(no subject)

[arcanetrivia]

Stuff about the mysterious random friendings by Russian-language journals. Apparently there is a rash of bots. See http://nympholept.livejournal.com/tag/russian+bots.

Comments

[lunylucy.livejournal.com]

Happened to me at least 3 times, probably more. Was pretty weirded out but less so than the average user I guess since I have a Russian school listed in my profile.

[mimimanderly.livejournal.com]

This has happened to me SO many times! A Russian will friend me, then de-friend me a day or two later. I even wrote a journal entry about this subject, 'cause it was weirding me out! I just assumed that Russians were really into Snape drawings, so they were checking me out. Then they'd get into my gallery and see the really smutty stuff and leave in indignation. There were so many of them that if they had stayed friended, they would outnumber the English-speaking people on my friends list. What the hell is the PURPOSE of these bots, anyway? Does anyone know?

[elethian.livejournal.com]

Briefly, aside from annoyance, the purpose seems likely to be identity theft. If you friend the bot, then it can get your friends-locked entries, and people often post personal information under lock thinking it's safe.

[stillvisions.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up - forwarding along to the other half of the internet in my FL who was curious about it.

[elethian.livejournal.com]

"The other half of the internet"? You mean non-fandom? ;)

[stillvisions.livejournal.com]

Nah, just (somewhat) less of the "fic fandom" and more of the "cosplay fandom" ^^

[speed-demon77.livejournal.com]

You've just solved a mystery for me! I've been friended by several Russian journals and couldn't figure out why. I've hidden pretty much everything under friends lock because I got friended by the icon stealing peeps. But just in the last few days there have been several notices from LJ about somebody adding me as a friend and their journal had already been suspended and I was very confused. Thanks for the info!

BTW softly_sweetly has me already wound up about Christmas and I was wondering if you're still at the same address. And it occurs to me that your last name has possibly changed? If I'm right could you maybe drop me an email? Or there's a post about it in my journal with the comments set as screened. Thanks!

[elethian.livejournal.com]

Last name is now Hatt. Everything else is same as last year. (We are still living with my parents :-/ .)

I'm still waiting on some kind of prettiness made for me with that copy of Photoshop, you know. ;)

I've hidden pretty much everything under friends lock because I got friended by the icon stealing peeps.

"The icon stealing peeps"? O.o There's is a databse bug that sometimes makes icons randomly appear as someone else's. But aside from that, anyone can easily take icons from http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=speed_demon77, yanno. Friendslocking won't help that.

[speed-demon77.livejournal.com]

I know they can get them from my profile but the big things is that a lot of them hotlink the icons. I could care less if they use LJ bandwith, but I don't want them "borrowing" my storage space. It takes like 5 seconds to set up a Photobucket account but they're too lazy for that.

What kind of prettiness would you like? I'm open to suggestions. I've finally gotten one of those For Dummies books and I've taught myself one or two new things.

[elethian.livejournal.com]

Well, I was mostly kidding. But TBH I am not even sure what kind of art you do in the first place. Draw/paint, manips, photography...?

[speed-demon77.livejournal.com]

I make some spectacularly lame icons. I've made myself some wallpapers as well. I'm wanting to try my hand at photography since my mom gave me her last camera. Although lately I haven't had much time for anything.