jump to last post 1-10 of 10 discussions (32 posts)

Stop the forum SPAM

  1. livewithrichard profile image85
    livewithrichardposted 7 years ago

    I suggest that HP prevent any registered user from posting a new topic to the forums if they have no hubs.  They can comment but not start new threads.

    Most forums that I use have this restriction in place.

    1. Dale Mazurek profile image63
      Dale Mazurekposted 7 years ago in reply to this

      That is the best suggestion I have heard all year.  I just leave when the spammers start and come back a little later to see if they are gone.

      Dale

    2. starme77 profile image87
      starme77posted 7 years ago in reply to this

      yeah good idea , but will it help? I mean if all the spammers need is one hub in order to post new topics it shouldnt take them long to throw some crummy hub together and still be able to spam

      1. livewithrichard profile image85
        livewithrichardposted 7 years ago in reply to this

        No, we'll never stop the spammers but we can limit them.  I only brought this up because of what happened on here this morning.  Some Gucci person went and spammed every single forum topic and just cluttered up everything for a little while. That sort of thing happens mostly because they know when the staff is working. With such a small staff they can't watch the forums 24/7 so the hubber community has to police itself.

  2. profile image0
    Nelle Hoxieposted 7 years ago

    Would make the sock puppets put up at least a token hub too.

    1. Ron Montgomery profile image61
      Ron Montgomeryposted 7 years ago in reply to this

      They could require the hub to attain a minimum rating.

    2. livewithrichard profile image85
      livewithrichardposted 7 years ago in reply to this

      I would think that the only people that would be against this are the spammers and the sock puppets  roll

    3. caravalhophoto profile image58
      caravalhophotoposted 7 years ago in reply to this

      Okay...I feel real stupid hmm...what is a sock puppet?

      1. The10DollarMark profile image61
        The10DollarMarkposted 7 years ago in reply to this

        Spammers. Since they're usually promoting affiliate products and thus are "controlled" (like a sock poppet) into spamming.

        Those people would be very likely to just copy paste someone's article and be like "there's my first hub". But that's why a minimum score requirement'd be put in place.

        And @ Relache, having a forum just for 0 hubbers is a great idea. Would also make it easier to track down spam.

        1. caravalhophoto profile image58
          caravalhophotoposted 7 years ago in reply to this

          Thank you for the explaination...basically if the topic hubber has a 0 hub count and has just joined...do not patronize the topic put forth in the forum...smile got my vote.

          1. blue dog profile image71
            blue dogposted 7 years ago in reply to this

            of course that leads to the legitimate 0 hubbers needing legitimate advice/help being corralled with the illegitimate 0 hubbers.  which then leads to: how many experienced hubbers would frequent the 0 hubbers forum to help those needing help?

            1. livewithrichard profile image85
              livewithrichardposted 7 years ago in reply to this

              No I think "legitimate" 0 hubbers would be directed to the FAQ or the SEARCH function of the forums to find an answer that has probably been asked to death on here. If they try to post without any hubs a message will pop up directing them where to look first.

              At the very least, I'd like to see a limit on how many threads a 0 hubber can post.  This will limit spammers (not prevent them) but also limit the sock puppets from stirring things up.

              1. blue dog profile image71
                blue dogposted 7 years ago in reply to this

                sounds good. 

                about the sock puppets, why not eliminate them entirely, painful that it would be for some?  they bring nothing of value to the site.

                1. Marisa Wright profile image93
                  Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago in reply to this

                  It would be difficult to do, because some Hubbers have multiple accounts for legitimate reasons.

                  1. blue dog profile image71
                    blue dogposted 7 years ago in reply to this

                    thus the pain.

                2. Mikel G Roberts profile image87
                  Mikel G Robertsposted 7 years ago in reply to this

                  Agreed, one account per living viable person...I'm not sure how the hubstaff could sort through them though. Computer savvy people can fake an e-mail and identity pretty easily now a days.

        2. Marisa Wright profile image93
          Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago in reply to this

          Actually I'm pretty sure sock puppets and spammers aren't the same thing. 

          Spammers are people who make posts purely to promote their website.

          Sock puppets are second, third or multiple accounts created by existing Hubbers, purely for the sake of arguing on the forums (sometimes with their own alter egos) - sometimes because they think it's terribly clever and funny, but  generally with the aim of deliberately making trouble.

