Reporting SPAM

[momof2]

Hello Everyone!

I haven't been to this website for a couple of months, and I was disgusted by how much SPAM I came across when looking for a recipe. Did you all know that anyone who is a member can report SPAM when they see it? It is simply a matter of clicking on the little triangle in the upper right hand corner of the message you wish to report. A box will come up asking for your message, and all you need to write is the word spam. The administrator will then be alerted, and the message will be removed. I think we would all aprreciate a cleaner website, and if everyone helps, it can be cleaned up fairly quickly!

Thanks,
momof2

[missingarrow]

Reporting the spam only works if there is an active admin who will respond to the reports...

[Tyler]

I always attend to every reported post. Unfortunately I was a bit behind with them lately as I've been busy adding a horde of new features and improvements to the forum, which you can check out in the Updates and Announces forum.

I may be late tending to the spam at times, but rest assured that I will eventually take care of it if notified!

[momof2]

Thank you for cleaning it up Tyler!

[rachael24]

Thanks for the update...I have noticed there has been alot less since I first joined a few weeks back.

[Semigourmet]

Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Will definately be reporting spam when I see it now. and thank you Tyler for cleaning up the website and beefing up the website. Keep up the good work!

[skilbeau]

Thanks for the spam cleanup! The site is much better now! It can get out of control quick if you aren't careful.

[Barksdale]

I always attend to every reported post. Unfortunately I was a bit behind with them lately as I've been busy adding a horde of new features and improvements to the forum, which you can check out in the Updates and Announces forum.

I may be late tending to the spam at times, but rest assured that I will eventually take care of it if notified!


With all due respect, I participate in a lot of forums and very few are as SPAM-ridden and inattentively moderated as this one.

In addition to responding to reported posts, moderators should "cruise" the site every day to see what's been posted. That shouldn't be hard, since there aren't that many posts here each day.

[Big Daddy's House]

Hello Everyone!

I haven't been to this website for a couple of months, and I was disgusted by how much SPAM I came across when looking for a recipe. Did you all know that anyone who is a member can report SPAM when they see it? It is simply a matter of clicking on the little triangle in the upper right hand corner of the message you wish to report. A box will come up asking for your message, and all you need to write is the word spam. The administrator will then be alerted, and the message will be removed. I think we would all aprreciate a cleaner website, and if everyone helps, it can be cleaned up fairly quickly!

Thanks,
momof2



Usually, ALL v-bulleton-powered forums have the little triangle with every post.

I've changed my screen name mainly because of spamming members of and at other forums harrassing and poking fun at me, spamming, trolling and hijacking the threads.

I've had to ban members from other forums because of this behavior.

[Big Daddy's House]

Hello Everyone!

I haven't been to this website for a couple of months, and I was disgusted by how much SPAM I came across when looking for a recipe. Did you all know that anyone who is a member can report SPAM when they see it? It is simply a matter of clicking on the little triangle in the upper right hand corner of the message you wish to report. A box will come up asking for your message, and all you need to write is the word spam. The administrator will then be alerted, and the message will be removed. I think we would all aprreciate a cleaner website, and if everyone helps, it can be cleaned up fairly quickly!

Thanks,
momof2



I HAVE been doing that as of late. Just did it yesterday, and Tyler took care of it.

There ARE a few new moderators here now to help Tyler manage the board and handle the situation now. I'm one of them.

I just banned a member from here this morning for habitually spamming the board. So, I will be checking on a daily basis to help make sure that the board stays clean and friendly for ALL of us to enjoy.

But please report any spam that you might see. I've no problem at all disiplining and banning severely chronic repeat rule breakers. :)

[Whoopie Pie]

I HAVE been doing that as of late. Just did it yesterday, and Tyler took care of it.

There ARE a few new moderators here now to help Tyler manage the board and handle the situation now. I'm one of them.

I just banned a member from here this morning for habitually spamming the board and have edited a few posts for off-topic & smirky remarks or comments. So, I will be checking on a daily basis to help make sure that the board stays clean and friendly for ALL of us to enjoy.

