We're flippin' spam magnets here!

[Gabriel013]

What's happened recently that's meant we just attract spam accounts? Seems like everytime I look whose just signed up they're trying to sell crap or in their console ID boxes they link to kiddie-prn or spyware or whatever.

With this forum do we have the option of adding one of those verifyer fields where you get writing in an image and you have to type what you see? I think this is meant to stop bots being able to register.

[dillonthebunny]

i know... while our American cousins are sleeping, we are on the site fending off the spammers.

i try to alert by clicking the 'Report post' icon, and it does get sorted... just that you just cannot be sure exactly how long these post will be around for, just until someone sees that they are spamming and can sort it out.

but yeh, recently its been an onslaught..

[cAtDaFeLiX]

The cat is back lol. Let's take up arms and fight them. :P

I've been hooked on skate. lol

[psxextreme]

We actually do have the image verification when you register. I don't know what is the point for these guys to keep spamming us, their messages get deleted pretty fast with no views. Some people have no lives!

Thanks to all of you guys for reporting and for mods for quickly taking down the threads. Keep nailing them down

[Gamer_X]

I guess some people think spamming links to their products is ok. They need to learn about proper search engine optimization techniques so they won't have to bother other communities. I believe it's because the major forum scripts like VBulletin are created with SEO in mind, and if someone spams their link(s) here, someone who's searching for something will come across the forum post(s) with the spam inside.

For example, if a person is Googling for the newest Nokia phone, they'll use the most used keyword, which is "Nokia". Then some loser comes here and posts about his sale on Nokia phones, the forum post will be indexed by Google, and the person who is looking for a phone may end up at the forum post. Depending on the person's need (or desperation) for a bargain, he/she'll be likely to click the link, regardless if it leads them to a Nokia phone for sale or a porn site.

The process is effective and obviously unethical. Luckily Google's programming gets better everyday, and a number of major search engines pull their results from Google. Web pages with the exact came content as another page won't be indexed by Google, so spammers will have to use other means of, well, spamming.