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Why can't Painters Online get rid of all the Spam?

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Keith Orange

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Posted
Every section of the forum this morning has been taken over by spam. I use a few other sites and they are never affected by Spam, surely there's a way of keeping the spammers out.
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Alan Green

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Posted
Sadly, there's no law against being stupid; so there will always be spammers. This morning's batch are actually selling things which the authorities might want to take a look at (so at least one of them needs to stay there until they've had a look), so this spammer might in fact be up for a Darwin Award. The only real solution is Active Moderation of the forum, and the blog, so that spam posts can be disapproved and deleted before anyone ever sees them. I'm a forum moderator at www.guitarnoise.com and that's how we keep the forum clear; I presume other boards work the same way. I'd volunteer to do the job here; this forum carries a tiny amount of traffic.

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by alang23

With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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Posted
Again - we have to remember that this is a new site: that it has only one active moderator at the moment - and that she is sometimes away. I was a moderator on the old site, and removed a huge amount of spam - as did Phil Kendall, as did Dawn herself: so while the traffic may be notionally low, what you actually got to see was a fraction of what had been posted. For whatever reason, moderating duties cannot (?) be shared on this site, to my and everyone else's frustration, and I think this really is something that POL will have to address because at times the amount of junk posted here is so excessive that I'm sure it puts people off continuing to use the forum and blog pages at all. In the meantime, the best thing any of us can do with the spam is report it as soon as we see it - and if illegal goods are being offered, maybe report it to the police as well, although most if not all of these people are not based in this country. I know there is no direct means of reporting spam on the blog pages, but there I suggest you email the company via the Contact button. I've already volunteered to act as a moderator again, and I see at least one other would be willing to do it - but the means of enabling this don't seem to exist.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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You're right about that Syd, and Dawn (I've said this elsewhere) NB: the artful little (expletive deleted) has posted several entries in all the threads, in the hope of saving some of them from your pinking shears.

Painters-Online Team

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Posted
Sorry - I have had 2 weeks off work but I am on the case again now!

Painters-Online Team

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Posted
Yes - holiday thanks Syd!
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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Welcome back, Dawn - what a complete bore to have to come back to work and find that drivel waiting for you... it could do with reporting to the FBI, by the way, since it referred to false documents within the US jurisdiction. And it would serve the little ... fellow ... right if they bundled him off in the dead of night to some secure installation and water-boarded him..... But you're a kindly woman Dawn, and I bet I've put you off doing it now. Tsk...