Fluff posting on the forum

**ShayneTilley** · Nov 16, 2008 23:42

Our forums have been experiencing increased levels of members joining the community with the sole intent of building back links and promotion of their signature links. These signature spammers do nothing but clutter our forums with loads of unwanted posts and is something we want to see the end of.

In order to eliminate this, we are going to make a few procedural adjustments. They are as follows:

~~Signature Links will be no-follow until a member reaches 100 posts~~
Signatures are not visible to search engines, see updated announcement
A new infraction has been introduced for individuals who continually post fluff on the forums

The aim here is to weed out signature spammers via our infraction system before the member reaches 100 post and gains any benefit (which is questionable anyway). Over time, this will deter individuals attempting to game the system in the first place...

So what is a fluff post?

A fluff post is a post that doesn’t add any value to the thread. Stuff like ‘nice post’, ‘that’s cool’, ‘that’s helpful’,'thanks for sharing'. Now I’m sure we’ve all made our fair share of fluff posts (myself included) and that’s okay. A fluff post here and there is not a problem, but if the majority of your posts are fluff, you’ll certainly catch our attention. You’ll be warned first, then receive an infraction, then banned if the behavior continues...

How can you help?

We are building a number of internal processes to assist in identifying these signature spammers, but you, members of the community, are best positioned to help us eliminate this frustrating behavior. I ask that if you do see something that feels like signature spamming, please point it out to a forum staff member (via the little orange flag --

).

We are hopeful that this will eliminate the problem once and for all without needing to resort to anything drastic and the forums are better for it.

**slayerment** · Nov 17, 2008 00:24

Nice post.

j/k

. I think this will be helpful. I've noticed this especially in the SEO section. It may even be useful to disable signatures altogether until a certain post count is reached.

Cheers!

**ShayneTilley** · Nov 17, 2008 01:29

I'm expecting a few of those replies

Disabling signatures is an option, if what I mention doesn't work. But I'd like to limit the impact on genuine members (even ones with a low post count) as much as possible.

**babyboy808** · Nov 17, 2008 01:47

Fantastic move forward Shayne. But alot of "SEOs" still think a link is a link, regardless of nofollow, why not just have no signature show up until 100 posts?

**viron86** · Nov 17, 2008 01:55

Originally Posted by babyboy808

Fantastic move forward Shayne. But alot of "SEOs" still think a link is a link, regardless of nofollow, why not just have no signature show up until 100 posts?

then more spamming will be done to reach 100 post

**akritic** · Nov 17, 2008 02:18

Thanks Shayne

This should help the situation tremendously, and I feel this was a move that was most definitely needed. It's good to see action being taken against this. If then more stringent methods are still required, I'm sure the community will be behind you.

**awasson** · Nov 17, 2008 02:43

Yup, I've definitely seen an increase in these fluff posts especially in old threads that are a few years old... If I see a definite fluff post I'll alert a moderator and it gets deleted pretty much immediately. Kind of annoying but if we're diligent, we can prevent these jerks from reaching 100 posts and keep the threads useful.

Cheers,

**felgall** · Nov 17, 2008 02:59

Originally Posted by viron86

then more spamming will be done to reach 100 post

Which will make them really stand out and a moderator will be able to ban them from the forum long before they get to 100 posts.

**livetech** · Nov 17, 2008 03:24

Good thing (as somebody who is before 100 posts myself at time of writing!).

I think the "No signatures before 100 posts" would've been tricky to manage, as I try and make posting on this forum useful and lengthy, as such, it's going to take me longer than say some spammy guy from the subcontinent to reach 100 posts. I think anybody who wants to contribute to this forum will feel likewise. The connections I get from this forum are more important than any SEO benefit, so it'd be nice if people can see my twitter etc. from the off

**busylinks1** · Nov 17, 2008 04:46

I think it is not helpfull in avoiding the spammers to post links rather it become trickey to get to the posts more then 100...
Then a race for greater no of post increased to reach more then 100 numbers...
I think as SEO guys are tricky enough to get this no without any blocking...
isn't so?

I think the reporting about the post is OK to avoid things like this...
And the restriction on the no of post per day...
For example, It is allowed to post not more the 5 to 10 post a day....
Then how can any one spam links if is not allowed to post more then 5....

**Stormrider** · Nov 17, 2008 04:48

I swear some of the responses in this thread are exactly what the original post is on about, only they have taken a bit more care to pad the replies out a bit

Oh the irony...

**Blake Tallos** · Nov 17, 2008 04:50

Originally Posted by busylinks1

I think it is not helpfull in avoiding the spammers to post links rather it become trickey to get to the posts more then 100...
Then a race for greater no of post increased to reach more then 100 numbers...
I think as SEO guys are tricky enough to get this no without any blocking...
isn't so?

