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When a post is flagged from six users, the post is automatically deleted and blocked from the Community user.

What happen to the account? Can the account still be used to create posts, maybe some months later, and from another person using a different computer, or connecting from a different place?
If the account can still be used from another user, do I (as moderator) get an automatic flag when an account used to post spam is later used again?

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2 Answers 2

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Yes, they can post from the same account again.

And they have.

At least one pharma spammer has reused their account - look at the user's metasmoke page. They've posted two spam posts - (1) and (2), within minutes of each other. They do get IP hobbled when we destroy the account, though.

Also this user - they posted a spam question at 04:45, which was deleted after 18 seconds. They then posted a second spam question at 06:41, which was deleted 5 seconds after it was posted. See also a list of posts that were marked as spam by Charcoal after a previous post of the user was marked as spam by Charcoal.

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  • That could be a spammer posting two posts before getting one of the posts flagged as spam from six users. That is why I asked about the same account used after months.
    – apaderno
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:18
  • @kiamlaluno - I'm pretty sure that both of those were nuked within seconds.
    – Mithical
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:19
  • The first answer was posted at 6:27pm, and deleted at 6:28pm. The second post was posted and deleted at 6:51pm.
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Sep 10, 2017 at 13:00
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When a post is successfully marked as spam, the following happens:

  • Post is locked
  • Post is deleted
  • Post author gets a -100 reputation penalty

And that is it. No further automatic results. The user who posted the spam can still post as usual, and is limited by the ordinary rate limits that apply to all users. There is no auto deletion of such users, or any automatic flag raised when they post again.

That said, posts successfully marked as spam are being fed to SpamRam, so at some point nobody will be able to post the same spam again as it will be auto blocked. Also, SE staff can trigger IP block for heavy spammer. However, neither of those are triggered by single spam post.

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  • When does it go into SpamRam?
    – rene
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:02
  • @rene you mean keywords from the post are taken and black listed? Not really sure, but guess it's not automatic.
    – Shadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:03
  • No, I mean the IP block for known spam accounts
    – rene
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:06
  • @rene I can confirm there aren't words used in spam posts that are automatically black-listed. If it were so, as moderator I would see many black-listed words.
    – apaderno
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:06
  • @rene The IP is blocked at network level, but I don't think it lasts long, for a simple reason (or two).
    – apaderno
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:07
  • Your answer contradicts Tim Post's answer: "if the community spam-flag deletes something, it's an instant blocking weight". Doesn't mean it's wrong, but some clarification from Tim would help here.
    – user315433
    Sep 10, 2017 at 15:59
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    From what I've seen on SO - brand new users whose first question gets spam flagged end up with that account marked as q-blocked... Not sure if the tuning is different on other sites...
    – Jon Clements
    Sep 10, 2017 at 16:18
  • @Michelle interesting, but still, "blocking weight" doesn't mean automatic block of the user, pretty sure of that.
    – Shadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry
    Sep 10, 2017 at 17:48
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    @JonClements yep guess SO got it very strict, so the 6 downvotes plus -100 rep are enough, as Mithrandir says in his answer, on other sites that's not the case.
    – Shadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry
    Sep 10, 2017 at 17:53
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    @Michelle Plus Tim says also: Note, this doesn't prevent anyone from reading the site, it just prevents 'new-ish' accounts with not much history from posting until the block expires (which happens not long after we stop seeing abuse from their location).
    – apaderno
    Sep 10, 2017 at 18:22
  • @kiamlaluno I saw that. So, there is a temporary block. Doesn't sound like " No further automatic results." to me.
    – user315433
    Sep 10, 2017 at 18:44
  • @Michelle I doubt single spam post cause instant block of similar keywords. More likely, it adds some weight to those keywords, and eventually they are blocked. So IMO it doesn't count as an automatic result.
    – Shadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry
    Sep 10, 2017 at 20:31
  • @ShaWizDowArd Who said anything about keywords? Not me. The question is about the account being blocked from posting.
    – user315433
    Sep 10, 2017 at 20:44
  • @Michelle I see, and from what I've seen from comments here, looks like it happens only on Stack Overflow, not other sites. We really need Tim Post to expand on this to get real answer. (Then I can edit this answer or delete it)
    – Shadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry
    Sep 10, 2017 at 21:10

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