Please, do not feed the trolls and do not enable spammers

Adding a post stating that you've reported it as spam is intended to prevent a slew of reports to the webmaster. If I see that someone has already reported it then I won't do so myself but if I don't then I won't assume that someone already has.

Reported........just kidding.

I agree with JC....only one post showing it's been reported means every one else can ignore it.

It also alerts people that this is happening so they are more wary when reading posts and more importantly trusting links in them.

I reported two this morning with a quick note stating they were reported. As noted above, it saves the webmaster from getting numerous reports on the same post. Also... such a note usually appears within an hour of the post going up, so it should minimally impact the post's placement in the "All Topics" list.

Does anyone know why spam post titles often spread out of the column on the opening page? It's as if they are not posted to the forum in the normal way.

Adding a post stating that you've reported it as spam is intended to
prevent a slew of reports to the webmaster.

Yep, that's why we do it.
LOL, two of us reported the same spammer at exactly the same time this morning.
As neither of us showed until we'd both hit "reply" - at almost the same second - it looked like no one had sent a report yet. Mine ended up 2nd in line; I've since deleted it.

It also alerts people that this is happening so they are more wary
when reading posts and more importantly trusting links in them.

Yep, this is another reason why we do it. Newbies to forums can be easily taken in by what looks like genuine questions but are not. Giving them the head's up when a post is very likely to be a tag-team setup or sly advertising (live links included) is just to have the backs of our good folks, especially as the mods can't be on duty 24/7.

I agree with the OP. I don't know why folks are convinced they have to do this; making a report to the Webmaster is sufficient and he quickly deals with it. I believe many, if not most, of these posts are not in any way composed by a human, they are automated bot posts. Telling a bot that his/ her "English is bad" is funny at best. Positive affirmation (a return email) just enables the bot to keep on spamming because it gets feedback that a legitimate host is out there that can be repeatedly attacked. The best way to get rid of trolls is to deprive them of any oxygen or feedback that they can use for repeat attacks.

I am always just amazed at how many people on this site actually think spam is real and respond.

I have a dilemma when I hit the button and report suspected spam. I never want to comment and say I’ve reported the spam. The reason is I’m a bit paranoid that the spammer will PM me or target me. I do understand how helpful it is to see that someone from the group can say it’s been reported so we hopefully all move on though.

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.

This message appears at the bottom of every forum thread - but somebody’s got to report an obvious violation, and letting others know that it’s already been reported once can save everybody else time, including the Webmaster.

I agree with Nick.

Once I posted a link to an article on the now-defunct loco2.com website that was reported by several people as "suspicious". I'm guessing that a lot of posts get "reported", so it may benefit the admins to see multiple reports on the same post.

The practice of noting "Reported" has been going on for a long time. I suspect if the webmaster found it improper, we would have been told by now.

One would think that a report on a post entitled "buy college diplomas..." or "High Quality Passports.." or similar will get the post taken down and the poster removed as soon as webmaster sees it.

I suspect we will continue whatever we have personally been doing for the past few years. I know I often don't type 'report' and sure enough, someone else does.

Tom_MN, The spaces between the words are not actual space characters but just characters that are transparent (for lack of a better description) so the forum software thinks it is one long word. This is a trick to help get the spam posted in the first place if the forum is set to look for certain words or phrases to automatically prevent their posting.

I agree with others in this thread that the first person to notice the Spam should post that it's been reported. That way the Webmaster won't get dozens of reports. That seems like a reasonable solution.

Interestingly here we are Saturday and the copious quantities of yesterday's spam are still here. That's a surprise. Perhaps somebody wasn't feeling well, or took a day off.

Guess they are here for the weekend.

Too bad.

So the little notes are even more valuable, both for the banning department and for innocent visitors to the website so they can be alert to tricks they may not notice until too late

Sounds like much of Colorado, where Thursday’s now the new Friday.

Mark,

Thanks for the explanation! I learned something!

In Colorado, everyday is now Saturday! Well it is for me since I retired. :-)

Mark,

Thanks for the explanation! I learned something!

Yes, thanks, I knew there must be a reason.

The spaces between the words are not actual space characters but just characters that are transparent

Hmm, I never thought of that. Of course, I never noticed the long titles.

That's an old DOS user trick. DOS file names could not have a space (ASCII 32, or 20Hex), but ASCII 255 (FF) is a blank character. It's empty, just like a space, but DOS sees it a just another character. We used to use it "hide" files; if someone didn't know there was a blank character at the beginning or end of the file name, they couldn't display the file.

