Listing removal required.
- Thread starter Expertu
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It took me a bit to find it too. An example http://ilectric.com/glance/Regional/ , it just isn't on the "Top" page of the directory anywhere that I can see.Callimachus said:
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Ha, looked at the site again after seeing lmocr simultaneous post with mine yesterday. On the "top" page of the directory: http://ilectric.com/glance/ which was working just fine a couple of seconds ago, just as it was for me yesterday. I noticed down in the lower left corner there was a hidden link something like http://ilectric.com/bad-bot ? Which for some reason I clicked and now all I get for that page is:
"ilectric is unavailable." followed by a bunch of affilliate links. I checked it on all my networked computers and they all see the same result.
So you aren't crazy expertu there is something weird there, unfortunately someone more technically minded than me will have to figure it out
"ilectric is unavailable." followed by a bunch of affilliate links. I checked it on all my networked computers and they all see the same result.
So you aren't crazy expertu there is something weird there, unfortunately someone more technically minded than me will have to figure it out
Presumably, it's their way of stopping bad 'bots from scraping their copy of the directory. I'd guess it was based on IP address or something since Expertu could see the right stuff when he used a proxy. But that's just my uneducated guess.
I tried clicking the http://ilectric.com/bad-bot link and I can't make it think I'm bad -- I just get redirected to the main ilectric page. And if I try to click the link from your post, I get a 404 page.
I tried clicking the http://ilectric.com/bad-bot link and I can't make it think I'm bad
-- I just get redirected to the main ilectric page. And if I try to click the link from your post, I get a 404 page.
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- Guess I am a bad-bot then. Darn, always tried to be a good-bot I clicked that little ole link and now I get the affiliate pages that expertu talks about Guess when my IP resets I will have to try again.Thanks motsa for checking it out.
shadow575 said:
Thanks motsa for checking it out.
If USA and Romania IP's are bad, is that a website accesible to all ?
I have no spyware on my PC. Guaranteed
Crap on a cracker. I tried clicking again from home (I was at work before) and now I've been flagged "You are forbidden from accessing this server." So, now I get the bad bot stuff. Dangnabbit. I knew better than to click it. I knew it. But I did it anyway.
I tried clicking again from home (I was at work before) and now I've been flagged "You are forbidden from accessing this server." So, now I get the bad bot stuff. Dangnabbit. I knew better than to click it. I knew it. But I did it anyway.Keep in mind that, until we started clicking on that tiny, hidden bad bot link, none of the rest of us were getting that page. None of us. So, I suspect that whatever made it flag you right off the bat is not indicative of a widespread problem.
motsa said:
Flagging a visitor by start is not a problem ? I never clicked anything there, because i never had the chance to see real content.
Click on the above link i placed (seeing the website trough a proxy, online), and you will NOT see that bad bot link. At least i didn't found it.
If you would ask me, it's way to problematic with this website, to have so much discussions on it.
I think you either leave the website included, because there can't be real proof about it's problems, or remove it, because of suspicions (which is not a good choice).
End of story
PS: Only ODP editors can have a signature ?
Then I guess we leave it listed, because we have not determined that there is a problem. *You* have a problem viewing it. We have not. I don't find what they've done suspicious in the slightest. I know a few people who do that occasionally to people who've been harrassing them via their web sites -- they set up a really horrid redirect just for the harrassers, based on their IP address.
Yes, only editors can have signatures.
It's there -- but it's an invisible link on the bottom left of the directory page, just above the English to Spanish drop-down list -- highlight the page and you'll see it.
Yes, only editors can have signatures.
Callimachus
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I took another look and this is what seems to be happening ..
They have implemented the equivalent of a "honeypot" trap for bots and web spiders that ignore the robots.txt and the <meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow,noarchive"> directive which they have in their page.
A properly designed bot will obey the specifications and NOT spider the page hence will never follow the hidden link however one that blatantly ignores the site directions will be sent off to lala land - this includes users that click on it as it can not differentiate between an individual and a spider/bot.
I have implemented similar things in the past for e-mail harvesting bots that sent them to page after page of garbage e-mail addresses.
It's basically harmless to a user of the page and well behaved bots.
They have implemented the equivalent of a "honeypot" trap for bots and web spiders that ignore the robots.txt and the <meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow,noarchive"> directive which they have in their page.
A properly designed bot will obey the specifications and NOT spider the page hence will never follow the hidden link however one that blatantly ignores the site directions will be sent off to lala land - this includes users that click on it as it can not differentiate between an individual and a spider/bot.
I have implemented similar things in the past for e-mail harvesting bots that sent them to page after page of garbage e-mail addresses.
It's basically harmless to a user of the page and well behaved bots.
Callimachus
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It is also possible that the hidden link is tied to a script that grabs the IP address of the visiting "entity" and drops it into a list of IP's that have followed the link. As I said since it isn't generally visible when normally browsing the page the only entity that would normally follow it is a misbehaving bot.
Of course, a curious human would get snagged in the the same trap
Of course, a curious human would get snagged in the the same trap
Callimachus said:Of course, a curious human would get snagged in the the same trap
I never actually had the chance to see the real content. My first visit to that page showed me the affiliate links page.
Three friends of mine (Romania, USA, Canada) received the same page, on their first visit too (i asked them to visit that page).