DON’T: reply to it, quote tweet it, make fun of how stupid the spammer must be to think you’ll fall for it. They don’t care, they just post it and move on

DO: report it to the forum moderation team. This applies to ANY forum you use, though the method may vary between different forums. Here on STW it’s a case of using the “REPORT” link below the post, which will email the moderation team and give them a direct link to the offending post (I give it about 3 minutes max before someone reports this post). Note that once a post has been reported, the “report” link will vanish I think. On other sites the mechanism may vary – there may be another button to use, or another link to follow. In some cases (yes Snowheads I’m looking at you) there’s an entire thread running where posters are asked to highlight spammers by linking to the user profile or the post itself

Either way, the main thrust is, don’t just reply to the thread even if it’s to say “mods please come and look at this”, try to actuively let the appropriate folks know there’s something that needs attention. If there’s a forum you use where you don’t know how to do this, maybe spend a couple of minutes finding out?

cheers

There is a music forum I’m on where recently a person who reported spam had their account deleted and the spam remained! No, the account couldn’t be restored.

To be fair, it’s getting quite quiet in the chat forum these days, a bit of spam would help make it look busier…..

don’t just reply to the thread even if it’s to say “mods please come and look at this”

The only time a moderator would see such a post is if they were already looking at it. I’ve said this time and again, posting on the forum complaining about problems is pointless unless you simply want to complain. The site owners and developers rarely read the forum, the moderators read most but not all of it.

There is a music forum I’m on where recently a person who reported spam had their account deleted and the spam remained! No, the account couldn’t be restored.

I see the problem there. It’s run by idiots.

That was surely an accident? In the corporate world you typically don’t delete accounts at least at first, you disable them. All too often, people discover that the grass wasn’t greener and come back.

STW is no different here, GDPR-requested deletion aside we’d almost always ban rather than delete. Indeed, moderators don’t have the privs to delete an account. The spam killer marks the account as ‘spammer’ but doesn’t actually delete it even, it can be reversed by Tech.

I see the problem there. It’s run by idiots.

Agreed

That was surely an accident?

I imagine it was, but that’s no comfort to the user.

In the corporate world you typically don’t delete accounts at least at first, you disable them.

Yes I know, that’s my experience of IT in the corporate world. “Roll back” has be a thing.

https://fulfor.com/details/740361/SPAM

I accept the principle, and NBTs points, apart from the top one:

DON’T: reply to it, quote tweet it, make fun of how stupid the spammer must be to think you’ll fall for it. They don’t care, they just post it and move on

(assuming the post is reported as well) taking the piss doesn’t have a downside that I’m aware of and if modded differently, might even have a positive outcome.

Say someone reports a spam post and the mod deletes it. Great, nobody knows it was here after 5 minutes.

Say someone reports it, mod changes/removes any link (you could link instead to an explanation of common scams if you really wanted) and leaves the thread open for pisstaking as desired.

The second way, any really gullible users who might happen across the post in the next few hours might actually learn something and be a bit more cautious of similar posts next time

If these top tips are going to be a regular feature I’d like to point out they are nowhere near as funny as the ones in Viz

Jamaican me hungry.

Fry an egg, gets some Warburtons sliced white and reduce my life expectancy a little further.

The site owners and developers rarely read the forum,

Can’t be bothered with the constant cookie windows?

Can’t be bothered with the constant cookie windows?

Can’t be bothered with the constant whining, more like.

Can’t be bothered with the constant whining, more like.

Ah yes nothing like getting customer feedback!

Anyone know what the semi-transparent box that sits at the bottom of the page is supposed to do – other than hide the submit button until you scroll? and hide the help and legal buttons until your close it? Its been there for a few weeks now – I assumed it was supposed to contain an Ad but I don’t have any ad blocker running so if it is – its not working…

“Digital Litter”

Everywhere …

Can’t be bothered with the constant whining, more like.

Seems like most people can’t be bothered using the site much any more because it’s so shoddy. But yes it’s the people who complain who are at fault 🙄

Thread needs more Nigerian Kings

Seems like most people can’t be bothered using the site much any more because it’s so shoddy.

And yet, here you are.

But yes it’s the people who complain who are at fault 🙄

Ah yes nothing like getting customer feedback!

It’s not though, is it.

If you want to provide feedback, I don’t believe there’s anyone posting here who doesn’t know a) Mark’s email address, b) Tech’s email address or c) where the Help button is which takes you to an actual feedback form.

Mark doesn’t post much because whenever he does the usual suspects line up to take potshots. I’ve been on the receiving end of this for trying to help too and believe me, it’s no barrel o’ yuks. Tech don’t typically read the forum much / at all because why would you read threads where posters are publicly running their virtual mouths off as to how shit they think you are?

If you think that posting complaints in a thread which STW staff are unlikely to read is “providing constructive feedback” then you need a rethink. It’s not feedback, it’s just tedious.

The best option would be to have a Feedback thread, visited by the Devs. That way folk would find it easier to use and the Devs would actually have to visit the forum occasionally. Make it a Sticky.

Instead, we have this one, the Site Update one and various others popping up.

If you want to provide feedback, I don’t believe there’s anyone posting here who doesn’t know a) Mark’s email address, b) Tech’s email address or c) where the Help button is which takes you to an actual feedback form.

Indeed, here is the relevant bit from Help:

“Please DON’T use the forum to report bugs or other technical issues. The tech guys may not see it. We have a tech issue reporting form here – The link to it is in the bottom left corner on desktop browsers. Please include as much information as possible and a screen grab is always helpful if you can manage it”.

And from the Contact Us link in the browser.

“Problems with the running of the website? We’re probably already working on fixing it, but if not, there’s
tech@singletrackworld.com”

“Please DON’T use the forum to report bugs or other technical issues. The tech guys may not see it. We have a tech issue reporting form here – The link to it is in the bottom left corner on desktop browsers. Please include as much information as possible and a screen grab is always helpful if you can manage it”.

There’s a spider crawling on my screen.

Should I use the tech support form or start a thread asking if it’s a bug or not?