What to do with SPAM

Post by **Oscar799** » Wed May 12, 2010 10:40 am

Over the last few weeks spam has been evolving from blatant advertisements for iPhones,Blackberries and such to something much more subtle and insidious.
There has been a huge increase in spam links in signature lines - often looking innocent enough,but connecting to sites selling all manner of dubious items.
Another unwelcome development is spam links contained within the body of posts,again connecting to sites selling dubious goods and services or software of questionable legality.
If you spot a suspicious post,please don't reply to it,instead click the button with the ! to report the post to the moderators.
We check all reported posts carefully before deciding to delete them,so if you're at all suspicious about a post report it.

Thanks
Moderation Team

Biker · Post by **Biker** » Wed May 12, 2010 10:46 am

Mmmmmmmmm. Fried Spam with lots of mayo! YUM!

vrkalak · Post by **vrkalak** » Wed May 12, 2010 4:27 pm

@ Forum Moderators ... I will leave any and all "spam" in your capable hands.

Biker wrote:Mmmmmmmmm. Fried Spam with lots of mayo! YUM!

On 'toast' . . . maybe, add a slice of tomato and a sprig of lettace.

lexon · Post by **lexon** » Wed May 12, 2010 4:37 pm

Delete it. Problem solved. No Rant necessary. My Yahoo email and G mail accounts take real good care of it. Blame all the clueless Windows users who click on anything and help spread the Spam.

Lex

Biker · Post by **Biker** » Wed May 12, 2010 4:55 pm

/facepalm

He's talking about forum spam, not email spam.

beefstu · Post by **beefstu** » Wed May 12, 2010 5:52 pm

Oscar, any chance you could reply to the threads in the other forums as they will stay on the Unanswered posts section for a while

randomizer · Post by **randomizer** » Wed May 12, 2010 11:27 pm

I find it funny when they spam Windows only video conversion software on a Linux forum.

Post by **Oscar799** » Thu May 13, 2010 4:22 am

beefstu,
As each post slides off the front page I will post a response on it both to bump it back to the top and to remove it from the unanswered posts list.
I'm aiming to keep them as visible as possible at least for a few days.
Not the most elegant method in the world,but we have a technical glitch which means moderators are unable to make threads sticky,that will be fixed soon,but until then we improvise as best we can.

markfiend · Post by **markfiend** » Thu May 13, 2010 5:34 am

randomizer wrote:I find it funny when they spam Windows only video conversion software on a Linux forum.

They don't care. The object of the exercise (from the spammer's point of view) is to get links to their sites recorded by Google's web-spiders to increase their search rank. The actual topic of the forum they're spamming is irrelevant.

In a lot of ways Linux Mint is a victim of its own success here; as the Google page-rank of the forum increases, this transfers to links posted on the forum. Which is precisely why spammers want their links on this forum.

I run moderation on a few other forums as part of my job, and I know that it's an endless battle against the spammers, and quite often a thankless task.

So a big thanks to all the moderators here!

mick55 · Post by **mick55** » Thu May 13, 2010 5:40 am

Biker wrote:Mmmmmmmmm. Fried Spam with lots of mayo! YUM!

Don't forget the Guinness to wash it down.

Post by **Oscar799** » Thu May 13, 2010 8:57 am

markfiend,
Thanks - it's good to know our work is appreciated

mick55,
I'm beginning to think it's time to learn how to make spam fritters.....

randomizer · Post by **randomizer** » Thu May 13, 2010 9:38 am

markfiend wrote:I run moderation on a few other forums as part of my job, and I know that it's an endless battle against the spammers, and quite often a thankless task.

I moderate the forum and article comments for a site which has an Alexa traffic rank just over 1000, so I know all about the battle with spam.

I find myself deleting multiple threads every day and I only log on during "off-peak" hours in US time, so it's likely that there's stuff cleaned up by the other mods while I'm having my beauty sleep. Lawyer firms, news sites (I'm looking at YOU roadrunner!), Chinese handbag manufacturers, an apparently endless supply of DVD rippers... you name it, we've got spam of it, with the surprising exception of **** and viagra. I can say thanks with the utmost sincerity.

Biker · Post by **Biker** » Thu May 13, 2010 10:01 am

oscar799 wrote:mick55,
I'm beginning to think it's time to learn how to make spam fritters.....

Mmmmmmmmmmm!!!! http://www.spam-uk.com/recipes/spam-fritters

markcynt · Post by **markcynt** » Thu May 13, 2010 10:02 am

I am a member of a Windows based forum and if I remember correctly, they make new members have a minimum of 3 posts + 24 hours membership to post links.

Maybe something along those lines would help.

If a newcomer had a real need to post a link sooner they could ask a moderator and usually the request would be approved.

Post by **Oscar799** » Thu May 13, 2010 10:22 am

Biker wrote:
oscar799 wrote:mick55,
I'm beginning to think it's time to learn how to make spam fritters.....
Mmmmmmmmmmm!!!! http://www.spam-uk.com/recipes/spam-fritters

That site is wonderful...in an odd,retro sort of way
Some of those dishes could be served up as specials on the menu at the Mint Cafe.......

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