Okay folks, spammers are our natural enemy here at Cinephiliacs. We all know they flood boards, post rubbish, and burn trees, so here I present you with a handy-dandy guide for spotting these things.

How To Spot A Spammer



A - The Smiley
For some reason, spammers nearly always choose to start their threads with the standard image. It's supposed to create a good first impression, but in fact serves as an early-warning system for Spammer Hunters. Be suspicious of anybody starting a thread with this symbol.

B - Post Count
Spammers do not tend to stick around for long. Their post count is nearly always either 1, 2 or 3 (this does not apply to Blitzers, who may start up to twenty or more threads at a time - but thankfully they are rare).

C - Favourite Movie
This is the biggest giveaway of all. Nearly every automated Spammer, due to some glitch, takes the Favourite Movie box as the Location box. Therefore, their favourite movie is nearly always USA, Canada, Russia, Europe, etc.

D - Signature Links
This is simple. The spammer uses its signature box to post various links. Be suspicious of any new members displaying a blatant link in their signature.

E - The Post
When the other warning signs fail you, you can always look at the post itself. Spammers commonly speak in broken English. They may also post copious amounts of links. They also tend not to talk about themselves personally, but will keep the topic mundane and simple so as not to attract too much attention. Automated Spammers are incapable of interacting directly with other members.

What To Do Next

Now that you've spotted your spammer, you have three practical choices:

A - Delete his posts. This only applies to those of you with some degree of moderatorship.

B - Report him to a moderator. This is probably one of the best options.

C - Taunt him. This relieves stress and creates a feeling of unison amongst us pure and rightful members. Let's not let these unhumans pollute our community with their nonsense.

In Conclusion

Remember, look out for:

- The Smiley
- A low post count
- Favourite movie = USA
- Blatant linking
- Broken English
- Lack of interaction with members


Congratulations - you are now qualified to go spammer-hunting. Let 'em have it, fellers!

Yours,

H.S. Turtle
Cinephiliacs Department of Crushing

SQUISH DEM SPAMMERS HST, SQUISH EM GOOD!!!




Why the hell aren't you a global moderator anyway?

But we have participants who advertise in their signatures now. Do you want me to delete everyone who's new who puts a business link in the siggy? I wanted to delete the post you're using in the example, but didn't because of the other member.

If they pay Cinephiliacs for the right to advertise, good luck to them. But all those freeloaders ad spambots should be deleted, banned, etc. The more established ones should have their signatures edited unless they have permission from an Admin such as yourself.

But the example we caught is the kind of spammer I mean.
And thanks for your support Scrag! We must annihilate these things!!! Do it for LightStalker!!!! Long live Cinephiliacs! Viva la Cavola!!!

I love making fun of spammers. It brings joy and meaning to my life. Letting them know that their sick and twisted fetishes are unappreciated puts a smile on my face.

Do you think the spammer is here reading our rantings about him? Do you think the spammer is a real person?

No, spammers aren't 'real' people, they are deprived sociopathic leftovers that want attention and gratification at the annoyed answers and rants by others....Like this thread, somewhere out there a spammer is getting off on us.... .....

Nice one HST

Aren't most of them just robots who are programmed to spam?

And thanks, C4! It's good to be supported by one of the deadliest Spammer Hunters on Cinephiliacs.

That's why I said no one cared about this little conversation but us. We're just entertaining ourselves.

Haha, good point actually. Oh well, take that, spamciety!

Isn't that why we're all here anyway

Well that and the entertainment of others. Someone else must be laughing somewhere. Right?

Yeah, but its that whole 'At You/With You' scenario.

Tomayto tomahto

Gah, this is how they want us to think!! Stay together comrades, and trust nobody but your own brothers and sisters. You have mod powers - use them wel!! Show them tht you mean business!! Make some examples!!!! And if not deletion, a bit of strategic editing never goes amiss!

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! (whats with the monkey noises?)

Can we shoot them? Can we, can we, can we?

I'll bring along some of my close personal friends, they haven't had chance to get out and shoot something for ages... infact, heres a picture of their last night out.



Nice bunch of girls really. You know, good, quiet christian types. Infact, Mildred (left in photo), she makes a wicked sweet potatoe pie, plus, she can hit a rat from 500 yards. Bonus!

What's up with that? You hang with conservative women.

Well, you know what they say about the quiet ones!




















They don't talk much.

I see I'm not the only one who joined the NRA to meet women.



And you guys forgot the classic "gibberish name" sign. if someone just signed up and chose the name jdfjkdldsj, it's probably a spammer. And that's when they arent just obvious and pick a name that actually says what they are advertising.


The ones to really watch out for are the annoying stealth spammers. These ones are actual human beings who may actually contribute, but will have an annoying habit of constantly bringing things back to their website or to something they are getting paid to promote. I tend to start with a friendly warning, a click of the warning button so I can alert other mods, and if they persist, I delete any posts which are devoid of redeeming value, and delete any advertising I find within the otherwise acceptable posts.

And a side note, be wary of IP addresses, as we had a stealth spammer not too long ago that used several different accounts in order to hide the fact that it was just one person trying to sodomize our site with endless promotion of some crappy movie.

You mean like the majority of Lord Zedd's posts and this from greasybear?

QUOTE

http://www.cinephiliacs.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6581
Hey everybody, what's crackin? So does everyone here usually read movie reviews online? I love reading movie reviews online because for me, it's a real fast convenient way to find out a movie I might end up really enjoying at the theatres. Has anyone heard of atthemoviestv.com? It's the home to Ebert and Roeper, and a really fantastic resource for online movie reviews. Ebert and Roeper have been the purveyor of movie reviews for years, after the untimely passing of Ebert's former partner in crime, Gene Siskel. The site has full-length, high-production movie reviews, along with guest celebrity critics, like Jay Leno and others. I think everyone and anyone should check out this site if you're into reading stellar movie reviews. So check it out. I got this utterly splendid info because I work with Ebert and Roeper. KOOL huh?

Yeah, I would have deleted that one. Although the ones I was thinking of were jim colyer (old news) and cutie girl etc. who is the one with multiple accounts and keeps mentioning the same 2 movies over and over in every post.

For the record, lord zedd's little newsletter was getting deleted until he got permission. Until I hear otherwise, it's got a greenlight.

yeah i still don't really agree with it but yeah i leave him alone

Well then we shall! The others are just kind of slimey.

I'm pretty convinced "cutie girl" is Joe Strummer, trying to promote The Clash from the grave.

Hey, just thought I'd add another obvious observation.

The vast majority of people who come here to post take the time to personalize things a bit. Most importantly, the people who aren't spammers, and who post more than 2 or 3 times will almost always have an avatar and sig. Spammers of all varieties tend to not bother with the sig and virtually never have an avatar. If someone takes the time to do these things (particularly before their first post) it shows they are putting some small amount of time and effort into it, and are far more likely to stick around a while.

Remember, spammers want to be as fast and efficient as possible.

That reminds me, another dead giveaway is when they make large posts faster than they could possibly type. CinemaCritique posted four large posts about random crap movies in 2 minutes (the minimum with flood control on) meaning they were cut and pasted, an obvious sign visible from forum/active topics view.

Remember, the price of a good movie forum is eternal vigilance.