Forum software just insulted me!

[mrvboring]

Hi

I got the following message after trying to post a reply:

New here and already posting links and email addresses? Listen, Spammer, this forum is actively moderated: If you think your crap will go unnoticed you must be delusional.

PS: The server just wasted 30 seconds of your life to give you time to rethink your life choices. You're welcome.

I was replying to: viewtopic.php?t=6997

My reply was:

I agree with @florentine. These are log files. parsing HTML is difficult compared to plain text, XML, JSON, etc. Also the logs take up more space.

I manage a number of systems that generate different logs from various software. Initially I used to email the log files to myself and manually check them. This got too much, so I wrote a PowerShell script to do it for me and emails me a summary. The summary checks the number of logs is correct, and if found, pulls out errors and includes them. I would need to put in a lot of work to update it for HTML logs.

Maybe you could give the option for either plain text or HTML.

I was trying to mention the original post creator. Looks like the forum software you use does not like @ in front of a name. Which is OK, but wasting my time, instulting me and calling me a spammer is not.

[Zenju]

This one's tricky, "with @florentine. These" could very well be an email address (from a machine's point of view).

[mrvboring]

Thanks for the response.

I don't think it's tricky. The algorithm for detecting email addresses is incorrect. It could only be a valid email address if the text containing spaces was enclosed within quotes.

You've got to be sure that someone is a wrongdoer before being so severe. Personally, I would inform the user that at signs were not allowed, and take action only if I was sure they were a spammer.

[Zenju]

It could only be a valid email address if the text containing spaces was enclosed within quotes.

Not for a human, and spammers know this: they insert spaces (almost) everywhere.

[mrvboring]

I've got to admin that I'm somewhat disappointed in your defence of a mistake. As I stated, there are better ways of handling this.