It seems spam has increased a lot here recently. I'm getting tired of having to post to say that I have reported the spam so that others don't also report it, and the mods don't get spammed with messages about spam being reported. I was wondering if it is possible for something to indicate that a post was marked as spam. This may be one use for the not helpful button.

Hi,

I like the general idea!

If, like earlier today, a spammer is active I do report (some of the) posts although I did not post a follow-up message. Why? Extra work for the mods to clean up not only the spam message but also the replies that are not related to the original post. I also don't report all the spam messages, I do assume the mods investigate the user in question and possible other posts s/he made.

Using the "not helpful" button does show the post wasn't helpful, but does not indicate if it was reported.

Would it be possible to add an option ( [ ] Spam) in the report screen which would add a message (reported as spam) to the spam post?

As always, just my 2c.

A couple comments:

1) We have seen an uptick in spam recently and are working to address the issue. Thanks for the patience.
2) We've internally discussed implementing some kind of participatory member moderation for egregious obvious mass spam and it's possible that this is an issue we'll re-visit. The potential for abuse is high, so it's something we'd need to consider carefully before deciding on.
3) When reporting spam it's best if you don't comment in the thread. We have tools to deal with the spam posts in an automated fashion and multiple members reporting the same post is handled by the system. Having to address follow up posts by legitimate members is something that has to be done manually.

--jeremy

3 members found this post helpful.

I see, well I didn't know such a system was implemented. In this case I won't post that I reported it and I'll assume the system will handle multiple reports.