Directory Forum Spam

Discussion in 'Directories' started by dvduval, Dec 17, 2012.

  1. #1
    I see we have quite a bit of spam in the forum today including whole topics where people are just posting links to their sites, and then other posts that are sort of "one liners". Maybe it is just the holidays, but I hope they care about this section. More and more it seems not. Surely, there would be some volunteers to moderate (I would do it) free of charge to at least help.
     
    dvduval, Dec 17, 2012 IP
  2. Mia

    Mia R.I.P. STEVE JOBS

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    #2
    Most of the moderator list appears to be dormant. Its obviously a big job, though it would appear the spam is overwhelming this forum.

    There's always the report button.. Works most times ;)
     
    Mia, Dec 17, 2012 IP
  3. Mia

    Mia R.I.P. STEVE JOBS

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    #3
    Mia, Dec 17, 2012 IP
  4. silencer

    silencer Notable Member

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    #4
    oh dear! A couple of the threads are just rampant with those one liner yoda speak entries. Heck even yoda might struggle to understand them!

    3 and 4 year old thread's are being revived so that some spammer clown can write their one line of nonsense, and then the whole thing starts up again. Given that some of the threads should never have been created in the first place, it's fast becoming a joke!

    I'll report a bunch of threads that are spammy/nonsense. I don't have time to report all the posts, most times the entire thread could go, it might contain 1 good post but 15 bad ones, so it's worthless in my opinion.
     
    silencer, Dec 17, 2012 IP
  5. dvduval

    dvduval Notable Member

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    #5
    I'd be happy to drop in and moderate. I'd be happy to get someone like silencer to moderate. I'm sure there are others that would be good. Surely, when there are volunteers that could help it would be win-win for everybody.
     
    dvduval, Dec 17, 2012 IP
  6. silencer

    silencer Notable Member

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    #6
    I'd be happy to nominate anyone whose active in here and has their head screwed on.
     
    silencer, Dec 17, 2012 IP
  7. an0n

    an0n Prominent Member

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    #7
    Guess that removes the OP of thread Ha!
     
    an0n, Dec 17, 2012 IP
  8. syted

    syted Notable Member

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    #8
    I don't think they have any intention of seriously controlling the spam as from what I can see it's the bulk of the traffic to these forums. As for nominating yourself or others as a mod on a forum which you may have a vested interest in, there would be a conflict of interest.
     
    syted, Dec 18, 2012 IP
  9. Mia

    Mia R.I.P. STEVE JOBS

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    #9
    Love it or hate it, I'd imagine even the crap traffic generates money.
    Though the threads that get reported (from what I have seen) do get taken care of.

    I think for the most part the moderation is not comprised of every moderator looking at every individual thread. No one can be expected to be able to do that as busy as things are here. I think they rely more on luck and if someone reports an issue.

    I just keep on reporting when I can, if I have time for that sort of thing. Given the level of involvement here over the year and the number of threads I am subscribed to I see a lot more than the average user in terms of crap posts and other junk in the many revived threads.
     
    Mia, Dec 18, 2012 IP
  10. syted

    syted Notable Member

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    #10
    Good for you. I've gone through periods of reporting spammy posts but when they don't get actioned it puts me off.
     
    syted, Dec 18, 2012 IP
  11. YMC

    YMC Well-Known Member

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    #11
    Shawn has had a long-standing policy of not using volunteers. His assumption is if you ask or offer to moderate you must have an agenda. Ironically, one of the times I discussed it with him in a thread here, one of the moderators (who started her own forum and siphoned off many members from here, along with garnering more than a fair bit of private work from her position) was backing him up - she, of course, had no agenda in being a moderator. :rolleyes:

    Add to that the overall disdain that he seems to have for anyone involved with directories and you get the mess that we have now.

    What happened to Mikey? I thought he was the new man in charge around here?
     
    YMC, Dec 18, 2012 IP
  12. silencer

    silencer Notable Member

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    #12
    That's the conundrum isn't it. Anyone wanting the forums to "survive" as it were has a vested interest. Sadly it will in just about all cases be a conflict of interest. Unless you don't own a directory, and aren't involved in the business, you are going to be seen as biased. On the flip side of the coin, if you aren't in the business, what the heck do you know about moderating a directories forum? So... that door swings both ways.

    The policy is good, if it is self-nomination. But what if I, and 3 or 4 others, were to say. Look. This place is un-moderated and full of crap, we'd like someone whose active (e.g. Mia 23k+ posts) to moderate the forum. They have a level head, and we'd be happy with that... That's where his policy falls flat.

    No idea. Sarahk pops in from time to time. I really thought they were going to pull out the big chair for cReeD, he was active and un-biased for a long time but they simply didn't see the light it seems. There are 18 moderators, 17 of which have access to the Search Engines forum so you'd expect at least 1 of them to care or get involved. It can't be that difficult to action reports. Heck I spent about 5-10 minutes yesterday reporting threads. How hard is it to scan through the list, knock out obvious irrelevant threads, lock 3+ year old threads, and then ban these <20 post losers spamming one line answers in nearly every thread? it's not difficult. it's not time consuming. it's boring but that's the price of being a mod. Otherwise whats the point in having the title.