But please report any spam that you might see. I've no problem at all disiplining and banning severely chronic repeat rule breakers. :)

Seems like you are turning into one of those moderators that you hate! Editing posts that don't suit your personal fancy, and closing a thread because it wasn't going the way that you wanted it to, is that really good moderation on your part?

[Big Daddy's House]

I thought that this issue was laid to rest. Seems as though you won't let it end. I've since moved on. Why aren't you doing the same? Why do you want to start this up again?

If you have issues on this still, then please let me know in a pm. Let's not talk about it here.

[Big Daddy's House]

Thanks guys, for helping to reporting posts that contained spam.

Couldn't get rid of it all, but someone else did. However, I DID ban someone just now.

I'm away for the weekend, but I have my laptop pc with me, and some software work was being done with it. But I'm on the Job!

Together, we can all help stamp out spamming posts!

Thanks again!

[Dough Boy]

If anyone has issues with the job the mods are doing, I suggest you spend some time in their shoes. SPAM is a problem for every forum, and nobody can be everywhere all the time, so patience and diligence on the part of the membership is tantamount to a well run forum. I personally report every spam post I find using the reporting function, and I always get a response back letting me know how it was handled.

Keep in mind these folks also have lives away from the site just like the rest of us, so remember to cut them some slack if things don't happen immediately.

Mods and admins, thanks for the good job you do to keep the site clean.

Dough Boy

[Big Daddy's House]

Thank you, Dough Boy!!

Your kind words are always apprreciated by us.

And yes you're right, there ARE a lot of spammed forums out there! A few of them I've left because of that. And reporting it to the mods and admins there gets me nowhere, so if they don't care, then why should I?

It only takes a few spamming posts here for a new member to be banned, and I've banned quite a few new members from here since I was made a staff member here because all they want to do is spam the board, seemingly, with whatever comes to mind.

It is for this reason that I will NOT tire in my relentless nonstop efforts to wipe out spam here. The minute it comes, it's deleted almost as fast and the repeat abuser is banned!

[Elisha]

Hi everyone!
This question might now sound silly to many but I'm still quite new to forums in general and I'd rather ask a silly question than unintentionally getting myself into trouble: How precisely do you define spam for this forum? What is allowed and what not? Are you referring to posts that have nothing to do with the topic, or posts full of links or whatever? I'm asking because I answered to a new thread because I thought it's somehow interesting and shortly after that I learned that thread was closed as spam...

I also detest spam and I will gladly help to report it and get the forum clean, but in order to do that and to prevent myself accidently posting what you consider spam I need to know what precisely our rules are in this forum.

Thanks,
Elisha

[mcnerd]

Most of the spam that I'm seeing here is done in multiple forums with the same topic which has nothing to do with cooking. It's pretty clear what their intent is. They get paid for the number of messages they post, not the quality of them. Sadly once they post THEY win and it is our loss for the dealing with them.

If you come across a posting that is obviously off the topic of cooking, especially if it is in Chinese or Japanese, I think you figure out it is spam. But we are trying to get rid of them as fast as they post so you don't see them, but it ain't easy.

[Big Daddy's House]

Yeah, you're right, Ncnerd!

Most of the new members whom I've dealt with and banned are the ones who have posted at least 3 or more spamming posts - often with links to websites that are helping them to balently solicit merchandise through the board. Or for posting botched-up nonEnglish content. Or for spamming some of the threads with the same reply 3 or more times. If they do it this many times, they'll keep on doing it unless they are stopped immediately and are banned.

The other new members, presant & senior members here, I have no problem with.

Some of the new ones just think that they can come here only to spam the board and it's threads. I think that the trick is to abruptly stop them asap before the spamming gets way too far out of hand and so that we do not end up deleting a whole huge bombardment of spamming posts written by them.

I don't mind members getting a little bit off topic, as I try to be nice to everyone, even though I might have made a few mistakes (we're all human). I wouldn't want the board to turn into another Gestapo Brigade which is what DiscussCooking.com has sadly become.

