topic Re: Combating spammers in Public Safety Questions

Combating spammers

Anonymous User — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:54:29 GMT

Original User: whuber

How do we flag posts that are obviously fraudulent and abusive? I found a somewhat subtle spam attempt (which could easily be much nastier, if it linked to a malformed web page) at http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/14634-property-tax-map?p=45968#post45968 but could find no link from that page to warn moderators, flag the malicious intent, or at least nullify it.

Re: Combating spammers

DonovanCameron — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:03:19 GMT

At the bottom left of every post is a Report button (looks like the Caution symbol). You can use that to report spam, I've done so on several occasions already.

Re: Combating spammers

WilliamHuber — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:17:27 GMT

Thanks, Donovan. However, I've never seen that link or that symbol. It's not there now: I have scoured the page for anything like it. FireFox 3.6.10, Win 7 x64.

Re: Combating spammers

Anonymous User — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:36:55 GMT

Original User: jakubsisak

Thanks, Donovan. However, I've never seen that link or that symbol. It's not there now: I have scoured the page for anything like it. FireFox 3.6.10, Win 7 x64.

See attached for a screen shot Bill. I have firefox 3.6.9 and the button Donovan speaks of is there. I've reported spam before and ESRI deleted the posts and the user within minutes. Perhaps as an MVP you have a different setup?

Re: Combating spammers

JoshWhite — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:53:36 GMT

How do we flag posts that are obviously fraudulent and abusive? I found a somewhat subtle spam attempt (which could easily be much nastier, if it linked to a malformed web page) at http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/14634-property-tax-map?p=45968#post45968 but could find no link from that page to warn moderators, flag the malicious intent, or at least nullify it.

I visited that link and wonder what about that would be spam, perhaps you meant to post a different link?

Re: Combating spammers

Anonymous User — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:04:36 GMT

Original User: SaultDon

I visited that link and wonder what about that would be spam, perhaps you meant to post a different link?

It was reported so its been removed, along with WH comment regarding it being spam.

EDIT: I am also using 3.6.10 Firefox and have seen the report button using Win7 x64 and x32 and XP x32.

Re: Combating spammers

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 16:16:05 GMT

Perhaps the icon could be enlarged and/or text appended, if it got much smaller, it might vanish

Re: Combating spammers

Anonymous User — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:40:06 GMT

Original User: whuber

See attached for a screen shot Bill

Thank you very much, Jakub! Those icons have been there all along but I never recognized that they linked to anything--they were just part of the background.

(I think I just personally experienced something found long ago in the computer-human interface literature: icons really don't work at all well for conveying information or for doing so reliably. A little text can go a long way...)