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You have been spammed

Wow! You think??? Call me foolish but I actually checked out this link and it's sound. Don't know if the "First Aid" section can offer any new advice to Sumit's techie (I recognised a few suggestions that are already available on php's site) but it's got to be worth a visit.

Used to be the case that almost every post was 'real'. Now you'd be bloody lucky to find one! Well, it is a little off-putting to find your heartfelt ramblings rubbing shoulders with the likes of viagra ad's and porn links.....

Wingey, moany Buga!

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If you are reading this, you are reading some pretty archaic posts(!) Please would you read the following article and add your name:
http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/p/stop-tsunami-of-executions-add-your.html
Many thanks, Rae 27.2.11

I had a quick look at anti-spamming earlier in the week. Blogger uses a password, but the general consensus is that it can be circumvented - not that we have had any unwanted posts on the shared blog I use. The BBC music boards use an activation code that is sent to email - a user account cannot be activated until the link is clicked.

I agree with you Buga, there is now more spam than "real messages", which must deter users/potential users.

Rosemary

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"We are all dependent on one another's gifts, to the extent that if someone else is damaged or frustrated, offended or oppressed, everyone suffers, everyone's humanity is diminished." ++ Rowan Williams

Oh Rosemary! A real person posting too - I'm moved to tears .... well, the emoticon is at least! But do you find that all the spam and, in particular, the type of spam, off-putting? I just feel that there's little point in writing stuff because it sort of takes the fun out of it somehow. Granted, it's the same bland old grey-on-grey forum ( ) but otherwise, it's barely recognisable! What's going on? Has Mr. Sawhney lost his light sabre during his travels? Where is everyone? Hello? Hello??? ..................

Ah, me.......

Rosemary, have you checked out the catherine8888 link? Amazing what people will do to alleviate boredom!!!

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If you are reading this, you are reading some pretty archaic posts(!) Please would you read the following article and add your name:
http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/p/stop-tsunami-of-executions-add-your.html
Many thanks, Rae 27.2.11

Hi,

Thanks to both of you for being so thoughtful.

Haven't gone into the anti-spam website above but we are currently talking to some technically savvy people who will be looking after the site for us very soon. I agree with you both that it is very annoying to get all this trash on the forum. Rest assured that we are doing our best to restore it to it's former self.

Best.

Nitin.

Wow!!! It's Mr. Sawhney in person! I thought we'd lost you to the "Dark Side", but No! You're back or maybe, it's quite possible that you never actually left....

........Perhaps you were just trying out a prototype of your very own invisibility cloak, cleverly fashioned out of thousands of recycled yoghurt pot lids and tackyback? Everybody's having a go at making one and creating a right fuss about such a simple task. It only took me five minutes to run up my cloak and it was so good, it took me a further seven years to find it again, after I'd put my sewing machine away. Rosemary, what did you make yours out of? Did it work? Were you successful in sneaking up on Captain Jack and goosing him on set? Saucy wench! Wait a minute though........

Am I responding to a post by the 'real' Mr. Sawhney or.... one of those 'virtual reality' Mr. Sawhneys....? Hmmmm.......

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If you are reading this, you are reading some pretty archaic posts(!) Please would you read the following article and add your name:
http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/p/stop-tsunami-of-executions-add-your.html
Many thanks, Rae 27.2.11

.......or is it his alter ego 'Cyber Sawhney'

'Cyber Sawhney' r? Is there really such a thing/person/erm...? or have you been experimenting with bits of airfix, attempting to create your own "Nitin" and getting a little too close to the glue ? Or do you mean a computer-generated Nitin - a bit like Max Headroom only a little less 'chiselled' ?

Perhaps you could enlighten me?

---

If you are reading this, you are reading some pretty archaic posts(!) Please would you read the following article and add your name:
http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/p/stop-tsunami-of-executions-add-your.html
Many thanks, Rae 27.2.11

Nitin, I'm really pleased that you have some techies on the case.

Buga - are you sure I'm real? Perhaps I've been constructed by a Phd student specialising in artificial intelligence. Anyway you will have to wait and see at the Jazz Cafe - unless, in the meantime, I've been swallowed up by the temporal space fault line that is said to be running through Cardiff. I think Captain Jack must have grabbed my invisibility cloak - when he was filming in the same street as my office.

