Serious, persistent spam-filter problems

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abroughear
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I'm posting from Barnes and Noble. Earlier today, at home, I tried to post the following as a new thread in Website/Forum Talk, on this newly-created, first-post account, and the post was rejected by the spam-filter:

Spoiler: Highlight to view
I created an account on my primary email address as "Psiborg" quite some time ago, and have been lurking and browsing the fora on a regular basis since then. Earlier today, I finally got around to actually posting.

I posted replies to one thread each in the Off-Topic and Homebrew fora. A little while later, browsing the General Discussion thread, the reproduction thread triggered a train of thought that led to me writing a post regarding the reasoning behind certain morphs, the Fury in particular, having a functional gender at all. Said post ended up being off-topic for the reproduction thread, but (I thought/hoped) interesting enough in its own right, so I decided to post it as a new thread. The post triggered the spam filter, and several attempts to reword it to avoid objectionable language failed to get past the filter.

I saved the attempted post, and went to Website/Forum Talk, where I attempted to create a new thread saying, essentially, what I just said, and asking how to avoid it in the future, offering to PM the text of the post in question to a mod for review if desired. That post was also blocked by the spam filter, despite being totally harmless in content.

I'm now guessing that it was my account, rather than my posts, that were considered spam. I created this account, hoping to be able to post with it and get the issue addressed. (I have no intentions of ever using it after this is settled.)

I realize spam filters are a totally necessary evil, and I don't mean to be bitchy, but being unable to post to ask for guidance in following the requirements[i] is a little frustrating.

I have both posts- the latest version of the attempted General Discussion post, and the first attempt to ask for help- saved on my computer, and would, again, be happy to PM them (or email them) to anyone who'd like to review them. Primarily, though, I'd just like to be able to post normally on my main account (Psiborg), and make sure it's not flagged as a spammer account.

Thank you for your time, and for a great product.

--Psiborg/abroughear

That attempted post was triggered by this attempted post, which I had tried and failed to post from home as a new topic in Website/Forum Talk; it also triggered the spam filter:

Spoiler: Highlight to view
Following up a train of thought triggered by the Reproduction thread, I just finished writing a post for the General Discussion forum regarding why certain morphs, the Fury in particular, would logically have a functional gender at all. It was fairly out-of-topic for the original thread, so I decided to post it as a new thread. It triggered the spam filter, and several attempts to rewrite it in increasingly-less-explicit fashion failed to correct this (in addition to introducing some amusingly absurd phraseology).

I realize spam filters are a necessity, and certainly don't mean to be bitchy about them. I would, however, appreciate any advice regarding how to avoid triggering them while discussing this topic in a mature fashion. I saved the latest version of the text of my attempted post and would be happy to PM it to a mod or reputable forum member for review.

Thanks in advance for whatever help you can provide, and for a truly great game.

--Psiborg

Since I've now concluded that it was my IP that got blocked, rather than the content or the account, I'll also include the last version of the original attempted post that started the whole thing. I attempted to post this as a new thread in General Discussion, from home, early this afternoon:

Spoiler: Highlight to view
This was inspired by and originally written for the Reproduction thread, but ended up being tangential enough that I decided to post it separately to avoid threadjacking.

I'm baffled by the decision to even include gender-specific "equipment" on certain morphs. Furies, for example, are said to be primarily female, in order to avoid the behavioral problems that typically accompany excess testosterone Crazy

  1. As these are combat morphs, it seems reasonable to expect militaries (well, infantry, at least), security companies, and so on to be sleeving their people into these on a regular basis.
  2. I don't imagine the draft is popular or common anywhere outside of the Jovian "Republic"; therefore, we can assume that volunteer enlistees are being resleeved into female Furies without regard for their original gender.
  3. Presumably, these volunteers are okay with this, or at least able to handle it with a little counseling (or psychosurgery).
  4. Therefore, the militaries can successfully and practically adapt their personnel to morphs of genders not their own on a large scale. After all, if they [i]couldn't, we'd see either Furies in both genders or very few natural males volunteering for service, and no military with any sense would risk losing talent, knowledge, physical adeptness, or merely a viable ego merely because it happened to be accustomed to a male body.
  5. Given all of the above, why wouldn't they simply adapt them to genderless morphs (probably with a visual appearance and form matching one gender or another rather than an androgynous morph, to reduce resleeving stress), and avoid both sets of hormones, pregnancy/BC hassles, and the risk of getting kicked in the balls, all in one go?

