[biofuel] A robot in our midst?
Talking of hackers, or whatever, does anybody know anything of list member Olivia Trusdale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>? A member of other lists too, and she only ever posts news from Grist magazine: "Check it out" - with a link. Usually it's in response to stuff we've already had, sometimes even the exact article we've just had, and there have been some comments on that. Finally I wrote to her (?) and asked her if she worked for Grist, and didn't that make her a spammer, and put her under moderation, as a possible spammer. No response, but another post saying "Check it out." I thought I'd have a response first, so I stopped that post and asked again. No response, so I killed the post (we'd already had it anyway). Another one just arrived, in response to the Caspian oil article I posted. Something odd about it. The link is this: http://www.gristmagazine.com/daily/daily120402.asp#3?source=stealth source=stealth? What's that mean? I subscribe to Daily Grist, so I checked the original - the link to that article (at the BBC) is this: http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=750 I thought Olivia's weird link might be what you get when you use the Grist search engine, so I tried it, but that gives you normal links, no "source=stealth". The links in all her messages are like that, without exception. What is going on here? Is this a spam-robot at work? Keith Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] A robot in our midst?
Moderate her out and see what happens. If "she" doesn't speak up, well, then --- Jesse Parris | studio53 | 53 maitland rd | stamford, ct 06906 203.324.4371www.jesseparris.com/ - Original Message - From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 4:28 PM Subject: [biofuel] A robot in our midst? > Talking of hackers, or whatever, does anybody know anything of list > member Olivia Trusdale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>? Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] A robot in our midst?
It sounds like a robot. This is not to say that the articles are poor or that I don't admire the chutzpah of it even if I resent it, but it sounds like a bot. As long as we're on the topic, make sure when you write someone like that (as I'm pretty sure you're aware) that the subject line does not reflect the word "biofuel", because some of us have email filters set to filter by subject line, and thus private emails with unchanged subject headings sometimes get filtered into the giant pile. I've tried to change the way I filter, but thus far it hasn't worked. But in this case, it just sounds like a bot, though I guess I was fooled once or twice by her. On Tue, 10 Dec 2002 06:28:07 +0900, you wrote: >Talking of hackers, or whatever, does anybody know anything of list >member Olivia Trusdale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>? A member of other lists >too, and she only ever posts news from Grist magazine: "Check it out" >- with a link. Usually it's in response to stuff we've already had, >sometimes even the exact article we've just had, and there have been >some comments on that. Finally I wrote to her (?) and asked her if >she worked for Grist, and didn't that make her a spammer, and put her >under moderation, as a possible spammer. No response, but another >post saying "Check it out." I thought I'd have a response first, so I >stopped that post and asked again. No response, so I killed the post >(we'd already had it anyway). > >Another one just arrived, in response to the Caspian oil article I >posted. Something odd about it. The link is this: > >http://www.gristmagazine.com/daily/daily120402.asp#3?source=stealth > >source=stealth? What's that mean? > >I subscribe to Daily Grist, so I checked the original - the link to >that article (at the BBC) is this: > >http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=750 > >I thought Olivia's weird link might be what you get when you use the >Grist search engine, so I tried it, but that gives you normal links, >no "source=stealth". The links in all her messages are like that, >without exception. What is going on here? Is this a spam-robot at >work? > >Keith > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > >Biofuels list archives: >http://archive.nnytech.net/ > >Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. >To unsubscribe, send an email to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] A robot in our midst?
Looks like an interesting 'hit-miner' operation. pseudo-spam mailing lists about things targetted to their audience and get people to click on the links? I'd email the webmaster and ask them. Keith Addison wrote: >I thought Olivia's weird link might be what you get when you use the >Grist search engine, so I tried it, but that gives you normal links, >no "source=stealth". The links in all her messages are like that, >without exception. What is going on here? Is this a spam-robot at >work? > >Keith > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] A robot in our midst?
>Moderate her out and see what happens. If "she" doesn't speak up, well, >then Hi Jesse Yes, she's (?) under moderation, but no word from her other than more Check-it-out's. Keith >--- >Jesse Parris | studio53 | 53 maitland rd | stamford, ct 06906 >203.324.4371www.jesseparris.com/ >- Original Message - >From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: >Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 4:28 PM >Subject: [biofuel] A robot in our midst? > > > > Talking of hackers, or whatever, does anybody know anything of list > > member Olivia Trusdale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>? Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] A robot in our midst?
