What do you do if you see SPAM?

Plane Sailing · Jun 18, 2008

If you spot spam, please:

a) post in the thread to say that you're reporting it
b) report it

At the moment we're often seeing our 'reported posts' forum filling up with multiple reports of spammers from different people!

We appreciate your help in spotting spam, and this policy will help make sure that get exactly the right number of reports of spammy posts.

Thanks!

Rel · Jun 18, 2008

I would just add by way of clarification:

c) If you see in a spam post that somebody else has already reported it, don't feel the need to report it yourself. Instead use that time to...

d) Enjoy a tasty beverage of your choice.

Mustrum_Ridcully · Jun 20, 2008

So, the clever spammer will post his spam and then, under a different account post that he already reported it.

This will give a clever spammer approximately 12.5 extra minutes of screentime, which roughly translates into 0.32 $ Cent of money, or 0.008 € Cent (conversion rate $/€ guessed, not googled)

If spammers just were clever, they could be rich!

Darkness · Jun 21, 2008

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
So, the clever spammer will post his spam and then, under a different account post that he already reported it.

While that's not likely to happen, you're certainly right that it could. For example, there's a spamming method where the first account starts a thread and asks for help with something; this post contains no spam links at all. Then the second account appears and posts a reply containing a spam link that's supposed to solve the original poster's problem.
Of course, it's unlikely that a spammer would put in a similar amount of effort just to spam EN World.

Anyway, there's a way to spot a report scam. If someone who has only 1 post claims to have reported something, you should assume that's not correct. You see, a report generates a post (by the reporting user) in the Reported Posts forum and thus, 1 report + 1 post saying 'Reported' = 2 posts.

blargney the second · Jun 21, 2008

Yeah, I had a rash of those on my site, Darkness. They look innocuous at first...

Slife · Jun 28, 2008

Darkness said:
Anyway, there's a way to spot a report scam. If someone who has only 1 post claims to have reported something, you should assume that's not correct. You see, a report generates a post (by the reporting user) in the Reported Posts forum and thus, 1 report + 1 post saying 'Reported' = 2 posts.

Hmm... so all those members overconcerned with postcount have an incentive to report spam. I like it.

Plane Sailing · Jun 30, 2008

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
So, the clever spammer will post his spam and then, under a different account post that he already reported it.

Happily we seem to be getting persistent but stupid spammers - probably spambots.

Darkness · Jul 3, 2008

Slife said:
Hmm... so all those members overconcerned with postcount have an incentive to report spam. I like it.

Apparently, these times are gone now that we have the EN World 2 software upgrade; I just saw a report by a guy with 0 posts.

Dog Moon · Jul 3, 2008

Slife said:
Hmm... so all those members overconcerned with postcount have an incentive to report spam. I like it.

Actually, if the thread is completely deleted, the postcount +1 for typing in reported will go back -1 when the thread is deleted because it's as if the spam message and the reported message never existed in the first place.

Darkness · Jul 3, 2008

Dog Moon said:
Actually, if the thread is completely deleted, the postcount +1 for typing in reported will go back -1 when the thread is deleted because it's as if the spam message and the reported message never existed in the first place.

Yep. Only the Report was a lasting increase.