Spam reporting thread #33

Questo è il seguito della conversazione Spam reporting thread #32.

Questa conversazione è stata continuata da Spam reporting thread #34.

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Spam reporting thread #33

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1lilithcat
Dic 23, 2014, 10:13 am

PROCEDURES FOR REPORTING SPAM

Distinguish between the following, and flag the highest level of the violation:

-- Type 1: Irredeemable commercial spam: make sure to flag the member's profile, as well as the spammy activity. This type includes things selling strollers, pharmaceuticals, live-streaming sports games, porn, and/or trying to create traffic/links to sites for such things. Sufficient profile flags will automatically result in temporary suspension and deletion of the member's activity, so use your profile-flagging powers wisely and carefully.

-- Type 2: Teachable moments: DO NOT flag the member's profile, but DO flag the violating activity (e.g. self-promotional Talk post, group, or local venue). This type includes promotional activity that violates the Terms of Service (TOS), but where the member is potentially redeemable, e.g. overzealous authors, overzealous publishers, or other members with small TOS violations but who are otherwise using the site legitimately. These cases should be reported to staff (by sending a message or email to staff and/or or posting on this thread), so the member can be taught how to use the site.

Specific procedures:
-- Overzealous authors or publishers (these fall under type 2): do NOT flag the member's profile. Report to staff here or privately. You can also send the member a polite message pointing them to the terms, mentioning the "no promoting" language, and pointing them to the Do's and Don't page for authors: http://www.librarything.com/about_authors.php
-- Suspected sock-puppetry to promote a book, write fake reviews, and/or stack ratings: do not flag the profile, but report to staff here or by message, so staff can investigate. This is a serious violation for which members can be permanently banned.
-- Profile flags for commercial spammers only (type 1): On the member's profile page, click on the "report for spam" link, then follow instructions to flag the member. Again, this is only for commercial spam, not for "overzealous" authors, publishers, or booksellers, which should be reported to staff instead. See Talk post: http://www.librarything.com/topic/85810
-- Spam or promotional posts in a Talk topic (type 1 or 2): flag the post as an abuse of the terms of service.
-- Spam or promotional groups (types 1 and 2): flag new groups using the "flag this group" link.
-- Spam lists: report in this thread, and flag the member if it's commercial spam.
-- Spam works (type 1 spam): flag the work as spam on the work's editions page, and then vote on proposed work spam. Make sure to read the guidelines before proposing or voting, especially for what is not spam. Voting page: http://www.librarything.com/spam_works.php
-- Spam in a review (type 1), or an explicitly promotional review (type 2): flag the review as an abuse of the TOS, using the red flag.
-- Spam or promotion in "published reviews," or other CK fields (type 1 or 2): post here and/or delete.
-- Spam or egregious promotion/advertising in venues or events (type 1 or 2): post here and/or delete. Note that authors are permitted to add events for their books.
-- Spam in book links / quick links: post here and/or edit to remove spam.
-- Spam author names listed on a work: No current procedure. Tim has asked us not to change CK to indicate spammers, and not to combine spam authors together.
-- Not sure if it's spam? Post here, and explain why.

Please note that Tim has asked us not to use either CK or the combining system (whether works or authors) for spam fighting.

For more information see these wiki pages:
Procedures for flagging and reporting spam: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Spam#Procedures_for_flagging_and_repo....
Spam works, guidelines for flagging and voting: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/HelpThing:Spam_works

(A copy of these guidelines, for pasting in new threads, can be found here or at the top of previous threads.)

2gilroy
Dic 24, 2014, 7:12 am

I'm shocked we haven't gotten anything new posted here. :)

3MarthaJeanne
Modificato: Dic 24, 2014, 7:17 am

Maybe they're taking a Christmas break.

Or maybe the spam is disappearing so fast that noone is bothering to report it. It hardly seems worth reporting standard spam that we see in BookTalk.