>It sounds like a robot. This is not to say that the articles are poor >or that I don't admire the chutzpah of it even if I resent it, but it >sounds like a bot. > >As long as we're on the topic, make sure when you write someone like >that (as I'm pretty sure you're aware) that the subject line does not >reflect the word "biofuel", because some of us have email filters set >to filter by subject line, and thus private emails with unchanged >subject headings sometimes get filtered into the giant pile. I've >tried to change the way I filter, but thus far it hasn't worked. > >But in this case, it just sounds like a bot, though I guess I was >fooled once or twice by her. Thanks MM. So were we all, I guess. I'll see what comes of it, let you know. Keith >On Tue, 10 Dec 2002 06:28:07 +0900, you wrote: > > >Talking of hackers, or whatever, does anybody know anything of list > >member Olivia Trusdale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>? A member of other lists > >too, and she only ever posts news from Grist magazine: "Check it out" > >- with a link. Usually it's in response to stuff we've already had, > >sometimes even the exact article we've just had, and there have been > >some comments on that. Finally I wrote to her (?) and asked her if > >she worked for Grist, and didn't that make her a spammer, and put her > >under moderation, as a possible spammer. No response, but another > >post saying "Check it out." I thought I'd have a response first, so I > >stopped that post and asked again. No response, so I killed the post > >(we'd already had it anyway). > > > >Another one just arrived, in response to the Caspian oil article I > >posted. Something odd about it. The link is this: > > > >http://www.gristmagazine.com/daily/daily120402.asp#3?source=stealth > > > >source=stealth? What's that mean? > > > >I subscribe to Daily Grist, so I checked the original - the link to > >that article (at the BBC) is this: > > > >http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=750 > > > >I thought Olivia's weird link might be what you get when you use the > >Grist search engine, so I tried it, but that gives you normal links, > >no "source=stealth". The links in all her messages are like that, > >without exception. What is going on here? Is this a spam-robot at > >work? > > > >Keith > > > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > > >Biofuels list archives: > >http://archive.nnytech.net/ > > > >Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. > >To unsubscribe, send an email to: > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > > > > > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > >Biofuels list archives: >http://archive.nnytech.net/ > >Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. >To unsubscribe, send an email to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] A robot in our midst?
Hi Martin >Looks like an interesting 'hit-miner' operation. >pseudo-spam mailing lists about things targetted to their audience and >get people to click on the links? I think so. >I'd email the webmaster and ask them. If they're spammers they'd probably lie. I'd quite like to catch them at it. I wondered whether you might know how the "?source=stealth" bit in the url works, could be the giveaway. The two links: http://www.gristmagazine.com/daily/daily120402.asp#3?source=stealth http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=750 >Keith Addison wrote: > > >I thought Olivia's weird link might be what you get when you use the > >Grist search engine, so I tried it, but that gives you normal links, > >no "source=stealth". The links in all her messages are like that, > >without exception. What is going on here? Is this a spam-robot at > >work? > > > >Keith Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] A robot in our midst?
please remove me off the mailing list [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] A robot in our midst?
I think it means just what it says, they can't get any referer information from someone's email, I guess it is to give statistics on how many hits 'Olivia' stirs up. I don't know the purpose of the forward.pl other than to give themselves inflated hit reports, maybe for advertisers? Keith Addison wrote: >If they're spammers they'd probably lie. I'd quite like to catch them >at it. I wondered whether you might know how the "?source=stealth" >bit in the url works, could be the giveaway. > >The two links: >http://www.gristmagazine.com/daily/daily120402.asp#3?source=stealth >http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=750 > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] A robot in our midst?
