spam reduction techniques

I am going to set up a new directory, and i want to increase the quality of sites that are submitted.
Is charging a nominal fee to get listed the best way?

It seems that some people who actually have really good sites worth listing are ANTI-pay.. is $5 too much.... in fact is $2 too much?


TIA....


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Liverpool Directory | Manchester Directory

 

The hassle of paying is the issue, not really the amount IMO.

Make the form longer and more detailed or make users include an email from the domain they are submitting.

Add a image verification.

Just delete and ignore spam submissions too.

 

i think charging a fee will not stop spam sites from submitting since they still have nothing to lose, $2 is nothing and if they get their site listed for $2 its a bonus and if you dont list it, you have 2 refund the $2 or they could possibly sue you or wotever

 

i agree. many spammers throw money to get their sites listed. but i think major problem is with automated submission scripts.
as Design Agent said try to implement visual verification, email vertting and making submission form available to registered users only.

 

these can be very annoying to the average submitter tho, and IMO still wont stop spammers, i once had a forum that had image verification & email activation but that didnt stop the spammer from creating an account making post and putting links in their sigs.

 

Most "good quality" sites will not pay to be listed in any directory. In order to charge a directory has to be deliver more value than it gets from having a "good quality" site listed within it.

Sadly, I think the only way for adirectory to work is to work on it. That means human approval for new entries, though anti-spammer techniques will help lessen the work load.

 

I feel differently about that, if you have a good quality site, do you really want it listed with the spam?

If the directory read as.... BBC, CNN, [your site here], Harrods, TheTimes ... surely that is better?

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Liverpool Directory | Manchester Directory

 

Charging for a listing is not a good spam filter. Plenty of good sites won't do it and many bad sites will. It seems that the only way to truly ELIMINATE spam is to do human editing.

 

Sure, but they are looking for a way to stop receiving spam.
I know how to stop receiving spammy submissions, but you wouldn't like to heard it.

 

Well, here is my take on it. About 90% of all the free submissions to my directories are complete and utter crap. The only thing these sites achieve is increasing the backlog of sites awaiting review. But I've noticed that those that pay a few bucks to be listed quickly are far less likely to be spammy. The overwhelmingly (maybe 80-90%) majority of those willing to pay, even a small fee, are people submitting sites of reasonable quality.

However, I honestly think that there is no way to eleiminate being constantly bombarded by the spamming community. Image verifucation? They'll get around it. Sign up process? They'll sign up. Pay a couple bucks? They'll pay it, knowing that you'll just refund the money once you reject them. But I think all the above will lessen their impact a bit.

 

Let’s hear it.

It takes at least 24 hours for a suggested URL to clear the spam filters in DMOZ and appear in unreviewed pool. Even then, a lot of spam gets through and overwhelms the useful suggestions in certain categories. I believe that the automated systems, relying on patterns and other identification techniques, can only help so much. Human intervention is required to deal with it effectively.

 

Don't let people suggest sites to the directory. That will lower spam to 0%.
I said you wouldn't like the solution.

I would like to deploy some spam detection system in my directory, but efforts needed wouldn't yield enough benefits.