A simple idea to help reduce the spam problem here

I like this idea, good deal..
Would promote better responses/threads.

Sounds like a viable solution to me. The only problem is that this will stop genuine new users sharing and posting valuable resources to the community at first

. Creating a barrier like you propose could deter (or slow down the rate of contribution) of new members.

I guess it comes down to the mods making a decision of what would be best. As reducing the spam has an opportunity cost in hindering genuine new members.

It is important to remember that any system can be gamed by people intending to... well, game the system.

I've seen forums where, not only can you not post links until you've had a certain number of posts, every post you make is literally ghosted until you have proven yourself worthy to leave a valuable post.

But in the end, even in forums with rules as strict as those, there are spammers and people trying, yet again, to work the system to their own gain.

While changes could be made to try to keep spammers out, I suggest it might be a better use of our resources to continue to work as a community to kick spammers in the rear when they get the idea to behave badly. In doing so, we get to work together (think of it like a team sport) and the mods get to drop ban hammers, and then we get to make fun of the silly person who thought they could get over on the watchful eyes of our sharp community once they've been done away with.

There is a certain joy to watching the whole process unfold.

Then you'd have a plethora of new gigs on Fiverr with "I will thank all of your Warrior Forum posts for $5.00"...

Brandon,

That sounds logical. Let's look at what might happen if we did that, though. Assuming it's possible within the constraints of the forum software and wouldn't slow everything down due to the extra server load.

1: People with neutral or abrasive posting styles would never be able to post links or have a signature unless they were posting REALLY good suggestions, on a regular basis.

2: People who could make you laugh would be able to post links rather quickly, whether they had anything useful to say or not.

3: Some number of people who couldn't muster the necessary complement of thanks would use that as the basis for conspiratorial rants about "the good old boy network," and everyone else keeping them down.

4: How do you factor War Room membership into it? At the moment, the criteria for selling here are pretty clear and straight forward: You pay for ad space, which (for WSOs) requires you to also be a paying member.

How do you fit the "Thanks factor" into that?

My personal (non-official) view: I don't believe it would be healthy to link commercial factors to numbers of thanks. I also don't think it would be a practical idea to link much of anything to post count, unless you also added a significant time factor into it. And that starts the questions about gaming the system and "aged account" tricks.

Back to mod-speak: It seems a lot of people got very annoyed by the sports spammer this weekend. That's not surprising, given how persistent the critter was/has been/will likely try to be. The best things you can do are to report the stuff, and then ignore it.

We'll do what we can to cut the volume down and clean up after them, but we will never stop spam completely.

Someone suggested reducing the time required between spam reports. That might help, IF it doesn't also reduce the time required between PMs. That delay has significantly reduced the attractiveness of PMs as a means for spamming the members, so I don't see us doing anything to mess with it any time soon.

We would love to get rid of all the spam. It would save everyone involved a lot of time. We just have to look at what unintended consequences might come along with those measures.


Paul

A better solution would be to only allow sigs for War room members or those paying for an image in their sig. A couple forums I visit do this.

It wont stop the members who pay and post one liners (several do it now) but might slow down the others.

If the 60 second wait time for reporting spam was change for certain members (based on posts/time) it would also help.

Garrie

At first glance, that's a great idea but how do you prevent 'thank swaps' from happening? We're dealing with marketers here. Anyone who has figured out how to boost facebook fan page like volume with real 'fans' would know how to get the necessary number of thanks to start posting links or showing sig links here. See where I am coming from?

On one hand, you are punishing the masses for the sins of the few. On the other hand, the few are being punished by the sins of the masses (spammers).

The only feasible way to increase the quality of posts and community of Warriors is to lower the tolerance level of crappy posts. I am a member of several other forums which enact a very strict 0 tolerance policy and go through dozens of bans a day, yet the forums continue to grow.

- Ban or delete accounts of those who are not contributing.
- Have a red banner or sticky post at the top of each page stressing the importance of quality contributions.

-Is the thread about how to make $x by tomorrow, 7 days, end of the month? Ban them.
-Is the thread one of those, "Tell me how to monetize X" yet the signature reads, "Make $10k a month!" Ban them.
-Is the thread a copy and pasted news article without any thought provoking commentary? Ban them.
-Is the poster using vague or misleading titles? Ban them.
-Is the poster prone to type like they text, without punctuation, full of spelling mistakes, and terrible grammar? Ban them.
-Is the poster commonly writing low-effort questions and glib dismissals of someone else's views? Ban them.
-Posting hyperbole? Ban them.
-Posting just to say the thread is a terrible thread? Ban them.

Has someone been banned in the past for terrible quality posts? Make them pay the War Room fee just to rejoin as a regular member, but don't give them War Room access.

If you want to participate in the leading community in the world for internet marketers, you should be held to higher standards than anywhere else. This is where friendships are fostered and fortunes made.

The current system, imperfect as it may be, is good enough. The community decides what is spam and unacceptable. The solution is only a "report" button away. I do share the OPs concerns though. Maybe a community standard regarding acceptable practices is in order so people can police the forum according to the agreed upon standards?

Brandon,

Suggestions like this are always good because it gets people thinking about the problem. Having said that I do then see a 'black market' where people would trade and/or sell 'thanks' on this site.

Maybe the best way to get rid of all spammers is to ask everyone who signs up for a new account a simple maths question such as 1 + 1 = ?. I guarantee you most spammers won't be able to answer a question like that. They have very little going on between their ears.