What is Spamming?
These days, the word "spam" means a lot of things. In email, spam means a message sent to try and convince people to buy stuff. On forums, it takes the form of links to commercial sites. What about on Scratch?
On Scratch 'spamming' is when Scratchers post lots of links to their projects so that others will see them and increase their views and love its. There's a fine line between "show and tell" and spamming. Think of it this way: If someone comes to a party and says "Hey check out my new project!" that's cool - it's nice to see what others are up to. But if they say "Hey check out my new project!" every 5 seconds to everyone in the room, it gets old pretty fast. That's a kind of spamming, so we politely discourage it.
But lately there is a new kind of spam that's becoming a problem on our forums. It's called SEO spam. "SEO" stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO spam is when professional spammers create accounts on sites like ours for the purposes of putting links to their company or product. When google sees the link on our site, it thinks that it's probably a good company, so it increases their ranking in the search engine results. That turns into $$$ for the spammers, which just encourages them to make more spam!
So if you see links to other websites that don't really have anything to do with the conversation, especially by "new" Scratchers without a lot of posts or projects, please flag them! In many cases we'll remove the link even if we're not sure, just in case it is spam. It's still ok for Scratchers to link to sites that they think are cool, especially if they are related to programming or Scratch related stuff. But if you aren't a long time member of the community, we might remove the link until we get to know you a little better.
Scratch On!
Offline
That's good to know, I never knew the spam was to appear in search engines, but I obviously knew it's for money.
Offline
Offline
Yeah, spammers can make a lot of cash from google. I'm actually thinking about making my own sites & programming it with python, and then I'd put google ads on.
Offline
When I reported a user to 'Amos' of the Scratch Team they told me that the user was posting links to exploit Search Engine Optimization. I didn't know what that meant, but know I know. Thanks a bunch for telling me!
By the way, only Google ranks searches by links. Ask.com or Bing don't.
Offline
I personally enjoy people flavour the best but.. oh we're not talking about the canned meat?
Offline
Ace-of-Spades wrote:
I personally enjoy people flavour the best but.. oh we're not talking about the canned meat?
O_O
Offline
but what kinds of sick minds would come onto a site SPECIFICALLY marked .edu just to make MONEY!!?!?!?!??!????!$$%Pr
Offline
A spam summarization!
There's been lots of debate on what it really is... xP
I'll be sure to flag them.
Last edited by Chrischb (2010-03-23 01:02:05)
Offline
Thanks a lot, Lightnin! It's good to see that there's a nice topic about this...
I don't like commercial spammers - everyone doesn't like them.
Last edited by Jonathanpb (2010-03-23 01:09:10)
Offline
Ace-of-Spades wrote:
I personally enjoy people flavour the best but.. oh we're not talking about the canned meat?
Please try and keep your posts useful and on topic.
shockwave wrote:
but what kinds of sick minds would come onto a site SPECIFICALLY marked .edu just to make MONEY!!?!?!?!??!????!$$%Pr
Those people aren't like us - they don't have a proper life. They just want money...
Offline
Jonathanpb wrote:
shockwave wrote:
but what kinds of sick minds would come onto a site SPECIFICALLY marked .edu just to make MONEY!!?!?!?!??!????!$$%Pr
Those people aren't like us - they don't have a proper life. They just want money...
![]()
100% true, Jonathan.
Offline
Some good detail there of what spamming is and why people do it. Hopfully some day there could be a good program that can prevent it. Until then we just have to keep flaging it.
Offline
i dont see why they do it, most of the people on this website are below the minimum age for working, it just doesn't make sense.
Offline
markyparky56 wrote:
i dont see why they do it, most of the people on this website are below the minimum age for working, it just doesn't make sense.
They might not know that. All they care about is advertising their stuff.
Offline
technoguyx wrote:
markyparky56 wrote:
i dont see why they do it, most of the people on this website are below the minimum age for working, it just doesn't make sense.
They might not know that. All they care about is advertising their stuff.
hmmm... its pretty obvious since they have to go through everything from signing up to going to the forums, but then they probably dont look.
Offline
Greenboi wrote:
^I agree^
With Punbb hosting they can change and filter bad words, but not links that I've heard of![]()
Bit.ly is a URL shortening site, like TinyURL. It is used mainly in Twitter and unofficial Twitter desktop clients like TweetDeck, because of how small the link is.
Offline
What about is.gd
http://is.gd/
Offline