You can "type" a blank character on a PC by holding down the key and typing 255 on the numeric keypad.

Ya know, it wouldn't be that hard to rewrite spam detection software to change ASCII 255s to ASCII 32. Then the banned words would all appear to the software. Or have it treat 255 just like a space.

Also in html code   simulates a blank space. Maybe that's the same thing as the ASCII code Lee mentioned.

Edit: Hmm, the characters of the code vanish into the long space shown between code and simulates. Do a websearch on "non-breaking space" for the actual code.

Some people have a folkloric concept of how alerting systems work. Generally, a single event, such as one person's clicking the Report button on a spam post, doesn't trigger an alert. A minimum number of identical events is required, and after the threshold is reached, there's a "backoff" period during which the alert isn't repeated even if identical events keep coming in.

Despite the threshold, issues will still be too numerous for a human operator to handle, so they are presented in order of priority. It's more likely that a moderator sees that one post has been reported ten times, than that they see ten discrete reports for the same post.

We're not talking about Three Mile Island, where the 1970s dot matrix printer in the control room didn't finish printing warnings until days after the reactor event was over!

Posting a message to let others know that you've reported spam discourages others from posting in the thread, yes, but it also has two perverse effects. First, it discourages others from clicking Report. Thus, you undermine prioritization and let spam go unaddressed longer than necessary. Second, it alerts the bot responsible for the spam that a good target has been found. (Bots enable response notifications or check back periodically.) Thus, you train a bot to redouble its efforts against a Web site, returning from a new IP address, creating a new account, and posting more spam.

If a note to others were helpful, software would generate one automatically after you clicked Report, or add a symbol or color indicating that potential spam had been reported, or hide the original post pending review.

Instead, there's a request at the bottom of every page not to post responses to messages that violate forum guidelines. In the absence of further guidance, I'd follow the instructions given, click Report each time I saw potential spam, and not post to let others know that I had gotten there first.

I think people who want fake papers, etc. are at least smart enough not to respond to these advertisements publicly. I'm not worried that a lively discussion would ensue, keeping spam at the top of the new message list.

I understand the not feeding a spammer, but on most other message boards the etiquette is for one person to report it and then everyone knows it’s been reported and no further comments are needed. These forums aren’t so active even in busy traveling times that you’re going to push something way up to the top.

Identifying a troll is an art and a science. In general, anyone who comes in with their first post and starts posting something controversial triggers troll alert for me.

Webmaster...

What say you? (I was going to report this post to draw the webmaster‘s attention 🙂, but I can’t report my own post). Is there another way to talk to the webmaster?

Spartanburg Dave, I have done as you desire and reported your post with a request that Webby looks at the thread.

There was a thread a few weeks ago. No sooner had it gone up than a regular posted that this was obviously the work of a troll and should be avoided. I thought it a fair topic, as did others, and it turned into a pretty good thread.

Thanks everyone for your concern! We don't mind all the reports you send our way!

Don't get too caught up on expectations on how we moderate because we have our own custom system!

Thanks for helping to keep this forum clean and hyper-focused on travel!

I echo what Kaitlin said. She's way better than me at being succinct and to the point. Proving that for a moment...

I wanted to add to this because some of you may recall a discussion I started several years ago about responding to perceived spam/trolls. The outcome was that while we'd prefer no replies at all, we're accepting of a quick and as-neutral-as-possible note of something being reported for the reason that it helps other unaware forum members from being bated. However, we don't generally encourage it because some of you are better at identifying spam/trolls than others, and -- if you're wrong -- it's sharply negative to the person being publicly outed as illegitimate. That's a huge problem to us. As such, we won't moderate you for giving such a post when you're correct, but we'll issue a warning when you're wrong. It's safest to simply report the post (without replying) if there's any doubt.

To the OP's concern, I'm not too concerned about a short "reported" reply encouraging more spam as I expect clicking a spammer's link drives recurring spam the most -- but it does indeed "bump" the spam. As always, the dnftt (do not feed the troll) guidance is a must.

Thanks for the clarification, both Kaitlin and Webmaster AW.

Thanks Kaitlin and Andrew !

So be it, and I just reported another spammy troll. There sure are a lot out there!

Except now, 10 digits are the minimum accepted for a posting, so “reported” doesn’t have enough characters.

"Reported to webmaster" or "Reported for review" - avoiding the words "spam" or "troll" - can be good options should there be any question about the legitimacy of the post?

Let's not criticize liquor store gift cards....