It seems that there is an extraordinary amount of spammers lately and I can imagine the headache this present to our Admins. Many of these ads are accompanied by a small blurp relating more or less to the topic and thread, and sometimes they seem appropriate to the discussion. The advertisement itself of course spoils the posting and requires the removal of the post.

A thought occurred to me where this nuisance might be turned into a benefit.

By creationg a seperate “ADVERTISEMENTS” topic requiring a small monthly “donation” to CFI, giving the company a place to link to its site (only a link with a small identification of the product), while gaining a member who is allowed to participate in the general discussion. If he is a “commercial contributor” he may refer to his ad in ADVERTISEMENTS in his signature line.

If practical this would generate financial support for CFI, but keep advertisements separate from the General Forum, yet allow individuals to join in the general discussions if they so desire.

Just a little capitalist musing…..

Spam is generated by spambots and people (very poorly paid) working in the equivalent of boiler rooms. They don’t read notices, and if they did read them they wouldn’t care.

We don’t want any of them here, and they would never agree to share ad revenue with us. And AFAIK we don’t generate enough traffic to support ourselves with ad revenue anyway.

Unfortunately our system is antiquated, which leaves us Mods and Admins the work of sweeping up every day.

My deepest apologies for the nuisance.

dougsmith - 22 February 2012 07:21 PM

Spam is generated by spambots and people (very poorly paid) working in the equivalent of boiler rooms. They don’t read notices, and if they did read them they wouldn’t care.

We don’t want any of them here, and they would never agree to share ad revenue with us. And AFAIK we don’t generate enough traffic to support ourselves with ad revenue anyway.

Unfortunately our system is antiquated, which leaves us Mods and Admins the work of sweeping up every day.

My deepest apologies for the nuisance.

Oh Doug, I certainly was not criticizing your and other Admins or even the Forum engine. I find it very user friendly. It was just one of my many little ideas. I can certainly sympathize with the effort it takes to spare us from these annoying intrusions.

Thank you and the other admins and mods for doing an excellent job. I love it here!

Write4U - 22 February 2012 08:54 PM

Thank you and the other admins and mods for doing an excellent job. I love it here!

Amen! (Is it okay to say amen here?  )

Seriously, I have been on a lot of boards and have moderated and administered a few. For an open board, the spam level here is actually quite low compared to many. And I think it is very well moderated. Just the right balance, which is hard to achieve.

You’re very welcome. We try our best.

Thanks, and you wouldn’t believe how fast Doug catches and ashcans spam.  A number of times I’ve seen some about a minute after it’s posted, and before I can even respond, Doug has killed it.

Occam