Reporting Spam

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

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.

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.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

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.

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.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

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.

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.

[Pat Fairbank]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

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.

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.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

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.

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.

[Alan Anderson]

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

[Noah Kleinberg]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

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

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.

[prograid]

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.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

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

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.

[Matt Krass]

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.

[Beth Sweet]

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!

[Brandon Martus]

I'll try to work on two things next:

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

[Beth Sweet]

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!

[BornaE]

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.