I have just reported yet another lame attempt at advertising some product.
Why would anyone take the trouble to register on a Forum like this (or any Forum) just to post some inane message with links for some derma-care product. For all I know it doesn't even exist as a product.
Are there people who take sufficient notice these spam posts to make it worthwhile for the spammer?
Or are these posts just made by someone who feels good by making a nuisance of himself?
...R
Due to the dynamic nature of the content on forums, spamming a product name can provide a boost to the Google rating.
The spammers are playing an automated numbers game. Typically there will be a probe, registering zombie accounts on unpatched or otherwise vulnerable forums, often over an extended period. When enough zombies have been gathered, a spam campaign is triggered; promoting a product on many 1000s of forums within a few hours. Often the campaigns coincide with weekends and public holidays, both to secure bandwidth from corporate systems left unattended and to hopefully catch moderators out to lunch.
travis_farmer:
Hmm, just changed my forum to "Admin Approval", for when it goes live...
(mostly just for a hobby anyway, don't need any zombies)~Travis
To prevent people having to wait for an approval email, look at adding a google captcha. This will allow real people to sign up right away.
travis_farmer:
apparently it has a CAPTCHA. i never really tried to register on my own forum.
I guess i can take off the admin approval. (not that it matters yet...)
Captchas are fine until they are defeated or your forum gets targetted by a human assisted bot. I suspect Google's captcha will be more effective than most but handing more registration details to Google..[Shudder]
google backlinks are the shit 
The shorter time spam links are available, the less effective they are, so thanks for reporting Robin. I do that as well. On boards where I'm an admin, I do delete and ban runs daily.
Captcha is like a cheap lock. It only works for honest people. I like the ones where it's just a check box that says something like, "I am not a robot." Reminds me of the Star Trek where Spock crashed the demagogical computer by lying to it.
We get a lot of accounts registered by, ahem, promoters of young ladies of negotiable affection, usually from the Middle East or Indian subcontinent.
I've often wondered what this says about their perception of the demographic here.
AWOL:
I've often wondered what this says about their perception of the demographic here.
Such as, if they can afford an Arduino they can afford one of our young women?
OR, if they post on that Forum they need to get out more?
...R