4Ennas
Dic 24, 2014, 7:54 am

They're afraid Santa won't bring them any presents. ;-)

5Lyndatrue
Dic 24, 2014, 10:17 am

The other alternative is that, with the new and improved disappearing act Tim gave us as an early holiday gift, they may have moved on to easier targets. I also point out that I've seen a general down tic for email spam, for no discernible reason that I can see (other than that they took the holiday off?).

6Lyndatrue
Modificato: Dic 24, 2014, 10:18 am

I really wish they'd get this double post thing figured out, though.

7zjakkelien
Modificato: Dic 24, 2014, 1:00 pm

9gilroy
Dic 24, 2014, 2:17 pm

Well, maybe this is proof that a majority of our spammers are North Koreans. :) After all, they've had network issues for the past few days and we've had a notable downtick in spam.

10Lyndatrue
Dic 24, 2014, 4:15 pm

>8 MarthaJeanne: Normally, I'd agree with you on that, but it's ONLY in that one spot, on a question she originally asked. I'm counterflagging (something I almost never do), and asking others not to flag it.

11MarthaJeanne
Dic 24, 2014, 4:17 pm

I still think it's spam and should be flagged.

12rybie2
Dic 24, 2014, 8:51 pm

>10 Lyndatrue: Sorry, this reeks of spam to me so I've flagged it.

13zjakkelien
Dic 25, 2014, 1:54 am

>10 Lyndatrue: I hesitated as well, but I think that last message was out of line.

20Lyndatrue
Modificato: Dic 28, 2014, 11:42 am

Sports (favorite books for kindergarten...seriously?)

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185205
http://www.librarything.com/profile/oinambor

ETA: Topic is gone, but profile needs one more flag to disable

222wonderY
Dic 29, 2014, 8:16 am

24MarthaJeanne
Dic 29, 2014, 12:31 pm

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185269#

over enthusiastic publisher.

27MarthaJeanne
Dic 30, 2014, 4:27 am

https://www.librarything.com/topic/185352

I didn't follow the link, so I'm hoping it is just author spam.

28JulesJones
Modificato: Dic 30, 2014, 4:36 am

>27 MarthaJeanne: I did follow the link, since I recognised the site name. The QuackWatch article is a debunking of the author of that book, so owenbau is in effect doing a negative review of the book by linking to it. Not spam, although the poster could have been a little less cryptic.

29zjakkelien
Dic 30, 2014, 4:39 am

>28 JulesJones: I also thought it was spam, thanks for checking the link out...

302wonderY
Dic 30, 2014, 7:15 am

author spam

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185359

left him a note.

33lilithcat
Dic 30, 2014, 9:57 am

> 27, 28, 29

So a non-spam post has now been erroneously removed.

I wonder if there's a way for staff to resuscitate it!

34Yamanekotei
Modificato: Dic 30, 2014, 11:39 am

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185385

It may be gone by now, but this is not the first time, I see. MJ posted TOS page a while ago.

Ooops, someone posted another message.

35Helenliz
Dic 30, 2014, 11:49 am

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185388

With a response by Tim. tut tut tut.

37rybie2
Dic 30, 2014, 5:16 pm

http://www.librarything.com/groups/indianfiction

Spam group created by author/member to promote his book.

41lilithcat
Gen 1, 2015, 11:17 am

> 40

Oh, yes, indeed!

42Ennas
Gen 1, 2015, 11:17 am

>40 torontoc: Absolutely! No normal person posts that many links without an explanation.

43Lyndatrue
Gen 1, 2015, 11:23 am

51torontoc
Gen 2, 2015, 10:25 am

http://www.librarything.com/profile/wgjwbn - spammer- I'll be back with the group that was started- flagged but seems to be tenacious!

52torontoc
Modificato: Gen 2, 2015, 10:27 am

new spam group

http://www.librarything.com/groups/esentfulofthefacttha

gone already! good work!

53gilroy
Gen 2, 2015, 11:16 am

#49 - While I understand that post was off topic, how was it spam? He didn't directly advertise his book.

