Speak Your Mind.

[VioletReigns]

THE GOOD NEWS IS... all the religious debaters are kept in the spammers' arena in the BDF. While legalists believe they are soliciting wisdom and harping about law, they are absolutely wasting their time. Spammers laugh as they fuel the legalists into a frenzy of arguing, never knowing they played right into the spammers hand.

Last night I tried to warn them that they were arguing with a program and one debater told me that I was unkind for calling the spammer a troll. So then I thought, "Wait. Let the debaters stay in here and argue with a spammer. At least they're leaving real people alone." \/

 

[oldhermit]

The bad news is... last night it dawned on me that there are more human spammers in our forum than we first thought. They are not spam BOTS, but PEOPLE. So I did some research online very late last night.

Turns out, forum spamming is an extremely effective technique spammers use to get us to post many times on a thread so it will link to external sites.
This serves two goals:
1. Will increase search engine visibility in highly competitive advertising domains (such as weight loss, pharmaceuticals, gambling, pornography, real estate or loans, etc.)
2. Will generate more traffic for these commercial websites

In other words, the more we respond to their threads, the more money they make.

AND THAT'S ONLY HALF THE BAD NEWS.

The other half is that we have more spammers than we first thought. One resource says they come in and post a friendly newcomer's introduction and then go into some situation where they ask you to explain something (such as "What Bible is the most reliable?"" or "What should I do in this situation with my new boyfriend?" or "How should I pray for my unsaved spouse?" etc. etc)

The source I read said they all do the same thing: They will thank you profusely for responding and they will ask you for further information so they can get as many people to respond as possible. The more pages, the more money they make. So... I looked through some of the BDF posts to see if I could spot one or two. There were many that fit the description of spammer.

Remember we were wondering why people come in and ask a question or present a serious problem then never return? They don't have to return as long as they have people responding to the thread, their mission is accomplished.

Wow. That is interesting. I did not know that.

 

[oldhermit]

THE GOOD NEWS IS... all the religious debaters are kept in the spammers' arena in the BDF. While legalists believe they are soliciting wisdom and harping about law, they are absolutely wasting their time. Spammers laugh as they fuel the legalists into a frenzy of arguing, never knowing they played right into the spammers hand.

Last night I tried to warn them that they were arguing with a program and one debater told me that I was unkind for calling the spammer a troll. So then I thought, "Wait. Let the debaters stay in here and argue with a spammer. At least they're leaving real people alone." \/

How do you identify them. What are some of the things that are characteristic?

 

[melita916]

THE GOOD NEWS IS... melita is here

there. i fixed it. lol

 

[skylove7]

Good morning friends. Is it bed time yet???

• 

WHEW!....lol old hermit how can you possibly wanna sleep after chainsaw mans pic? Wow...gandalf? Lol

 

[cmarieh]

I wanted to wish you all a good Morning and a wonderful Tuesday to boot. Lol

 

[VioletReigns]

HOW TO SPOT A SPAMMER

1. They are overly "TRUSTING & FRIENDLY" immediately and will usually start right out with a question or situation where they "need your help". Usually it's a fairly long paragraph and most times they don't capitalize the name of God.

2. THEY NEED YOUR HELP - Please answer any of the above questions - Please help me with this - I am really confused and need direction - or they will post a very controversial question or situation as they know it will whip up the forum into a quick, huge debate

3. THEY DON'T RESPOND OFTEN or SOMETIMES DON'T RETURN - as long as users are posting like mad, they don't need to return. We're doing the work for them by generating more visibility for them as long as we're responding and posting on their thread

4. THEY DON'T GET MAD or upset when you call them a troll or spammer - they say "LOL" instead. And they keep being friendly and acting innocent until they know they're caught. Then they start posting cuss words or just making a mockery of the forum.

 

[FridaysChild]

How do you identify them. What are some of the things that are characteristic?

Trolls: Real people. Watch for fruitless questions other than fun stuff by someone you know along the board. A profile with no friends. A membership date that's new or even that day. No LIKES given out but having gotten a few likes for themselves. No rep power. No avatar. And I might take good notice of a well known person on the forums when they refer to that OP as a troll.

As for bots. These are merely malicious malware. These programs make a membership and post gibberish. Engineered and promoted by people who have no lives and nothing to live for than to reek havoc and sew confusion. I use to get them in my chat boxes off our poetry forums. Hard to get rid of once they get a hold of a site. They keep coming back under different randomly produced names.

My question is though, how do either of them make money off postings under their OPs?

 

[GandalfTheWhite]

THE GOOD NEWS IS... all the religious debaters are kept in the spammers' arena in the BDF. While legalists believe they are soliciting wisdom and harping about law, they are absolutely wasting their time. Spammers laugh as they fuel the legalists into a frenzy of arguing, never knowing they played right into the spammers hand.

Last night I tried to warn them that they were arguing with a program and one debater told me that I was unkind for calling the spammer a troll. So then I thought, "Wait. Let the debaters stay in here and argue with a spammer. At least they're leaving real people alone." \/

Maybe what the mods should do on a way forward is to only allow you to start a thread after you posted 20 or 30 posts. At least that will give you an idea of the persons intensions and you can block them beforehand.

