Community Building Articles

Dealing with forum spammers

OK, so in our article, Types of forum spammers, we looked at the different types of spammers you can get on your forum (hence the title of the article!). And then in our article, Types of forum members we saw how a member's contribution to the community can change over time.

So in this article, we'll look at how admin and moderators can tackle spammers to either develop them into regular members of your community, or to minimise the impact of their contributions.

No more 9 till 5's!

Sorry to say it, but now you are a forum admin, the days of working 9am to 5pm are long gone my friend! A forum is open and accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and you need to accommodate for that.

Your first step should be to enlist the assistance of some international moderators! You get a couple from Europe and a couple from US and you will cover a large part of the day. Add to that a couple more from Asia and a random few from all over and you've got the day covered.

Why is this important? Well if your forum isn't being moderated overnight because all your team lives on UK time, then it leaves it wide open for spammers. You wouldn't leave your shop open overnight with no staff minding it would you? Covering your forum 24/7 (or as close as you can get) should be your first priority when your community develops.

Consistent leadership

You are the leader. Being forum admin is more than simply being the boss. Your community members aren't your employees - they don't need to be there - they don't need to do what you say - you do not have direct authority over them.

You need to lead, not command.

By setting up a forum initially and populating it with posts, answering questions and such you create a certain amount of respect for your abilities and it's that respect you need to keep leading your community. But it won't last forever and if your community begins to believe that you and your moderators don't really know what you are talking about then you are screwed. Don't try to be something you are not.

If you can't answer a question directly, then go find a link to another site that has the answer - it's better to have a reputation for being helpful and honest than have a reputation for being a blagger.

Your moderators are an extension of your values and integrity. Regardless of how liberal your forum is, members will still view moderators as your staff - not individuals in their own right. The respect that you generate for yourself will pass on to your moderators. To the same extent, their actions can affect you and your community.

It's hard to put into words without going into great detail about management issues and the like. Basically, it is important that you drive your community onward and upwards. While you dictate policy and standards, you need to ensure that your moderators are on the same wavelength.

OK back to spammers...

Decide on a policy

What is acceptable? What isn't?

Create an idiot guide of do's and don'ts and post it in your moderators forum. Get some feedback from them. Your final policy will be a guide by which you and your moderators can base your actions on in future and this will ensure consistent moderation.

Now comes the hard part. How much do you tell your members?

Ideally, a complete list of do's and don'ts would be good, but keep in mind some spammers will use it as a guide to what they can get away with!

Some communities don't post any member information with regards spam - mainly because this gives moderators a wider latitude and again, it stops spammers pushing the limits of what they are allowed to get away with.

Some other points you will have to decide on:

Will you allow signatures? Will you allow URL drops? To what extent can people post URLs? Will you allow brand name discussions? At what point will moderators get involved? What action will be taken?

Some tricks of the trade

OK, so you're getting bored with all this rubbish and want to know exactly what you can do about spammers.....read on!

Cover the basics - ban the user who posted, keep a note of the spam URL, email address, username and IP address. This info won't help you stop them hitting you again (well, you could ban their IP but that may block genuine users), but it will help you identify repeat offenders.

Foster the spam - if you can't beat 'em.... So you're finding that spammers are constantly plaguing your forums with posts for related products? Perhaps they may be a welcome feature for your users, so why not setup a dedicated forum for them?

Simply create a new sub forum for advertisements. Chances are that most new "spam" posts will be post in there naturally, which means they won't clutter up the rest of the forums.

You could go a step further and move all spam posts to a private forum, then give the spammers access to the private forum, so they think all users have access to it. As far as they are concerned, you have let them leave their spam on the forum but none of your other users will be able to see it.

Swearword Filter is your friend - if a spammer promoting the same site targets your forum over and over again, then use your swearword filter to block an important part of their URL. This will mean that their site gains no Google PR value (the link will be dead), users won't be able to click through and they won't be able to recognise the URL.

As the filter is instant, it means that you have vastly reduced the benefit spammers get from your forum right away.

An example: If you wanted to stop us spamming your forum (we don't do it - honest!), then you could add "ts.co" to your swearword filter. This would mean my URL would display as: www.sellthosewidge**.**m

OK, it's not ideal and you have to use your imagination to make it work well, but it can be an effective way to completely neutralise certain URLs on your forums.

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More Community Building Articles

• Dealing with forum spammers
• Seeding an online community
• Types of forum members
• Types of forum spammers
• When to moderate your forum