I have noticed that people seem to think the Chinese spam post are just annoying. I just thought I would put my 2 cents in and explain why forums are plagued with these type of post.
What I'm about to explain is probably true 80% of the time... Sure it's sometimes done for other reasons but for the most part it has a more sinister payload. Why,,, Because it "could" come back and harm a members computer infecting them with something that they may not even know they have for a long long time.
First, Most of the attacks you see are done by bots. Computers infected with shitware that keep spreading shitware. They hammer away till they find a forum running on the web. Then they hammer away and find a vulnerability in the sign on process or some other process. When they do they are programmed to skim the topics and threads and inject information (random Chinese or any language for that matter) wherever they can find permission that will let them post. (what ever the account will give them access)
AND.....
I guess I should keep this next bit of info to myself. Especially if I would like to have the only slingshot forum one day. But since we have people that still go over there I guess I need to let people in on why these bots post that crap. Basically it's a misdirection.....Bots post this crap as I mentioned earlier to find out how vulnerable a forum is. And since you can hyper link so many things in a post (web links and pictures and pretty much anything.... ) they can hide malicious content in a post. Well guess what,,,Even if you don't open that thread or read any post you could still be affected. This trait would be dependent on how secure the database is that holds the information framework of that forum.
Now before you all run out and start scanning your computer for shitware.... I have look at some of this stuff and so far I personally have not seen anything except just being a pain in the ass to get rid of all the inserted post. So unless you specifically have had your virus software tell you its picked something up I wouldn't worry to much about that site.
I just felt since they have seen so much of it lately it might be a good time to explain why it happens and why there is more to it normally than just goofy post.
This is why I went with the German based Woltlab as my forum backbone. It's not flawless. But it does have very good security and it has tools to keep that stuff at a minimum. Germany has the strictest privacy laws of any country.. You have to really be careful what you let people access in Germany. And software personal privacy issues over there is taken very seriously.
Ok. I have bored and spooked everyone now. You all have my word that as long as I can see and type I will keep this site as clean as any site can be. We could wake up in the morning with crap posted everywhere but I will mop it up as fast as I can type. And I always have my database running the latest revisions. And my host also scans for any outstanding bad code. So in our case it would just be a pain in the butt to clean the stupid post off. And it would give yall a chance to "poke the bear" while I'm deleting post. Heck I might even laugh with yall I mop up the mess. Hopefully it will be a while before it happens here.
Yall carry on. I just thought I would pass on some knowledge.....