 

[oldhermit]

HOW TO SPOT A SPAMMER

1. They are overly "TRUSTING & FRIENDLY" immediately and will usually start right out with a question or situation where they "need your help".

2. THEY NEED YOUR HELP - Please answer any of the above questions - Please help me with this - I am really confused and need direction - or they will post a very controversial question or situation as they know it will whip up the forum into a quick, huge debate

3. THEY DON'T RESPOND OFTEN or SOMETIMES DON'T RETURN - as long as users are posting like mad, they don't need to return. We're doing the work for them by generating more visibility for them as long as we're responding and posting on their thread

4. THEY DON'T GET MAD or upset when you call them a troll or spammer - they say "LOL" instead. And they keep being friendly and acting innocent until they know they're caught. Then they start posting cuss words or just making a mockery of the forum.

Thanks Violet, I shall certainly bear that in mind.

 

[skylove7]

Whew!!! Good morning wonderful people! Lol....OK...this is the knowledge I gained since I left off last night...ahem...I love you all BTW! Now...wake up....gandalfs chainsaw man...ouch...then two pages of marriage talk! Sheeesh! .lol...is it just me...but I doubt chainsaw man didn't post on the marriage comments? Er...uh....lol ? OK so all caught up! Teehee

 

[oldhermit]

Trolls: Real people. Watch for fruitless questions other than fun stuff by someone you know along the board. A profile with no friends. A membership date that's new or even that day. No LIKES given out but having gotten a few likes for themselves. No rep power. No avatar. And I might take good notice of a well known person on the forums when they refer to that OP as a troll.

As for bots. These are merely malicious malware. These programs make a membership and post gibberish. Engineered and promoted by people who have no lives and nothing to live for than to reek havoc and sew confusion. I use to get them in my chat boxes off our poetry forums. Hard to get rid of once they get a hold of a site. They keep coming back under different randomly produced names.

My question is though, how do either of them make money off postings under their OPs?

Yea, I can spot a troll, I just never knew about the bots.

 

[FridaysChild]

Whew!!! Good morning wonderful people! Lol....OK...this is the knowledge I gained since I left off last night...ahem...I love you all BTW! Now...wake up....gandalfs chainsaw man...ouch...then two pages of marriage talk! Sheeesh! .lol...is it just me...but I doubt chainsaw man didn't post on the marriage comments? Er...uh....lol ? OK so all caught up! Teehee

well goodness, that is catching up

And good morning, skylove

 

[VioletReigns]

Trolls: Real people. Watch for fruitless questions other than fun stuff by someone you know along the board. A profile with no friends. A membership date that's new or even that day. No LIKES given out but having gotten a few likes for themselves. No rep power. No avatar. And I might take good notice of a well known person on the forums when they refer to that OP as a troll.

As for bots. These are merely malicious malware. These programs make a membership and post gibberish. Engineered and promoted by people who have no lives and nothing to live for than to reek havoc and sew confusion. I use to get them in my chat boxes off our poetry forums. Hard to get rid of once they get a hold of a site. They keep coming back under different randomly produced names.

My question is though, how do either of them make money off postings under their OPs?

GOOGLE "forum spammers" and you'll get all the information you need. I was reading up on it until 4:00am this morning!!!

 

[melita916]

first date? dates? marriage? what are those things???? haha jk.

i woke up feeling a little bleh. good thing tuesday is means slow day at work

 

[skylove7]

Ugh! Lol...every time I see the word SPAM...I think of glorious days when I'd cry " Noooo... Mommy! I don't wanna eat DAT! I don't wanna!". Lol

 

[GandalfTheWhite]

Whew!!! Good morning wonderful people! Lol....OK...this is the knowledge I gained since I left off last night...ahem...I love you all BTW! Now...wake up....gandalfs chainsaw man...ouch...then two pages of marriage talk! Sheeesh! .lol...is it just me...but I doubt chainsaw man didn't post on the marriage comments? Er...uh....lol ? OK so all caught up! Teehee

LOL he is either brave or stupid... I have made up my mind which one (cringe cringe)

 

[VioletReigns]

REPORT THEM over and over if you suspect it's a human spammer or a spam bot. That's what I was told last night when I chatted with one of the chat administrators.

Click on the little black triangle bottom left of the post to report it.

 

[cmarieh]

first date? dates? marriage? what are those things???? haha jk.

i woke up feeling a little bleh. good thing tuesday is means slow day at work

I enjoy having a slow day because it means I can have time in reflection with God and what he wants for me that day. I honestly wouldn't know where I would be without his love, grace, and peace.

 

[FridaysChild]

Originally Posted by FridaysChild

My question is though, how do either of them make money off postings under their OPs?

GOOGLE "forum spammers" and you'll get all the information you need. I was reading up on it until 4:00am this morning!!!

Ah yes, easy to spot LINKS in the OP.

People click the links and someone else makes money.

Got it. ty