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A .psd file that is getting error message


SilasSpencer

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I have a .psd file that is getting this error message "Could not complete your request because it is not a valid Photoshop document."
This is the first time this has happened on my Ps, CS6...and I've looked elsewhere to get some help.

And I was just working on this file a while ago, so I'm not sure what went wrong.
It is located on one of my USB Flash Drives, and I have heard that certain USBs tend to cause these things....yet this is the first its happened

 

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I have a .psd file that is getting this error message "Could not complete your request because it is not a valid Photoshop document."

It is located on one of my USB Flash Drives, and I have heard that certain USBs tend to cause these things....yet this is the first its happened

 

 

Sounds like a faulty USB drive...

Edited by RJARRRPCGP
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Using a Google search I found the question is already asked on another site, but apparently the user got banned.

 

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/members/silasspencer/

 

Interestingly SilasSpencer registered on both MSFN and the AnswerBank February 9th and posted the first question on each site 6 days later.

 

I would like to see some explanation what happened on the other site, because cross posting questions on multiple boards is usually frowned on by the board administrators.

Edited by Acheron
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I would like to see some explanation what happened on the other site, because cross posting questions on multiple boards is usually frowned on by the board administrators.

Basically because usually it is a telling sign of some kind of SPAM (or of a user that panicked :w00t:), JFYI, it is more likely that in this case it is the beginning of a SPAM plot:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/threads/a-psd-file-that-is-getting-error-message.396125/

most probably soon another new user will post a link to a Commercial software that allegedly recovers .psd files.

 

But there are a few people that think (wrongly as the most they get is usually being either banned or ignored) that a "good strategy" is to post the same question on half the internet, which would not be a bad thing in itself IF as soon as a good answer is (hopefully) provided all the opened threads/questions would be updated with a link to such good answer (something that usually is not done).

This latter behaviour (opening N threads and not following them) creates what I call "internet pollution", you do an internet search and find several results to your same question but without any answer to it.

 

jaclaz

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I'm considering this kind of posts to be a form of spam bot evolution. Soon we will no longer be able to differentiate between normal users and spam bots. We will be helping spam bots solve their problems instead of normal users.

 

I have contacted the board administrators of TPF and the AnswerBank. Hopefully they reply. I like to know how often they experience this problem on their board and how they generally deal with it.

Edited by Acheron
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I'm considering this kind of posts to be a form of spam bot evolution. Soon we will no longer be able to differentiate between normal users and spam bots. We will be helping spam bots solve their problems instead of normal users.

Actually it is very easy :yes:.

Hint #1: Original poster is at his/her first or second post <- (not enough to say anything, but assign 3 points for this)

Hint #2: The SPAMmer that replies is at his/her first or second post also <- (now imagine that a perfect stranger takes the time to register on a board just to reply a - usually "vague" or "elementary" question, assign 5 points for this)

Hint #3: The SPAMmer that replies provides a direct link to a Commercial tool <- (assign 5 points for this, 7 if the link is a hyperlinked word instead of being a normal link)

 

Example of a "normal" link:

http://www.bernardbelanger.com/computing/NaDa/

Example of the same link as a hyperlinked world NaDa NaDa the nice tool that does nothing

How much you get?

If less than 10 points the post and reply is likely to be OK, if it is 10 or more it is likely to be some form of SPAM.

jaclaz

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Yes, this kind of spam is still very easy to battle against today. But the problem is that as computer technologies advance, better AI etc., spam bots will also become more sophisticated. To defend against such spam bots, board administrators will more likely to ban posts from new users. The average computer user asking for help with their problem can then become very easily mistaken as to be seen for a spam bot.

 

I think it is best to keep some examples of this spam method online. On most boards this kind of spam get promptly deleted when found, but the problem with deleting it is that only the board administrator and the active users will know about it; most users will not be aware of it and will spend some time on it answering irrelevant questions in the future.

Edited by Acheron
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I think it is best to keep some examples of this spam method online. On most boards this kind of spam get promptly deleted when found, but the problem with deleting it is that only the board administrator and the active users will know about it; most users will not be aware of it and will spend some time on it answering irrelevant questions in the future.

But we do have them, whether the "common" user will ever read them is another thing.

Here is one:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/170538-what-is-exact-way-for-how-to-convert-pst-to-nsf/

I don't think we should have a sticky for teaching people how to recognize a SPAMmer, but it could be a good idea :unsure:.

 

jaclaz

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We will be helping spam bots solve their problems instead of normal users.

 

That certainly is a problem, but I'm of a mind to not think all new users asking a question is part of a spam team. In fact, there is no way to be certain, especially with the tandem groups. It is obvious that the askers and responders are different users and have different IPs. And that it is the ones who post the spam link answers that are widely being reported to anti-spam groups, not the ones asking the questions. The forum does automatically deny membership to spammers but it is not 100%. So this is why a lot of these threads recently get started and no one comes in to "answer" the question.

 

Now that we've got our suspicions up, it is simple to quickly search google for parts of the original post to see if it has been crossposted, as this one was. The real spam groups tend to go after sites that have a google search result rating, or those who get scraped onto forum mirrors. This allows greater access to the links, especially on those mirrors which seem more automatic rather than actually moderated.

 

Since we can find this other post, we can then "take it easy" on putting in effort in fixing the problem. In these "file corrupt" posts like this, the OP rarely seems to return to respond with exception to when the spam post is made. So my post is an example of this, asking for the file. Or you can ask for some other sort of thing like application version, OS or whatever else might not be mentioned in the first post. If we get some valid feedback from the OP, then great! We might have an actual person with a real problem we can help.

 

There are 2 reasons for leaving a (potentially) incomplete tandem spam thread in place.

1. A real person may actually have this problem and find us to post about it. This has happened here in the past.

2. It can be an example of how to identify spam posts.

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I also noticed PaavoNurminen got banned, but I do not understand exactly why, as the information he provides maybe useful. He did post an answer here to the corrupt excel file thread:

 

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/175029-corrupt-excel-xls-file-ole-header-corruption/#entry1116743

 

It looks more useful then the information I posted in that thread, what could be seen as spam bot reply according to the rules set up by Jaclaz how to determine spam, except my post count is too high.

Edited by Acheron
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I also noticed PaavoNurminen got banned, but I do not understand exactly why, as the information he provides maybe useful. 

 

You might see here why:

http://forum.chandoo.org/threads/corrupt-excel-xls-file-ole-header-corruption.27361/

(the second post by PaavoNurminen leads to a discussion where PeterWarren had a similar problem and CharlesWater replied to it, suggesting the use of a Commercial tool) this is a two-level SPAMming plot, instead of referencing the Commercial tool they reference another post on some board/site where the Commercial tool is linked to (possibly as a verified solution).

 

Should you by any chance be worried by the issue CharlesMorris had with those corrupted Excel files, be happy :), everything is cool, DavidJustesen provided him with a link to the SAME thread started by PeterWarren on community.office365.com and CharlesMorris himself replied stating how the issue was solved (using a Commercial tool):

http://www.guru.com/answers/questions/31307/corrupt-excel-xls-file-ole-header-corruption-1.html?

(and KayerJenkins kindly added a link to an alternative Commercial tool)

 

jaclaz

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Yes, but I think if we have no problems here at MSFN allowing people to cross posting their questions, I see no reason why people should be banned for cross posting answers, even if they reference the use of commercial tools.

 

My only suggestion is to add a tag SPAM to these topics if it is almost clear the user is not looking for answers, but only to promote specific commercial software.

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