I agree with the remark Nick made below about spamming.  I'm going to start deleting posts that are a spamming in my forums.  If someone starts a topic about THEIR business, and someone (a spammer) comes along and ads THEIR business and if that note has nothing to say about the topic, I'll delete it. 

I want my guests to feel welcome and treated with respect.  I don't want word wars to start.  That is what happens sometimes when a spammer gets on board.  The first person gets a reply but it has NOTHING to do with their business and it takes away from the opportunity they have to present their view.  This is just my opinion. Hope it doesn't sound like I'm BIG BROTHER censoring free speech.  Pat

 

HI Kenneth,

This is amazing my friend. You read minds also!There is one particular person who constantly spams peoples forums and this drives me crazy to no end to the point all I see is red! When you come to a forum that is asking for prayers and then see all this self patting on the back is very annoying and the person who opened the forum does not want to rock the boat so it is left there like a huge eye sore. To all the people out there, if somebody posts on your forum and the topic has nothing to do with the subject then just delete it. It not only annoys you, but also all your other readers - Peace!

Hi Ken,  

I have just had to reject a post in my forum. and it is unfortunate as it had some good info in it.

The problem is is was nothing more than a blatant advertisement for the posters program. with  things like "over at  XXXXXXX LLC  we do not..."   and "..our rules at XXXXXXXX ...."

Come on fella  nice try but I was not born yesterday.

It also amazes me that people persist in using spam methods even though they have had problems in the past. What is more amazing is that when challenged they plead ignorance.

Mind you is it any wonder the new people do it. As Arthur pointed out they see the self appointed "Guru's" doing it so they think its ok do it to.

One of the biggest problems is, if a spammer has a large following then people are frightened to report them  for fear of the consequences, and I think this is why not enough people dare to even think of deleting certain posts. They fear being ostracized

 

 

 

   

Well I decided to see if the word could get out to educate people on your forum. Come visit:  http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/662264.aspx Everyone is welcome to promote this to your friends.  Get the word out and people may hear what Ken is saying.  Otherwise, new people look at what is going on and decide to imitate those who appear to be successful. Bill, With the presence of CRC no one should fear.  Delete the post but copy it first so you have a hard copy of your own. Keep a record of what you sent as the excuse to delete.

Hi Kenneth, What a very timely post! I'm almost getting to the point of finally blocking an ALP friend for the very first time.... I hope the right people stop by and read this. (I was going to write a similar article over the weekend, but things got rather busy here.) I guess you're probably getting more and more spam at your own site, too. I have to go into one of my sites every day to delete all the garbage that's getting posted. I've even tried blocking their IP addresses, but that doesn't make any difference to a determined spammer who knows how easy it is to change their IP address. You're very right about the workload - I spend FAR too much time dealing with it on my own community sites. (I'm glad I'm not the only one... which won't make you or any other owner any happier...) Perhaps eventually people will finally realize that it doesn't work. God bless, Dave

Hi Kenneth,

There seems to be a lot of  bandwidth taken up over the last few days on the issue of forum spamming.   Four large forums which are being well read and responded to.  That says to me that you have drawn our attention to a problem that is affecting members a lot.

I have noted that the majority of the people posting on all the forums are very concerned about the negative effect that forum spamming has on their personal involvement in the Community and on effectiveness of the Community as a whole as a business networking site.

 ( If posts have been deleted from any of the forums - I dont know - one certainly has sent me more notifications than the posts that appear - but it has always been the possibility at AdlandPro for a forum owner to delete posts they dont like or consider innappropiate.)

What has become clear to me is that our interpretations of the TOS and AdlandPro's policy on Spam vary, as do our understanding of what is Spam.  What seems to be missing here is a clear definition from the Administration of AdlandPro as to what is Spam on this Community.

 Because at the end of the day, whatever we think, the Community rules apply to us equally.

Many people have made the point that the chief offenders will neither listen nor learn.  In addition, acceptable practices can vary from country to country, state to state and person to person.

So I believe that it would be a great help to all, to  solve what is clearly a problem, if we could ask Admin for a clear policy statement of exactly where unsolicted advertising is  permitted under the TOS and where it is not.  And I think this needs to cover forum posts, PM's, invitations to be friends and all other communications systems

This should NOT be a subject issue to be dealt with by the CRC.  They are  there  to deal with conflicts between members and to see when TOS have been broken by specific individuals when reported, not to clarify rules on a general basis.

There seem to be a great need for  a clear definition of what is considered acceptable and unacceptable advertising practice at AdlandPro  by the Administration - and then there wont be any need for us to take up valuable bandwidth sorting it out for ourselves.

Well.  Those are my observations after following the forums on this subject.

Anyone have any other views on this?

Saludos
Jenny