Low quality post spammers

[Azareal]

There's usually atleast one of these users on a forum who just show up and spam out loads of incredibly low quality posts which is usually a pathetic attempt at trying to build up their post count due to the misguided belief that post count actually means something important.

Some of the most annoying ones are people who just post a load of "+1" or "me too" or "Sounds good" posts which add almost no extra value to the discussions at hand while greatly inflating their post count and their sense of importance.
I've had several of these users appearing on quite a number of forums that I've administrated through the years and I'll usually give them a chance before taking any actions against them which are usually a warning at first before escalating to higher moderative measures.

What approach do you take when you see this happen on your forums?

 

[Scotty123]

I pm the user warning them, if it happens again i give out a 2nd warning limiting them from part of the forum, 3rd time is a 2 week ban then 4th a permanent IP ban.

 

[Nebulous]

There's usually atleast one of these users on a forum who just show up and spam out loads of incredibly low quality posts which is usually a pathetic attempt at trying to build up their post count due to the misguided belief that post count actually means something important.

Some of the most annoying ones are people who just post a load of "+1" or "me too" or "Sounds good" posts which add almost no extra value to the discussions at hand while greatly inflating their post count and their sense of importance.
I've had several of these users appearing on quite a number of forums that I've administrated through the years and I'll usually give them a chance before taking any actions against them which are usually a warning at first before escalating to higher moderative measures.

What approach do you take when you see this happen on your forums?

Depends on what type of forum you are running. If you are running a discussion forum, people are going to want to interact with their friends and reply to their posts. Sometimes accomplishing that wont require a lot of words. The only thing that really bugs me is when people reply with a single emoticon and no words.

 

[ipod912]

I let them. Forums are a discussion platform. Not every post needs meaning and some can just be simple feedback.

 

[Migi]

I think such short posts can be annoying if you already have thanks or like button to show agreement, but in other case I think it's not really a problem. Post count doesn't matter as long as the community enjoys it. While I do think short posts with only smileys or meme can be annoying, it can be allowed in general discussion, introductions/ask-me thread, or fun sections.

 

[vividlion]

I think the main point is, if the post is an obvious attempt at just getting their post count up, I would seriously frown upon it. but if it's a post that shows actual effort to keep the thread alive I think this is obviously more favorable.

I mean c'mon guys, we goto a forum to socialize, share ideas, learn new things, make friends and express ourselves, not fill it with crap boring posts that just put people off from reading the topic. If you want to go do that then congratulations you've gotten a spot on someone's black list.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Most of the low quality posters I get is from post exchanges. My tactic is educating them 🙂 and here is how I do it... No matter how crappy they give me in posts, I write the most unique and niche dedicated posts I can on their forum. Then after the exchange is done, they are extremely thrilled by my posts and want to do another exchange... At that point I reject a continued exchange and explain that I wasn't to fond of their posting quality.

I show them what they could have had more of had they actually tried to commit like I did.

Is the fair or is that mean? You decide!