Reporting Spam, Piracy, and Copyright Violation

[Andrew Hackard]

Reporting Spam

Thanks to everyone who is concerned about the spam problem. We are, too. The moderators of these forums nuke spam as soon as we see it. To save everyone time and aggravation, please follow the following procedures.

1. For spam posted to the forums:

• If you seem to be the first to see it, click the little red triangle in the bottom left of the message window. That will take you to a place where you can report the spam to the moderators. If the spam is a mid-thread reply that might not be obvious, please include the username of the spammer.
• Then post a reply to the thread to say "Spam reported to mods." But do not quote the spam -- that only helps the spammers.
• You don't need to add your opinion of the poster, either in the private report or the public reply. We all hate spam just as much as you do, and we're going to delete the thread (or reply) as soon as we see it, so you're wasting your energy.
• Definitely do not go to any linked sites to complain about spam; that just makes them think that the spam is working. If you aren't sure, report it anyway and we'll take a look. I can count on my fingers the number of times that we've looked at something reported as spam and it has turned out to be legit, but it has happened.

If someone else has already replied to say that the spam has been reported, don't do anything -- a moderator will take care of it shortly.

2. For spam sent as a private message:

• Don't do anything for a day or two. Chances are the idiot spammed a moderator, too, and the problem will cure itself. If a couple of days go by and the spammer hasn't been banned, use the same red triangle (to the top right of the message window) to report the spam. Please wait first, to avoid swamping our inboxes.

Finally, a note to the spammers themselves. We do not permit spamming of these forums under any circumstances. As soon as we see spam, we delete the spam and permanently ban the posting account. So please, don't even waste your time.