Questions tagged [spam]
This tag is for questions about suspected user spam, the spam flag or combating spam as a community.
724
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A Terms of Service update restricting companies that scrape your profile information without your permission
Update (April 19, 2016): This change is now live. You can view the updated Terms of Service here, or read about them below.
tl;dr:
We’re planning to make some changes to our Terms of Service to stop ...
- 52.7k
433
votes
9
answers
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Can a machine be taught to flag spam automatically?
TL;DR: We did it, so... yes.
What is this?
Charcoal is the organization behind the SmokeDetector bot and other nice things. This bot scans new posts across the entire network for spam posts and ...
- 21.1k
320
votes
2
answers
1k
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Add optional box for spam flags letting you say why you think it's spam
This came up recently, where a user had taken the time to look at the link on a post and realized that the post wasn't just off-topic, it was actually half-decently-disguised spam. So he flagged it as ...
- 23k
313
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2
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What are the “spam” and “rude or abusive” (offensive) flags, and how do they work?
When flagging, there are two special case options: spam and rude or abusive.
What is spam, and when should I flag content as such?
What is considered offensive, rude or abusive content?
How does the ...
180
votes
6
answers
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Spam Profiles are getting my goat. Could we have better tools for mods to deal with profile spam?
Super User got hit by another batch of spammers creating profiles. They've got accounts on other sites from what I've heard from other mods and from the comments here.
Last time it was streaming. Now ...
- 170k
172
votes
14
answers
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A machine can flag spam automatically. Can it do better?
Since this has been posted, we've done a few things:
We now cast four flags on posts that pass an accuracy threshold (current 99.9% historical confidence)
SmokeDetector now casts the first ...
- 21.1k
155
votes
3
answers
3k
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Should spam posts be edited?
I noticed that the posts of the recent spam surge on Ask Ubuntu were all edited by community members into something like
EDITED - REMOVED SPAM ANSWER
or similar.
While I understand why the users ...
- 185k
149
votes
14
answers
15k
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Limits for self-promotion in answers
It's been covered before that posting links to your own website is ok, but should there be a line drawn? There were several spam flags today for Ira Baxter's recent posts, presumably because they all ...
143
votes
4
answers
842
views
Suggested edits that change links should jump out and punch reviewers in the face
This request is motivated by a sneaky sneaky spammer who replaced a useful link with a link to some youtube video. It fooled several reviewers, and if I hadn't noticed that the link text was the same, ...
- 14.3k
128
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3
answers
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Recent Mass Football Spam
Is something wrong with StackOverflow's spam filter? Recently there have been huge numbers of spam topics related to football streaming. They have all been spam flagged and deleted but there are more ...
- 2,690
121
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5
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Ban ImageShack images because they are reusing old URLs for advertising
There's a very popular topic on Stack Overflow's Meta asking to Ban ImageShack Images. This was created because ImageShack deletes old images to free up server space, making images within older posts ...
- 6,691
115
votes
4
answers
1k
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Auto-delete/destroy 1 rep user when their post is deleted as spam
My common workflow when I see a blatant spam post by a 1 rep user is:
flag as spam (when I'm a mod this auto-deletes)
go to user profile
As a mod, I destroy the user. As a regular user I spam flag ...
- 185k
113
votes
6
answers
3k
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We need to improve the quality of our spam!
Recently, I've noticed a downhill effect in the quality of spam posted on Stack Exchange websites. Take this as an example (found on Space.SE):
There are a great many things wrong with this artifact:
...
- 50.3k
111
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Don't use spam post as audits in the low quality review queue
Spam posts, without proper context, especially those tricky ones, can be extremely difficult to assess; and even when you successfully identify it as "spam" the review queue doesn't allow you to flag ...
- 15.3k
98
votes
0
answers
453
views
Posts destroyed as spam should trigger a retroactive audit failure for previous "No Action Needed" votes
As a moderator on Stack Overflow, I regularly look through the review history of obvious spam that has lasted more than an hour or so on the site. I often find one or two reviewers who voted "No ...
- 60.8k
85
votes
2
answers
714
views
Raise an automatic flag for spammers
When a post gets six spam flags, it is deleted. However, the user account remains in the system.
When this happens, an automatic flag should be raised to allow moderators to check the account to see ...
- 6,487
84
votes
2
answers
7k
views
How can I report a specific bad user?
