Recent Spam, possible solution
Damien Allen
Posts: 103
does anybody think·with the recent spam postings that we need a moderator promoted from a normal non-parallax·person to nip these things in the bud. There are some prolific posters with some great deal of experience who are always ready to help, who are fair and live in different timezones [noparse]:)[/noparse]. Maybe we could have a vote. I put forward some names:
They are people chosen from my personal experience of lurking on the forum. This list is not exhaustive, they are just people who I can remember off the top of my head after drinking a few pints of guinness.
Lets see what parallax think....
Damo
- Mike Green
- Oldbitcollector (Jeff Ledger) (Sorry if i've got your name wrong)
- Brian Carpenter
- Bean
- Phil Pilgrim (sorry I don't know if·that is your real name??)
- QuattroRS4
- Hippy
They are people chosen from my personal experience of lurking on the forum. This list is not exhaustive, they are just people who I can remember off the top of my head after drinking a few pints of guinness.
Lets see what parallax think....
Damo
Comments
Yes, Phil Pilgrim is my real name. No, I'm not interested in the "spam cop" position. The weekend spam is annoying, certainly, but that's about all it is; and the Parallax moderators do a good job of eliminating it on Monday morning. The best thing we can do is ignore it and not give the spammers the satisfaction of seeing their "Views" count go up. In any event I doubt that Parallax would be willing to let the "keys" to their forum service go out-of-house.
-Phil
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
'Still some PropSTICK Kit bare PCBs left!
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
- Stephen
Franklin, you know I have never noticed that icon before [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Strange
Damo
If you were aware of the amount of "stuff" that does get blocked, then you would appreciate this minor hiccup that will be dealt with and eventually filtered with the other SPAM. I have been part of the forum for nearly a decade and a half and, as a whole, the corruption of SPAM making its way in to the forum has been very very little.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Beau Schwabe
IC Layout Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
Damo
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Beau Schwabe
IC Layout Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
There’s also another aspect to this that happens “behind the scenes”…For example, today two posts were brought to my attention by an observant forum member. Both posts were related to robotics, but rather nonsensical and had a sig line link to a marketing site (both were different). After getting both Forum Admin alerts I checked the messages and realized they were both from the same IP Address. Both accounts were banned. The spammer thought they were clever by posting related subject matter and adding a marketing link. But creating to different accounts was the final re flag. Both have been banned. I also keep a running log of every account I disable for SPAM and have a running log of IP addresses. If I start seeing the same IP address it gets blocked. And I often do catch stuff on the weekends, it just takes longer, so I depend on the alerts to help me catch them. Take care.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
Leon
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
Suzuki SV1000S motorcycle
I noticed the marketing of 'Guinness' in your post ... must notify moderator !... lol
Regards,
John Twomey
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
'Necessity is the mother of invention'
TC
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
We all make mistakes when we are young………That’s why paste is edible!
Is the difference that contributors have free space to advertise whereas non contributors dont?
Please dont take my post as criticism of those that do contribute and advertise I think all links to useful stuff should be allowed im merely pointing out what seems like double standards
It's not so much that adverts are present. I believe it's about:
1) Is the posting primarily about the advert with little or no useful content for others?
2) Is the advert appropriate for the subject of the forum? For example, Stamp tools in the Stamp forum, Propeller tools in the Propeller forum, etc.
3) Most of the criticized adverts are fraudulent in that they have some message or title that's attention getting, but with little content otherwise, to entice readers to read further or click on a link that takes them to something that has nothing to do with the original subject (and, more important, nothing to do with the subject matter of these forums).
4) Most of the violations seen so far also violate other forum rules like the prohibition against cross posting.
5) There's very little advertising by forum "contributors". What exists is generally in two forms, a signature that includes a link to another website and/or occasional announcements of new products or changes in products that are directly related to the subject of the forum.
It would be ok for someone to answer an unsolicited posting asking where to find or buy something with a reply that they sell a product that might fit that need and to communicate further via private messages or via their own website.
It would be ok to announce a product that's directly related to Parallax products that are the subject of a particular forum. For example, ImageCraft's C compiler for the Propeller in the Propeller forum or Selmaware's xBee stuff in the Stamp forums. Note that an announcement is somewhat different from a general advertisement in that it's once-only and is fairly technical information content rich.
There's a theme here. The underlying question is "who is served?". If a disinterested observer would say that the message primarily serves the consumer, then there's a presumption that it's ok. If the message primarily serves the producer, then it's not ok.
There's also an issue of pattern. What might be acceptable once or twice might not at all be acceptable on a periodic or ongoing basis.
Before your comments it seemed a bit confusing as to what is acceptable and what wasn't but your clear and concise post has cleared it up for me and without contradiction from any of the parallax staff i assume that they agree with your comments aswell.
Perhaps the content of Mike's post should be incorporated into the rules of the website for better clarification?
Mike's guidelines are very reasonable and carefully thought out, but I don't think advertising has become a big enough problem that a more formal approach (such as incorporating them into the forum rules) need be taken to control it. Rather than be symied by concrete rules, I would prefer to see the moderators retain enough latitude to exercize their judgement on a case-by-case basis. It's a system that's worked well so far.
-Phil
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
'Still some PropSTICK Kit bare PCBs left!
90% of my incoming email is trash. This is just the way of the web. At least you are never lonely.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
It's sunny and warm here. It is always sunny and warm here.... (unless a typhoon blows through).
Tropically, G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan
·· 90% of the SPAM comes from China IP addresses.· All we can do is keep deleting it as we're aware of it.· We ban the accounts and block the IP if it's been used many times to post SPAM, which is a good indicator it is static.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
That should improve their English writing ablities.
Why is most of the SPAM that I am getting from Russia and not China?
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
It's sunny and warm here. It is always sunny and warm here.... (unless a typhoon blows through).
Tropically, G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan