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The Bitcoin SE site is full of spam.

I tried to ask about it on the site but they told me to ask on Meta, but I don't have enough points for that. Just look at the front page, the spam is overwhelming. They said that mods take care of the spam but look at all the spam that's there:

Some of the moderators don't visit the site for days.

FIX THE SPAM. No one deletes or closes the spam questions. They just leave it there. and my question asking to delete the spam is gone too so I should ask here.

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  • 27
    I believe that if a post is flagged for spam by multiple members it is automatically deleted. In addition, people probably shouldn't be editing spam posts since it makes it extra work for moderators to read them in the mod console.
    – doppelgreener
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 2:38
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    How many people are actually flagging that for spam? Downvotes are irrelevant.
    – doppelgreener
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 2:40
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    I flagged all that as spam, it's all I can do as a non-mod. Sorry you're having a bad time in the network. If enough users flag them as I did, they will be automatically deleted.
    – juan
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 2:54
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    I just joined for the sole purpose of flagging as spam; looks like at least one got nuked as a result. Also, some of those posts are days old... that's a little concerning.
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 2:54
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    All the spam posts are gone
    – FDinoff
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 3:09
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    I find this video enlightening when it comes to dealing with spam. Monty Python - SPAM
    – Old Checkmark
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 3:15
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    @FDinoff one is still one the main page (bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/12181/…)
    – user228226
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 3:26
  • @doubleDown what is that?
    – user228226
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 3:28
  • 1
    In other news: bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/12183/…
    – Cole Tobin
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 5:59
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    @ColeJohnson, I think we got a Spam Overflow situation.
    – Old Checkmark
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 6:53
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    @doubleDown throw new SE.SpamOverflowException(SE.Sites.Bitcoin, 12183);
    – Cole Tobin
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 7:38
  • 16
    You did well to come here and report. Many users here have more than 200 rep on at least one site so they can flag spam posts on any Stack Exchange site, and good chance you also made a wake up call to the moderators of bitcoin site, all three of them. :)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 14:21
  • 4
    Bitcoin.SE is actually a spam honeypot by the looks of it (Ripple marketing, etc).
    – user7116
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 19:59
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    @user7116 yeah well 1 of the mods works for ripple so are you suprised?
    – user228226
    Commented Jul 17, 2013 at 11:22
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    @BitcoinFan It was decided on Meta that Ripple is on topic, a lot of Ripple questions simply indicates an interest in Ripple. David who works for Ripple has been very professional about it, obviously he has good answers to the questions so it isn't strange that he answers them. If you have a look he has also been one of the most active users in answering Bitcoin questions.
    – D.H.
    Commented Jul 17, 2013 at 13:02

5 Answers 5

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25

Undo's advice is pretty spot on. Who can handle spam on Bitcoin? The site's community! For example, that's what happened to this question.

That said, when there's a wave of spam coming in like this, it can be helpful for us (the community team) to step in and set up additional measures like URL blacklists. In this case, I blacklisted emocoe.com, so there should be no more spam coming in that mentions that domain. This won't necessarily stop someone from using URL shorteners or other ways to obfuscate the link, but it's usually a good enough roadblock to curb the abuse.

Having examined the mods' activity records, I think we should be okay for now. This looks like an isolated burst of spam. However, if the moderators aren't keeping up with the workload on the site, we can look into appointing additional moderators. After all, they're all volunteers and we can't expect them to be around 24/7.

You might also want to start a discussion on Bitcoin Meta to round up and educate more users about spam flagging and maintaining the site going forward.

Please do let us know (email [email protected]) if you keeps getting waves of spam that don't get addressed quickly enough despite the community's best efforts and we'll see what else we can do.

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    I don't think the OP has the 5 reputation required to participate on their meta.
    – user7116
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 20:00
  • @user7116 Good catch. It shouldn't be too hard to get 5 reputation, though.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 20:23
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    I was going to go find something of theirs worthy of an upvote, but... They haven't done anything on BTC.SE.
    – Undo
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 20:36
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    I'm only recently familiar with the BitCoin site because of this thread, but I'm starting to think a fourth moderator is needed. This question has been sitting around for 6 hours, and two of the moderators haven't been on today yet to even see it. You would think there are enough users active on the site that the question would be flagged as spam enough to be deleted, but apparently not.
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Commented Jul 18, 2013 at 17:04
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    @LBT Yeah, we're in the process of appointing a fourth now.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Jul 18, 2013 at 17:13
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    @AnnaLear - any progress on this? I'm a relative newcomer to the BitCoin site, but I'm a little concerned about the moderation there. This question has gone unanswered for multiple days, despite the fact that all moderators have been on at some point since then. Combined with the fact that I still have flags that are days-old and unattended, I get the impression there that no one cares. In fact, I'm pretty concerned with the quality of the questions in general.
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 13:37
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    @AnnaLear also the mods dont go on the meta site it looks like so i dont think tey would see anything i post. look at this question (meta.bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/439/…) also if you look at mod users (meta.bitcoin.stackexchange.com/users?tab=moderators) they dont visit or at least they dont respond to questions
    – user228226
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 21:49
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    @BitcoinFan - Yeah, I've got flags open since mid-July, and suggested edits that just sit there for days at a time. The site is apparently a ghost town.
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 13:18
  • @LBT There are two unhandled flags on Bitcoin right now, both of them from a few hours ago. All of yours have been resolved as far as I can tell.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 14:07
  • @AnnaLear - I'm showing 5 active flags, for bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/12575/…, bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/13119/…, bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/12975/…, bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/12385/… and bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/12384/… (flagged July 29th).
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 14:12
  • @LBT Ah, the "recommend closure" flags. Mods don't see those anymore, so I keep forgetting about them. They just go into review and that does seem to be a bit backlogged.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 14:14
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    @AnnaLear - Interesting, thanks for the update! Also, good grief that is clogged, all around. For future reference, would it be better to e-mail [email protected], ping you here, or just patiently wait for situations at Bitcoin.se? I hate to be a pest, but I find weird things to fixate on.
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 14:24
  • @LBT There's not much we can do about it. It's not like if you email us, we're going to swoop in and clear the queues. :) We might help out and we generally keep an eye on this sort of thing across all sites, but it really is up to the community to sort itself out. Posting a discussion on the Bitcoin Meta site would be a good starting point to try and rally the community together.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Sep 12, 2013 at 18:40
  • 1
    @AnnaLear Do you have any suggestions for alerting the community to meta posts? I joined the bitcoin site when a few of my answers were migrated there, and even coming from another beta site, the meta on bitcoin seems deserted. I've even flagged questions for moderator attention, hoping to notify someone about them, but most of the recent discussions, including LBT's post about the backlog of the review queue, seem to be LBT, another user, and myself alone.
    – John Bensin
    Commented Sep 16, 2013 at 3:26
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The site moderators are the ones to take care of this, but a post will also be removed if 6 members of the community flag it as spam.

If you believe that the moderators for your site aren't doing their job, you can contact the Stack Exchange team at [email protected].

They're nice, I promise. They don't bite too hard.

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    is noone flagging it for spam then? when i see a mod (bitcoin.stackexchange.com/users/22/david-perry) who hasnt been seen in 2 days (says his profile) but hes been on stack overflow a couple of hours ago (stackoverflow.com/users/429040/david-perry) i dont think they care.
    – user228226
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 2:42
  • @BitcoinFan In general, the community rights itself from these errors. Give the moderators some time, they might be new to the job or taking a vacation. If all else fails, ask the community team for help.
    – Undo
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 2:43
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    if a mods on vacation and cannt visit the bitcoin site why can they be on stack overflow and not the bitcoin site?
    – user228226
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 2:47
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    @BitcoinFan I'm just proposing a theory. You should talk to the SE team if you are worried about it.
    – Undo
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 2:49
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    If the same 5 people who cast close votes instead flagged the questions as spam, all it takes is one more spam flag. The spammers are annoying, but in theory, this should be able to be managed by users until mods can/need to intervene.
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 3:04
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    @BitcoinFan it could always be that a mod is accessing stack overflow for work and has a heavy workload preventing from checking in on bitcoin.
    – Joe W
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 18:38
6