1.The first link serves "stealth" to an asp script in the page, but does not seem to have any meaning. Maybe if you go trough the code more, you can see if they do anything with the input. A quick glance did not reveal anything and I did not want to spend too much time on it. 2. The other link get you to a pearl script who redirects you to an other server. in this case http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2540321.stm the number 750 is the link or can be an combination of link and id. Since it does not display any return to Grist etc. it does not seems to have any other purpose than serving the information. Hard to see the value for Grist. If it is a bot, it is not very smart way to do this things. Number 2 does not have any real meaning in this sense. I am not sure of what this really is. It could be a way to automatically mail info to lists and in this case it is a mailing program that must categorize news and then send it to lists that match the category. As long as this is good information, I cannot see the harm in doing it. Would it be a useless spamming, it is another thing. Since link 2 does not force anyone to actually visit the Grist site or actually solicit anything. Hakan At 10:07 AM 12/10/2002 -0500, you wrote: >I think it means just what it says, they can't get any referer >information from someone's email, I guess it is to give statistics on >how many hits 'Olivia' stirs up. >I don't know the purpose of the forward.pl other than to give themselves >inflated hit reports, maybe for advertisers? > > >Keith Addison wrote: > > >If they're spammers they'd probably lie. I'd quite like to catch them > >at it. I wondered whether you might know how the "?source=stealth" > >bit in the url works, could be the giveaway. > > > >The two links: > >http://www.gristmagazine.com/daily/daily120402.asp#3?source=stealth > >http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=750 > > > > > > > > > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > >Biofuels list archives: >http://archive.nnytech.net/ > >Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. >To unsubscribe, send an email to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] A robot in our midst?
>1.The first link serves "stealth" to an asp script in the page, but does >not seem to have any meaning. Maybe if you go trough the code more, you >can see if they do anything with the input. A quick glance did not reveal >anything and I did not want to spend too much time on it. > >2. The other link get you to a pearl script who redirects you to an other >server. in this case http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2540321.stm the >number 750 is the link or can be an combination of link and id. Since it >does not display any return to Grist etc. it does not seems to have any >other purpose than serving the information. Hard to see the value for Grist. > >If it is a bot, it is not very smart way to do this things. Number 2 does >not have any real meaning in this sense. I am not sure of what this really >is. It could be a way to automatically mail info to lists and in this case >it is a mailing program that must categorize news and then send it to lists >that match the category. As long as this is good information, I cannot see >the harm in doing it. Would it be a useless spamming, it is another thing. >Since link 2 does not force anyone to actually visit the Grist site or >actually solicit anything. > >Hakan Sorry, maybe that wasn't very clear. I gave the two links for comparison, they both take you to the same place, eventually. The first one with the "?source=stealth" suffix was in a post to the list by Olivia, as with all her posts, and takes you to the page at the Grist site where you find the ref to the BBC news story "Caspian's Unfriendly Ghost", with a link to the full story - that's the second link I gave, with the "?forward_id=750" suffix, a redirect link to the BBC site. So Olive's link does take you to Grist and earns them a page hit. Grist's daily email offering only gives the second, direct, link to the story, of course, so you never need to go to the Grist site. So yes, Olivia is trawling the lists for page hits at Grist, that seems clear. This is useless spamming - if "she" just wanted to give us the info she'd give us the direct link to the BBC, not to the Grist page. And anyway, we've almost always had it before, that would be the case, the way they go about it. Useless, and immoral. Martin suggested it's to help push up ad rates, but they don't run ads. Maybe it's a matter of demographic info from cookies, stuff they can sell, what Yahoo does too. Whatever, it'll be for gain of some kind, at our expense. Considering the high moral ground they assume - "Do Good ", "Support Grist", "Hats off to those who give" - it's kind of sleazy. Like environment groups that twist science their way. We don't need this kind of spin and dishonesty from these people. I emailed Olivia once again, no response. I'll wait a day or two and then write to Grist about this. Just needed (need) a bit of help getting the evidence together. Thanks Best Keith > >At 10:07 AM 12/10/2002 -0500, you wrote: > >I think it means just what it says, they can't get any referer > >information from someone's email, I guess it is to give statistics on > >how many hits 'Olivia' stirs up. > >I don't know the purpose of the forward.pl other than to give themselves > >inflated hit reports, maybe for advertisers? > > > > > >Keith Addison wrote: > > > > >If they're spammers they'd probably lie. I'd quite like to catch them > > >at it. I wondered whether you might know how the "?source=stealth" > > >bit in the url works, could be the giveaway. > > > > > >The two links: > > >http://www.gristmagazine.com/daily/daily120402.asp#3?source=stealth > > >http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=750 > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
