Reporting Spam
 

Hi guys,

Just wanted to jot a quick note before the season starts and people start flooding these forums big-time.

The spammers are out in huuuuuge numbers lately (guess that goes along with good site pr!). The point of posting "reported" in a thread is so that people realize that the problem has been taken care of and don't need to report it again. If someone has already posted that they're reported it, you don't need to report the thread or post that you've done so. More reports won't get it taken care of faster, and it really just floods the mods emails.

So yay and thanks to everyone who helps stomp out spam, but please, once one person has reported it and posted, let the thread lie.

Thanks and don't stay up all night waiting for Lavery Claus!

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Reported.





HAHA, JK. Thanks for posting this, if I were a mod, I'd hate it.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Well, it's very possible that two people notice it at the same time, report it at the same time, and post it at the same time.

But yeah, I totally agree, though. If someone has already reported it... you've heard it before. :P

Re: Reporting Spam
 

There's always the option to delete the post.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

yes there is but its not really the posting as much as it is the multiple spam reports

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Here's an idea: post the "reported" before you actually report the post; that way its less likely that someone will do the same.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Here's something I don't quite understand...
I see that there's a ton of moderators. Some can modify your posts and some can merge threads. Why can't you guys deal with this Spam issue? I don't understand why you haven't been given the power to delete threads if you can merge them. Or at the very least modify the Spamer's post removing all their garbage and simply saying, "SPAM, This thread will be deleted."

Re: Reporting Spam
 

We each have moderator permissions for certain forums. Of the many forums on the site, there are some which have very few moderators (Career and Forum Help, for example) -- so when spam ends up in those forums in takes a while longer for one of the head honchos to get to it.

In forums where we have moderator permissions, we have all permissions -- so we can delete, merge, and edit threads.

The problems we've had recently are a combination of seeing spam in forums where most of us don't have permission to change anything and some bugs that popped up after the forum upgrade that have made some of tools we'd typically use unavailable.

We appreciate that everyone reports the spam and is patient while we do what we can to remove it.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Why is it even necessary to report that they've been reported?
Just report them and move on.
The spammers don't hang around to see they've been reported anyways.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

It helps the moderators out a whole bunch if each piece of spam is only reported once. We receive an e-mail every time someone reports a piece of spam and it automatically creates a new thread in our forum. Multiple people reporting the same piece of spam means that we have a lot of extra stuff to sort through every day.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

I'm saying why do they have to announce that they've reported them on the thread? Just leave it blank and let the mods handle it.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Posting in the thread is, in essence, calling off the dogs. It's sort of like in last year's animation, where the short blue robot got hit with one ball, then the whole load of them.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Because otherwise, each person who sees the spam will think that they are the first person to do so, and will therefore report the post.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

If people don't post to thread to say they've reported it, others have no idea that the thread has been reported. By posting that information, they're helping others to see that what action that can be taken has been taken and it helps us out enormously because it stops y'all from reporting the same things two hundred times.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Perhaps it would be worth working on a way to post the "reported" message automatically.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Or could it be changed so that each post can only be reported once? That might be something that ou can't change about vbulletin I guess, but otherwise I don't really see a reason not to change this.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Maybe this thread should be made a sticky as well, especially with the influx of new members that comes with the start of build season.

By the way, if you still feel like pointing out the evilness of a spammer, you can always give them negative rep.:)

Re: Reporting Spam
 

The report function is used for more than just spam, however, and it may not be prudent to let everyone see when a post has been reported -- even if they don't know explicitly *why* it was reported.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

I think there should be a limit on posts that only allow them to be reported once in a certain time period. Perhaps make it transparent, so users believe the report was sent, but only the first is sent, so there's no way for a standard user to find out if a post is reported, without spamming the mods.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Hi guys,

I've been asked to bring this thread back to remind people why we post that we've reported spam. Have a great summer everyone!

Re: Reporting Spam
 

I'll try to work on two things next:

1) automated 'reported' message.
2) only allowing it to be reported once.

Re: Reporting Spam
 

Just bringing this back real quick. I know we've had a huge influx of spam lately. I got home from class today and had 13 spam reports from 3 threads. Please only report if you've posted that you did so, and once someone else has done so, no need for you to spend your time doing the same! Thanks!

Re: Reporting Spam
 

I think the best way to deal with this issue is to do this.

If a post is reported 3 times by power user, it will be hidden until checked by a moderator.

Power users can be users with more than for example 50 or 100 post.
this will make the portal spamfree at the time that the moderators are not monitoring the portal.