As some of you are aware I prefer IRC to Instant Messenging and rather than post an IM account to chat with folks I’ve set up a web page that links to the #politics channel on the WyldRyde network where I hang out for this.
Tonight I saw the following
[21:30] * slpundit586 (~politics@D54947C1.DDDB33A1.876621AD.IP) has joined #politics
[21:31] * slpundit586 (~politics@D54947C1.DDDB33A1.876621AD.IP) Quit (Z:lined (Sorry, due to excessive abuse and spam from Turkey and no response from your ISPs we can no longer welcome users from your country. Have a nice day!))
Three things…
[1] My apologies to the person from Turkey who dropped in to chat and was so unceremoniously tossed from the channel by the system;
[2] I can understand wanting to deal with SPAM and abuse but banning an entire country seems more than a little excessive;
[3] I’m currently looking for an alternative IRC server for this
You’ll find that nearly all IRC networks ban Turkey. If you should find one that doesn’t you’ll quickly see why. They are filled with spam bots, botnets, trojan bots and other kinds of malicious worms that pose a danger to you and your users. You also have all the moronic teens that use the great number of open proxies that exist in Turkey to PM flood and flood channels with great frequency.
If only Turkish ISPs were responsive to abuse complaints it wouldn’t be necessary for the country to be banned.