Mask tag

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Master of Master Baiters Joined: 02 Dec 2008 Posts: 518

How does the 'mask' tag work? Does it stop G00gle?

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:10 pm

It's just some secret code designed by this guy:

[edit] And yes it stops Google. It doesn't stop Lotta. Nothing stops Lotta.

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:12 pm

@Larson : Yep. BTW: there's no need to l33t 'google'. When I Google 'google' I get:

Quote:

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,620,000,000 for google.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

Please use the Mask tag sparingly. Many of our forums are behind the log-in so Google will usually not pick it up. When you do use it, only mask the most unique words. Masking an entire introductory email from Prof. Soludo, for example, is pointless as there are millions of those.

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 5:47 pm

wokabo wrote:

this guy:

Oooh, I like the Z! Can I lift it?

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 6:12 pm

wear gloves if you do!

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 1043

Dutch wrote:

@Larson : Yep. BTW: there's no need to l33t 'google'. When I Google 'google' I get...

I heard that breaks the internet.

Now, is it better to mask a whole post instead of a few seperate words?

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:44 pm

No, that's useless, just mask a lad's name or an email addy you don't want to be found by search engines. It consumes a lot of unnecessary database space as I learned, that's why we're asked to use it economically.

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:13 pm

This is what would happen if the entire post was masked. Looks funny don't it? Well that didn't work well did it? It just turned green...

edit-text unmasked to save server space. As you see from following posts, it makes a lot of stuff ya don't really want clogging things up. The text will turn green when masked, however. Please do not just "check it out" and turn your text green for fun. L33ting is better!

419Eater is my life Joined: 25 Feb 2009 Posts: 299

The reason why we don't mask entire posts is because it takes up server resources. If you look at the source code for badgerbait's post, it says:

Code:

As you can see, the first part of his post doesn't take much more room than the original, if any. Anyhow, regardless of this, database space is never really an issue - storage space is cheap. The masked bits are encoded in base64, and the server has to decode it every time somebody loads the page. If a whole post was coded and lots of people tried to view it, it would take an incredible amount of server resources. Its safe from Google as obviously, "VGhpcyBpcyB3aGF0IHdvdWxkIGhhcHBlbiBpZiB0aGUgZW50aXJlIHBvc3Q
gd2FzIG1hc2tlZC4gTG9va3MgZnVubnkgZG9uJ3QgaXQ/" means nothing to Google.

[end geeky rant]

Mod edit - edited to break long lines of text to prevent blowout - SP

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:47 pm

Thanks for a nice clear visual explanation of the mask feature, lareneg! As a complete computer 'tard, I needed that. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:14 pm

@lareneg: that explanation makes perfect sense to me too, I didn't know it was the encoding-decoding taking up system resources.

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:38 pm

Yes thanks lareneg, thats the first bit of computer IT gobbledigook i have EVER understood.

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 12:33 am

I didn't understand it. I just know Mask runs the batteries down, so we must use it sparingly.

Leet ONE letter in a name, that's enough to stop the Googlebots. Smile

419Eater is my life Joined: 25 Feb 2009 Posts: 299

Roycropper wrote:

I didn't understand it. I just know Mask runs the batteries down, so we must use it sparingly.

Leet ONE letter in a name, that's enough to stop the Googlebots. Smile

A quick analogy to help you understand: Imagine if somebody 1337ed one word in a whole page of text for you. Not too bad to decode it - you'd be able to read the passage out loud. What if somebody 1337ed the whole page of text for you? You'd struggle to read that straight off the page. That's essentially what the server has to do if somebody masks a whole post.

It is my understanding the arguement is that it can be hard for some people to read 1337ified text, especially if they use screen readers. If people only mask the few words that are necessary, there should be no noticeable effect on the system resources. Its only if lots of people started masking whole posts that it would start making the server groan. Wink

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 1:05 am

I am against leeting in almost all circumstances. I hate it and will avoid reading it, if I can. The need to change every vowel to something else gives me a headache.

I don't mind Roy's example, if needed. Sus@n for Susan. But then I have to ask, why not just change Susan's name to Dora? Wink

I just was happy someone explained something technical (how the mask feature works) in a way I understood it. And that so rarely happens for me! Laughing

419Eater is my life Joined: 25 Feb 2009 Posts: 299

DoraTheExplorer wrote:

I just was happy someone explained something technical (how the mask feature works) in a way I understood it. And that so rarely happens for me! Laughing

If you want anything else explained just PM me - I'd be happy to be of help. That goes for anybody Smile

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 1:46 am

DoraTheExplorer wrote:

I just was happy someone explained something technical in a way I understood it. And that so rarely happens for me! Laughing

Spot on Dora..Ditto here

lareneg have you thought about writing a book ever cos i'd be at the front of the q