The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[ab]

Many people replied to the topic marked LIMITED TRIAL OFFER. This makes it look like an interesting topic, so more people go and look at it. A good way to deal with spam is not to reply to it. How often do you check out a topic that is several days old and has no replies?

Also this forum is moderated, so simply bring the topic to the attention of pappocom and hopefully they'll cut any offending links, as they did with that topic.

Unfortunately in any public computer based forum you'll occasionally get undesirable messages posted.

[Crazy Girl]

Why not exclude member's if they don't regularly log in to the forum, say one must log in once a month to have one's membership active

ps its snowing here in the UK

[lunababy_moonchild]

You will notice that the current spam, while not being replied to, has been looked at 10 times (at the time of this post). Spammers aren't looking for conversation they are looking to sell/expose their product, so that seems to be working nicely.

Oh, by the way, did you, Ab, report the current spam or were you just dispensing advice on what to do about it?

Luna

[MCC]

Luna, when I'm in a particular forum I click on the earliest topic and use 'view next topic' to go on to the next topic, I've no idea what that will be about until the post opens.
And yes, I've e-mailed Scott about it.

MCC

[lunababy_moonchild]

Luna, when I'm in a particular forum I click on the earliest topic and use 'view next topic' to go on to the next topic, I've no idea what that will be about until the post opens.

Might want to review that policy in the current climate.

And yes, I've e-mailed Scott about it.

Thank you very much .

However, I'd still like to know :

did you, Ab, report the current spam or were you just dispensing advice on what to do about it?

Luna

[ab]

I haven't reported any spam. I don't quite understand why you're so keen to know that. The very latest spam is obviously spam, from its title, so I didn't even bother reading it. I'm surprised that 13 other people did.

I was saying that by replying to a post you bring attention to it, so people are more likely to look at it. When people see a crowd gathering in the street, they are curious as to what's so interesting. the same is true on a forum like this.

[Son of Pappocom]

There's no easy answer.

We could turn on an email verification step, but these spammers aren't bots, so that wouldn't really do anything.

We could prevent people from posting links until x days of membership, but they can still write out non-linked addresses which Google can see just fine, so that wouldn't really do anything.

We could deactivate accounts after an idle period, but spammers only intend to write one message the minute they create the account, so that wouldn't really do anything.

I'm afraid it's just the nature of an open door policy.

[lunababy_moonchild]

I haven't reported any spam. I don't quite understand why you're so keen to know that. The very latest spam is obviously spam, from its title, so I didn't even bother reading it. I'm surprised that 13 other people did.

Well, my point is, perhaps you should practice what you preach before dispensing advice about how to effectively deal with spam i.e. if you saw it, report it, then post saying what you think should be done with spam. Which is not to say that you are not entitled to your opinion on the subject. I thought it was obviously spam too from the title and no, I didn't read it either.

I was saying that by replying to a post you bring attention to it, so people are more likely to look at it. When people see a crowd gathering in the street, they are curious as to what's so interesting. the same is true on a forum like this.

I know and appreciate that. However, further to my point (above) I think that if you yourself are not willing to report spam then it's a touch hypocritical - imho, of course - of you to post that reporting is the best way to deal with it. I'm picky like that.

I'm afraid it's just the nature of an open door policy.

I'm sure that it's not easy. It just seems that we are getting more of this than we did before. Is reporting it the best way to deal with it?

Luna

[Son of Pappocom]

Is reporting it the best way to deal with it?

For the meantime, I'd say yes. If the trend continues, we'll look at ways to minimise the effects (e.g. recruiting a few moderators).

[Chessmaster]

moderators should do the trick. also a warning announcement could be posted warning people about not spamming this site

[fluidblogger]

well I'm about to post something i thinks great and i hope you don't class it as spam!!!

cheers people

[Pi]

My experience of forums is that as long as you have several moderators in different time zones, spam will get deleted.

I don't know how many mods there are, as far as i know it's just Pappocom, Scott and Animator. Maybe a few more would help the problem

Personally i don't think spam is too much of a problem at the moment

[lunababy_moonchild]

My experience of forums is that as long as you have several moderators in different time zones, spam will get deleted.

I don't know how many mods there are, as far as i know it's just Pappocom, Scott and Animator. Maybe a few more would help the problem

Didn't know Animator was a Moderator but I'd welcome more and in any time zone that currently exists.

Personally i don't think spam is too much of a problem at the moment

Well, I haven't seen you on the Forum for a while - or have I just missed you? - but I've been reporting 1 - 2 pornographic spam for the last 2/3 days. That's 1 - 2 too many, imho.

Luna

[Bigtone53]

I've been reporting 1 - 2 pornographic spam for the last 2/3 days. That's 1 - 2 too many, imho.

Agree completely, Luna, although I have not noticed/found any yet. Interesting that Animator is a superior being though.

[Pi]

Didn't know Animator was a Moderator but I'd welcome more and in any time zone that currently exists.

I think he is, i may be mistaken

Well, I haven't seen you on the Forum for a while - or have I just missed you? - but I've been reporting 1 - 2 pornographic spam for the last 2/3 days. That's 1 - 2 too many, imho.

Luna

Your right, i took some time away, i am back for good now i promise. I didn't realise that Spam had escelated into a problem, which i now realise is true. I see that a new member joined today and posted 7 threads insulting other members.