Influx of newbies asking weird questions?

I think it was ever thus, it's just now there don't seem to be as many people posting information that answered questions before they were asked.

It's spambots creating placeholder threads for their new forum spamming campaigns.

Many of these are using dictionary spam, ask a lame question like "What is [blank]? Or the latest trend, "What is the difference between [blank] and [blank]?"

This makes it easy for the spambot operator to just create a few simple variants of the dictionary or Wikipedia content into the campaign and deliver canned responses loaded with the spam payload for their forum spambot campaign. It's all about spamming forums.

Sad, but that seems to dominate the forum now that users have been discourage from active participation in discussions. The artificial threads created by bots are gradually replacing all the real users here.

Yes, and it has become pretty obvious as of recently.

Also obvious is newbies bumping 2 or more year old threads and replying to someone who is either pushing up the daisy's, or has gone for good.

I mean do newbies know what they are doing, or are some newbies, that are still trying to figure out how to scroll a webpage coming in here?

I keep believing that people cannot be that stupid, and put it down to some kind of reimbursement.

The same people seen to do all of the bumping, but confront them about it, and silence.

Probably has something to do with durks comments, spammers bumping ancient threads to get some free clicks.

Which only makes them look like individuals with serious mental health issues.

It also makes this forum look more trashy than it should.



Yes, l really don't want to use the bait or banner farm, label, but l hope that something is done soon.

You've just not been paying close enough attention over the last couple of years and it's become the norm... but you are seeing a bunch of questions from newbies (without war room or signatures) that seem like they are deliberately designed to provoke reaction / start conversation?

Not sure there's an increase in this type of post - but they used to be immediately deleted by mods. Also, there are far less new posts by regular members now and that highlights the 'strange' stuff.

A few notes guys....

Some of the newbie questions seem to be spam. Fair enough.

Some newbies actually, honestly, authentically, ask weird questions. It is part of being a newbie; they see things through different filters versus from our decade's worth of longer IM experience.

I see this on Quora too. Lots of weird questions - in my eyes - that make me wonder...why ask? Some are spammers. Maybe more than some But some are legit. Their weirdness is a different viewpoint that we are not familiar with, or that seems....weird.

Another thought: language barriers and even cultural barriers may raise the Weird Level in some eyes. Much is lost in translation. That can add strange-ness. Even more so, in some cultures folks see themselves as being more of a community, or just a little part of the community, and rarely if ever bring attention to themselves.

Bringing attention to yourself can create awkwardness which manifests as weirdness, through these questions.

Something to chew on.

Lastly and most importantly, we experienced Warriors can elevate the value created on this forum through our example. For years I was a ghost because I wasn't too keen on Warrior. A few weeks ago I dove back in because I saw it as an opportunity to help folks with my experiences. Simple as that.

I have been spending 5 or 10 minutes or longer to share my thoughts in a helpful manner, responding to questions. This sets an example for fellow Warriors who know their stuff to share too, and also, for newbies to learn how to dive into IM properly.

Being helpful, thorough and generous will make.....Warrior Forum.....great again.

The more meaty threads with meaningful answers will also begin to dwarf the thin or strange or spammy threads too, when we experienced gals and guys commit to writing helpful, in-depth posts and responses.

Ryan