Project Upstream ([info]salmonmaster) wrote in [info]themissinghat,
2008-08-15 23:02:00
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Opt-out support introduced

Greetings, hat missers. We are Project Upstream.

We have chosen to provide you with a new ability. You may now send a message such as "$optout" to any of our robotic fish. This will permanently prevent all Project Upstream communications from reaching your account.
Tags: salmon master

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[info]your_swearword

August 16 2008, 03:08:03 UTC 3 years ago

why would we want that?
we love talking to our fishies!

[info]vesleskjor

August 16 2008, 03:09:47 UTC 3 years ago

Should be useful to tell the people who respond so rudely sometimes -_-

Anonymous

August 28 2008, 05:57:25 UTC 3 years ago

When two people are contacted with a strange phrase, each having the impression that the other started the conversation, and neither recognizing the incoming screenname... why would they respond pleasantly to this? I thought it was at best spam, at worst a phishing scheme. This little project isn't that well-known among all of the sites it culls screennames from, and most of the people who would love to opt out will not know it's possible, or how to do so.

[info]vesleskjor

3 years ago

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Anonymous

3 years ago

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[info]vesleskjor

3 years ago

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[info]sarcasmosis

3 years ago

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Anonymous

3 years ago

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[info]sarcasmosis

3 years ago

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[info]jinnigan

3 years ago

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[info]sarcasmosis

3 years ago

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[info]jinnigan

3 years ago

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[info]00goddess

3 years ago

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[info]hoshi3

August 16 2008, 03:14:19 UTC 3 years ago

Thank you. Consider it done.

[info]stardust_ballad

August 16 2008, 03:18:31 UTC 3 years ago

such a sad sad thing if people actually use it ):

[info]sherl0k

August 16 2008, 03:24:53 UTC 3 years ago

Honestly this should've been implemented from the start, but that's just me.

[info]seanlaurence

August 16 2008, 03:41:45 UTC 3 years ago

How to opt in?

[info]sherl0k

August 16 2008, 04:02:19 UTC 3 years ago

Just make a new public post, I suppose?

or http://project-upstream.awardspace.com

[info]anjel_kitty

August 16 2008, 04:27:30 UTC 3 years ago

The salmonmaster speaks!

[info]rizumcbutt

August 16 2008, 04:52:18 UTC 3 years ago

Awwww, no, that's tragic! I would never use that!!

[info]aj_hyena

August 16 2008, 05:00:50 UTC 3 years ago

More information for the fishies, they can see how popular they really are by the amount of people who Opt Out.

[info]sanguinar_y

August 16 2008, 07:17:09 UTC 3 years ago

Finally something to tell the people who bitch.

[info]karnak

August 16 2008, 07:55:22 UTC 3 years ago

good thing to add

is there an $optin ability as well?

[info]deathboy

August 16 2008, 11:23:39 UTC 3 years ago

quite - it would be nice to be able to toggle it.

[info]unkickablekitty

3 years ago

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[info]deathboy

3 years ago

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[info]unkickablekitty

3 years ago

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[info]soph

3 years ago

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[info]unkickablekitty

3 years ago

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[info]dark_twinge

August 16 2008, 16:42:10 UTC 3 years ago

Now here's a question - if you tell someone through a fish that they can type "$optout", for example, dose that trigger it for you as well? Or does it only work if it's the only thing sent?

[info]unkickablekitty

August 16 2008, 20:03:28 UTC 3 years ago

I have absolutely no clue, but what I plan on doing is telling them to combine "$" and "optout" and type that. Or something.

[info]skadus_x

3 years ago

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[info]unkickablekitty

3 years ago

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[info]sometimesdee

3 years ago

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[info]sylvri2k

August 20 2008, 19:22:46 UTC 3 years ago

Reposted to fix a typo, but as I said: The person that created this bot should be dragged to the backyard and kicked a good few times in the head. Unsolicited spam to IMs is in bad taste, no matter what the reason.

[info]lochoko

August 21 2008, 01:14:50 UTC 3 years ago

I'd be inclined to agree if it was like some of the other bots who have IMed with what I constitute as actual spam. I quite enjoy the trout IMs, 'cause even if I don't reply, what they send is at least normally amusing. :D

[info]spazure

3 years ago

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[info]bart_calendar

3 years ago

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Anonymous

August 21 2008, 17:44:43 UTC 3 years ago

This shouldn't even have to be necessary. Just cause some people think they are fun doesn't mean everyone does. Trout bots are an invasion of privacy, and they are spam. People should only be connected to a trout bot if they request it. I got messaged today, and I don't have time to be playing with things like this. I work full time, and my aim account is really busy with important clients. I do NOT want to be entered into some random almost-spam community without my consent. It should be illegal.

[info]ladykurama215

August 22 2008, 00:32:19 UTC 3 years ago

Amen

[info]bart_calendar

3 years ago

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[info]primethian

3 years ago

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3 years ago

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3 years ago

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[info]silver48dragon

3 years ago

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[info]blog.irreality.eu

3 years ago

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Anonymous

August 27 2008, 11:50:33 UTC 3 years ago

the two sides are pretty clear.

