Trolls, spammers and other undesireables

**Mike1** · 5th October 06, 10:42 AM

We're seeing a bit of an increase in the amount of the undesireables registering on this forum. All of the Mods are being as diligent as we can about removing these accounts, as quickly as we are able. We generally get them removed before they have even validated their e-mail addresses with the forum software. I sift through the database at least one time, every day, to cull out the obvious clowns that are here to spam us up.

Unfortunately, we do get one or two that slip under the radar. We've got pretty good coverage of the forum, there's not many hours of the day that we don't have at least one member of the forum staff looking in on how things are going. But we simply cannot be here 24 hours each day.

We had a spammer slip through an hour or so ago and manage to get a post up on the forum. But, some sharp eyes caught it and we managed to delete the thread and the user that started it, in short order.

I would like to ask that if you see a post that is obvious spam, just ignore it. There's no need to provide any type of response to this kind of nonsense. I realize that none of us like to see it, but the fact remains that it is going to happen from time to time. We get it removed, as soon as we possibly can, so please just try to walk around it until it is removed. Responding to idiots merely validates their existence and we've really no need to do that.

Thanks for helping us out with this.

**TimC** · 5th October 06, 10:49 AM

M1, you guys are doing great. Thanks for all your efforts on our behalf.

-Tim

**mkmound** · 5th October 06, 10:55 AM

Kudos to you and all the mods for your diligence in our behalf!!

**cessna152towser** · 5th October 06, 11:01 AM

You do a great job there, Mike and your fellow moderators. On some other forums which are less well moderated, sadly it is becoming necessary to trawl through countless advertising posts to find a genuine on topic thread. I fear the problem is getting worse with more and more spam e-mails needing to be deleted from my e-mail account every day and more and more spam posts on the forums which I visit. Despite adding them to my blocked senders list the same spam just comes through in triplicate from three other sources the next day. As if there weren't enough copies of the same adverts doing the rounds of the world's computers, the latest spammers craze seems to be to trick mail delivery systems into telling the spammed rather than the spammer that some were undelivered - I'm getting sick and tired of having my computer choked up with e-mails telling me that the e-mail that someone sent to someone else wasn't delivered. Keep up the good work.

**Lee** · 5th October 06, 11:43 AM

Agreed - you guys are doing a great job ! Thanks.

Lee

**Panache** · 5th October 06, 11:47 AM

Another cheer for the mod squad. Very little gets past you fellows.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers

**chasem** · 5th October 06, 12:47 PM

Typically they (the spammers/trolls/etc) won't read the responses to their post.

Anyway, should it not be suggested that when these posts are spotted, one should send a PM to a member of the mod crew, to insure that it is seen/taken care of quickly? Or would you guys prefer not to receive the PM's as you'll likely see the posts anyway?

**Panache** · 5th October 06, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by chasem

Typically they (the spammers/trolls/etc) won't read the responses to their post.

Anyway, should it not be suggested that when these posts are spotted, one should send a PM to a member of the mod crew, to insure that it is seen/taken care of quickly? Or would you guys prefer not to receive the PM's as you'll likely see the posts anyway?

I have done this, generally speaking the mods seem to always be on the ball and have already zapped the offender. I can't imagine they mind extra sets of eyes looking out for our forum.

Cheers

**Mike1** · 5th October 06, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by chasem

Anyway, should it not be suggested that when these posts are spotted, one should send a PM to a member of the mod crew, to insure that it is seen/taken care of quickly?

From one angle, this does seem to be the best way of handling it. From another angle, it just means the Mods are going to see a glut of well-intentioned PM's.

Here's my suggestion - if you see a spam post over 8 hours old, then start waving flags at us. If it contains offensive language or graphics, then do not delay in contacting us, we want it out of here as quickly as possible.