Gitea: all websites reset + manual activation

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Moonchild
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Gitea: all websites reset + manual activation

Unread post by Moonchild » 2021-07-21, 08:31

Because of an issue with paid SEO data entry drones abusing the repo I've cleared all website URLs in all user accounts on the repo.
If you had previously set one, you will have to go in and re-set it.

On top, I've now made it so new accounts have to manually activated. If you wish to contribute, file an issue, or comment on issues, and you are a new registration, then you will have to be patient as your account will be manually activated before you can do so.

Having it open for self-activation has simply resulted in way too many fake accounts that just want SEO for websites. This is why we can't have nice things in 2021.
initially I checked accounts to see if there was a pattern and removed a bunch that way, and I could have gone through and manually check every account created but that was simply way too much work (and prone to me making mistakes).

Since the repo is primarily for our own use, I think this kind of gating is a fair measure.

EDIT: does look like I have to try and update the gitea version for all of this to work, so expect some downtime.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
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BenFenner
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Re: Gitea: all websites reset + manual activation

Unread post by BenFenner » 2021-07-21, 14:11

Moonchild wrote:
2021-07-21, 08:31
Because of an issue with paid SEO data entry drones abusing the repo I've cleared all website URLs in all user accounts on the repo.
Thank you!

I don't normally link my web site in places like this, but it seemed relevant to this specific user account of mine.
However, it does seem my site has seen a small up-tick in spammers, so thank you very much for the help! :thumbup:

I hope to update our home-grown CAPTCHA one day to combat this, but time is scarce these days.

Off-topic:
This reminds me of the one time I put my actual e-mail address into the form field when making a post to Slashdot. Boy was that a mistake. It took close to a year for all of that spam to calm down completely.

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Moonchild
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Re: Gitea: all websites reset + manual activation

Unread post by Moonchild » 2021-07-21, 14:29

Updating is a lot more involved than expected so for now I've done something else to stop this abuse. it does mean you'll have to go to repository URLs directly now as explore is defunct.

Tobin and I will look into updating this properly with a dedicated test setup (later), as the current version is missing some rather essential tools to deal with abuse.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

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