But we will not tolerate blatent spamming of the threads like some of the new members have done. Any new member who writes a spamming post 3 or more times, they will be dealt with very swiftly, and their spamming posts will be swiftly deleted and those abusers will be swiftly banned! Together, we can all help stamp out spamming posts and help eliminate the perpetrators who come here just to spam and start stomping on the board.

We run a zero-tolerance spam-free forum here, and we will not allow the kind of behavior that has been displayed here, as what happened by abusive and repeat rule-breaking new members who are now banned. :)

[Noodles]

User wowgold79wow, looks like it's been registered for spam. Might want to keep an eye on them.

[Noodles]

There looks to be a few other spammers registering at the moment. Have you considered putting recaptcha on instead of the spam verification you have now? You may also want to look into upgrading vbulletin to 3.8.x

[Big Daddy's House]

Good observation!

You can probably talk to Tyler about upgrading to the 3.8.x version.

We've been banning new members left & right who have come here just to spam the board.

As you might know with your great experience with running a forum, you sometimes get this kind of stuff also, I imagine. Too bad that there are people around like that who have all that time on their hands with nothing else better to do!

They seriously need to just go get a life or a job. I'll be keeping an eye out for wowgold79wow. He DOES sound like a spammer, but he hasn't posted anything yet, so I have to wait and see what his intentions are, to found out if he's going to be a repeat spammer or a good member. Time will tell.

But if you see any spam from him, feel free report his abusing post(s), and one of us will be along shortly to take the appropriate action against him. Thank you for your kind advice.


-=-=-=-=-

Note;


I thought that this thread was found to be a very interesting and informative one, so I stickied it so that it stays at the top of every index page in this section - to make it easier to find for those of you who want to talk about this subject or voice your thoughts & views on spamming.

We take spamming as a very serious offense, and so far, I think that all of the staff members, myself included, are doing a very good job keeping the board clean & spam-free. I also want to thank all our regular members for helping to report any spamming threads and posts.

[Big Daddy's House]

Usually, and as of late, most new members whose usernames are all or mostly numbers, THEY are the ones who are most likely to be particularly troublesome.

I've banned more new members here who have numbers for names, I think, than others.

Don't they even read the agreement before they complete the registration process? It says that spamming and trolling are not allowed at all, at least part of it. What part of this are they not getting?

[Noodles]

Don't they even read the agreement before they complete the rigistration process? It says that spamming and trolling are not allowed at all, at least part of it. What part of this are they not getting?

They're probably automated scripts, registering for spam. Try adding Akismet (http://www.akismet.com) to the forum. It checks new posts for spam.

[Big Daddy's House]

Good idea!

I'll see what Tyler thinks about it.

Thanks!

~BDH.

[Big Daddy's House]

A new member who just signed up here, angrily posted a post, stating how he (supposedly) was on a mission to help Tyler wipe out spam - yet he posted several false sigs in his post!

I just banned him.

A spammer fighting spam? That's a new one on me!! Go figure.

[Liketobake]

A new member who just signed up here, angrily posted a post, stating how he (supposedly) was on a mission to help Tyler wipe out spam - yet he posted several false sigs in his post!

I just banned him.

A spammer fighting spam? That's a new one on me!! Go figure.

There are all kinds of spammers..

[Big Daddy's House]

There are all kinds of spammers..



Yeah, there was a spammer who goes by the name of zswnews, who has been banned from here at least 13 different times!

This carnivorous piece of garbage kept on coming back with several diffent sets of numbers at the end of his name to get back in here, posting the same spamming bogus new thread with a spamming bogus link in the General Cooking forum.

Between Semigourmet and myself, we've banned him for a total of 13 times! He has refused to stop coming back here. If you ever see him here again, please report his spamming threads or posts.

I've already asked Tyler to ban the IP addresses I gave him that he's been using to get back in here. :eek: :mad:

[Semigourmet]

by the way I would like to take a minute to say thank you and good lookin out here for spammers and others posting no no's, thanks everyone for reporting them quickly! It really does help!!

[Big Daddy's House]

Yes it does, and you're welcome!