spammers?

[jojo54]

We seem to be getting alot of what others are calling spammers. I don't really understand what the purpose of joining into the various threads if you're not into gardening? I may be dense here but it seems like a lot of time wasted for WHAT? And how do people recognize spammers as opposed to a new member? I would hate to shun a new member but now I also hesitate to welcome new members if they are FAKE. Does this make sense? It all seems weird to me.

 

[bid]

Well, believe it or not, there are actually sites on the web that will pay you to join forums and post with a particular sig line. It is designed to generate traffic to the destination site.

 

[hoodat]

Spammers are on a pay per click. Every time someone clicks on the sig line they get paid a ceratin amount. Only a penny or two but if they get enough clicks it mounts up.

 

[beavis]

After awhile, it becomes pretty easy telling whose a spammer versus a legitimate poster.

Spammers have weird sig lines, hyperlinks embedded in their posts, nonsense or vague posts, and posting within a short period of time, and posting at like 4AM in the morning.

I seen entire forums light up with a spammer overnight, and had to erase up to 30 posts (I serve as a mod on other forums)

 

[journey11]

I've noticed too that they tend to dig up very old threads, probably reaching them by search engine topic. Then they get on there and post something stupid or vague that doesn't really flow with the conversation.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Click on report in the bottom right of the spammer's post and just type in spam on the report box. That hails every Moderator and Admin right to the post by direct link. I spent a few hours cleaning up last night, but if you see any I missed or new ones just report them.

When (if) we see a pattern we can take Admin steps to prevent their entry. For sure don't feed them by clicking on the links, most of the links are pay-by-click sites and that is why they spam them all over.

Thanks for your help!

 

[beavis]

So how do you become a moderator on TEG?

I am usually online everyday, and offered to be a mod, but no response?!?!?

 

[Collector]

Ok so I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box, but I just don't get this spam deal. Do they do it just to get more customers for other sites or to steal your identity or what. . .

 

[hoodat]

It's doubtful they could steal an identity from this site. They do it to increase traffic on another site, usually one that's trying to sell something.

 

[Nifty]

Great discussion! A few comments:

There are people that call themselves experts at "link building" and then pay people in India, China, Philipines, etc. to go to blogs, forums, etc. and post comments with links to other sites. These links are usually in their signatures and/or posts and often have nothing to do with the thread or even the subject of the website. The goals are to:

1) Build "link popularity" so the search engines will follow the links and hopefully build up their sites search engine rankings (SE's are usually too smart to be fooled by these techniques)

2) Get people to click the links

The best things to do if you see spam are to 1) NOT CLICK THIR LINKS (2) Click the report button on their posts!


Regarding moderators: We appreciate all the members that help us keep things running smoothly. Fortunately we've not really needed much moderation on TEG, so we haven't even thought about looking for new moderators.

There are great ways to help with the forum without actually being a moderator:

1) Set a good example
2) Don't participate in any flaming / trolling
3) Encourage others to follow the rules
4) Report problems so we can review them
5) Have fun!!!