IMPORTANT PSA: Don't Quote Spam Text When Reporting Spam!

[artdutra04]

Spam. We're all seen it. We've all seen deleted posts from it.

But sometimes even after the post/user is deleted, the spam remains, like in this screenshot below:



When you QUOTE the original spam post (especially if it contains links), the bad content does not get deleted when moderators delete the offending post. The links to advertising/shady/inappropriate websites remain for all users (and web search bots) to see.

Thus, I would encourage all users DO NOT reply with quoted text to spam; just post 'Reported' by itself or delete all the content from inside the QUOTE vBulletin tags. And for moderators, I would encourage them to also delete any posts like the screenshot above to fully wipe out spam.

[Chris is me]

Can't mods just edit the quote out?

[Taylor]

Reported.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Taylor

Reported.

awesome!

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by Taylor

Reported.

Michael Hill likes Taylor's post.

[Joe Ross]

It would also be nice if the single word "reported" posts were deleted too. It makes for much cleaner reading in the future.

[Cuog]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Can't mods just edit the quote out?

They can, however they might not see it especially if it ends up on the next page from the spam. Plus it is just more work being created.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Spam. We're all seen it. We've all seen deleted posts from it.

But sometimes even after the post/user is deleted, the spam remains, like in this screenshot below:



When you QUOTE the original spam post (especially if it contains links), the bad content does not get deleted when moderators delete the offending post. The links to advertising/shady/inappropriate websites remain for all users (and web search bots) to see.

Thus, I would encourage all users DO NOT reply with quoted text to spam; just post 'Reported' by itself or delete all the content from inside the QUOTE vBulletin tags. And for moderators, I would encourage them to also delete any posts like the screenshot above to fully wipe out spam.

I am genuinely sorry for this post...

Spoiler for Scumbag CD-er: