Re: Spam posts -- flag or respond?

[dogbane]

As you all know, we have problems with spammers all the time. We appreciate when you flag spam posts and threads for us to delete. But when you quote a spam post, even if we ban the spammer and delete the posts, their spam will live on in your quote.

Please just flag the spam and move on. Don't respond to it and don't quote it, or you become part of the problem and not the solution.

Thanks.

[Finch]

i'm just thanking them for offering me such valuable services how else am i going to convert DVDs to play on my Ipod

[Banka87]

What am I going to do without my cheap supply of pharmaceuticals?!

[Phoenix David]

Finch - get a Ipad

Banka87 - PM me, I can get you some really fine horse grade pharmaceuticals from Guatemala and only slightly expired.


This is a joke.

[AZMedic]

What are we supposed to do at 0300 now?

This is just night shift hate.

[Necrodamus]

but SPAM is Crazy Tasty!

[dogbane]

What are we supposed to do at 0300 now?

This is just night shift hate.

Yes, the infamous shift wars.

Here's a thought: If you're on at 0300, you could try reading a thread worth reading or posting something worth someone else's time to read.

[elkhills]

What are we supposed to do at 0300 now?

This is just night shift hate.

Yes, the infamous shift wars.

Here's a thought: If you're on at 0300, you could try reading a thread worth reading or posting something worth someone else's time to read.

Phooey! That's when I do my best work!

I've been sandbagging "How To Post Video to Your (CHAT THREAD)"

[AZMedic]

What are we supposed to do at 0300 now?

This is just night shift hate.

Yes, the infamous shift wars.

Here's a thought: If you're on at 0300, you could try reading a thread worth reading or posting something worth someone else's time to read.

Thats the problem there was 4 of us or so and between us I think we tried everything else entertaining.

[crypto]

What are we supposed to do at 0300 now?

This is just night shift hate.

Yes, the infamous shift wars.

Here's a thought: If you're on at 0300, you could try reading a thread worth reading or posting something worth someone else's time to read.

How about you just delete the thread instead of moving it to the graveyard, then people can have fun with it after reporting it?

Sometimes it seems like the mods actively go out of their way to discourage a healthy user community from having fun.

When your user base rallies to dogpile on a douchebag, or to laugh at a spammer because the thread will ultimately go away, I fail to see how thats not awesome and a sign of a good esprit de corps.

Apparently other people dont see it that way though.

[JTNieman]

^this

Maybe my continued use of spam threads to have fun despite this thread could be seen as childish, so forgive me, please. However, I find it quite hard to even feel MOTIVATED to discuss things like this with moderation as it seems a lost cause. It basically seems like all a person is left to do is either follow all the rules and have the community feel more like a job than a hobby, or I just go on doing what I want, and wonder which day it will be that people are tired of dealing with people's reports of my posts, and we cross swords over a piling of little piddly things and eventually just part ways.

Either way, it's a resultant loss.

[crypto]

Yeah, there's a reason why most of the people who made this place great over the years have found themselves in that same predicament.

I didn't understand why until a few weeks ago, now I do.

[Biggin]

I haven't been around long enough to speak of the old time, but every now and then I find a spam thread humorous and like to see the witty responses.

[dogbane]

I am talking about spam within existing threads. Not spam threads. When you quote a spam post within a thread, I can delete the spammer's post, but their link lives on unless I delete or edit your post. I wrote this after seeing a post like this:

Buy my brass knuckles or some such garbage.

LOL WUT?

Now I'm sure ZSguy put a lot of thought into that post and it was probably entertaining for his fan base, but in addition to banning the spammer and deleting his spam, then I have to decide whether to delete or edit ZSguy's post (I don't like to edit forum users' posts--I hope you all can appreciate that), when I could instead be arguing with a valued member about a buried thread or maybe even reading something interesting.

As for spam threads, I agree that we should just nuke them.

All the other overt and covert bitching duly noted. Thank you for your input. If anyone wants to be less cryptic, they can feel free to PM me.

[AZMedic]

So are we allowed to harass spam threads IE video converter for 9999 and then reply we will send bananacrom to attack him or something

[Jeriah]

I just need more places to put my Dinosaur Turtles pic I found.

Like here, for example.

[kyle]

A couple of you are way over reacting. There seems to be a miscommunication here.

Guys, we do delete the spam posts. At least, that is the policy.