First, as a social experiment with cute conversation starting snippets sent between strangers, it has a sort of gorilla art appeal.
However, IM has as many uses as their are people using it, and as many of these posts show, not everyone is having fun with what they use as a business tool.
The other point I read with interest (on another site) is that of all the hacking losers like Mitnick did to get into computer systems, social hacking worked best, and was by far the easiest. Trying out an alicebot type script, or even having a human sitting between the two IM unwitting participants as a sort of old fashioned telephone operator listening in has the growth potential to be used for extreme evil. (keystroke recording, social engineering, paypal passwords? Virus delivery?) And as we have seen time and again, the old internet, of unlocked doors and people respecting one another based on etiquette and following rules and guidelines has gone away, and like all ruined things, will never return.

Anonymous

August 28 2008, 05:59:13 UTC 3 years ago

Opt out should be the default - let those who actually want to participate opt in, and leave the rest of us (who have no idea where the stupid fish spam is coming from) alone.

[info]fimion

September 1 2008, 01:15:48 UTC 3 years ago

i don't know who thought this was a good idea, but it's not. i think it could be counted as a spamming technique. seriously? needs to be an opt in service. not a random "let's fuck with people" service. seriously, not cool.

Anonymous

September 2 2008, 14:38:06 UTC 3 years ago

absolutely

These things have NOT been polite to me. The first one that contacted me called me a bastard. I am going to report this activity to AOL to stop it. It is not legal. It IS spam.

Anonymous

3 years ago

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[info]unkickablekitty

3 years ago

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[info]soph

3 years ago

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[info]vesleskjor

3 years ago

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[info]trywhy

3 years ago

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3 years ago

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[info]elle_de_musique

November 16 2008, 23:16:34 UTC 3 years ago

I'm very irritated by these "trout bots". It's taken me months to track down where they've been coming from, and in that time I've been pestered and harassed by these damn bots. Even once I figured out that it was a bot I couldn't figure out how to opt out until tonight... but now it says the bot is offline, so who knows if the optout message worked or whether I'll continue getting threatening messages and people telling me to fuck off.

Whoever made this is just dumb. If you want to be hooked up talking to random people, then find this and opt in, don't just farm peoples screen names. I'm shocked that mine was even found since I don't list it anywhere.

[info]jordanzgrl17

November 17 2008, 02:10:17 UTC 3 years ago

How do you go about the 'opt out' option?

[info]gwillen

December 25 2008, 20:40:05 UTC 3 years ago

just say $optout when the bot contacts you. Or just pick one of the bots and IM it $optout. (You can use idealcoho as one such bot.) It will send you a reply with instructions and an "are you sure?" so you're know it worked.)

I just opted out -- I find this to be a cute idea, but I only get connected to two kinds of people: the kind who are very irritated and don't understand the concept, and the kind who are fucking obsessed with it. Neither makes for good conversation.

[info]talianthala

3 years ago

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[info]salmonmaster

3 years ago

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[info]talianthala

3 years ago

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Anonymous

January 5 2009, 23:47:06 UTC 3 years ago

why sign up for SPAM? This is called "Black Hat" - it's also illegal. Do some research. This is all getting reported and yes, people go to jail for this kind of stuff.

[info]earthdotprime

January 8 2009, 08:34:35 UTC 3 years ago Edited:  January 8 2009, 08:35:34 UTC

how long does this take to take effect? I'm receiving XXX versions of the cohobots that are currently going around (to an address that is permanently connected to my cellphone, ugh), and $optout doesn't seem to care.

[info]aetheristic

January 12 2009, 07:23:29 UTC 3 years ago

Those ones aren't affiliated with Project Upstream - they're a different group that is deliberately being obscene, unfortunately. So the optout won't work.

[info]zinco

January 9 2009, 21:11:30 UTC 3 years ago

What shit this all is. I've been pestered by these bots for years and only now learned that apparently the obligation was on me to research them and figure out how to opt out. I hope the bots are shut down forever.

[info]ally525

January 11 2009, 21:17:25 UTC 3 years ago

some people have massive tree limbs up their butts, huh?

chill the fuck out, people! it's just the internet!!

[info]aetheristic

January 12 2009, 07:24:22 UTC 3 years ago

So completely agreed. If you're that precious that you need your AIM account completely secure, DON'T POST YOUR SCREENNAME ON THE INTERNET. God.

[info]enjoyyourbunny

3 years ago

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Anonymous

3 years ago

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[info]lishd

January 13 2009, 17:37:21 UTC 3 years ago

$outopt didn't work. i did it about two weeks ago & it was accepted by TerrifiedCoho. MatchedCoho msg'd me again this morning. doing $optout again didn't result in anything except MatchedCoho saying "niggers are niggers", which was lovely.

[info]unkickablekitty

January 13 2009, 20:31:31 UTC 3 years ago

You probably received an IM from a different group of bots that sometimes copies the coho names. They're called Project Terdstream, and we don't know how to stop them yet. Feel free to look through the past few weeks of the community for more information.

[info]lishd

3 years ago

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Anonymous

January 19 2009, 08:25:15 UTC 3 years ago

Oh dear god, thank you.

I keep having random-ass people who I don't know talking to me who, somehow, know details about me using this. Likely it's someone I sort-of-but-don't-really-know but... hey, if it is I DON'T want to talk to that person online.

There's a *reason* I used to block ALL incoming IMs from people who weren't on my buddy list in high school... I DON'T like talking to people unless they are, and this little "service" has shown me that I *still* don't.

[info]lynneelf

March 5 2009, 02:06:06 UTC 3 years ago Edited:  March 5 2009, 02:06:33 UTC

Re: Oh dear god, thank you.

Yeah. I got a blank message just a few minutes ago. I thought it was some kind of virus.
Can we opt out here too?
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