I think the reporting about the post is OK to avoid things like this...

Yeah, buts posting "fluff" has become a big problem on sitepoint. Thats why they have the procedures of limiting it.So we can have a more succesful forum.

LOL, why do you plan on spamming the forum?

**ryanhellyer** · Nov 17, 2008 05:02

Nice to see something being done about this.

Is this something available in vBulletin straight out of the box? Or did you need to add some sort of plugin or addon? Or perhaps it's a custom script?

Perhaps signatures could be non-existent for those under 20 posts, then you get a nofollow signature, then when you hit 100 posts it becomes dofollow? That's a little more complicated, but it would be a medium between the current system and what is being suggested above ^.

**webslicers.com** · Nov 17, 2008 05:06

I hope this works, alright. But like it or not, spammers are here to stay. Watch out, you spammers, you! Shayne et. al. are here to get you!

**ShayneTilley** · Nov 17, 2008 05:41

Originally Posted by ryanhellyer

Nice to see something being done about this.

Is this something available in vBulletin straight out of the box? Or did you need to add some sort of plugin or addon? Or perhaps it's a custom script?

Perhaps signatures could be non-existent for those under 20 posts, then you get a nofollow signature, then when you hit 100 posts it becomes dofollow? That's a little more complicated, but it would be a medium between the current system and what is being suggested above ^.

It's a custom script Ryan

**jahangir** · Nov 17, 2008 05:59

IMO to avoid "Nice post, Thanks for sharing, Good info...etc" we need to have a THANKS button. If a member really likes the post he will just press the THANKS button.

**livetech** · Nov 17, 2008 06:10

Originally Posted by jahangir

IMO to avoid "Nice post, Thanks for sharing, Good info...etc" we need to have a THANKS button. If a member really likes the post he will just press the THANKS button.

That could work, however I don't think that spammers given the choice will probably not press it, but instead post "Nice Post, Thanks for sharing." with their links.

Also, there's the posts which are just one liners that state the ruddy obvious such as "SEO is a great way to build up search engine rankings".

**webslicers.com** · Nov 17, 2008 06:15

Just a thought...

Why don't you delete the old posts especially the non-sense ones in the Off Topic or General Chat area? You could easily find them. There are a lot of such posts in those sections. I noticed that these threads are the ones constantly receiving 'fluff posts'. Maybe you could set a number of days for these kind of posts to stay in the forum then delete them after.

Just saying...

**Dreamerr** · Nov 17, 2008 06:31

Originally Posted by webslicers.com

Why don't you delete the old posts especially the non-sense ones in the Off Topic or General Chat area? You could easily find them. There are a lot of such posts in those sections. I noticed that these threads are the ones constantly receiving 'fluff posts'. Maybe you could set a number of days for these kind of posts to stay in the forum then delete them after.

Some old threads still contain useful information that might be searched for. It would be better just to lock the threads instead of deleting them.

**ro0bear** · Nov 17, 2008 06:36

Originally Posted by jahangir

IMO to avoid "Nice post, Thanks for sharing, Good info...etc" we need to have a THANKS button. If a member really likes the post he will just press the THANKS button.

I think that is a great idea, but maybe a better idea is a 5 star rating system for threads and maybe posts as well, like Amazon and Youtube etc.

It would be easier to come down on fluff (the in-proper way of saying thanks) if there is a 'proper' way of saying thanks.

**linkin99** · Nov 17, 2008 07:14

It's great to see this is going to be implemented. I've seen it in many areas other than the SEO too. What grinds my gears are those who have nothing to contribute that helps the questioner other than get their post count up. They simply rephrase what was already said in detail, so as to make another showing for their sig.

**revsorg** · Nov 17, 2008 07:22

Originally Posted by linkin99

It's great to see this is going to be implemented. I've seen it in many areas other than the SEO too. What grinds my gears are those who have nothing to contribute that helps the questioner other than get their post count up. They simply rephrase what was already said in detail, so as to make another showing for their sig.

Yes, I really hate it when people rephrase stuff that other people said without contributing anything

**ozwebfx** · Nov 17, 2008 07:40

umm what is the little red triangle .. I can't see it?

**akritic** · Nov 17, 2008 08:04

Originally Posted by ozwebfx

umm what is the little red triangle .. I can't see it?

Look below yours or someone else's avatar, and you should see a circle (green if the person is online) and next to it and red triangle with a line running down it (exclaimation mark?!?). This is to be used for reporting fluff posting, spam, or anything else that is against the forum rules.