Is it a certain type of forum that attracts spam?

aaron

I was quite surprised to discover in a private communication with another forum owner that he had yet to receive a spam post. The forum is similar in size to this one. On here, though, we get spam on an almost daily basis. It's always attended to, and offenders are regularly banned, but it got me wondering... are certain types of forums more prone to spam than others?

Aaron
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BernardErtl · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2004 8:43 pm Post subject:

Spiderable forums are more prone to spam IMO.
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aaron · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2004 9:55 pm Post subject:

Yes, true... the example I cited is a board that isn't doing quite so well in the search engines.

But why should this be the case? Surely whether your users visit you via a search or via a link from another site (perhaps a link from a sig file in another forum), then you'd think that your just as much susceptible, no?

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BernardErtl · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2004 10:13 pm Post subject:

Drive by spammers are not posting for the benefit of the forum community IMO. They are looking for cheap links (WWW profile buttons at the very least). That is why they never return to follow up when people post comments and/or questions IMO.

Also, if the forum is not spiderable, they may have a harder time finding it...
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aaron · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2004 10:33 pm Post subject:

Agreed, but is there something about spidered forums vs. non-spidered forums that is more likely to attract drive-by spammers? Shouldn't forums that are only accessible through links from other places (yet perhaps not well spidered by SEs) still be potential victims of drive by spam?

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adigaskell · President Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 5428 7099 ants

I think you can get mods that ensure that weblinks aren't visible until you've posted x number of posts, or the memberslist isn't visible to spiders. Both of which would cut down on spam (possibly).

We were getting some but they were guest posters. Since we've stopped allowing guests we havn't been spammed at all (cue an avalanche of the buggers Laughing

)
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foundThroughAdminSig · President Joined: 24 Apr 2004 Posts: 6491 7611 ants

Actually, I think this really depends on the theme and topic of your forum. Forum spam are often related to "Make money quickly" kind of scheme. I think that business related forums are more prone to forum spam than other types of forums.
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aaron · Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 9:25 am Post subject:

Maybe but... we get just as much (proportionally) on the travel forums and sport forums.

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foundThroughAdminSig · President Joined: 24 Apr 2004 Posts: 6491 7611 ants

aaron · Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 2:14 pm Post subject:

...or maybe this now gives me the excuse to do something wrong in this life? Wink

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foundThroughAdminSig · President Joined: 24 Apr 2004 Posts: 6491 7611 ants

Corey Bryant · Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 3:43 pm Post subject:

Basically anywhere they can get free advertising. I manage a guestbook for a non-profit & just had to block several Class C IP addresses because they kept posting.

There are a few forums that prevent URLs until 5 posts. Some take the spamming / advertising to too much of an extreme, i.e you are not allowed to say "PM me & I can help you out" or "I sent you a PM" or even :"If you are interested, I can send you our source code for free". And then one very famous one - you cannot even point to an URL unless it is free. Even though the person might be requesting to pay for it. There are lines & then there are lines.

Blatant advetising (IMO) is the worst: "Contact me, I can get you the widgets for $.50 compared to $.75". Those I think should be warned & then banned. A lot of times it is just an innocent mishap.
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Patrick Brown · Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:34 pm Post subject:

OX1 gets a lot of Spam and it’s been on all the major SE’s for quite a while. I think you just have to be ruthless with the obvious stuff and delete post and account. Sometimes it’s hard to know whether something is Spam! Confused

I dream of the day when we have thousands of members and then anything a bit iffy will get pulled! Twisted Evil

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Corey Bryant · Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:37 pm Post subject:

Here is an interesting article I came across: http://www.britecorp.co.uk/articles/webmaster-resources/warning-website/ - it might help out
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Patrick Brown · Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:40 pm Post subject:

Thanx Corey I see Brian finally got that site sorted! Wink

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