54lilithcat
Gen 2, 2015, 11:24 am

> 53

Actually, the post wasn't off-topic. The thread is about men writing female characters, and although the poster got an author's gender wrong, he was addressing the thread topic.

59zjakkelien
Modificato: Gen 3, 2015, 5:44 am

>53 gilroy: How did he not advertise his own book? This is what he says:

I worked very diligently to avoid the cliche of the weaker female in writing the Milward Chronicles. As I wrote on and the word count climbed into the hundreds of thousands it became rather enjoyable writing a character that could hold her own in nearly any given situation. Check out Robin Hobb's stuff for great examples.

I interpreted this as advertisement of his own book, The Milward Chronicles. Why would that not be author spam?

60lilithcat
Modificato: Gen 3, 2015, 9:49 am

> 59

It's not advertisement because he uses it as an example appropriate to the discussion of the topic. Note that he also references another author. He is describing how he worked.

Not every mention of an author's own book is an advertisement.

61lilithcat
Gen 3, 2015, 2:14 pm

It's pretty sad that whenever I see "favorite books" in a thread title, I know it will be live streaming!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185896
http://www.librarything.com/profile/lan1936

65Ennas
Gen 4, 2015, 5:12 am

>64 aeclark: I can't flag this because I'm not a member of this group. :(

69divinenanny
Gen 6, 2015, 8:01 am

>68 rybie2:, I wouldn't call it spam, more like overzealous and in need for a hint in the right direction. He needs to know where this is allowed and not.

70rybie2
Gen 6, 2015, 8:08 am

>69 divinenanny:. Sorry but I disagree. These are posts of self promotion and that's why I flagged them as spam (I did not, nor did I suggest that he be flagged as a spammer). Teaching the member site rules is a separate issue, and I've already written both public and private comments to him about that.

72divinenanny
Gen 6, 2015, 10:52 am

>70 rybie2: I agree, and that is what I meant. I am used to seeing spam spam here, where both post and member are spammy spammers who need to go away. I apologize for interpreting your post as that way too.

73rybie2
Gen 6, 2015, 11:44 am

>72 divinenanny: Oh, thanks; not a problem at all.

74Lyndatrue
Modificato: Gen 6, 2015, 3:05 pm

ETA:

I can see there wasn't much support for my suggestion, so I removed it. No harm, no foul.

It's been very nice to see the spam fighting machine working so well.

75lilithcat
Gen 6, 2015, 6:44 pm

Ah, the old "favorite books" wheeze (and don't let that normal sounding user name fool you!):

http://www.librarything.com/topic/186141
http://www.librarything.com/profile/WaynePerez

76lilithcat
Gen 6, 2015, 6:44 pm

> 74

Wait! What suggestion?

84henkl
Gen 7, 2015, 10:02 am

Two flags, yes.

85rybie2
Gen 7, 2015, 10:02 am

And kaboom.

88Lyndatrue
Modificato: Gen 8, 2015, 1:31 am

spam dragons?

http://www.librarything.com/topic/186213#
http://www.librarything.com/profile/ianhunt48

(I'd also like to send another little thank you Tim's way. Spam squishing works so much better, and thank you.)

93MarthaJeanne
Modificato: Gen 9, 2015, 6:03 am

Wow! No wonder I'm not seeing much spam lately. The most recent one - after 1 minute two of us had flagged it. After 2 minutes it was gone. That's spam hunting!

ETA The next one took 5 minutes. :(

100JulesJones
Gen 10, 2015, 9:05 am

Word salad group with many spammy links in first post:
https://www.librarything.com/groups/erlyanalyticalorandt

101lilithcat
Gen 10, 2015, 9:07 am

https://www.librarything.com/profile/wreatn

Creator of group listed in post above.

102MarthaJeanne
Gen 10, 2015, 12:02 pm

http://www.librarything.com/groups/readersofthesupernat

Group description pushes the book of group starter.

