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Resolved Stop the Spamming Newbies

669532

669532

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Feb 16, 2012
2,394
17
U.K
recently there has been quite a few new threads popping up just linking to something (advertising spam). They are all first posts, from newbies, who never post again.:mad:

I thought a newbie subforum would be an idea, you had to post there before going out into the big wide world. However this means that genuine first time posters don't quickly get a good answer though as they can't post in the relevant subforum.

Anyone got any good ideas to stop them?:confused:
 
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That's what the
report.gif
button is there for. Normally mods act quickly upon a new report, depending on the time of day of course.
 
A post should be judged on it's own merits, not by the post count of the poster.

If it's a good post...fine. If it's spam, then report it. If the post is in the wrong forum. then politely correct the newbie.

This elitist nonsense of judging a post by the post count of the poster is ridiculous.

The post stands or falls on it's own merits.
 
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Shrink said:
This elitist nonsense of judging a post by the post count of the poster is ridiculous.
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A combination of post count and a long time as a member affects how much salt I take with someone's post. If I asked a technical question and was given a response by a just joined newbie with 2 posts giving me some Terminal commands, I'd wait for others to reply. But if someone replied who had been a member for years and has more than a few posts, I'd be more willing to act upon their advice with the Terminal commands.

The longer the person has been a member along with the more posts they have, the less likely they are a troll that would give me dodgy Terminal commands to try mess my Mac.
 
Kilamite said:
A combination of post count and a long time as a member affects how much salt I take with someone's post. If I asked a technical question and was given a response by a just joined newbie with 2 posts giving me some Terminal commands, I'd wait for others to reply. But if someone replied who had been a member for years and has more than a few posts, I'd be more willing to act upon their advice with the Terminal commands.

The longer the person has been a member along with the more posts they have, the less likely they are a troll that would give me dodgy Terminal commands to try mess my Mac.
Click to expand...

i see where you are coming from, but I spent years reading the news and forums here but only joined this year.
 
Kilamite said:
A combination of post count and a long time as a member affects how much salt I take with someone's post. If I asked a technical question and was given a response by a just joined newbie with 2 posts giving me some Terminal commands, I'd wait for others to reply. But if someone replied who had been a member for years and has more than a few posts, I'd be more willing to act upon their advice with the Terminal commands.

The longer the person has been a member along with the more posts they have, the less likely they are a troll that would give me dodgy Terminal commands to try mess my Mac.
Click to expand...

Consider the possibility that a newbie could be an advanced user who just decided to join MR.

I still suggest that a post is judged on it's own merits, not the post count of the poster. Some newbies are well informed, and some long time members don't know doodley about tech matters.

As for Terminal, that place scares the crap out of me no matter who gives the advice. I suppose if ManMan45 or GGJstudios gave the advice, I might gird my loins and take a shot. I would agree that Terminal is not a place to fool around, but an advanced user newbie's advice might be a whole lot better than the advice of a long time member with a zillion post who doesn't know dick about Terminal.

My only point is that longevity does not guarantee knowledge, and that a post, technical or more social, be judged on it's merits.:D
 
I'd still read the newbie's post and advice. But there is no way to determine how advanced anyone is, unless the forum had a user voting feature, which probably would suck.
 
Is there anyway to make the captcha harder for a bot when the account is created?
 
stridemat said:
Is there anyway to make the captcha harder for a bot when the account is created?
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i don't think its bots in this case, i doubt very much a bot/program could read one of those pictures. i might be wrong though.
 
Shrink said:
I suppose if ... GGJstudios gave the advice, I might gird my loins and take a shot.
Click to expand...
Not me! I don't trust that guy! :D
Shrink said:
My only point is that longevity does not guarantee knowledge, and that a post, technical or more social, be judged on it's merits.:D
Click to expand...
I agree in principle, but many who join are just learning how to use a computer, while many join with a wealth of knowledge and experience already acquired. I had decades of computer experience but was relatively new to Mac OS X when I first discovered this forum. The challenge is that there's no way to know what a poster knows until they've been around a while and have a history of posts to use as a reference.

When someone has been an active member for a while, chances are higher that they've learned a few things by reading the forum. Also, if they've posted misinformation, chances are high that they've been corrected, learning from other members. In other words, it takes time to develop a reputation for offering accurate information and sound advice. The disadvantage with a newbie is you don't know what they know and what they don't until they've posted for a while.

As a result, I make no assumptions about what a poster knows until I've seen them post for a while. I would certainly consider their posts, but Kilamite said, I'd wait for some confirmation by trusted members or do my own research before following some recommendations made by someone who just joined.

Regarding the spam issue, the best thing to do is just report them when you see them. The mods are pretty quick about shutting down spammers, but there are some times when there doesn't appear to be any mods online. They always take care of it as soon as they're able, though.
 
A big problem lately has been the image tag spammers.

They copy a sentence from earlier in the thread and then use image tag to put a broken image link for a website.


(Seen it on here a few times and reported it but I mod on another big site so been seeing it.)
 
flindet said:
I thought we should be REALLY explicit about that being a joke so folks don't get curious and burn themselves. :-O
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Yeah, this is necessary. Personally I wouldn't write stuff I didn't know what it was in Terminal, but I sure have been close a couple of times - and I know certain people will try anything they read in forums without thinking twice. :)
 
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