying to tell me... it is very compelling, and you are the second person who has provided a link... thank you.
My best guess is that the video is trying to tell us, "All is not as it seems." "Okay," you say, "that's obvious enough." "Is it?" the video replies, "How far does the dissimulation extend?" "Gee, I don't know. How far?" you ask. And the video answers in hushed tones, "My friend, do not wonder to yourself, 'Is Biden really the president?' We all know he's not. Rather, you should be wondering, 'Is that really Biden?'" https://greatawakening.win/p/15HuoNPw1f/digging-on-koko-the-clown-clips-/c/
Will pay someone to auto eliminate spam. Substack tech support is non-existent. No API so screenscraping required. Trivial to stop this spam. OK, trying this out with Wayne
It would probably need to be someone with admin access to substack. The way the spam works I believe is a bot that auto-creates a fake username for certain substacks on which comments can be written without subscription; then pelts the substacks also automatically via bot, with fake messages which want to seem to be work-at-home scams but ....their main payload is the URL they are trying to entice people to click on.
There are not many of those URL's though they have created one or two more, the past month or so. Therefore a good filter would filter out any posting with one of those few URL's in it. Those URL's are never, ever posted for any legitimate reason.
I still plan to make good on my statement a month or two ago that I'll contact the Abuse Dept. of the ISP's hosting these URL's. We'll see if their abuse response is nothing.
Any other techies who want to reply to this regarding details of the "spam" and anti-spam, you can reply here. If it turns into a long thread maybe it should be its own substack topic.
Hi number 6, currently I'm deleting all the spammers and banning them as I find them. I'm also looking at some screen scraper apps. Is there one you recommend?
I may be a few steps behind you; I could be wrong but am thinking the best that an automated defensive tool could do is to automate recognizing the offending posting, report it, and maybe, if you have found a way already to do this interactively, delete the message and get the user banned. As a general user of this substack, what I see to the right of the Reply/Give gift options is additional options, but there is just one, Report this posting.
If you are not a substack admin and are just a user like me, capability to automate what an interactive user can do when confronted with the "spam", would be nice. Ideally the substack admins and developers would add capability to the comments section code to filter out and prevent "publishing" of offensive/illegal repeat comments given an unambiguous field contained. These perps always supply us with that, via their malware-infested or phishing-soliciting URL's, homjobz or whatever.
So, my main question is whether a screen scraper would be pretty much a counter-bot to automate what we do manually: report the posting and possibly the user, and get the contents to be no longer be displayed. When I report the posting interactively via the menu, the contents are no longer displayed to me, but might be to others.
If I can get them reported that's great; I have access to the ban them from there.
There is currently a new one of these crabgrass sprouts on another of Steve's postings and for now I didn't report it so that I could study what the browser Developer Mode tools can identify about the objects and their content.
I usually see Selenium suggested as a good scraper tool. I haven't seen any show-stoppers yet when reading about Selenium; For example there are ways to make it "press" the Load More button I believe, to go past any page of comments. It seems (no surprise here) most of the content is gotten via a script in Javascript and so the scraper needs to run the .js, but the general scraper can do that.
Are you on Telegram?
OK, you must have the access beyond base user as shown here:
https://on.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-substacks-moderation-tools?s=r
(remove comment and ban user)
I'll work on scraping to automate identifying those posts, though I have not personally used a scraping tool before other than curl inside scripts to interact with web pages via http/html packet traced from browser dialogue.
I was happy to learn that 1. There is no vaccine mandate and 2. the work uniform is a black turtleneck and tan sport coat.
Everyone can help by reporting all spam that you see. Thanks in advance!
I'll do it.
Yes, I'll be glad to do it. Sent you a Telegram.
If you tell me how to go about doing it I'd be more than willing :) Don't know what screenscraping means...but I'm a stay at home mom with all kids now in school so it would be a pleasure to be able to help...
Oh the irony
I love your work and you, Steve. I'm terrified from this clip I just viewed, can you provide any relief or suggestions?
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTdnHsSmW/?k=1
Updated definitions 02/07/22 DHS
https://www.dhs.gov/ntas/advisory/national-terrorism-advisory-system-bulletin-february-07-2022
Relief? It exists. Suggestions? Read 'Saving the Appearances'. Why be terrified of ghosts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA4e0NqyYMw
I'm not very smart and I'm having trouble understanding what this video is trying to tell me... it is very compelling, and you are the second person who has provided a link... thank you.
My best guess is that the video is trying to tell us, "All is not as it seems." "Okay," you say, "that's obvious enough." "Is it?" the video replies, "How far does the dissimulation extend?" "Gee, I don't know. How far?" you ask. And the video answers in hushed tones, "My friend, do not wonder to yourself, 'Is Biden really the president?' We all know he's not. Rather, you should be wondering, 'Is that really Biden?'" https://greatawakening.win/p/15HuoNPw1f/digging-on-koko-the-clown-clips-/c/