This release of phpCF features:
Go get it at http://lillesvin.net/phpcf!
It’s true! It’s nothing fancy really (you’ll understand when you see it), but it’s a game non the less. And it has an online Top 10, so you can compete with others! It’s really simple, highly addictive, non-violent, non-sexual … pretty much non-anything - just the way some americans (e.g. from Michigan) like it. Who knows, I could start chargin a monthly fee for playing - I could make billions! Muahahaaa!
Ok, I’ve been taking to much of your precious time - here’s the game! Enjoy!
I was just looking through my logfiles (I tend to do that whenever I get a bit tired, but don’t go to sleep) and I realized that the number of spam attempts has decreased heavilly. From blocking more than 30 attempts a day, all the way down to 52 attempts throughout June and no attempts at all in August or September. Same goes for blacklist redirects (ie. blacklisted hosts being redirected to a customized 404 page saying that they’ve been blacklisted.)
I’m not quite sure what to make of this, because there are a couple of things involved and the decrease started just as I made some big changes to my anti-spam system. The following are some possible factors in the decrease and there may very well be some I’m overlooking.
Are the spammers running some kind of automated learning, so once they receive a 404, they stop trying? That would be weird, because in order to even see the before mentioned 404, they have to make at least 3 attempts at spamming. So automated learning would be indicated by a vast amount of blocked attempts compared to the number of blacklist redirects, which is not the case here - both numbers have decreased heavilly, though the number of blacklist redirects varies from zero to 5-6 a day.
If the spammers are in some way measuring their success-rate, then it must mean that phpCF is working great, because no spam has gotten through in a long time. But this would also be strange, because how would they measure the success-rate? Googling? I think not.
I’ve finally blacklisted each and every spam-bot on the planet! Yay, for me! :-p
Actually, this would explain the small number of blocked attempts compared to the larger amount of blacklist redirects. But still, somehow I don’t believe that this is the reason.
Last, but not least, there may be outside factors causing the decrease (even though I’d like to think that I came up with the “cure for the cancer”). Maybe Google-bombing has gotten harder, or the spammers are getting more cautious - or maybe blog-spamming just isn’t profitable enough…
… and then there is all the stuff I can’t think up right now because it’s 8:46 AM and I haven’t slept yet. If you have any ideas, experiences, thoughts … anything! Please, post a comment or drop me a mail. I’d be more than happy to know what you think.