106fyrfly
Modificato: Gen 11, 2015, 7:40 am

https://www.librarything.com/topic/186393
https://www.librarything.com/profile/SHUAR

Author self-promotion. Flagged the topic, not the profile.

107Lyndatrue
Gen 11, 2015, 9:45 am

>106 fyrfly: Someone who is proficient in Spanish needs to leave a comment on the user's profile, explaining why the topic was deleted, and pointing them in the direction of the rules and acceptable places to do this.

Here's the blurb from the top of this page:

Overzealous authors or publishers (these fall under type 2): do NOT flag the member's profile. Report to staff here or privately. You can also send the member a polite message pointing them to the terms, mentioning the "no promoting" language, and pointing them to the Do's and Don't page for authors: http://www.librarything.com/about_authors.php

109lilithcat
Modificato: Gen 11, 2015, 10:44 am

"Favorite books" again:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/186397
http://www.librarything.com/profile/assinithe

ETA: Awesome! From no flags to zapped in the time it took me to post!

110Lyndatrue
Modificato: Gen 11, 2015, 11:39 am

Author (or perhaps publisher) spam

http://www.librarything.com/topic/186399#

(Profile only for continuity, please don't flag it. MarthaJeanne has already left a comment on the profile.)
http://www.librarything.com/profile/Inamorata

115Lyndatrue
Modificato: Gen 12, 2015, 1:06 am

Questo messaggio è stato cancellato dall'autore.

121MarthaJeanne
Gen 12, 2015, 9:55 am

I flagged the group and all the links went black. What fun!

126Lyndatrue
Modificato: Gen 12, 2015, 7:05 pm

134amysisson
Gen 14, 2015, 1:08 am

>132 Yamanekotei:

I flagged the "larger female" thread in the Club Read group, but even when I refresh, no flags show up, which tells me I'm the only one who has flagged so far (I think that's what it means....). So if you haven't already flagged yourself, please do so!

Thanks for pointing these out. Yikes, spam is tedious!

135Yamanekotei
Gen 14, 2015, 1:14 am

>134 amysisson:

Actually I did flag for both topic and profile. There is some time gap between flagging and showing a flag, I assume? My flag didn't show for a while on another spam post.

136amysisson
Gen 14, 2015, 1:23 am

>135 Yamanekotei:

I've often had it happen that my flag, if first, doesn't show until someone else puts a second one on it, but I could have been misinterpreting that..... Thanks, in any case!

137MarthaJeanne
Gen 14, 2015, 2:39 am

One flag doesn't show. You need the second one to see the flags.

151Ennas
Gen 17, 2015, 4:39 am

O_O The antispamthingy works very well: I never even get a chance to flag anything!

153Ennas
Modificato: Gen 17, 2015, 4:26 pm

And another one

https://www.librarything.com/topic/186654
https://www.librarything.com/profile/ostook

ETA
Ha! That was cool! I flagged the member and he disappeared! B-)

154Mr.Durick
Modificato: Gen 17, 2015, 10:35 pm

157andyl
Gen 18, 2015, 2:21 pm

165Lyndatrue
Gen 19, 2015, 3:33 am

Interesting. They seem to have moved from posting threads to creating groups. Die, spammers, die!

185Lyndatrue
Gen 22, 2015, 8:44 am

194aeclark
Gen 23, 2015, 6:07 am

Surely after this many posts the filters must kick in??

1952wonderY
Modificato: Gen 23, 2015, 9:32 am

200Lyndatrue
Gen 24, 2015, 1:48 am

It's really a slow night for help in flagging these. The first one I put up was more than 20 minutes ago. I've been spoiled. They're usually gone so quick...

212MarthaJeanne
Gen 26, 2015, 4:08 am

>211 stortemelk: All the books I can read have been suppressed as spam, but there are still several books I can't read, and he hasn't been removed yet.

2132wonderY
Gen 26, 2015, 7:28 am

Wow! That was a sophisticated attack. Took a whole lot more work than normal.

214MarthaJeanne
Gen 26, 2015, 8:11 am

And he's still there.

