Spammers

David Levene · Post by **David Levene** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:53 am

I see the spammers from TargetDiary have now started sending personal messages trying to get people to visit their site.

They must be really desparate but all it does is anoy people.

When will they get the message.

Steve Swartz · Post by **Steve Swartz** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 10:48 am

I feel your pain!

Also, I do recognize that there is a difference between:

1. Obvious spammers who don't participate in the group;
2. Spammers who use thinly disguised group participation to pitch their products/services;
3. Folks who may participate, and then take the opportunity to pitch their products/services;
4. Folks who are mainly contributors to the group, who occasionally throw in a "look what I found" testimonial.

I think most of us can identify those pesky outsiders in Group 1 and would really like to see them go away. I think for the most part Scotty and Shin do a fair job in insulating us from most of that stuff.

I think most of us can also tolerate Group 4; heck, maybe "appreciate" is a better word than "tolerate!" Based on volume, one of hte main valuse of the group is in hte "What is the best pellet/gun/target" etc. type threads.

I think we have some disagreement as to the role of groups 2 and 3 though. Sometime the sales pitches are subtle . . . as in the thread that starts off with "What is the Best Target" posted anonymously and then ends in a flurry of anonymous "testimonials" about the new WonderTarget posted by the vendor.

Sometimes these are hard to identify. Not everybody agrees where the line between 1 and 2, or 3 and 4 should be drawn.

Since this is a hosted site (thanks again Scott!), we all tend to see it as a "free medium" and so take a more "tolerant" position on the category 2/3 folks than we might ordinarily under other circumstances.

Anyway

Sorry about the ramble. As many of you know, I tend to be "overly sensitive" about the overt selling/use of misleading sales pitches in the forum. Even though this isn't "my site," I would regret greatly if it devolved into a place for people to sell stuff and not discuss issues of training or technique.

Just my $0.02.

Steve

Post by **Shin** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:38 pm

I almost feel sorry for him.
He did everything manually. Spend 23 minutes and send his ad to 23 users.

PM is disabled for him now.

Richard H · Post by **Richard H** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:57 pm

Thanks.

At least it was shooting related, wasn't porn.

Freepistol · Post by **Freepistol** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:26 pm

Richard H wrote:Thanks.

At least it was shooting related, wasn't porn.

That's true.

If the guy would have posted on a thread he started instead of hijacking one, I may have gone to the site for a look. I try to avoid any links that are suspicious at all.

methosb · Post by **methosb** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:57 pm

Don't really know what is in the guy's head. The site at least doesn't seem to be a dodgy site (or at least is a very elaborate one if it is). If he had just made a post in Shooters Lounge about the site a whole bunch of people probably would have gone to it and a few probably would have used the site.

Steve Swartz · Post by **Steve Swartz** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 9:03 am

t would be great if hte website host would create a separate area . . . oh, I don't know, call it "Buy Trade Sell" or something like that . . . for people to post advertisements for their products or services . . .

Scott, Shin, could we set something like that up?

How hard would it be?

=;^)

RobStubbs · Post by **RobStubbs** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 9:28 am

Steve Swartz wrote:t would be great if hte website host would create a separate area . . . oh, I don't know, call it "Buy Trade Sell" or something like that . . . for people to post advertisements for their products or services . . .

Scott, Shin, could we set something like that up?

How hard would it be?

=;^)

Or just cut to the chase and have an areas labelled 'spammers please post here'. It could just be an open trash can.

Not sure why our hosts, with their own business effectively sponsoring this place, should enable other businesses to effectively advertise for free. People can and do have their own sig files which is about OK, but anything else is IMHO overstepping the mark.

I personally think there should be more moderators and in different time zones. The number of times there's spam posted before you guys get out of bed..... ;-)

Rob.

Rob.

Freepistol · Post by **Freepistol** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 9:42 am

I agree with Rob.

I volunteer to be a weekend/East Coast spam killer.
ben

David Levene · Post by **David Levene** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 11:30 am

Freepistol wrote:I agree with Rob.

I volunteer to be a weekend/East Coast spam killer.

Whilst I would agree in principle, we need to appreciate that we don't all have the same view of what is acceptable.

I remember a few years ago reading a post which was a completely open advertisement from a company with some high pressure electric air compressors for sale. Someone commented on the blatant advertising but, from memory, Scott said he was quite happy to leave the post on the forum.

Yes we can all recognise the totally inappropriate "adult" type of advertising and, if it would help, I would be perfectly happy to do my bit in deleting such posts. Advertisements that are related to shooting, however remotely, are much more difficult to police. Whilst we can all say what we personally find unacceptable, only Scott and Shin have the right to say what should be deleted.

RobStubbs · Post by **RobStubbs** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:00 pm

David Levene wrote:I agree with Rob.
Yes we can all recognise the totally inappropriate "adult" type of advertising and, if it would help, I would be perfectly happy to do my bit in deleting such posts. Advertisements that are related to shooting, however remotely, are much more difficult to police. Whilst we can all say what we personally find unacceptable, only Scott and Shin have the right to say what should be deleted.

I was mainly referring to the 'adult' spam with which we all agree can be deleted. Other stuff can just be flagged to our hosts as to whether or not they feel it's appropriate, or not.

Rob.

guesting · Post by **guesting** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:41 pm

. . . I'd be happy if they just respected the "Buy, Sell, Trade" forum concept . . .

Is that too much to ask?

Steve Swartz

David Levene · Post by **David Levene** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:53 pm

RobStubbs wrote:
David Levene wrote:I agree with Rob.
Yes we can all recognise the totally inappropriate "adult" type of advertising and, if it would help, I would be perfectly happy to do my bit in deleting such posts. Advertisements that are related to shooting, however remotely, are much more difficult to police. Whilst we can all say what we personally find unacceptable, only Scott and Shin have the right to say what should be deleted.
I was mainly referring to the 'adult' spam with which we all agree can be deleted. Other stuff can just be flagged to our hosts as to whether or not they feel it's appropriate, or not.

Rob, I have just re-read my post. If it sounded like I was criticizing your suggestion then I apologise. That was not my intention.

RobStubbs · Post by **RobStubbs** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 3:59 am

David Levene wrote:
Rob, I have just re-read my post. If it sounded like I was criticizing your suggestion then I apologise. That was not my intention.

That's alright David, I'm used to it ;-)

Only joking, no offence taken.

Might see you at the BPC next Sat, I need to shoot FP in the eley postal.

Rob.

Freepistol · Post by **Freepistol** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 10:22 am

I see another spammer in the olympic pistol section. I would love to be able to delete that right now!