Yes, there is such a thing a spamming the forums. It's even listed in Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_spam

Yes, we all are trying to earn a living but Spamming won't get you the $$$$ or the respect to make sales.

What is Forum Spam? Let's wee what Wiki says.

"Spam is the posting of advertisements, abusive, or unneeded messages on Internet forums. It is generally posted by automated spambots.

Types of spam

Most spambot forum spam consists of links, with the dual goals of increasing search engine visibility in highly competitive areas such as weightloss, pharmaceuticals, gambling, pornography, real estate or loans, and generating more traffic for these commercial websites. Some of these links contain code to track the spambot's identity if a sale goes through, when the spammer behind the spambot works on commission.

Spam posts may contain anything from a single link, to dozens of links. Text content is minimal, usually innocuous and unrelated to the forum's topic.

Another type that is recently hitting forums is full banner ads and blatant posting of an ad that is unrelated to the thread's topic. This takes away from the thread creator's topic of discussion, is rude and interrupts any fluid discussion started. This also eats up bandwidth, the time for someone to delete the SPAM and space wasted on the server. Especially when the person is going from thread to thread posting the same thing over and over with no regards to the topic or rules of those forums posted to.

Alternately, the spam links are posted in the user's signature, in which case the spambot will never post. The link sits quietly in the signature field, where it is most likely to be harvested by search engine spiders than discovered by forum administrators and moderators."

So we see now what it is and the types. Let's see what Wiki says about the effects of Spam.

"

Effects of spam

Spam prevention and deletions measurably increase the workload of forum administrators and moderators. The amount of time and resources spent keeping a forum spam free contributes significantly to labour cost, and the skill required in the running of a public forum. Marginally profitable or smaller forums may be permanently closed by administrators. Forums that do not require registration are becoming rare."

So we are seeing nothing positive about Spam in the forums. Just because we have seen it doesn't mean it's acceptable or right.

There are many better ways to get ranked well in search engines and get your name out there to build a following. I'll save that or another post.

Kenneth R Sword Jr

Ken, You have done some great research on a subject I knew little about. I think of two negetatives: 1.  if you spam with the same repetious info you lose your ranking on the search engines. That is the same for copy and paste of others info on the internet. 2.  In the case of communities like Adlandpro, you get blocked by more and more members til you realize you are losing more than gaining.  When you lose the respect of the community, you might as well fold up your tent and go home. Am I right on both of these???  It is just what I had been led to believe. Some one spams your forum---delete the post right?  Wrtie a polite reason and hope there is no revenge.

Hi Kenneth,

I always wondered why I get so many forum posts with so little text content, thanks for solving the mystery!

And now a blatant plug for my JP Award forum.

There is now only 24 hours left to vote for the May JP Award, to go and vote click on the special button image created by Joe Downing

Thanks

John.

This is valuable info Ken, though I must admit that I will have to read it again to get a better understanding of the different types.  Please do not hesitate to let me know if you see me doing any of it.  It is will help me understand better and stop me from doing it, if indeed I am.

Thanks!!

Judy

 

 

 

 

 

Hi, Kenneth,

What an excellent post and what a pity it will not make one iota of difference,

Why?

First of all you have the "But, honestly, it wasn't me" denial.

Second - you have every wannabe roogoo guru out there telling everybody that this is how to advertise, Not only do they do this, they provide "spam free forum blasters", "spam free blog blasters" and any other blasted blaster you care to mention.

How many times do you see the ad saying something like "Blast your ad to 90 million double opt ins every six hours!" or how many traffic generating roogoos do you see telling people to post on forums and blogs - and even supplying software to find the forums and blogs?

Third you have the mentality that says "This is a marketing community - all I'm doing is marketing".

Fourth you have the genuine mistakes - I set up a forum yesterday in 'Schools and Alumni' by mistake. The forum was actually introducing a product (something I don't do very often) and asking for any feed back. My mistake obviously upset a lot of people because the product has been viewed over 60 times and not one bit of feed back have I had.

The Old Coot