Rosemary

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"We are all dependent on one another's gifts, to the extent that if someone else is damaged or frustrated, offended or oppressed, everyone suffers, everyone's humanity is diminished." ++ Rowan Williams

Hmmm.... well actually Rosemary,

...when I referred to your being real, I was actually attempting to humour you - I know how you artificial life-forms like to think you have us real folk fooled! I remember reading about you in an old, yet immaculate, issue of "New Scientist" that I discovered, lying neglected beneath a pile of much-thumbed copies of "Loaded", ?Heat? and "Reader's Digest", on my dentist's waiting-room table. Fortunately for me, the receptionist who?d been watching me for some time, struggling to extract it with a minute pair of tweezers, sensed my frustration and generously offered me a pair of latex gloves?. I don't remember the article mentioning any Phd student though. As I recall, weren't you the creation of a rather gifted car mechanic ....No. My mistake! It was a roofer wasn't it? Amazing chain of events when you think about it -

The roofer was approached to carry out a few mundane repairs to one of the turrets at Castell Coch*. He turned up with his little lorry, loaded up with scaffolding only to discover that, even though it is a victorian folly, it was built on the site where an actual castle once stood and, because of this, the caretaker insisted that he used replica mediaeval scaffolding instead. It was a little rickety by comparison but seemed to hold up well enough and, after a while, the eerie creaking sounds of the wind lightly jostling the tethered poles and the rubbery squelch of the weasel guts binding it together, ceased to bother him. He did, however, draw the line at forsaking his hard hat for something that resembled a leather bucket. A compromise was reached and the roofer reluctantly traded in his hat for a helmet which dated back to the time of the crusades and had, for many centuries after, been misused as a strainer for boiled cabbage. He put it on and, feeling slightly ridiculous, started a long and laborious ascent up a series of 'ye olde' ladders, until, finally, he reached the turret roof (Phew!...or rather Phoo! since the odour of several hundred years? worth of boiled cabbage had imparted something of a whiff on the inside of the helmet?). Surveying the condition of the tiles the roofer noted that, in fact, only a few areas were in need of attention - which meant less time spent atop the gently-swaying structure.

While he set to work, the roofer also took time to enjoy the unspoilt vista of wilderness and motorway. Even though there was a slight chill to the breeze, the sun shone down upon the castle, shrouding him with its warmth and sending its dazzling rays bouncing off his antiquated headgear. The shafts of light pierced the darkness of the surrounding woodland with their brilliance, startling small, furry creatures and causing them to scurry deeper into the undergrowth??

??which reminds me, isn?t it coming up to that time of year when the NS crew head off to the park??..

?.. as the roofer?s helmet sent strobes of sunlight high into dusky foliage of the trees themselves, large, ungainly forms, darker than a moonless sky, darker even than (dare I say?) Mr. Sawhney?s Darth Vader outfit, began to shuffle and stir?. As an intelligent life-form, artificial or otherwise Rosemary, you don?t have to be Bill Oddie to know that all members of the crow family are reputedly attracted to shiny objects, and the roofer?s helmet was very shiny and therefore, too irresistible an object for the feathered inhabitants of the surrounding woodland to ignore. A single, intrepid jay landed, feather-light, on the tip of the turret and eyed the roofer?s head. No sooner had it caught the roofer?s attention than it flew up again and alighted upon his helmet. After enduring several minutes of delicate scratching and tapping sounds from above, the roofer called out. The jay, failing to gain a secure enough purchase on the large, shiny thing, let alone fly off with it, gave up and retreated back to the woods. Next, a solitary magpie settled on the roof briefly before it too attempted to remove the big shiny object. The roofer, somewhat perplexed by the scraping and hammering sounds, raining down on his vintage headwear, cursed as he recalled the old saying ?One for sorrow?..? . Traditionally, it followed that two magpies were ?for joy? but, not on this occasion! Joined by its mate, the determined pair scrabbled about, pounding away relentlessly at the helmet, before eventually growing too weary to continue. The magpies flew off mournfully, leaving the roofer somewhat dazed and traumatised but helmet still in place?.. After several minutes and hearing not so much as a dickybird, the roofer felt recovered enough to continue with his task. Feeling once again at peace with his surroundings, he did not notice the soft but ominous chorus punctuating the relative silence of the woodlands ?? Caw?. Caw?.. Caw?..

