• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

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    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Rarely, replies from unfamiliar posters can have malware.

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
We just had a reply to Doug's interesting new thread on Fourier Transform functions used in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. (You might not have ever heard of these things, but if you have looked at a MTF curve when considering a lens, you already have used them!) Doug's threads are often amazing tutorials with all one's questions answered and even a lnk to hs own more detailed discussion of the topic on his excellent website. So, more often than not, his threads are consumed avidly. I try to read every single reply as Doug's threads are very educational.

Today there was an immediate reply by an "Alex Krenvalk". I was suspicious in the it didn't refer to Doug's text, there was no reference to Fourrier functions just a solution to recovering scrambled Microsoft Excel files. Since I was unfamiliar with the poster and the English indicated and Eastern European syntax, I decided to soft delete the post and check on the IP address/es of the poster. Well it turns out that the origin is indeed Russia and has been reported on a spam busting website service. So he/sher is now permanently banned from OPF. (I hope the info we acted on was valid, if not, we apologize!)

I guess they have a BOT web crawler searching for use of Microsoft Excel and then they add a generic post that seems so helpful with "the magic solution" or some "bargain". There's always an easy link we can click reflexly to get this important and free help or bargain! Of course, clicking sites which have malware can infect one's computer and have it under control of some nefarious spamming entity in Russia or wherever it originates.

So, if you see an inviting link offered in a reply that is not a direct response to the thread content, hold off and don't click through immediately! If you have done that then pause. Don't send mail, but instead, first use virus software to check out your computer!

I'm not any I.T. expert, I just know enough to get into trouble by myself. So just beware of spammers. Every new person here is checked out. However, the spam systems we use, (which have a number of safety steps), didn't pick out this IP address! I only discovered the source based on my suspicion from the syntax of the post and it being a non-sequator to the content of Doug's post. So while this type of event is going to be very rare, (as ~ 20-40% of new registrants don't pass our tests and are permanently banned), some BOTS will get through and we will continue weed them out by being, we hope, always just a tad smarter!

We want you to have a safe web experience and rest assured that we will strive to always improve our screening but still be a welcoming place for photographers with a vision to express!

Asher
 
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