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Spam, spam and yet more spam!
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Message
Posted
Thank you Denise, good thought.
Now - Gentles All: if you could avoid adding comment to spam posts, it makes them rather easier to remove completely, or we end up with disembodied comments referring to posts which no longer exist (once we've removed them). Just report the post, and moderators will do the rest; we can tell real spam from innocent error (we've had plenty of practice by now). Most of these posts are merely annoying, though a good proportion are inviting us to engage in illegal activity. One that did bother me this morning was a post linking to a suicide drug - a horrible thing: and not least because if anyone were feeling depressed and wanted to end it all, the drug offered was NOT an "easy way out", but one that, unsupervised, would cause enormous suffering: and if it didn't kill, would leave the user in vegetative state - I can't comprehend the sheer evil that lies behind a post like that, which is why I think we really need to take some of these things to the authorities.
I don't wish to add to the onerousness of our duties, but I'm not sure we can just leave a post offering lethal drugs to very depressed people by merely removing it from the site.
Posted
Now - please, I'm not bragging: honest - at the start there were two moderators: Phil Kendall, and me. Phil took his duties a touch too seriously, if he won't mind my saying so - he sought a wide remit over posts; I didn't agree; Dawn agreed with me; and Phil left - I wish he'd return to showing his gorgeous paintings, but he was, and actually he may NOT forgive me for saying so, a touch over the top. Gawd bless you guvnor, but - he did, and they were.
So then, it was just me - and one Easter I removed post after post after ****** post, into the early hours. There were hundreds of them - I thought of them as if they were those black, buzzing, meaty gurt flies of summer..... many, and loathsome. Others then volunteered, and Dawn asked me if I'd mind if they joined the team. MIND? I could have kissed the hem of their garments. I so welcomed the involvement of others - and it has worked; just imagine the burden if it hadn't? These bloody people, or bots, or whatever most of them are, came at us like droves of killer hornets (retaining the flying insect simile); now, there are (marginally) fewer of them - or if there aren't, we have more people to deal with them, and I'm so grateful to all who joined me and indeed assumed the major part of the burden, because my waking hours are sporadic - often here late into the night, not necessarily very early in the next morning.
So I can say - kids, it was absolute murder before: it's much easier now; and that's because others signed up to the cause of squishing the horrors as they arose. I don't seriously believe we'll ever stop them entirely, I wish we could: but to all who surged to the front and helped me, and eventually supplanted me, in driving the hordes back: I am grateful; and we should all be grateful - because the spam could have rendered this site unusable; I've seen that happen to others; it's a tribute to the value many of us attach to this one that these - I nearly said a naughty word: these ****ers, then, haven't destroyed POL. Little treasures all!
Posted
Keep our eyes open, all - they've taken, whether by design or chance, to posting at less predictable times; moved a few at 7am, thought that'd be it for the day, but no - they came back; I forget what the offer was this time (I also may have the wrong day!) but over the last week we've had cannabis, ketamine, cocaine - no wonder some of us are away with the fairies - and that old reliable, fake bank notes and credit cards.
We haven't had old Mama Woo Woo offering us spells to catch the attention of comely maidens just lately though - or if we have, I've missed them. You do sometimes wonder if we're quite the desired audience for some of these approaches: I do find it quite interesting, when it's not just infuriating - who on earth is likely to see these things who'd be even remotely interested in taking advantage of them? Or am I looking, such is my way, for logic where no logic exists? Anyway: spam removal is my hobby now - but without the aid of the other moderators, it would be a seriously onerous one: and I think they're getting to many of them before I do: we could have a competition, if there were any way of telling! There is a degree of pleasure in it, which is perhaps just as well.
