Forums spam reporting

[virtvir5]

This would properly be regarded as a forums 'feature request', but I don't have any vBulletin influence and I assume that HG does. So, ...

How about HG requesting (or inventing) a feature that alters the /!\ Report Post symbol when spam has once been reported. It would save us all from the uncertainty about prior reports and/or adding our own note to let other users know it has been reported already -- especially in cases that involve multiple instances of the same spam.

[citawds]

I generally just click the triangle symbol over on the right to report spam, but I do not generally make a post of the spam in the particular forum. It would be nice to have some indication that the spam has previously been reported.

Thanks

Steve

[virtvir5]

Agreed. I normally do likewise, but especially with multiple instances, it would be nice to have some kind of 'already reported' indicator.

It's certainly not anything like a high priority issue. On the other hand, it shouldn't be much of a challenge. I was almost tempted to download and play around with the relevant vBulletin coding myself, but I'm much too lazy.

[Chimpie]

Originally Posted by virtvir5

Agreed. I normally do likewise, but especially with multiple instances, it would be nice to have some kind of 'already reported' indicator.

It's certainly not anything like a high priority issue. On the other hand, it shouldn't be much of a challenge. I was almost tempted to download and play around with the relevant vBulletin coding myself, but I'm much too lazy.

As someone who has purchased several vBulletin forums over the years, I no longer support their product/company.

If you want to invest your money and time in a forum platform look at XenForo.com.

[ceaser]

Originally Posted by Chimpie

As someone who has purchased several vBulletin forums over the years, I no longer support their product/company.

If you want to invest your money and time in a forum platform look at XenForo.com.

I remember you had a blog post about the new forum when it first came out. Hows your experience been so far with it?

[Chimpie]

I've only played around with it a little bit, but I can say that even though it's still in beta, it's clearly heading in the direction of being a top notch product.

[virtvir5]

Originally Posted by Chimpie

As someone who has purchased several vBulletin forums over the years, I no longer support their product/company. If you want to invest your money and time in a forum platform look at XenForo.com.

Thanks for the suggestion, Chimpie. I have glanced at XenForo and it does look interesting. So far, however, my own very minimal needs have been satisfied with phpBB's "freebie" and I see little likelihood of my own site's needs expanding much in the foreseeable future. It's really just a retirement hobby.

My thought (transient and faded) about downloading vBulletin was only related to my suggestion to Hostgator about customizing its "Report This Post" feature. I was thinking about playing with a ready-made "mod" that HG might be able to use, but I have no interest in vBulletin for my own use at all.

[EarlyOut]

I've got a related suggestion to add. How about actually deleting the spam when it's been reported, and banning the users who have posted it?

It seems that even reported spam stays on here for days, even weeks. And often, the spammers' accounts aren't shut down, so they show up again a few days later, and post some more crap.

If you don't get rid of spam instantly, and ban the users quickly, you're just creating a spam-friendly site. Other spammers say, "Oh, this is a good place to post my garbage, since it will hang around long enough to get indexed."

I moderate on a forum that's more active than this one, and trust me, clobbering the spammers is really, really easy. It takes almost no time at all. With all of the "GatorX" users typically logged in on here, spam posts should last no more than a few seconds. Give all of them the power to delete posts.