Forum Spam - Is Anything Being Done?

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   Suzanne Dayposted 9 years ago

   We seem to be having quite a lot of forum spam lately, I've been reporting it up to 5 times a day and I'm sure there's been others reporting it too. Why anyone would come to a writing site to promote their products here when we're all trying to make money instead of spend it? Obviously, the forum spam trolls are a bit dumb...
   
   Are people being penalised on hubpages for posting obvious spam (ie whole spun articles)? Are their accounts banished to the nether nether?
   
   Otherwise it's just going to get worse.

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      Susana Sposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      It's an ongoing thing and will never cease as long as the forum exists. Spammers can get a live backlink from a high PR forum so that's the why. Much of it seems automated, so it's not even a real person visiting the site a lot of the time.
      
      Yes they're penalised - the posts are either tagged "no follow" so there's no value to any links or they are removed, and their are accounts banned.
      
      I always flag both the posts and the profile when I come across forum spam, just to make sure

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      The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      They are probably hackers, and you know what hackers are like - they do it for fun, or the heck of it. They like the challenge.

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      DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I flag it when I see it.  But I'm only one person...

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   4. 94

      Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Suzanne,
      
      Some spam will always manage to make its way past our filters, but we do our best to take it down as soon as it's flagged, or as soon as we see it (whichever happens first). Please do report any spammy Forum Posts, Hub Comments, Q&A Posts, etc that you come across. It helps us get them taken down ASAP.

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         Suzanne Dayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Christy, I notice that HP is very fast at removing it. I was just wondering, what is the penalty used to prevent people from constantly posting spam? Do they get banned? Just curious....

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            Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Yep, if people are caught spamming, their accounts are permanently banned.

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               sheilamyersposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               As I was reading through the responses, I was wondering if HP has the same ability as some of the chat sites I've used. Permanently banning an account by username only works until the same person creates a new account. Can HP ban people by IP? I know that stops the person from ever creating a new account using the same computer (and network?).

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                  Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  @sheilamyers We do have some logic that marks IPs as problematic, but we do not necessarily ban an IP when a user is banned.
                  Part of that is due to IPs being shared by many people in some circumstances and a ban could result in innocent people being blocked.
                  
                  In many parts of the world dial-up may be the only option and people usually get a new IP each time they connect via modem. So in that case a blanket IP ban would not really affect the problematic person per se, but the next person who was issued that IP. The same issue also applies to many public computers like those at libraries, and schools.

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                     sheilamyersposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Matthew: Thanks for the explanation. I didn't think about the public access computers at schools, libraries, etc. A IP ban would hurt too many people. And I didn't know that's how dial-up works so thanks for that explanation also.

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                        Marie Flintposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        I was using a public computer through a library when I first started writing at Hub Pages.

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                  Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes, we can and do sometimes ban by IP, but it's not always effective in keeping spammers out permanently, since there are ways of disguising your IP (like through a proxy service, etc).

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                     sheilamyersposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Christy: Good point. I forgot about there being ways to disguise IPs.

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   relacheposted 9 years ago

   Forum spam lately is no better or worse than the usual.  People either flag it or they don't.

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3. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   Many hands make light work

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