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Not quite a Newb Joined: 11 Oct 2009 Posts: 79

Hi all

I've seen most of you try hard to mask and 1337ify certain words and phrases so they don't show up on google searches, yet no matter what I search using google, if is related to scam ofc, 419eater usually gets pretty good placement in results.
Wouldn't it be more effective and far simpler for everybody just to forbid google to crawl around certain pages?
It's just few lines of text in robots.txt and no more worries. Confused

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

We want most of it to show up in Google as that helps to spread the word about scams and prevent victims. When there are specific things we don't want showing up, we just leet that word. Some of the baiter tools we don't want the lads to find have word filters so they are automatically leeted.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 11 Oct 2009 Posts: 79

thx for reply
ah well.. I guess I'll just have to buy myself a d1ct10n@ry Confused

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Excessive leeting can be very annoying. It also messes with adaptive software used by members with a vision impairment. We encourage members to just not post information that isn't necessary (such as a lad address and names for ongoing baits) or to simply leet one letter of words that are uncommon.

I tend to skip over posts in which members have used excessive leeting.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 11 Oct 2009 Posts: 79

My point exactly.
It's hard to read so I somehow tend not to read the leeted words (not just on these forums, but in general) which means I sometimes get the wrong picture of what is being said.

That's why I thought that restricting spiders would be good, but I won't push it any more.
Suggestion is here and if admins decide it's not in their interest, it's their call I guess.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

I understand your point but it's not about admin interest. We keep most of the forum searchable in the interest of potential victims. Many people have been prevented from losing money by learning about scams in general here or have been lead here when searching a specific word/name/email address.
The larger reason of why we do this, beyond entertainment, is to try to combat fraud. The best way to combat fraud is by increasing awareness.

(baiting them and killing their sites doesn't hurt the cause either. Wink

)

Not quite a Newb Joined: 11 Oct 2009 Posts: 79

Well I must accept your reasoning.
Is there a link or a list of generally acceptable words and the no-nos?

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

There isn't a list. The baiter created and shared tools with proper names here are usually leeted to prevent any search-savvy lads from finding them and spoiling the work that has gone into them. The forum will auto leet some of them via word filters. What else to disguise is up to you. If you want to post about your bait and don't want your lad to find it, just don't put his full name or email address in the post. The same goes for your baiter name. Common names won't matter as there will be tons of hits in a search.

Elite Baiter Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 1407

Well...then of course there is the one we never name...

Not quite a Newb Joined: 11 Oct 2009 Posts: 79

Tastysnack wrote:

Well...then of course there is the one we never name...

Thanks for pointing it out. I'll make sure I never mention Lord Volde....
oops Embarassed

Did I just bring destruction and death upon us all?

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:41 pm

^

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

I find the obfuscation annoying. I think that if a bait or baiting tool is that important or sensitive to a baiter then either he or she need not post it until it is over or should be clever enough not to post sensitive bits that can be Googled on the forums.

I have long advocated that all lads are called 'Ted' for that very purpose, and when I take over the world I will make it so.

That a victim being able to find us and learn the truth about a scam, as Ima pointed out, is far more important than a bait going south because the baitee searched for terms on the internet.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 689

^^^^ before she settled down my daughter used to call all her boyfriends "Bob", it avoided a lot of potential embarrasment. Not that she had that many Rolling Eyes

TS

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 7:26 am

Prefect time to point out that 90% of the obfuscating I've seen is just not necessary. Sometimes I think people do it just to use leet. That's fine, just annoying.

For the most part I think people do it because they don't know any better and are worried about getting a "can you please leet that name" reply. One thing, if it's your bait then it's your call. If you are using a baiter made tool, like those answer a mess of silly questions before you get your MTCN tools, then this should be masked or obfuscated. Pretty much everything else is good to go as is.

It wasn't too long ago some asked about using celerity pictures. Some one replied that they used so and so's picture and masked the celebrity's name. What's that about? He used the picture not the name. Even if he was using the celebrities name, do you have any idea how many hits will be found?

Anyway, my main point is 90% of everything obfuscated, if left alone would get tens of thousands of hits at least and none would end up here or if so, it would be post 45,769. You really think a lad will look that hard?

If a lad is using the name Peters Williams, I don't think anything needs to be done to it. Anyway, it would be better and easier to read if you just left his name out and referred to him as your or the lad.

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 2:35 pm

OMG!!!! It must be senility....I'm actually agreeing with MODS.

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:05 pm

Dare I hope that soon we will see far less L-thirty-three-T stuff around here?

(FYI, that's how my screen reader reads "l33t.")