          1. Mikel G Roberts profile image87
            Mikel G Robertsposted 7 years ago in reply to this

            Thank You very much I understand now.

      2. Mikel G Roberts profile image87
        Mikel G Robertsposted 7 years ago in reply to this

        Me too though I know what is meant by a sock puppet...what is a 'spammer' exactly?

  3. Ivorwen profile image77
    Ivorwenposted 7 years ago

    I was thinking the same thing.

  4. gamergirl profile image61
    gamergirlposted 7 years ago

    I'm against this idea for one reason alone:

    What happens to the newbies who have genuine questions to ask, or need help of some kind and would like to post in the forums, but can't because they don't have a hub published?

    Such a decision would, I think, have more of a negative impact than positive.

    Also - everyone posting threads about the spammer of the day only serves to help the spam keep flowing.  ;-)

    1. The10DollarMark profile image61
      The10DollarMarkposted 7 years ago in reply to this

      Well the suggestion was to stop posting new threads, not posting to existing threads. They could just find one that's similar to their question and ask there.

      Also I imagine that, if we did have some sort of antiposting rules, the person would get a message telling them why they couldn't post. With that message, I would hope they would write at the end something like "PS. If you really need help, check out the following hubs that are bound to answer most of your questions." They'd just really need a kick-butt list of awesome hubs.

  5. relache profile image83
    relacheposted 7 years ago

    If people would only take the time to just report the spam, and somehow get it through their skulls NOT TO POST ANY REPLIES TO IT, there would be a lot less spam in the forums because then it would be cleanly deleted. (This is one of my pet peeves)

    I think livewithrichard's suggestion has a LOT of creedence to it.  How about personas with no hubs only have a single forum they are allowed to post in?

    1. Marisa Wright profile image93
      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago in reply to this

      This is a great suggestion - perhaps the "Need Help?" one.

      I've been on other forums where you can make forum posts but you can't include any links until you've been a member for a period of time, have achieved a certain minimum standard, or  have made a minimum number of posts.

  6. KCC Big Country profile image83
    KCC Big Countryposted 7 years ago

    What a great idea! I agree that having one place someone with 0 hubs can post a thread to would be great.  I also agree that one of my pet peeves is hubbers who respond to spam.  If you simply report it then HP can clean it up.

  7. Noel Christian profile image61
    Noel Christianposted 7 years ago

    What's with all the haters? Don't you people realize that Spam helped win the war. You take a nice thick slice, brown each side, some fresh rye bread, and a shot of spicy mustard....mmmmm spam.....spam-spam-spam-spam....

    1. profile image0
      Crazdwriterposted 7 years ago in reply to this

      lol not that kind of Spam Noel. hehehe oh and welcome to hubpages

    2. Uninvited Writer profile image81
      Uninvited Writerposted 7 years ago in reply to this
  8. profile image0
    Crazdwriterposted 7 years ago

    Would love that too, richard. that would be great! Then we wouldn't have to see it all over the forums.

  9. Uninvited Writer profile image81
    Uninvited Writerposted 7 years ago

    True, occasionally those who have been here a while and have one hub spam the forum, but not often.

  10. profile image0
    Hikikomoriposted 7 years ago

    The best way to stop spam completely is to have queued posts.

    With phpBB forum software, you can set it so that every first comment(s) by a new user must be manually approved by staff before they go live.

    I think I'd die without queued posts - they are a lifesaver.

 
working
http://hubpages.com/community/forum/31624/stop-the-forum-spam
hubpages.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2017-34
73273
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:HOTWJNGMZNWQQPNAAKDVM44PLMBCLFRS
<urn:uuid:41b81d02-ad1e-4638-8f31-61bce09f6859>
2017-08-21T12:18:15Z
52.72.133.88
text/html
sha1:4CYPNNLGAETKECLN4JB4UHFIPIO7ATW6
<urn:uuid:8fb42fd3-a53e-4dd3-8f9c-0fe9ba4aa93a>
http://hubpages.com/community/forum/31624/stop-the-forum-spam
response
<urn:uuid:0001aec6-67cf-41e2-862a-d086af0cedae>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-166-40-168.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-34
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf