Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good posts

[froggyboy604]

Do you remove links from members signature who promote topics which are likely spam like WoW Gold, Viagra, etc?

I notice there are members who post good posts, but the Anchor text and links lead to sites which are spammy topics, and the content seems poorly written about "Forex, WoW gold, Debt Management, and Viagra."

I sometimes want to remove their links from the sig, but I usually don't if they post good posts, but if the link promote illegal and adult content, I usually do remove the links.

 

[hcfwesker]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

lol, you been fooled by human spam bots. Those aren't good quality members, they're paid reps who, unlike spam bots, read the topic or title, and TRY to post on the related subject in order to advertise a product. Ban them.

 

[Fergal]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

...Ban them.

Personally I wouldn't do that if they were making good quality posts. I'd set rules for what is allowed in signatures and then enforce those rules.

Why would you ban them? Do you feel that allowing them on the forum would damage your community atmosphere?

 

[JPM]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

I came across something like this, and to be honest they did post quality replies, but I changed the sig' rules to mean they couldn't advertise those types of sites.

 

[fantanoice]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

You could always remove the links and keep the posts, because hey, decent posts are decent posts. *Shrugs*

 

[master412160]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

Yeah Screw those noobs who get paid to post on you're community. Even if posts are good.

What you need to do, or what everyone should do is disable said person signature, remove the links.

A win win situation.

Thats what I always do when I see such human spammers.^^

 

[Hissae2]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

I usually remove the links, but then they appear back again the next time they post. When this happens, I ban them. 😛

 

[hcfwesker]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

Why would you ban them? Do you feel that allowing them on the forum would damage your community atmosphere?

Because they're not there for the forum genre or to be involved with the community. They're there under false pretenses, and honestly i wouldn't waste any bandwidth space on them. I'm not that desperate for a few posts on my forum.

 

[fantanoice]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

Why would you ban them? Do you feel that allowing them on the forum would damage your community atmosphere?

Because they're not there for the forum genre or to be involved with the community. They're there under false pretenses, and honestly i wouldn't waste any bandwidth space on them. I'm not that desperate for a few posts on my forum.

You could say the same about most post exchanges.

 

[hcfwesker]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

Why would you ban them? Do you feel that allowing them on the forum would damage your community atmosphere?

Because they're not there for the forum genre or to be involved with the community. They're there under false pretenses, and honestly i wouldn't waste any bandwidth space on them. I'm not that desperate for a few posts on my forum.

You could say the same about most post exchanges.

That's an agreement between 2 other admins/staff of a forum. How each other feels being obligated to post on said forum, is up to them. If I do a post exchange, I asked for those, and usually members to a stand up job post exchanging on my site cause I don't give restrictions like most here.

 

[froggyboy604]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

Thanks, I decided to ban members with links with anchor text like "SD cards, and download free movies" which lead to a site where you buy SD cards and download free movies since I feel it is not good for the community, and make the forum look spammy.

 

[hcfwesker]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

Thanks, I decided to ban members with links with anchor text like "SD cards, and download free movies" which lead to a site where you buy SD cards and download free movies since I feel it is not good for the community, and make the forum look spammy.

Another way to check on these, is check their profiles with suspicious looking names, and look where their selected "home site" takes you too. but their signature is usually the dead give away.

 

[etc]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

If they've been helpful and have posted quality replies why ban them. You could probably set a new rules and forbid the sites as such even in signatures to be posted in any forums. That should work

 

[NBK*Twitch]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

lol, you been fooled by human spam bots. Those aren't good quality members, they're paid reps who, unlike spam bots, read the topic or title, and TRY to post on the related subject in order to advertise a product. Ban them.

HCF is right on this,these are just spammers. The best thing to do is get rid of them.

 

[froggyboy604]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

I notice after time when they get lazy, or bored of the forum, they tend to post really poor quality posts with spelling errors like "good post, I agree, thx, or gibberish. etc" or just copied and paste replies, just to spam a few links after a few days. This is one of the reasons I decided to ban them.

 

[alfred01]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

I have to agree with hcfwesker. I don't believe there is such thing as a good spammer. Their paid pro's. And if you let them go soon you're going to be infested with 'em. Ban them!!

 

[froggyboy604]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

Human spammers seem to add forums to a list or tell their co-workers who are link spammers that your forum is more relaxed, and after a few weeks or months a forum is filled with spammy links with members who are not there to be part of the community.

It also takes a long time to remove all their links in my experience, and ban them.

 

[hcfwesker]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

See if your software has a "Stop Forum spam" add on. They work, and usually block about 80% of these human spammers. I have it on my forum, and it logs when it blocks them. It blocks anywhere from 50 -60 of them a day for me.

 

[NBK*Twitch]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

I highly suggest against stop forum spam. Their database has many flaws and alot of false negatives.

Project Honey Pot is alot more accurate. So check to see if your software has a mod or plugin for it.

Another good one would be,askimat.

 

[Black Angel]

Re: Spammy looking links in signatures on member with good p

I've had this happen on my forum, if their posts are within the rules and their signature doesn't contain malicious or illegal links, then I'll leave the link in their signature.

If they decide to advertise that link on my forum, then I will remove the links from their posts and profile and add it to my word filters.

I don't take action unless absolutely necessary.

Anyway, I agree with NBK, Project Honeypot is an excellent resource, this is why I requested that Jcink add it to his Mod CP Tools.. However, sometimes these particular members down show up in the results on that site and so, it is possible that it might not be a bot..