spammers

[Yvonne G]

Occasionally we get someone who posts links to their products. And once in a while the link is in their signature. One of our astute members (I wish I could remember who it was) told us that they join a forum like ours, make one friendly post that has their spam link in their signature, then when each of us on the forum clicks on that link, it moves the product the spammer is selling up closer to the front when that product is GOOGLED.

This morning I was online the same time as our newest spammer. They joined yesterday, but today they posted a comment in several different threads, but the comment was all about selling shoes, with a dozen or so links in the post.

I was able to delete them before too many people saw them, and then I banned the spammer so they couldn't post any more. But on one of the posts I made a BIG mistake!! I accidentally deleted Arkansas Kelley's complete thread that showed the pictures of her box turtle, plus ALL the responses, instead of just the spam response. I've sent Kelly a fervent apology and she has forgiven me!

So, if you see a post that seems to have nothing to do with tortoises or even in off topic chit chat, and it has a link to sales or a bunch of links to sales, DON'T CLICK ANY OF THE LINKS!! We don't want to play into their hands!

Yvonne

 

[dmmj]

That must be why I saw several threads with questions about shoes, I do have a bridge for sale if anyone is interested.

 

[ZombieTurtle]

Awww, and I was about to get international travelers insurance... lol.

 

[Isa]

Grr I hate it when people do that . At least they could post about tortoise supplies lol.

 

[stells]

We have a system on shelled warriors so we can catch them before posts go public...

 

[Yvonne G]

We have a system on shelled warriors so we can catch them before posts go public...

I'd be interested in knowing more about this. Will you send me a PM about it?

Yvonne

 

[Josh]

Yvonne, what they do is they manually moderate the first five posts by each and every member. This would be a good method but it makes for far more moderating and delays the posting time of sometimes urgent questions.

 

[Yvonne G]

One of the things I appreciate about this forum is the fact that anyone can post without having it be approved first. So, I guess we'll keep it like it is, huh?

Yvonne

 

[stells]

We went through a phase of having a massive problem with it... it was happening everyday... and not just once per day either... and not the most suitable of material at times...

We have been doing it quite a few months now and have a very strong team which are on alot so that posts don't stay in the approval list very long... we have had one complaint in that time... compared to the number of complaints we had about spam this is nothing....

Believe me if the problem here gets half as bad as we had it you may well think the system is the best thing since sliced bread lol...