Spam posts and MacRumors

[Mac03ForLife]

This may not be the place to post this, so sorry mods in advance

Anyways, this is where most of the spammy posts I see are conglomerated. Things like "resolved --****** then some sketchy link claiming to get you to lose 100lbs per day, etc"

Is there anything macrumors can do about these? As well as their posters? I cannot be the only one slightly angered by this.

 

[eyoungren]

This may not be the place to post this, so sorry mods in advance

Anyways, this is where most of the spammy posts I see are conglomerated. Things like "resolved --****** then some sketchy link claiming to get you to lose 100lbs per day, etc"

Is there anything macrumors can do about these? As well as their posters? I cannot be the only one slightly angered by this.

That's funny. Most of those you mention, I see in the jailbreak section, not in this section.

All you can do is report them.

Typically, the Mods ban the account.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Not only that, but reporting spam is a chore. There are often 15 posts on the page at the same time, and not only do you need to open the thread and report directly from the post, but you have to wait 30 seconds between each report.

It's such a pain I just end up reporting one and saying there are loads others, or just don't bother at all.

 

[millerj123]

Not only that, but reporting spam is a chore. There are often 15 posts on the page at the same time, and not only do you need to open the thread and report directly from the post, but you have to wait 30 seconds between each report.

It's such a pain I just end up reporting one and saying there are loads others, or just don't bother at all.

Reporting is still the only way to get them cleaned up.

 

[Project Alice]

I haven't seen any of those posts... I mainly use about 3 or 4 forums on here. And I haven't been on the jailbreak section since about 2010, so that might be why. But I definitely don't see any spam posts in the places I frequent.

 

[eyoungren]

Not only that, but reporting spam is a chore. There are often 15 posts on the page at the same time, and not only do you need to open the thread and report directly from the post, but you have to wait 30 seconds between each report.

It's such a pain I just end up reporting one and saying there are loads others, or just don't bother at all.

Yeah, all you need to do is report one post by each scammer (like you are doing).

When they clean up they get all the posts by that user.

 

[OllyW]

Yeah, all you need to do is report one post by each scammer (like you are doing).

When they clean up they get all the posts by that user.

That’s right, there’s no need to report every post they make.

 

[revmacian]

I used to serve as a mod for another tech-related website and I was sort of a SHK (Spam Hunter Killer)... I went after spammers with no mercy. I learned a lot about our practices and our forums software. I also learned that the money the forums were making was more important than ridding the forums of spam - too many times I saw the admins pass up opportunities in order to avoid angering legitimate users. Those opportunities would have helped avoid spam but they may also have driven away a few users and that would affect the site's revenue.

There are steps that MacRumors could take to help avoid spam, or ban a spammer before their cancer appears on a post, but money may be more important than the comfort of our users.

My question is this: You know how some posts appear with asterisks in the URL? Why not just turn that masking functionality into an auto-ban. When someone's post is going to end up looking like this:

*****************************junk

.. just make it so that hitting the "Post reply" button causes the post to be deleted and the user banned. If the user is legitimate, they'll contact the admins and ask for the ban to be lifted, spammers/spambots aren't going to bother doing that. Spammers/spambots will simply attempt to create another account and try again. Then, after being auto-banned enough times.. they'll leave us alone. Keep in mind that a spammer's time is money, if you continually waste their time they will leave you alone.

Mods who have served on the forums for more than 5 years should also have the power to perform an IP ban. This would help get rid of the bad guys much faster.

That way our legitimate users don't have to see this type of garbage. Legitimate users have far more value than any amount of revenue. Bans can always be lifted, folks, so don't be too worried about getting it wrong now and then.

Oh, by the way, the reason I'm no longer a mod at that other site anymore is because I got tired of the admins tying our hands and preventing us from actually doing things that would help our users.

 

[keysofanxiety]

That’s right, there’s no need to report every post they make.

No worries, just occasionally there'll be 10 posts by 10 different users and it's a bit painful to report each poster. I've definitely been guilty of reporting each individual post though so I'll keep that in mind.

 

[timeconsumer]

I had posted a similar thread about a year ago. The takeaway from that thread is that if you see spam just report it. In my thread there was no interest in attempting to prevent spam as implementing any sort of preventative measures could be considered unwelcoming for newer members.

 

[revmacian]

I had posted a similar thread about a year ago. The takeaway from that thread is that if you see spam just report it. In my thread there was no interest in attempting to prevent spam as implementing any sort of preventative measures could be considered unwelcoming for newer members.

Newer members that may leave a few weeks later because the powers that be had no interest in implementing preventive measures? Just a thought.

 

[C DM]

Newer members that may leave a few weeks later because the powers that be had no interest in implementing preventive measures? Just a thought.

Quite a bit of that kind of discussion happened not that long ago at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/limit-amount-of-threads-new-members-can-create.2097229/