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safari

Member

Registered: 2026-06-02

Posts: 9  

Please consider not using stopforumspam

stopforumspam reflects very badly on Dev1Galaxy.

In attempting to join Dev1Galaxy, I was accidentally blocked by stopforumspam, I presume because I was using a VPN that had in the past been used by a genuine spammer. A second attempt without VPN then copied the block to my own IP address, which took several hours to fix. stopforumspam offered zero help in that regard (D1G forum admins fixed it). Indeed, their website is positively obstructive. During that time, both my IP address and personal email were publicly searchable and downloadable - in machine-readable format no less. I'm in a country where this data is legally protected, so Dev1Galaxy may even be legally liable.

In trying to fix the issue, I came across this page of theirs https://www.stopforumspam.com/threats. This is pretty disgusting behaviour of stopforumspam, and highly unprofessional.

All in all, it has deeply soured my experience of Devuan, having to deal with stopforumspam. The association reflects badly on Devuan.

Last edited by safari (2026-06-03 15:55:41)

Camtaf

Member

Registered: 2019-11-19

Posts: 555  

Re: Please consider not using stopforumspam

During that time, both my IP address and personal email were publicly searchable and downloadable - in machine-readable format no less. I'm in a country where this data is legally protected, so Dev1Galaxy may even be legally liable

Not at all, no one made you join the forums, so is totally on you....

safari

Member

Registered: 2026-06-02

Posts: 9  

Re: Please consider not using stopforumspam

I don't understand your point. No-one made me join Netflix either, but the law still applies to them.

The legal perspective is not the only, or perhaps even my main concern. It did seem plausible and relevant, however.

Last edited by safari (2026-06-03 17:18:53)

golinux

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 3,714  

Re: Please consider not using stopforumspam

When D1G was launched, I was the spam hunter and it never stopped. Something had to be done. Our current system has worked quite well for many years and makes very few false positives. And please remember that we had no control over the choices YOU made that landed you in SFS . . . 

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safari

Member

Registered: 2026-06-02

Posts: 9  

Re: Please consider not using stopforumspam

I understand spam is a real and difficult problem, but I fully reject the implication that it was reasonable to expect any of this. From my end it happened because I used a widely used VPN. I did not land myself in SFS, D1G did, and SFS made that data publicly accessible.

Last edited by safari (2026-06-03 17:45:24)

safari

Member

Registered: 2026-06-02

Posts: 9  

Re: Please consider not using stopforumspam

Might it help to put in large letters on the registration website that using a VPN to sign up increases the chances of getting blocked? It doesn't resolve the multiple problems of SFS, but it does reduce the chance of landing there.

golinux

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 3,714  

Re: Please consider not using stopforumspam

Thank you for the constructive suggestion!

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blackhole

Member

Registered: 2020-03-16

Posts: 220  

Re: Please consider not using stopforumspam

Back in the day, I used to look up obvious spammers who had not yet edited in their links on stopforumspam's db and if I got both an email address and IP address hit I would ban both and delete the account. Never ran it server side. It could be quite labour intensive. Some sites simply get indundated, to the point where you need a few dedicated volunteers, those people eventually get bored or burn out and move on. And now there are"AI" scrapers, making sites unusable also.

Times have changed. A lot of people use VPNs for very valid reasons these days, there are also dynamic IP addresss as it is, so automatically banning using SFS is admittedly a bit brutal. I'm not altogether sure the level of traffic here warrants it, but it's up to those running the site. Usually these kind of countermeasures have some kind of message, informing the blocked user and providing some means of making contact? Is that the case here?

It's one of those problems which won"t go away - they use disposable email addresses, so banning only on email address is ineffective. VPN use also means banning IPs is also of little use.

The problem is the modern web - it's become a cesspool. Years ago, Tor and similar software, seemed like ideal solutions for privacy - then nearly every site you visit blocks you and after cycling through exit nodes for a time, most will give up.

So it's not actually stopforumsspam or this site's fault - it's the fault of the people/corporations who have collectively transformed the web into 99% shit.

Last edited by blackhole (Today 08:16:41)