Fix the Q and A Spam PLEASE!!!

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   peeplesposted 9 years ago

   I along with others are tired of the never ending spam in the Q and A section. Some of us prefer the more civil (well sometimes more civil) Q and A over the forums. Please start something that slows the overwhelming amount of spam that has been there lately. Implement something that keeps newbies whose account is 9 minutes old from posting in q and a. Please do SOMETHING!!!

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      ChristinSposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      omg - +1111111111111111 I noticed they cleaned up a lot of it from this morning already, but holy cow that section has become a haven for bot spam.  Some method of preventing immediate posting on that section is definitely needed - even if it's one of those anti-spam things where you have to type in the characters before your question can be posted.

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      Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      We have systems in place that help identify SPAM, but if you see any content in the forums, QA, Hubs, etc that you believe violates the terms of service, please report it using the "report" function on the content.
      
      Each and every one of these reports is reviewed by a moderator.
      
      This also helps us identify potential problems with SPAMMY IPs or user as well and helps reduce such SPAM going forward.

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         lisavollrathposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         On most days, it's not a matter of seeing spam in the QA. It's that it's hard to see any real questions in the tidal wave of spammy messages. There are days when I log on, and there are twenty or thirty of them in a row, all from new accounts. And then there's one real question, followed by another twenty or thirty spam posts.

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      2. 93

         peeplesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         What about at nights or the weekends? It seems flagging does no good because moderators don't seem to be here. Why not stop the problem before it starts instead of allowing it to happen then removing it? While I do not mind flagging to help make HP a better place, it should be the responsibility of HP to prevent issues like this from starting. Isn't the goal of the Q and A section to bring in searchers from Google? What happens when they get here and see 20 spam questions? Do you think them returning to HP is likely after seeing that?

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         peeplesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         My point is proven by looking at Q and A right now. There are over 15 spam questions in the last 6 hours, just sitting filling up the feed. It's Saturday, so not much of a chance of this getting removed.

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            ChristinSposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             
            I don't see what would be so difficult about putting some anti-spam measures in place - a verification code or something.  Those captcha's can be annoying, but they serve a good purpose and would be less limiting than closing questions off entirely to new members.  I'd be more than willing to enter a code when posting a question.

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               peeplesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               So would I!!

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      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The Q&A is not intended to be a substitute for the forums.   If you avoid the political and religious forums you will avoid most of the nastiness on the forums so why not give that a try.

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      1. 93

         peeplesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Quite honestly I like the people in the Q and A more. Most (with a couple exceptions) of the hateful people and the know it all people are not in Q and A. I visit the forums, but enjoy political and religious debate that doesn't give enough space for most of the nasty responses. To me it is a shorter, more to the point, version of the forums.

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            Jayne Lancerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            +1

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            rebekahELLEposted 9 years agoin reply to this

              Q & A is not designed for debate or back and forth on-going discussion.  I don't use it often, only if I have a specific question that may work better there than the forums or if I see a question that I want to answer. At least in the forums, spam doesn't pop up as often because more people view the forums and report it as soon as it's noticed, which most likely is not the case in Q & A.  Anywhere where people think they can make money, there's going to more spam, thus the crazy, spammy questions.

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I think that the forums and the Q&A section should be for hubbers who have written at least the minimum requirement to pass boot camp. That would cut out a whole lot of  all the annoying spam.

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         gmwilliamsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         +1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000-hubbers should have AT LEAST 50 featured hubs before being allowed to post in the Q&A and Forum sections.  There are too many mysterious hubbers who are posting spam with 0 hubs!

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            Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            This has been brought up before.  I agree with you about the Q & A.  But, about the forum, HP always said that new people (less than 50 Hubs) have the most questions on the forum and they really do need advice and should be allowed to post. And, spam posts are quickly removed when reported.

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               peeplesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               " And, spam posts are quickly removed when reported." If only that were the case.

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   LongTimeMotherposted 9 years ago

   I agree. It is frustrating to have the feed filled with spam. Perhaps a few of the 3 and 4 year hubbers who frequent hp in the middle of the Head Office night time could be given the power to delete spam posts and close down the spammers' accounts promptly. That at least would be a help.

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      peeplesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Very good idea, but I would rather they implement something that keeps newbies from posting for a certain amount of time. Very frustrating!

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      bethperryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I think yours is an excellent suggestion.

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         Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I agree with that suggestion, too.

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   chef-de-jourposted 9 years ago

   I agree. I'm reluctant to say it but Q&A has become a bit of a joke. When I first started on HP you could guarantee serious questions and quality comments and it was a pleasure participating. Yes you got strange and weird questions - perhaps you always will - but hardly any spam back then.
   Now it seems like a daily spam bank. As a result many decent questioners are loathe to take part or don't relish the idea of spending time with so much spam.
   What can be done. Q&A is undermining the rest of the site.

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   Jayne Lancerposted 9 years ago

   I gave up on Q and A long ago, simply because I can't be bothered to wade through all the spam before finding a genuine, decent and interesting question.

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