2152wonderY
Modificato: Gen 26, 2015, 8:15 am

Weird. Possibly because it's not a Talk or Group spamming?

216Ennas
Gen 26, 2015, 8:55 am

I flagged him too. And all the reviews. But he's still here. :-(

218henkl
Gen 26, 2015, 9:52 am

>216 Ennas: He's gone now.

219henkl
Gen 26, 2015, 9:56 am

217 was a bit faster.

225Scorbet
Gen 28, 2015, 3:22 am

Travel agent spam:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/187171#
http://www.librarything.com/profile/wonderfultrip

(Though I would recommend seeing the Wild Geese Pagodas in Xi'an.)

228Yamanekotei
Gen 29, 2015, 1:21 am

230MarthaJeanne
Modificato: Gen 29, 2015, 4:10 am

232MarthaJeanne
Gen 29, 2015, 5:15 am

Gone.

234MarthaJeanne
Gen 29, 2015, 5:43 am

This one is gone, too.

236henkl
Gen 29, 2015, 8:27 am

Gone.

239Taphophile13
Modificato: Gen 29, 2015, 10:33 pm

jibinmathew and trawextek have been provisionally suspended.

246zjakkelien
Gen 30, 2015, 2:28 am

Everybody please flag the profile on that last one. This guy was smart enough to post 2 messages in his thread, so it hasn't disappeared yet.

247MarthaJeanne
Gen 30, 2015, 2:47 am

Gone now.

249Ennas
Gen 30, 2015, 8:30 am

gone!

254MsMaryAnn
Modificato: Gen 31, 2015, 12:37 pm

255Lyndatrue
Gen 31, 2015, 12:15 pm

>254 MsMaryAnn: I just flagged that one. Man, you are quick! It may or may not be an "overzealous author or publisher" (but I'm heartless). I did look at the blog from the first link, and that post may have been well intentioned. I wouldn't flag the profile, if it were me...

256zjakkelien
Gen 31, 2015, 12:19 pm

>255 Lyndatrue: Agreed, flagged the post, but not the profile.

257MsMaryAnn
Gen 31, 2015, 12:42 pm

>255 Lyndatrue: >256 zjakkelien: Thank you for catching that. I edited my original post so that the profile is not flagged.

262lilithcat
Feb 1, 2015, 10:43 am

And more:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/187356
http://www.librarything.com/profile/ktfkgjhb

(This guy's really lazy; he couldn't come up with a better subject line than "b67r6uyghbjkn,m"? Or perhaps they now have kittens doing the typing.)

263lilithcat
Feb 1, 2015, 1:01 pm

264lilithcat
Feb 1, 2015, 1:44 pm

Three posts in this spam topic, so be sure to flag the profile:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/187365
https://www.librarything.com/profile/Kohnkeder

265lilithcat
Feb 1, 2015, 5:17 pm

These guys should be watching the SuperBowl, not spamming about it!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/187374
http://www.librarything.com/profile/khusossamsu

267abbottthomas
Feb 1, 2015, 5:25 pm

269Lyndatrue
Modificato: Feb 2, 2015, 1:13 am

Double post :-(

272lilithcat
Feb 2, 2015, 9:08 am

Spam creator of spam venue:

http://www.librarything.com/profile/SinbadVapors

I've archived (deleted) the venue, but the pic needs to be flagged:

http://www.librarything.com/pic/4714039

273henkl
Feb 2, 2015, 9:15 am

274MsMaryAnn
Feb 2, 2015, 10:44 am

Spam profile, advert for shipping company

http://www.librarything.com/profile/Sky2cfreights

275lilithcat
Feb 2, 2015, 11:20 am

Okay, time for a new thread, I think!

276henkl
Feb 2, 2015, 3:00 pm

Agreed; or should I say so in the new thread?

277MsMaryAnn
Modificato: Feb 3, 2015, 12:09 am

Ooops wrong thread.
Questa conversazione è stata continuata da Spam reporting thread #34.