What's going on here? Guests who can edit?

[KTS]

Guest #3 Unknown
Unknown Editing Reply to Topic
Giving up smoking 27/08/2003
172727 10 Minutes


Several times I've seen this, as above with slight differences - i.e., sometimes when I click into "Who's Online" I see a Guest Editing a Reply to a Topic.

What's this about? I know some guests try to reply to topics (and then discover they can't), but the edit option isn't even there unless you're signed in as a member?

What's going on here?

[redbulljunkie]

the link to the edit topic isn't there. however there seem to be automated programs trawling the web, visiting every page there is, it seems that one of these programs is accessing the edit page (even though it doesn't have permission to) and that's why you're seeing "Guest editing reply" in the who's online window. You see a similar phenonomen in the who's online window with a guest who seems to be replying to every topic there is, but no replies appearing

[KTS]

Oh ok, but can these people actually edit our posts then?

[damien]

Have your posts been (recently) edited ?

[redbulljunkie]

no they can't edit your posts, they can visit the edit post page, but they'll be told they don't have permission

[KTS]

Originally posted by damien
Have your posts been (recently) edited ?

Well, nope, not that I've noticed ... but it was kind of confusing me, as to what was going on.

Thanks for clearing it up RBJ

KTS [8D]

[amnesiac]

Actaully, the "guests" who ofetn seem to be postign new topics or editing posts are just weird mirror images of what registered users have just done.

[redbulljunkie]

Since the who's online? page was improved, it seems a lot of these phantom requests are due to Inkomi "Slurp" bot - http://www.inktomi.com/slurp.html