I'm one of the moderators on the Bitcoin site. Lately it seems that all of us have been busy with other stuff so I will raise the question with the other moderators and the StackExchange team about adding additional moderators. Don't be too hard on us, we're all just doing this on our spare time and sometimes life gets in the way. :)

That said, it would also be great if we could get more community involvement on the site, all ideas on how to increase voting, editing etc. are welcome!

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    can you go on the meta site and answer some questions there?
    – user228226
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 2:24
6

You can help with spam too, through the review queue. It's an easy way to spot spam. You'll need a certain level of reputation to use it, however. As of this update, the threshold is now 350 reputation on beta sites for the sections I'll talk about here. The queue provides a quick way for you to examine first posts by new users, late answers to old questions, etc. Most spam posts fall into one or both of these categories (although the reverse isn't true). Once you have 15 reputation, you can immediately flag posts as spam right from the review queue, thus contributing to the six flags that will result in automatic deletion.

If you're a low-rep user (like me), the review queue is an easy way to contribute to the overall health of the site. If you build up enough rep through questions, answers, edits, etc. there's certainly room for you to help.

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  • 6
    I think it's only 125 rep currently, too.
    – Undo
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 4:00
  • @Undo Thanks for the correction; I wasn't sure. On a related note, it's a bit unclear where to find this information because just looking at the privileges page, I don't see it mentioned. Once I click through each link (or have someone tell me that it's 125), it's easy to spot, but not before that, unless I'm missing another page.
    – John Bensin
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 4:04
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    @Undo I updated my answer because the threshold is now 350 on beta sites.
    – John Bensin
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 15:53
0

One alternative, similar to the thread here in Meta for reporting copycat SO sites, is to actively engage the community by creating a new Question in Bitcoin Meta titled something like "Help Flag the Spam Posts (Ongoing)".

Have the text of the question start with:

This StackExchange site is not patrolled enough to properly control the spam-based questions. This question exists as a perpetual dumping ground for spam-like questions.

  • Edit this question to list links to questions that need to be flagged for spam.
  • Click into any questions here and flag them for spam if you see fit to do so.
  • Edit this question to remove any links that have been removed due to being flagged as spam.

Current List of Spam Questions:

{list}

Note: This is a request for moderators to set this question to community wiki

You'll need to update the new meta question with links to spam questions and keep the meta question maintained. Flag the question for moderation and explicitly request the question be set to community wiki, and remove the "Note:" sentence once it is applied. As a community wiki meta question, maintenance of the meta question is opened up to the rest of your Bitcoin community as well.

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    Much better to get people to flag rather than edit a random CW question, it only takes 6 users. This would just be another step/dumping ground and mean users won't flag.
    – hayd
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 22:40
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    i.sstatic.net/Bj3aP.gif
    – JoshDM
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 22:41
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    I'm not sure this is a good idea. As hayd mentions, it's likely to be a way for people to avoid flagging. Meta sites on SE 2.0 also don't have that much traffic, so this would possibly have zero effect despite the effort spent to set up and maintain the list.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 22:43
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    I don't understand how it's a way to avoid flagging if the intent is to get the list of questions in front of those who are capable of flagging in order TO flag them.
    – JoshDM
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 23:26
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    I think the issue is that the flags are not handled in a timely fashion (via closing/deleting the spam posts); there is probably no lack of flags, after all anyone with >15 rep can flag a post. If one person sees a post that should be flagged, he'd probably flag it, and chances are he's not the only who does so, so there isn't really a need for such a wiki to tell 50 more users to flag it. 1 flag is all that is needed to get attention (I think), from thereon the close-voters/moderators take over. And it seems like BitCoin is/was having some trouble with this last part.
    – Old Checkmark
    Commented Jul 22, 2013 at 20:16