??. Mr. Sawhney, although modesty prevents him from admitting it, is certainly no stranger to this sound; before every live performance, the very same sound rises up from the adoring crowd pressed against the stage, while the poor man edges nervously towards his stool??

??..fear not, Rosemary (et al), I WILL get to the point of this story sometime before Christmas?.

??Caw?. Caw?. Caw?. Caw?. The sound grew louder and more urgent. Suddenly aware of the encroaching din, the roofer looked up and about him. The sky was dark with startling, malevolent silhouettes. The inhabitants of several neighbouring rookeries had left the cosiness of their nests, and were winging their way from all directions, each of them irresistibly drawn towards, and determined to claim, the big shiny object for themselves! Swiftly the roofer ran towards the nearest olde-worlde ladder as fast as his wobbly legs could take him. Alas the design upon which the replica mediaeval scaffolding had been based, was not meant to withstand the degree of jolting and shuddering caused by a stampeding roofer and promptly began to collapse. Even as the roofer continued to tread air all the way down to the courtyard, several, fearless rooks lunged down, wind screaming through their wings, until the pluckiest of them all stretched out its legs, hooked its talons into the grill before the roofer?s bulging eyes and succeeded in yanking the big, shiny thing free from the roofer?s head, moments before his still-running feet met the cobbles?.

Amazingly, although a little shorter than before, the roofer suffered no other visible damage. Too terrified to set foot on so much as a footstool, he sold his business, moved into a bungalow and pondered over his future career prospects. Around about the same time, he began to experience some pretty unusual dreams?.. little had he realised, but the constant vibration caused by the incessant drilling of bird beaks had effectively woken up a hitherto dormant corner of his brain. It was this additional neural activity which was the cause of the dreams and, while he slumbered, his mind toyed with impossible notions, including the development of artificial intelligence?.

?.Yes, Rosemary, I am FINALLY heading towards the point of this story afterall!!!...

?.. Originally, he had hoped to create an artificial brain, designed specifically to occupy those empty spaces between politicians? ears. Although there exists a few exceptions to the norm, there were certainly many who would ultimately benefit from such implants for politicians ?.. the entire population, for example?. However, empty heads are notoriously suspicious of anything and everything and the roofer feared that he was more liable to be shot on sight rather than have his amazing idea taken seriously. Undeterred, he simultaneously dreamt up and created another, far superior version of the artificial brain and went on to construct a ?body? in which to install it. He gave the new life-form, which had the mind of a super-genius and was built like an absolute goddess (you can slip me the tenner for that comment when I see you in December! ?.Rosemary, that is?.), two purposes in life?

1/ To listen to as much music as possible ? even (although he later regretted this) Europop.

2/ To give really useful careers advice to all who needed it!

And now, here you are, applying your superbrain to the task of writing unadulterated nonsense on Mr. Sawhney?s forum! If you think that I?m not going to be able to spot you at the Jazz Caf?, think again, little Miss Cleverclogs ? I?ve seen the photo remember ? how hard could it be for me to spot someone with a large, white brolly protruding from the side of her head???

* http://www.castlewales.com/coch.html

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If you are reading this, you are reading some pretty archaic posts(!) Please would you read the following article and add your name:
http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/p/stop-tsunami-of-executions-add-your.html
Many thanks, Rae 27.2.11

..........who knows who is real, perhaps Mr Sawhney is more real than anyone else on the forum..........the rest of us hide behind relative anonymity..........so who is to believe what we contribute as 'real'. On the other hand perhaps anonymity gives certain freedoms, potentially allowing us to cross boudries which you may not think of doing in your day to day, making 'real' truths known, which you would otherwise be reluctant to voice.........even though perhaps we don't go that far on this forum as we are far too polite, but possible is it not? Contribution to the forum could almost be like therapy for some people, perhaps it already is, no one else I know will read my crap, but bet you are right now!! you see I feel better all ready !!!

.......as for the 'Cyber-Sawhney'..... thought it had a ring to it, and its got to be suited to someone who is no doubt in the very least a wanna be (if not already a qualified) geek! Meant of course in a complimentary way....given if Mr S wasn't, we wouldn't get to hear some of the things we do, I am guessing?

And as for us lot, if we were more geeky, we may be better at defending against spammsters?!?!?! Who knows?

r, I think that you're talking about hyperreality ( are there two 'r's in hyperreality? Oh what the hell, there are in this reality!) and perhaps, whenever we enter the forum, for whatever purpose, we simultaneously enter this particular hyperreality.