Every once in a while we get a question about how to report a bad user to the admins. Sometimes it's a spammer, sometimes it's a troll, sometimes it's just someone who had a momentary blip in the "...
81
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8
answers
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Has Stack Overflow been haiku-hacked?
When for the first time
A new question I answer
This haiku appears:
Little slab of meat
In a wash of clear jelly
Now I heat the pan
Such a message is
Very strange; is anyone
Seeing the same ...
- 939
77
votes
2
answers
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More than 15k bottles of Viagra from Kenya, asking 110+ people for money, seriously?
I received a strange mail from a well-known SE user with the following body two days ago:
HALLO EVERYONE. I am writing to you from Kenya. I have recently come into contact with a great bunches of ...
77
votes
4
answers
4k
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Why don't we treat rubbish the same as spam?
Spam gets fairly heavily punished - 100 reputation penalty, if I recall correctly, and the content itself gets hidden in the revision history.
Now if we just have some rubbish:
...
- 13.7k
76
votes
7
answers
632
views
How can we empower per-site mods to more efficiently dispose of network spammers?
Here's the problem, in a nutshell:
Glancy T. Pony is a mod on our mayonnaise site, and wakes up in the
afternoon to find that her site has been littered by Miracle Whip
astroturfers. As Glancy ...
- 181k
75
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Why shouldn't I downvote spam that I've already flagged?
One of the responses to the question about the mass of football spam said:
The proper course of action is to flag the post as spam. Three spam flags will remove it from the front page, six will ...
- 1,670
75
votes
1
answer
569
views
Flag users who approve an edit that ends up rejected for vandalism
If an edit is rejected as vandalism, I think it would be useful to have some sort of flag or notification raised if anyone voted to approve it.
- 4,958
73
votes
0
answers
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2017: a year in spam
Last year, I posted 2016: a year in spam. Since that was pretty well-received, here’s the 2017 version. Ladies, gentlemen, aliens, and everyone in between: more statistics about spam that you never ...
- 36.3k
70
votes
0
answers
672
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Please moderate Facebook comments on the SO page
Not a complaint or a whine, but a polite request because Facebook won't do it.
I reported the comment above, which was posted from a fake account using your name to entice people to send them crypto ...
- 1,144
62
votes
3
answers
842
views
This user is edit-spamming dozens of answers with their affiliate code. Can they be removed?
See the activity here: https://stackoverflow.com/users/1071887/idan?tab=activity&sort=revisions
Notice that most of the edits are simply adding that user's affiliate code to iTunes links.
It's a ...
- 553
62
votes
2
answers
1k
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This guy tried to recruit me as a stooge for manipulating SE
A few days back, I got this email:
Dear Ein,
I see that you are an active member of multiple Stack Exchange
communities. We are looking for content creators. The task is very
simple and pays well. We ...
- 26.1k
61
votes
1
answer
778
views
Stop sending me emails I didn't sign up for
In the past few days, I've had eight separate emails from Stack Overflow. I signed up for none of them, and none of them are enabled in my email settings.
The Overflow #17
Charcoal Digest - Tuesday, ...
- 36.3k
60
votes
3
answers
650
views
Spam edit approved
Here's an edit that replaced the useful link with some youtube video: https://stackoverflow.com/suggested-edits/346238
I'm not sure how else to go about flagging it, but clearly the editor needs a ...
- 14.3k
59
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Scammer spam autocompletes when entering team name in profile
When I type "Google", "Microsoft", "Norton", "Canon", "Lexmark", or any of several other company names into the Company Name field in the Career section of my Stack Overflow profile, most of the ...
- 1
58
votes
2
answers
770
views
Automatically reject suggested edits where edit summary is an email address
Could we automatically reject a suggested edit if the edit summary is only an email address? We all know it is very common for spam bots to enter email address to the one-line field that is after a ...
- 7,669
58
votes
1
answer
490
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2018: a year in spam
End-of-year posts seem to have become the tradition these days, so I'm back again with a third Year in Spam. Welcome back, folks, to another round of statistics you never needed to know.
All times/...
- 36.3k
57
votes
1
answer
297
views
Include the option to flag posts as spam in the Low Quality queue
I guess this is an additional to previous requests like this and this.
But I just came across this review item, and was unable to flag it as spam.
edit: Since I posted this, the item has been ...
