There has been lots of discussion here about the sports-related spam.
On high volume sites, and sites with OCD^H^H^Hactive moderators, spam vanishes quickly. Either the users flag it to oblivion, or the moderators see it or the flags, and take care of it. In other words, the system works as intended.
On low volume sites, especially ones where moderators aren't as obsessive, spam can sit on the front page, even when it is flagged as such. In these cases, a moderator isn't around to handle the flag and the post hasn't hit the 3 flag or 6 flag threshold. While this isn't totally bad, Google and other spiders will occasionally crawl the site when spam is on the home page (this happened to Drupal Answers).
Proposal
Allow moderators to handle spam flags, network wide. I would also suggest a different flag indicator/counter in the header for all spam (ie, keep the yellow one for normal flag, but also put the red one in the header just for spam).
Rationale
Most spam is very identifiable. There is very little judgment that needs to go into deciding whether a post about live streaming, fake handbags, or discount watches is an unsolicited advertisement. All of the mods have been using the internet long enough to know what the deal is.
Not Proposing
I am not suggesting giving cross-network ability to moderators to delete/destroy accounts, just the ability to get spam deleted quicker, especially on lower volume sites. Handling the users themselves is best address by other means.
But what about revenge flags or improper spam flags?
I think we have enough trust in our moderators to know whether to decline these types of flags, or to ignore them for another moderator.
Won't this increase the workload for moderators?
Yes, for some. If there is a different indicator for spam, then I think that it won't affect us much. With hundreds of moderators, I also think that there will always be someone around, and this queue will remain relatively empty. Personally, I would be happy to help out during the particularly nasty spam attacks.