I'm making a post here because there is a current thread: Spam topics with examples where all sorts of tricks which spammers use are being discussed. However that thread is visible to, but not updatable by, ordinary users. I cannot even "report" or "flag" it.
Spam is a fact of life. Most users will recognise that if they are on a microcontroller related and some link is referring to, for example, an Indian pharmaceutical site selling Viagra, that is a spam post to be either reported or ignored. Wrong is, IMO, to use a few cases of such spam to justify policies which affect the majority of users or the general usability of the site.
In my understanding, this thread exists mostly to help users recognize spam tactics, which is not only useful for reporting them here, but also generally useful knowledge if you run your own website, for example.
I take it that your purpose here is to start a discussion on whether the auto-lock of threads that have been inactive for half a year is a good idea or not? Personally, I don't think it's a big deal - new posts to these threads tend to be either spam, or better situated in a new thread anyway, and if there really is a reason (e.g. you want to update an old project showcase you posted years ago), the mods can reopen it for you manually.
@taschi
Your summary of the purpose of my topic is correct.
@6v6gt
Obviously you know i started the topic, i did so because i see regular helpers replying to and trying to help posters asking questions that are likely to become homes for spam. Most of the job of moderation is removing spam, much of the spam we remove you never see. I wanted to show regular users examples of spam we removed so they can learn what we know about topics and replies containing spam. If you look at some of the examples the spam is well hidden and not easy to spot unless you are looking for it.
I don't want you to be able to post in the topic, what would you post? If you do have an example that's suitable to post then send me a PM and I will unlock the topic allow you to post it.
Why would you flag a moderator created topic? Obviously only moderators see the flags. You are welcome to send me a PM if you like, or if you want the opinion of a different moderator then please ask, i won't mind.
Of course I know you started the thread, however, it was not clear why it was blocked.
Here, I have one fundamental disagreement. The spammer has the objective to get as many clicks as possible on a specific link (advertising goods/services etc.) If it is hidden in an old post, which few people see, it is neither of benefit to the spammer nor a general nuisance for the site. The manner is which it is "hidden", that is the HTML tricks that are used, is interesting only for someone creating an automatic tool for hightlighting spam. The normal user sees it as a clickable link or, in the worst case, some automatically invoked activity.
AWOL is correct, placing links in well regarded sites is (believed to be) advantageous for SEO purposes.
Even if you are correct that such hidden links provide no benefit to the spammer the fact is they place a lot of hidden links.
The normal user does not see it as a clickable link if it is well hidden, they do not see the link at all, which is something i am trying to highlight with some of the examples.
That (Search Engine Optimisation) is a whole new issue. If the forum is misused to get links in Google etc. elevated in ranking, that is not nice but (a) has no direct impact on this site (apart from some bytes of storage space) and (b) only further discredits the various search engines which, anyway, have even less transparent algorithms behind ranking of links.
You mean "aside from filling discussions with auto-generated word vomit, wasting the users' time by putting said auto-generated word vomit right on top of the dashboard, and generally being a nuisance", don't you?
Incidentally, I'm the one (or one of the people) who reported the most current example in PerryBebbington's spam example thread because I saw the thread on the dashboard, thought it sounded interesting, and then saw that it was a months-old discussion that had pretty much been resolved, and which had only been necromanced by some nonsensical AI ramblings in order to get some clicks and some SEO.
This has a direct impact on the usability of this forum, and to me (probably to others as well), it is plainly annoying. I expect moderators to be on top of it (and they clearly are), and I don't see any "unhealthy obsession" in that.
Incidentally, you have still failed to substantiate how YOUR user experience on this forum is significantly negatively impacted by this alleged "unhealthy obsession".
A lot of the spam i remove is gone within 10 minutes of it being posted, which i think is pretty good. Very occasionally i see spam that's been here months or years unfortunately, and finding one old bit of spam can lead to other spam by the same person.
As a former owner of a forum site that had over 100k members (got rid due to finances so don't know if it is still popular or not.), I find it hard to understand how any policy to fight spam can be detrimental to the site in any way what so ever. Surely, it is something to be appreciated that the moderators are doing this, and the only reason I can come up with for not wanting the policy is if you want to spam people yourself.