- 2,177
56
votes
2
answers
570
views
Don't age away spam/rude/abusive flags
Currently, spam flags and rude/abusive flags age away in 2 days if not acted upon. This doesn't really happen on active sites, but it does happen elsewhere. (For example, I have four aged-away spam ...
user315433
55
votes
4
answers
558
views
Spam-polishing audits
A truly horrific thing happened on 2014-02-26:
In case you can't see that, that's blatant spam. With a suggested edit to fix its link. That edit was unanimously approved.
A suggested edit to fix ...
55
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2
answers
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SPAM deluge over at WebApps (and pretty much all over SE)
Related: Recent Mass Football Spam
Web Applications's newest questions page is currently football-SPAM ridden to a surprising degree.
Anything ordinary community members can/should do when something ...
- 19.4k
52
votes
3
answers
640
views
Getting flagged as spam should appear in the activity summary
This question brought to my attention something that was always there, but few knew: flagging a post as SPAM produces a 2 point rep penalty.
The problem is I just got a 2 point decrease in rep ...
- 33.3k
51
votes
2
answers
1k
views
What is a "spam seed"?
Here I found a new terminology first time:
Looks like a spam seed is a post, which "is designed to allow spammers to post questions so it looks legitimate".
What does this mean? Maybe it is some ...
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51
votes
1
answer
2k
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Can/Should we report companies who solicit astroturfing services?
I got an email from a company asking me to use my established reputation to recommend their product on Stack Overflow:
Hello Oli!
My name is [withheld], and I’m Sales & Marketing Manager in [...
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51
votes
1
answer
422
views
Deleting your profile clears the spam flag, but not the implicit downvote
While testing an answer to What happens to pending flags when an account is deleted?, I discovered something else: it's possible to serially downvote a single post using only one account.
Steps to ...
GlorfindelMod
- 248k
50
votes
8
answers
783
views
What can we do about all the reoccurring spam?
This last blast we had was really huge, it lasted almost the whole day. See: https://i.stack.imgur.com/OXvpc.jpg
I have noticed across SE we are getting a lot of spam, usually titled "WATCH BLAH ...
- 9,633
50
votes
1
answer
450
views
Timestamps for spam and offensive flags not shown
In the flagging summary page /users/flag-summary/<id>, the timestamp that the flag is raised for spam and offensive flags are not shown.
Is this status-bydesign or a bug? I can't think of any ...
- 5,582
50
votes
1
answer
340
views
Should the "Page Not Found" page for deleted spam suggest a search?
When a <10k user opens a deleted question, he is greeted with a "Page Not Found" page explaining that the question has been deleted by the author, or for moderation reasons, but more importantly it ...
- 7,669
49
votes
2
answers
1k
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Is spam in the "about me" field a reason to worry? [duplicate]
There are many inactive user profiles on SO that were clearly registered by spammers. The spam posts (if there were any) are already removed but the profiles remain. Some of them put their spam text ...
48
votes
5
answers
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Who's supposed to stop spam on the Bitcoin SE site? [closed]
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 ...
user228226
48
votes
4
answers
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Who wants to go spam hunting?
Achtung! Read this first:
Please use spam flags responsibly. Spam flags can have severe consequences on a user without any moderator action. Don't just spam spam flags, look at the user's activity. If ...
- 9,231
48
votes
8
answers
507
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Could we have a minimum reputation for visible profiles?
After a couple of years - most of the profiles that were getting my goat have been herded away from the sites I moderate. There's probably many more left and I'm looking at thwarting them in many ...
- 170k
48
votes
1
answer
355
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2016: a year in spam
In the spirit of Shog9's recent post, "2016: A year in closing", I thought I'd do something similar for spam. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with all the statistics about spam you never needed to ...
- 36.3k
47
votes
5
answers
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Help this poor spammer out
I don't think this guy deserved to get his answer deleted as spam. Martin'Vobr vas Rebex linked to a product he makes as an example of a library to accomplish the task the OP sought, and did so in a ...
- 26.4k
47
votes
3
answers
460
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Implement cross-site posting rate limits to slow down spammers
In the morning of March 19th, a newly-registered user posted 11 spam questions in as many minutes:
While asking questions is rate-limited, these rate limits are not applied across sites, allowing ...
- 1,556