Or maybe not.

I mean, if a hypereal 'world' is meant to offer us a more gratifying alternative to the real world - would we have spammers and, more importantly, would the layout of this forum still be lacklustre grey ???

Also, does hyperreality have boundaries? Even though it is an enhancement of reality, does the person perceiving it regulate it's content based upon what that person considers to be acceptable to them; even if it takes them beyond their comfort zone, do they still determine to what extent? Or, do they allow themselves to become immersed in a world without limitations and, if they do, is it possible to enter such a world and interact with it willfully or only passively, or either, by choice? And maybe, if the person engages with the hyperreal world, could this be as potentially as rewarding/dangerous as entering it in a state of total submission and, as long as the person is able to determine which state they want to be in, within that world, they are still exercising a degree of self-control whereas, if they are unable to choose how much control they have in their hyperreality, or have no control as to when they are in reality or hyperreality, or for how long .......... AND, what happens to a person whose hyperreality is so damned wonderful that to step back into the real world fills them with dread and despair!!!!! Yep, I've read my share of early Ian Banks novels in my time...and it's telling, isn't it!

So then, as I understand it, "Geek" is a compliment here is it, r? Won't Mr. - sorry! Cyber-Sawhney be chuffed! Still, you are keeping us guessing as to what he might look like.... does it mean for example, that in this reality he has the body of an adonis or would that be just too close to reality to be feasible as an 'alternative' state of being (no charge for that, Mr. S. - it's a complimentary compliment, since it's, er, your forum afterall). Is a cyberbeing humanoid in appearance or does our hero resemble a large compostbin with a bicycle lamp on its 'head' and a sink plunger and egg whisk for limbs? Or, does it have a body at all?

Anyway, just for the record, tomorrow I plan to conduct a little experiment to find out if the positively voluptuous chocolate cake in the organic store is as thoroughly, deliciously satisfying in reality as it promises to be in my hyperreality........mmmmmmmmm.........

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If you are reading this, you are reading some pretty archaic posts(!) Please would you read the following article and add your name:
http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/p/stop-tsunami-of-executions-add-your.html
Many thanks, Rae 27.2.11

... all this is a bit too philosophical for this late at night, Buga and r.

As far as identity is concerned, the main thing is that one should have only one identity on a particular board. Multiple identities are known as "sock puppets" and can wreak havoc on forums - people reporting on themselves favourably in their alter ego, having conversations with themselves, confusing others on the forum ......

As for white umbrellas Buga, there could be up to 28 people going around with them, as we gave most of them away. After the taxi installation, the umbrellas did however get rather accustomed to house and techo music - we didn't let the DJ bring his Europop collection. My friends have suggested wearing a beard would be appropriate for a Jazz Club.

Rosemary

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"We are all dependent on one another's gifts, to the extent that if someone else is damaged or frustrated, offended or oppressed, everyone suffers, everyone's humanity is diminished." ++ Rowan Williams

Sock Puppets????

A beard, Rosemary? Won't it smudge the lippy? An unsual choice but, if it makes you feel more at home, well..... but you could always go down the dressed-in-black route instead, you know. Still, if you insist, better make sure it's one of those chin-stroking goatie tufts rather than a full-on facial fleece..... you don't want to end up looking like a folkie, do you? With the obligatory hairy jumper, hiking boots, a smouldering pipe in one hand and a bottle of Ye Dizzy Bint real ale in the other? Hmmm, yes, choose your beard wisely!

Now, am I to understand that you would prefer to stick with just the one Nitin on the forum? How do you know that there IS only one Mr. Sawhney? What if he also, simultaneously exists in other dimensions too, what if we all do? There may well be a Cyber Sawhney, a virtual reality Sawhney and yet another, running around, brandishing a pocket torch with a plastic tube stuck on the end of it? Scientists are already beginning to suspect that there may be possibly several Sawhneys, shouldn't we assume the same?

Also, it's not just sock puppets who talk to themselves and confuse people - I'm always doing that! ops:

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If you are reading this, you are reading some pretty archaic posts(!) Please would you read the following article and add your name:
http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/p/stop-tsunami-of-executions-add-your.html
Many thanks, Rae 27.2.11