    Yay I'm a mod but I don't do anything!
     
    silencer, Dec 18, 2012 IP
  13. dvduval

    dvduval Notable Member

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    #13
    Amen, silencer! Why have experts moderating the topic of the forum? Where is the logic in that?

    Instead let the experts stand aside while the spammers with little knowledge post anything and everything. Then wait for a complaint now and then, or a reported post, and do the minimal necessary.

    If there is a disdain for directories, and nobody on the moderator team is interested in directories, why not just shut the whole thing down?

    If you want you only want paid moderators, I would suggest a good start would be charging for Solicitations & Announcements. That way if you don't have a quality directory, you'll think twice before you post in that forum.
     
    dvduval, Dec 18, 2012 IP
  14. YMC

    YMC Well-Known Member

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    #14
    I brought up much of what you mentioned Dan. Didn't matter. Anyone nominated by others was equally assumed guilty.

    This place is like a train wreck. You don't want to watch but somehow you are compelled to stay and gawk.

    Hmm, maybe Shawn has a point. Not too bright are we? lol
     
    YMC, Dec 18, 2012 IP
  15. Austech

    Austech Member

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    #15
    Of course you are going to get spam when you promote spam. I joined here to try and post an ad to offer some work.......I have been forced to post 25 posts of utter bullshit just to be able to have the right to post an ad :)

    You cant do anything on this site unless you make endless posts. Thats the rules and you are of course, going to get a lot of crap posts.

    But they are also traffic, wish it was my adsense account :)
     
    Austech, Dec 18, 2012 IP
  16. YMC

    YMC Well-Known Member

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    #16
    I think it's a reasonable expectation to demand folks be a contributing member of a forum before they can take advantage of its benefits. Most forums I've been on restrict newbies in a number of ways. Most limit signatures and link dropping until a number of posts have been made. Some won't even let you start a thread before you reach a threshold number of posts. I've been on one that even moderated the posts of all newbies until they were sure the person would actually add value to the conversation - there was no spam on that forum.

    There's so many topics on this site, that it shouldn't take all that long to make 25 worthwhile posts. It's a shame that the moderators don't bounce the obvious posts made simply to garner the benefits of being a member here.

    Is it a pain when you want to peddle your services to earn your access to the thousands of members here? Sure. But, you're also getting a huge opportunity in return for a little of your time. Plus, you might learn something new that can benefit your clients along the way.
     
    YMC, Dec 19, 2012 IP
  17. dvduval

    dvduval Notable Member

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    #17
    There are better moderated forums out there. They aren't perfect, but I think DP is already losing market share. If you look at Alexa, while they have a nice number, it is much lower than a year ago. The bounce rate has increased, and page views per user has decreased. That tells you there is a pretty good chance the money coming in has decreased too. Maybe they will "get it" one of these days, but for now it seems they may have become experts to an old way that could be fleeting. Only time will tell.
     
    dvduval, Dec 19, 2012 IP
  18. Austech

    Austech Member

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    #18
    What huge opportunity? All I wanted I wanted was to give people some work, not reinvent the wheel.

    I dont really care about DP, I am here for a reason, not to jump through endless hoops. This site is a classic example of what forced posting produces....pages and pages of utter spam and bullshit. I have run online forums for 14 years and the day I force this sort of stuff on users will be the day I give it up.

    I mean what next? A thread on whats your favorite brand of toaster?

    The pages of dribble are used to produce income via Adsense, that is why they are here. The only contributing they do is contribute to the ad network income. You must be naive if you think its anything else.
     
    Austech, Dec 19, 2012 IP
  19. syted

    syted Notable Member

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    #19
    Yep why do we spend our time here reporting and correcting and complaining. Dan here has forums and he actually cares about the industry, I know YMC is active there and as has been said this forum is focused on the traffic to monetise it. Maybe we should vote with our feet.
     
    syted, Dec 19, 2012 IP
  20. silencer

    silencer Notable Member

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    #20
    This was answered before. It's for the advertising... More posts, more people, more clicks, who cares about quality...

    I don't know Shawn, so I can't comment on his thoughts. But if he's too busy counting money to care, perhaps he doesn't perceive a problem. If it's making money why fix it?

    Thing is, all you are going to attract is spammers. If anyone real looks at your profile and sees you just post crap, why are they going to use your services? On the flipside, If someones that desperate to take on a job you're offering what does that say about them? Just sayin ;)


    When I first signed up at this place, people were saying the same thing... DP is full of junk and the LCD. Ok. But there are still nuggets of gold in the steaming pile. They are almost impossible to find these days, but basically to me if the people in this thread weren't at DP, then neither would I be. How many of you are there left? 5? 10? there used to be a good 50-100 people engaging in useful discussions.

    To put things in perspective:
    - on DP your announcement has had 149 views, posted 16 days ago, and it's on page 2.
    - on IVS your announcement has had 75 views, posted 3 days ago, and it's still page 1.
     
    silencer, Dec 19, 2012 IP