We delete spam threads and in those cases, it doesn't matter what you all post because the entire thread is blown away. However, in some cases, spam bots post spam within existing legitimate threads and we obviously don't want to blow away those threads.

It's easy for us to blow away all posts from a specific user (the spam bot) but in cases where other users quote the spam it would require us to manually dig through them all and edit posts by everyone who quoted the spam. We don't want to encourage spam from this website.

All dogbane is asking here is to please refrain from quoting the spam posts because it makes it a pain for us to remove them from the forum.


There seems to be venting in here regarding other concerns you may be having about how the forum is ran. If you do not feel like you are being heard, we would like to know. Drop me an email to admin@zombiehunters.org

[JTNieman]

The problems that were brought up were a straw/camels back issue regarding much else. There was a bit of misunderstanding as to the intent of dogbane's spam request.

I thought he meant posting in spam THREADS at all... and I think most active users thought the same, as well, since I was getting decently heavy amounts of people bitching in replies and in PMs to me about posting in spam THREADS.

My general stick-up-buttedness stands, regardless of this thread.

[kyle]

The problems that were brought up were a straw/camels back issue regarding much else. There was a bit of misunderstanding as to the intent of dogbane's spam request.

I thought he meant posting in spam THREADS at all... and I think most active users thought the same, as well, since I was getting decently heavy amounts of people bitching in replies and in PMs to me about posting in spam THREADS.

My general stick-up-buttedness stands, regardless of this thread.

I just re-read Dogbane's original post and it seems to make sense. If there is a question about what it meant, you could have just asked. The mods are just trying to make their job a little less of a hassle. I don't think this minor request is such a big deal.

I really have absolutely no idea what you're going on about or what sort of broken camel you are carrying around with you but if you have a complaint or need to point out a problem you see with the forum, you know how to reach me or Pete. We're not unapproachable and we actually do care about this forum community and what you have to say.

[PistolPete]

Honestly, I don't see how dogpiling on anyone promotes positive esprit de corps, whether it's a spam bot, a Chinese spammer who posts once and never comes back, or somebody that says something stupid. I mean, it's a zombie forum, we get some people that post stupid stuff. But if in your mind the value of this forum is an outlet for you to post turtle pictures and pound on newbies that post weird shit, then yeah, I can see how it doesn't offer a lot of value to you. If that's your goal in life, you'll have a lot better luck hanging out at the special school district bus stop with your frat buddies and beating up retarded kids for their lunch money.

I mean seriously, fun is fun, but are people really bitching that saying shit in spam threads is what makes you come back to ZS? That that's the big value you find here? We've got tons and tons of great disaster and emergency prep info here. I don't think our focus is, or should be, juvenile entertainment for people who've already read the other stuff. If that's what you're after, I'll gladly point you at some boards where poop jokes are the focus.

This was a simple request to make the mods job a little easier with threads that get buried and spam posts that get deleted as soon as we see them. I'm frankly quite amazed at the backlash.

The ZS forums rock. It's the only place on the internet I know of where people can discuss the topics of interest without getting dogpiled or witnessed to or have to buy into some unusual way of thinking. We have a fantastic user community that contributes to the already vast information and opinions we have here. We have a lot more fun than other forums that try to tackle serious topics. It's an awesome place, made that way by the folks that take the time to contribute. And lots of people contribute! How many people do we have that will do a gear write up that have never posted pictures on the internet? That's awesome. We can inspire people to get more involved, do gear reviews, try bugging out and take hikes with their BOBs. We've got everyone from experts to neophytes. It's a really fantastic place.

So disgruntled guys, if you really feel you're being driven away, drop me a PM with your grievance. It's not the intention. But if your only goal here is to get some yucks and make fun of people, it's not going to be a real high priority. But lots of times users have brought things to mine and the other mods attention and we've made a concerted effort to address them. We're trying to offer the most benefit for the most people here. We'll never please everybody, but neither will we try to alienate anyone. So seriously, if this is a big deal to you, drop me a PM and let me know why. You may have a point I've completely missed in this thread.

[xiaqinghua1989]

This spam post's content has been deleted. The post itself is not deleted, since Shrapnel's right, the irony is too delicious. This spammer has been banned.

[shrapnel]

Oh, the painfully ironic... irony.

[dogbane]

Spammer gots sense of humor.

[Oneswunk]

<----Has never eaten spam.