Our Ferocious Warrior: Kotei-mahakala

[Jundo]

Dear All,

I would like to offer my thanks to one of our usually unseen protectors, Kotei, who unbeknownst to most of us, is quite literally and daily battling bots and spam accounts that are attacking Treeleaf constantly, some bots blocked thousands of times.

I have been told (because I don't understand much of this technical stuff! ) that Kotei spends hours trying to stop attacks from spammers, spiders and bots who constantly, aggressively try to access the forum. Their presence and incessant attempts cause overloads on the server resulting in connection issues and "time-outs" of the forum, which at this point, happen almost daily. Kotei figures out IP addresses that seem suspicious, blocks them, sometimes has to write scripts, little programs, specifically to deal with these issues, to speed up or help the process and is always vigilant about notifications regarding the status of the forum and will jump into action immediately to bring us back online. His work is quite literally never done.

Here is an image of him protecting Wisdom and Compassion, trampling the spammers and bots of Ignorance underfood ...
.

Kotei Warrior.jpg

Nine Bows, Jundo
stlah

[IanSmith]

As with Roshi, I don't understand too much of the technical stuff but I offer my deep gratitude to kotei for his continuous and diligent efforts.
Gassho
SatLah
Ian

[Junsho]

Kotei Thank you for protect our Sangha

Bows!
Gassho!
SatLah

[Bion]

Thank you, Jundo for highlighting this unseen part of Kotei's unreserved service to the sangha. And thanks, Kotei for never tiring! (Though you do need a tiny vacation )

Gassho
sat lah

[Washin]

Thank you, Kotei, for your excellent work of guarding the gates of our Temple. Also for your setvice for the community. Thank you, Jundo, for your kind reminder.

Gassho & Bows
Washin
st/lah

[Tairin]

Thank you Kotei. Those Bots are relentless and never ending.


Tairin
sat today and lah

[Seiko]

Thank you Kotei for protecting Treeleaf from electronic Mara.

Gasshō, Seiko, stlah

[Chikyou]

Thank you Kotei! Doing such good work we hardly notice anything is being done at all (when it comes to spammers and bots).

The front page of the site looks fantastic also.

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō

[Houzan]

Thank you, Kotei

Gassho, Hōzan
satlah

[Kotei]

Thank you Jundo, thank you everyone...
It is getting more and more with these bots and I am not always fast enough.
I wonder when the first one makes it through our "human verification" Jundo, writing him an automated mail to get through our last defense line and be registered for posting spam on the forum.
I guess the AIs are already capable of figuring that out, but it seems that it has not been implemented in the spammers's arsenals yet.

shishi.jpg
Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Bob-Midwest]

Thanks.
bob
sat, lah today

[FNJ]

You've probably thought of this already Kotei but have you tried setting up reCAPtCHA? Or maybe honeypot fields to filter the bots?

Sat LAH
Gassho
Niall

[Jundo]

You've probably thought of this already Kotei but have you tried setting up reCAPtCHA? Or maybe honeypot fields to filter the bots?

Sat LAH
Gassho
Niall

I don't know much about the tech, but I do know that we are way, way beyond reCAPtCHA! The bots figured that out long ago.

In fact, we had a realistic discussion yesterday whether AI would be able to get passed my final check: That I ask registrerees to introduce themselves to me, tell me a little about themselves and their Zen practice to prove they are human (and also, more importantly, so I get to know the know folks a little.) Soon the AI will be able to fake that too.

I may have to put our Rev. Emi Jido in charge of gate security.

Gassho, J
stlah

[Steve Rossiter]

Thank you Kotei, for protecting our fortress of solitude

Sat, Gassho LAH

[Onkai]

Thank you, Kotei, for doing such an endless job, and keeping Treeleaf as safe as possible.

Gassho Onkai
Sat lah