The spamming is out of control

Thank you for the wonderful information.

{Insert keyword anchor text here}

I disagree. Eliminate the benefit and I believe we'll see a reduction in spammers. They aren't randomly picking this forum, they do it because they can get links.

And if the problem gets worse, I probalby won't keep posting here myself. I'm tired of wasting my time wading through bogus posts.

Paul, then why don't we just make it equal for everybody regardless of
how long they've been here.

Paid Forum - ($97 per month or whatever)
No sig links for first 30 days ((yes, I'll remove mine for first 30 days)

Abuse of forum spam rules comes with immediate dismissal (no refund on
that month's membership payment)

It may not eliminate the problem but it will greatly reduce it, at least IMHO
I think it will.

There are likely even more but unfortunately, we're not all reporting the same things which is less effective. Can't be helped - with the number of threads and sheer size of the forum, that's not going to change.

We need more than half a dozen or even the maybe 2 dozen that regularly report stuff. None of us are scanning the boards 24/7. We can't see all the crap any more than the official mods can.

Then you've got the "iffy" stuff. I think it's rented signatures, you think it's a legit post and Steve gives the benefit of the doubt... see what I mean?

I think it might help to add a bit more legislation to the signature files but not sure anyone would go for it. One thing I've seen that aggravates me to no end and almost always appears to be siggie spam, is the ones who put the SAME link into their signature 5 times or more. Sometimes they use different anchor text; sometimes the same.

For that last one, I believe that's taking advantage of the forum by far too much and I don't care if you're new or old - shouldn't be doing that. JMO.

Another that's usually obvious is the paid SEO posters. They'll have multiple signatures, generally unrelated sites/niches and they don't always post just one-liners. This type tends to post a lot of very, very obvious newbie questions and/or spin replies from earlier in the thread.

Stop waiting for proof of wrongdoing to report something. If it smells fishy, hit the triangle. I doubt very much that the mods are going to yell at you for reporting too much, unless you're clearly malicious about it.

I add commentary to my reports quite often. If I've gone back in that person's profile and seen a pattern, I note that when I report, for example. I figure it tells the mods right where to look so I'm hoping that it saves them a bit of time, plus sometimes it's not that one post that is an issue but the overall pattern.

Okay, ended up writing a short report here so I'll stop rambling now

Paul,

At the risk of you tossing your lunch and getting angry at me I think there is a difference between someone who contributes exactly NOTHING to this forum and someone who has at least PAID to have the privilege of using a sig file. A monitary contribution will at least offset the server costs of their activity. That's why I have no problem with a WR membership for those folks that want the benefits of using a sig file.

And I am also aware that I know squat about what happens behind the scenes here and don't for a minute pretend to have any of the answers.

And I am also grateful to the few folks that do spend the time to report these offensive spam posts because without their help this place would really turn into a jungle.

I'm done...

If you don't change, you'll lose legitimate participants also. Hint hint.

What were the ACTUAL results of them offering to buy Kay's sig space? You really think buying sigs from established members is a viable business plan? So we report only those that spam for posting and do not report them for offering to buy sig space?

And even if they continue to try, what does that have to do with stopping the thread spammers? Two totally different issues needing two totally different solutions. But a good example of a red herring, none the less, as I'm not concerned about sig space as that doesn't manufacture fake posts/content that wastes my time. Buying sig space is your problem, not mine.

Sure, the linkers would get some benefit they don't "deserve", but that won't make me click on threads thinking there's a legit response of interest to me, or having to wade through BS posts on a thread to find the legit ones.

Plus, offering to pay raises the barrier to entry. There will be far fewer people willing to pay for account maturing than are willing to spam for free. This is simple economics 101.

New members used to be able to post WSOs. Now they have to qualify...What is it, 50 posts or War Room membership...Are you against this limitation on new members too? What't the difference between having to qualify for a WSO and having to qualify for a sig, in the context of "fairness"?

Another flaw in your reasoning is taking the position that I said my suggestions will stop all spam or be a failure. As I posted, it will reduce spam, not end it. You aren't going to stop SEOers from hiring people to build accounts the way things are now either, so what's your point?

Can you also let me know how adding a nofollow to a new member's sig links until a certain criteria is met would hurt them?

We're doing it your way now...It isn't working. Facts are Paul, you and I don't know what would happen if some things were changed and it's pure speculation. I do know one thing though, any code that can be added can be removed if it doesn't work. A simple case of risk vs. gain.

Don't. It's no more reliable for that purpose, as far as I can tell, than reading the reviews of the product.

Keep in mind, also, that WSOTD has no official connection with this forum, and is NOT an endorsement by "the forum" or Allen.


Paul

According to your stats, all of your posts until this one are in the WSO section so it doesn't appear that you are even trying to ask questions? But you've obviously caught on to the SEO benefits of the forum.

:confused:

If you're aware of this why not bust the bozos?

The worst for me is when folks don't know where to find the "enter" key so they can create paragraphs that make for easy reading.

But that's just me...


Paul,

Logic has never once won a debate or an arguement.

All of these things serve the purpose of smaller agendas and goals of small groups of members... but we dont see the OVERALL goal and agenda of the forum itself and how our minor irritations are the cost of the MAJOR agenda of the forum... Which I have no clue about... I just have my minor agendas within the big one... as Paul has enlightened. I can see that having the TMF and all.

Floyd, with proxies they'd just find another IP range. I've tried doing this
with my sales refunders and it's futile.

People intent on finding a way around the system will do so.

About this Sig Spam, I'm also guilty for it, you see, couple days back, I set up a sig with an affiliate link on it.

So I learn it the hard way. I'm not sure about this, but since I joined this forum couple months back, I've been trying to look for forum rules. I tried finding them using the search forum, none pops up. Perhaps this rules should be put somewhere visible to us, and eye catching (please hit me on the head if the rules are visible and I'm the only one not noticing?

In my most humble opinion, I'd like to suggest adding more mods. The forum is expanding exponentially. I did a little count 6000 new user in 2 weeks. Guess how many of it are spammer and multi IDs? Perhaps the number of mods now are not enough to fight off the spam?

Banning IP is going to be hard...I just happen to be a newbie in this forum couple months ago, and in the process, I've access to at least 20 IP address outside my country(using VPN), in addition to that, my ISP is a dynamic IP. Any time I need a new IP address, just need to disconnect and reconnect.

We have dangerously unbalanced members here? Who Knew?

Thomas

Sorry, I laughed out loud at this and just had to say so :p