Weird spam?

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 3:10 am

So what is with this new form of spam? No links and almost coherent postings that kind of seem like they might be on topic if the person spoke English. What is the point of it? It's not advertising, so why do it?

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 9:09 am

Assuming you mean this as one example from "denzilorton22"... odd, indeed. Four posts, two make sense but the other two... not so much.

Gedd · Post by **Gedd** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 10:23 am

There is a type of spammer that will post a few times, not necessarily anything that looks spammy, and then will change their signature or website a while later to something they want Google to pick up on (it helps with pagerank scores). It makes them look innocent so they don't get deleted/banned, and having a few posts means they'll show up in the member listing.

I clean them out from time-to-time, but they seem human controlled for the most part, so the anti-spam measures don't really block them well.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 11:05 am

If they ever get truly coherent, TPTB would really have trouble tracking them down. (Of course if they're adding coherent discussion, then they're less a problem for the forum and more a problem for folks who don't like page rankings getting "gamed" in this manner.)

DocDarm · Post by **DocDarm** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 11:59 am

Ahh...I see. So basically they're trying to slip a finger in. heh!

triggercut · Post by **triggercut** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 12:17 pm

There are also forums (like QT3, for instance) that have anti-spam measures like requiring a certain minimum number of posts before a new user can insert a hypertext link, photo, or whatever (here, we have the anti-Crowley device requiring a number of posts before allowing PMs). So yeah, spambot builds postcount harmlessly, and then starts posting links/pics.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 9:16 am

user TOPIC has spammed all the forums. Not that this is news to anyone, but I thought I'd bring it up just in case. See sales pitch in this forum for an example.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 9:20 am

More useful (to the folks who can clean up the mess) than restating the obvious is to use the report post feature. It is an icon that looks like an exclamation mark with a triangle around it.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 9:39 am

The Meal wrote:More useful (to the folks who can clean up the mess) than restating the obvious is to use the report post feature. It is an icon that looks like an exclamation mark with a triangle around it.

I hear ya, but I normally don't go into those threads. I'll keep it in mind for next time though.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 9:52 am

I think it's cute that they did it in the meta forum too.

Peacedog · Post by **Peacedog** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 10:01 am

GreenGoo wrote: I hear ya, but I normally don't go into those threads. I'll keep it in mind for next time though.

It's good to enter such threads for reporting purposes. When a post is reported, every mod and admin will find out as soon as they hit the forums; it speeds up time to official-action by a factor of 3.4.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 10:25 am

Noted.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 11:10 am

So who functions under the 0.4 mod ability? Or are we extrapolating all of them out to some fractional effectiveness?

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 1:55 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:So who functions under the 0.4 mod ability? Or are we extrapolating all of them out to some fractional effectiveness?

You are familiar with the Borg? Resistance is futile.

Rip

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 2:52 pm

Oh. I always thought it was "resistance is fertile."

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 3:28 pm

'Baaa' means 'No!'

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:15 pm

And just HOW would YOU know that?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:32 pm

Farm animal sensitivity training. I did go to school in West Texas.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 9:16 pm

You Texicans are a weird lot.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:55 pm

Lee wrote:So what is with this new form of spam? No links and almost coherent postings that kind of seem like they might be on topic if the person spoke English. What is the point of it? It's not advertising, so why do it?

In fairness you could say the same thing about posts by U2K and Matrix.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 9:05 pm

tgb wrote:
Lee wrote:So what is with this new form of spam? No links and almost coherent postings that kind of seem like they might be on topic if the person spoke English. What is the point of it? It's not advertising, so why do it?
In fairness you could say the same thing about posts by U2K and Matrix.

How could you leave out LordMortis?

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 10:57 pm

gbasden wrote:
tgb wrote:
Lee wrote:So what is with this new form of spam? No links and almost coherent postings that kind of seem like they might be on topic if the person spoke English. What is the point of it? It's not advertising, so why do it?
In fairness you could say the same thing about posts by U2K and Matrix.
How could you leave out LordMortis?

he didn't, he appropriately Mortised out the ' , LordMortis, ' between U2K & the word 'and'

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