Spam

Yes, one would think that Apple could afford to put some forum moderators on duty for a 24-hour cycle when the forums are being attacked (and that's what this is). The presence of this garbage on the fourums creates a bad impression especially for first-time users. It's also difficult to even see actual questions to give answers.

Agreed. I always report each user and sometimes include comments such as "there are hundreds of these" so they know how bad it is.

There are fewer (though not zero) people monitoring the reports on the weekends. AmishCake's inclusion of comments that the poster has made mulitple such posts is a good idea. The folks who deal with the reports will usually only see the particular post that has been reported. Though, I suspect, in the case of this kind of post, they've learned to check for more.

Best of luck.

Moderation would simply remove all posts by a certain spammer and suspend him/her.

As I understand it, that's not the default procedure here. It's not possible here to flag a user as a spammer the way it is on another forum for which I am a moderator. Here, the reports link to an individual post. The moderator has to know, either because someone has told them or, I would assume, because of the type of post, to go looking for other posts by the same user.

They should give some of the higher-level users tools to remove these posts if they can't provide a moderator over the weekends. (I've suggested that as well)

You are quite right to point this out.

Before Californian office hours, there are days that this forum contains mainly spam.

It's the proverbial "while the cat's away, the mice will play..."!

And what if moderation suspends a user, wouldn't that also automatically remove all posts by that user?

Apfelwurm wrote:

And what if moderation suspends a user, wouldn't that also automatically remove all posts by that user?

I do not believe that, in this forum, suspension removes posts. It just prevents more. Some of the procedures appear to be determined by the Jive software that runs the forum and some by policies.

I usually report a few. Some weeks it's the only time I have to check here if I'm not here scanning, and there are usually hundreds. Like AmishCake I usually scroll though and let them know there are over 100 of them. I stop counting after that. I don't use google translate to find out what they're saying, but the hooker thing (which could contain hidden messages) aren't as scary as the ones that mention Westinghouse. Could it be that 'hiding in plain sight' thing? I always hope the support team translates these.

What gets me is that last year my post was removed because I had learned about Splashtop, our younger son got it, and I was recommending it as a possible solution for some posters. The reason they gave was that I was an employee or advertising for them. It happened again recently with Android- recovery, which has been suggested many, many times on this support site. And many had said they checked with Apple and were told their notes, etc. could not be retreived. Again, the reason was that I was advertising for them. And on top of that, there's no way to prove/refute their reasons. Big Brother should be paying attention to these moreso than anyone like me 'advertising.' meanwhile, they should give me a percentage when I recommend the Apple refurb store. (Kidding.)

People here recommend Roku over Apple tv and that's okay? And it should be.

Oh, well.

appleuser1322 wrote:

And on top of that, there's no way to prove/refute their reasons. Big Brother should be paying attention to these moreso than anyone like me 'advertising.' meanwhile, they should give me a percentage when I recommend the Apple refurb store. (Kidding.)

People here recommend Roku over Apple tv and that's okay? And it should be.

You can always post in the Using Apple Support Communities asking a host to reveiw the deletion. They can and do.

OK, then the hosts have to find a powerful solution, if they do not want that their forums turn into a spammer's paradise!

Apfelwurm wrote:

OK, then the hosts have to find a powerful solution, if they do not want that their forums turn into a spammer's paradise!

Remember that this is one of the largest, busiest forums of its kind in the world. The amount of spam is, comparatively, very small (though stil annoying). The problem with preventing this type of spam is that companies hire people to create accounts. They're not 'bots. A balance has to be struck between making it easy for people who need help to sign up (and many of them are not technically inclined) and making it hard for the spammers. It is my understanding that they are always working on it.

If you have any suggestions on methods you think would help, you should submit them via the feedback link.

Best of luck.

Thanks, Meg. I didn't know I could do that. It's aggravating! When I think I can help, I'm happy to do it. But I don't appreciate being accused of breaking the agreement to the rules of this forum.

So thanks, again.

appleuser1322 wrote:

Thanks, Meg. I didn't know I could do that. It's aggravating! When I think I can help, I'm happy to do it. But I don't appreciate being accused of breaking the agreement to the rules of this forum.

Anyone who's been here for very long has had more than a few posts edited or removed. I had one removed for being off topic not to long ago when I was responding to someone who was being unpleasant. Maybe they gave me the wrong boilerplate, maybe they didn't read the complete post to which I was responding. Either way, it's really not a big deal. Don't take it too personally. The people getting these reports are getting a lot of them. They do their best but they've frequently said it's more art than science.

Your level indicates you've helped quite a few people. That's what really counts.

Now, if I could just figure out why the post I made the other day was edited..... 😉