October 19, 2008 at 3:39 pm
We all know that a lot of people and companies are using social media for brand exposure, traffic, links, etc. Marketing is there, and always will be, but the smart companies and people do a great job of not being obvious about it. They work to fit in, to blend in and become part of the community.
And then there are morons like this:
This moron is going around leaving spammy comments on all kinds of stories — that’s how s/he has those 390 points. I think you get 3 points for a comment on Mixx, so that’s 130 spammy comments. Way to contribute to the community.
If there’s any silver lining to this, it comes from looking at this person’s friends and followers:
The silver lining? Look how easy it’ll be for the Mixx spam cops to quickly zap all kinds of lame accounts that have no business being active on the site. It’s 3:40 pm PT on Sunday as I post this. Let’s see how long it takes to get all this cleaned up. I’m betting it won’t be long at all…..
(This reminds me of my post earlier this year, How NOT to Market on Flickr. Spammers are just dumb….)
UPDATE:
It’s now 4:07 pm, 27 minutes later, and that account is gone. Nice job, Mixx crew. You rock.
May 28, 2008 at 9:32 am
Being a moderator at Sphinn is pretty time-consuming, but it’s also fun! I’ve killed thousands of submissions and accounts from users spammers trying to game the site for exposure, a free and followed link, or whatever else they’re trying to accomplish. As Danny (I think) once said, “Nothing smells better than fresh killspam in the morning.” Hehehehe, so true.
Sphinn’s guidelines seem pretty straightforward to me. The primary rule is use common sense. Well, judging from the amount of spam that gets submitted every day, common sense isn’t very common.
So, in an effort to help those who need it, here are one moderator’s examples of signs that you’re spamming or gaming Sphinn. (I’ve blurred out the names of the guilty; the point isn’t to call them out individually, it’s to help… really. (And to make you roll your eyes at the crap we see.))
1.) Your submission has 61 words in the title.
(Note: Sphinn has no specific rule about how long a headline can be. But really, 61 words? Takeaway: Use common sense.)
2.) The URL you’re submitting has the phrase “for sale” in it.
3.) The article you wrote is filled with affiliate links.
(Note: As a moderator, I’ll overlook it if you have a good article that has an affiliate link at the end. But the example above? Spam.)
4.) You repeat your keyword four times in the headline.
5.) You repeat your keyword six times in the headline. (And once more in the description, because too much is never enough!)
6.) I click to read your article, and before the page loads, you hit me with a pop-up window selling your products, your services, your newsletter … anything.
(Note: Sphinn has no rule against submitting articles with pop-ups. This is not spam by definition. It’s just annoying, and looks spammy. Takeaway: Use common sense.)
7.) Your submission gets 19 votes in less than 40 minutes, while every other submission before and after yours only has 1-2 votes.
(Note: I know people have friends/co-workers who help vote up each other’s stories. We decide on a case-by-case basis if these are spam/gaming the site. And I know there’s only one submission from a recognizable user in the screenshot above, but still … 19 votes in less than 40 minutes? Please.)
8.) You submitted your home page.
(No image necessary. Point is, 99 times out of 100, people submit a home page for self-promotional spamming purposes. Submit your articles/blog posts, instead; not your home page.)
9.) Your story is off-topic, and you wrote the headline in ALL FREAKIN’ CAPS.
(Note: Off-topic = spam. ALL CAPS = annoying.)
10.) You have a public, open-to-anyone Facebook group called “I Sphinn Your Back – You Sphinn My Back.”
If I missed any, feel free to add them in the comments!
February 17, 2008 at 10:31 am
Looks like someone didn’t read my How to Market on Flickr guide. Tsk-tsk.
And how stupid do you have to be to link to all your spammy profiles at every other social site? Obviously a rookie spammer.
Update, Sunday afternoon: I submitted that profile via Flickr’s “report abuse” form, and just about 16 hours later, the account has been killed. Nice.
