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Gone!
In some cases, my signature will be longer than my message...
<em style="color:red"> <b>ProgramFOX</b></em> ProgramFOX
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A current message on the Lounge strikes me as "dubious." [^]
The poster is "JoseMontero," a very occasional participant in CP, who also has posted as "Member 4752889" [^]
The post appears to invite contributions to setting up some free programming course to help: "the poor folks we know about ourselves that can't afford a formal college education."
AspDotNetDev has commented that this same solicitation has alrady been posted in QA, but that post, is now evidently, removed.
The site he so frequently mentions the url for in his message, for this supposedly public-interest venture is: www.montecsonline.com [^]
This site is Jose Montero's own site, and is registered in Shanghai, China. WhoIS details are masked by use of a private registration service. On JM's profile page he is listed as in the U.S.
On the first page of this site are some random stories, of the "motivational" type ("you can go from rags to riches"), but I see little technical content.
The site has no FAQ, statement of purpose, nor history of itself with details of who Mr. Montero is, but in its "Terms" page you will find this statement:"Fees and Services. Using Our website is generally free. We may charge fees for certain services. If the service you use charges a fee, you’ll be able to review and accept that charge. If your payment method fails or your account is past due, we may collect fees owed using other collection mechanisms (for accounts over 180 days past due, we may deduct the amount owed from your PayPal account balance).
Content. Our website montecsonline.com contains stuff from us, you, and other users. You agree not to copy, modify, or distribute Our website, our copyrights or trademarks. When you give us content, you are granting us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable right to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights to that content. (We need these rights to host and display your content.) If you believe that your rights have been violated, please notify our designated copyright agent at Our website Customer Support and we will investigate the matter. We reserve the right to remove content where we have grounds for suspecting the violation of these terms or of any party’s rights." Given all these factors, I believe the post is SPAM.
yrs, Bill
This thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it.
Abu Yazid Al-Bistami (Persian, Sufi, 804-872)
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It appears to be a noble cause, but I am also leaning towards spam, although I have not reported the post yet.
I find it "interesting" that this question was just posted in QA: Request for a tutor in C or C++[^]. The language structure appears similar to the Lounge post in question and it mentions a site I had never heard about before reading the post in the Lounge.
What are your thoughts on this?
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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That pretty much seals the deal. That account was also just created today. It's totally spam.
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Some more tidbits that look spammy:
Quote: We do have a sponsor already. More are welcomed!
Sounds like money grubbing.
Quote: we would propose doing an iterative course preparation strategy where each segment of the course is built by as many developers as possible
Seems like they are recruiting people to contribute content.
Quote: I would appreciate any of your thoughts on the matter?
After the money grubbing, the recruiting free workers, and the linking to the site, this question seems like a smoke screen to pass off the spam as a genuine question.
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There is a second one.
Not sure which one is the 2nd one, so I'll post both.
Spammer 1
Spammer 2
I wasn't, now I am, then I won't be anymore.
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Q&A answers. Either this guy has a real fan or he's sock-puppetting his answers.
[Edit] Pulled the link to give OP a chance to respond to gentle suggestions.
I wasn't, now I am, then I won't be anymore.
modified 21-Feb-13 20:54pm.
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Do not report him yet, I am curently going through all the answers and looking deeper.
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The number of "solutions" that are utter crap but upvoted was my trigger on this guy. (Just to provide insight as to what tipped me off.)
I wasn't, now I am, then I won't be anymore.
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I have seen that. But it seems to me that he has many answers marked as solution from many different questioneers. I'll give you a feedback as soon as I am through all.
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I'm not worried about those. Those are valid as such, even if the answers are really not great. The concerning this is simply the consistency of his answer being the only +5 on the page, even when his solution is accepted along with others this tends to be the case, so there was a clear targeting of his answers.
I wasn't, now I am, then I won't be anymore.
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I know what you mean. I am still in pogress with checking his answers...
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Spent 3 quarter hours investigating on this guy. Still not sure about him...
3 bad things caught my eye:
- As you said - there are many of his answers were voted 5. Seems suspicious to me but somehow this is not the final proof I was looking for.
- He has answered 3 questions of "Member 8054539". Maybe this is his sock puppet?
- He is always begging for likes like "plz vote and accept ans if it helps. "
Whenever the OP had further questions for his solution he answered to them.
To be honest: Even after diving deeper into his answers I just can suggest around because he seems like an active member to me (or he was once active).
In my opinion there should be the possibility to give him a slight nudge. Maybe one of the Admins can talk / send an email to him before we just nuke his account, what do you think?
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I'll pull the link to his profile for now.
I wasn't, now I am, then I won't be anymore.
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This one: Tlhako Ya Setso[^]
Spreading the word in this weeks survey[^]
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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Message[^]
user[^]
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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User is gone but messages are still there. need some more hits
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Both the user and question are gone.
0100000101101110011001000111001011101001
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