Welcome to Forum Vancouver, an online discussion community for Metro Vancouver Hide
We have message boards for you to chat about shopping, community events, places to eat, things to do and much more!
Consider helping our forum grow by sharing your knowledge about living in the Greater Vancouver area.

is free and only takes a few moments to complete.

SPam oN this site

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by flutterby, Apr 30, 2014.

  1. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    Mods is there anyway to reduce the spam posts? There must be ten on the first page. Getting tough to find the real posts. Maybe dont Approve people with hotmail addresses.
     
    the mechanic likes this.
  2. the mechanic

    the mechanic Active Member

    ... the spam posts are easy to identify, flutterby. just the ignore the threads by members you don't recognize ...
     
  3. Night Of GuardianS

    Night Of GuardianS Active Member

    The admin should make flutterby and mechanic mods.
     
    the mechanic likes this.
  4. the mechanic

    the mechanic Active Member

    ... hmm, you're right. this site is becoming something of a spam wasteland. shame ...
     
  5. Joe

    Joe Full Member

    I sent a message to the administrator of this site.

    One suggestion is to allow users to report spam posts, so they can either be deleted or else placed in a dumpster thread or sub-f0rum.

    Anyone else with some suggestions to cut down on the spam in this site?
     
    the mechanic likes this.
  6. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    There used to be a report button below every post for a short while. The problem is that the spam posts can be reported and removed but they just change their membership email and re- join the board.

    The problem exists in accepting the membership of spammers. I don't know how to curb this unless the mods refuse to accept email addresses from hotmail or gmail for example. Maybe only local server email accounts should be allowed ie telus.net or shaw etc.
     
    the mechanic likes this.
  7. the mechanic

    the mechanic Active Member

    ... these are all excellent suggestions and should be implemented!

    ... as far as not allowing people with free e-mail accounts, such as hotmail and aol, to join is you'll keep out a lot of legitimate posters since those are the e-mail accounts most people have, me included ...
     
  8. I don't think restricting free e-mail accounts will slow down people that want to spam this site, they will just find another way, but what it will do is limit legitimate posters and discourage new people to the site.

    What should be done is to have a probation period for new members (ie. 25 posts) to weed out the spammers, and all their posts have to be mod approved while on probation. Once the number has passed, then they can post willingly without restriction. The only negative about this method is that it makes more work for the mods, but if you make more mods, that would make it easier to manage.
     
    the mechanic likes this.
  9. A thought to add, spammers usually just come in and spam away then leave (or get booted). I don't think spammers would spend the time/effort to put in 25 meaningful/legitimate posts then start spamming...they would rather move on to another site. If it does happen after the probation period, then they can still get booted but my guess is it will only be a few. Also, with guest posters, all posts have to be mod approved anyways, so that eliminates guest spamming.
     
  10. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    I think one b.s. spam post is enough to boot them out. Why give them 25 chances to pollute the board? The only way to currently manage the problem is to report the post, when the report button is there, and then remove the member. This is the new normal i guess which means the mod or mods will be deleting like 10 memberships per day. I do not know why this is not already being done. I know the mod has a day job but how hard can it be to delete an email ?
     
    the mechanic likes this.
  11. the mechanic

    the mechanic Active Member

    ... hi flutterby! yes, you're right, there is a report button on all the posts. i certainly hope you're reporting all of the posts that come as spam ...
     
  12. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    How long does the report button remain underneath the post? I gave up cause nothing came pf it.
     
    the mechanic likes this.
  13. the mechanic

    the mechanic Active Member

    ... can't answer that question. hopefully a moderator will chime in with the answer ...
     
  14. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    Looking at the whole page 1 today tho and there is not one single spammer post! Maybe the mod was away and only just got back.
     
    the mechanic likes this.
  15. the mechanic

    the mechanic Active Member

    ... maybe so. nonetheless, we should thank the administrators of this wonderful forum for doing an outstanding job in cleaning up the unsightly spam problem! a job well done! thank you!

    :D
     
  16. Forum Vancouver

    Forum Vancouver Administrator Staff Member

    Thanks for the patience, feedback and suggestions everyone. My apologies, we were a bit short-staffed. Taking your input into account, we've tweaked a few things and also updated our forum software.
     
    the mechanic likes this.

Share This Page