Given that the morph's physical capabilities have already been genetically optimized regardless of gender, I can see no clear, objective advantage to the body shapes of either gender. The typical healthy female body shape is carrying a few to several pounds of irregularly-distributed fat in the chest and hips, but I imagine female Furies and Olympians have barely enough curves to be identifiably female, and the remaining differences would be negligible. On the other hand, the shorter stature of most women could be exceedingly convenient in tight spaces, and very few environments in EP are going to necessitate enough long-distance running to give taller, longer-legged morphs a military advantage. With so much endurance built into the morph to begin with, it'd take an even longer run for the difference to become noticeable.

Summary: I can certainly see Furies being visually female, but why, oh why, would they be made functionally so?

Possible Conclusions: (1) Maybe they're not. (2) Maybe the first round of Furies (designed several years ago when counseling for resleeving stress and/or psychosurgery was less advanced) was fully-functional and primarily female; recent versions have the same build and appearance, but are functionally genderless. Presumably the older model is still available for those who prefer it, but it's probably not general-issue any more (though hundreds, if not thousands, are still in service). (3) Healthy sexuality (or at least solitary sexual activity*) is far more important to morale than I allowed for, and troops who can't satisfy themselves somehow get grumpy enough to reduce their combat effectiveness.

Your thoughts?

Any help addressing this issue would be immensely appreciated.

EDIT: If it helps, I'm on my parents Verizon DSL internet when at home, and do not have access to the router. I'm using fully-updated Mozilla Firefox, and running Windows Vista (which, by the way, is despicable).

And the various spelling and formatting errors and so on that were in the original posts have been left as they were when the post was rejected.

sysop
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Re: Serious, persistent spam-filter problems

I'm going to add both of your accounts to the confirmed user list, that should get you around Mollum. (We only Mollum new users until they've proven themselves to be real people.) It does look like you might have been flagged under an IP limit so I would make sure you don't have a spyware issue going on on your end, otherwise it may be that someone in your area used to have your IP and misbehaved with it. I'll take a look at our mollum records and see if I can figure out what the cause is.

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Camillus
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Re: Serious, persistent spam-filter problems

How sensitive is the spam filter? I just tried to post this:

I have thought about using the term "Sack". It's a reference to "sack of meat" or "sack of scrap" but also segues nicely into "sack of shit". It's also a reference to the scrotum ("ball sack").

But it keeps getting flagged as spam. No idea why.

Odd, it seems to have fixed itself and let me post.

sysop
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Re: Serious, persistent spam-filter problems

Mollum tries to figure out if your post was a legit one or not based on length and content. It doesn't flag just based on a single word. Unfortunately, it's not really got any feeling for the continuous conversation of a thread. Mollum just doesn't have a sense of humor or the perceptiveness of a human.

I think the post in this thread, since you prefaced it with a few lines explaining that the spam filter was catching it, bumped the post up to having enough content Mollum was able to recognize as 'real' that it went through.

After you get enough regular, good, posts on the site you'll be noted as a real user, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just rephrase or add a little more information to your posts if you run into it again, and shortly you'll be out from under the Mollum eyeballing. We don't have the number of good posts required set very high (spammers aren't exactly interested in spending time establishing themselves before acting up) - so I think based on your current post count that you may already be a confirmed user.

__________________

I fix broken things. Should you need to get a feature on eclipsephase.com fixed, mention it on the suggestions board and we'll look into it for you. I also fix Darkcast and the Darkcast Wiki