This looked like the most suitable place to post this question.

If anyone's a member of a social networking site, then you will probably agree that spam has become a problem on many of them. Since most of these d-bags can freely post their email addresses on profiles, forums, in-site messaging and such, is there any place we can dump these addresses to turn the spam tables on them?

I'm feeling slightly mean tonight.

That might not be playing fair and could make the problem worse. The bigger issue is that people jump into communities not understanding the rules of engagement.

Imagine you're at a party, someone runs up to you and slams a business card in your hand rambling about their widget ... because social networking tools are on-line they think the rules are different. You and I know these folks are stupid, but they don't know they are stupid.

Just ignore them, they will go away when something new comes along. Meanwhile focus on getting as much benefit as you can without pissing everyone off, show them an example of someone who gets results without being annoying.

Best,

Justin

Originally Posted by hittjw

Imagine you're at a party, someone runs up to you and slams a business card in your hand rambling about their widget ... because social networking tools are on-line they think the rules are different. You and I know these folks are stupid, but they don't know they are stupid.

That's good. That's really good. Hope you dont mind if I use that in the future Awesome analogy.

Originally Posted by hittjw

Just ignore them, they will go away when something new comes along. Meanwhile focus on getting as much benefit as you can without pissing everyone off, show them an example of someone who gets results without being annoying.

However, I don't totally agree with this. An individual spammer may move onto a new forum/network, but for every banned spammer, two will take their place. All you can do is keep the banhammer coming and keep your site clean. Keep it up and you will eventually recruit new moderators to help you keep the site relevant. Don't give up otherwise they win.

You know what? I've had one guy who kept re-registering to post spam after I deleted him. In the end, he had registered 18 different usernames to post spam over the course of a month. Yesterday he sent me a message asking why he couldn't log in any longer... sigh... What is wrong with these people? I don't want your auto leasing trash on my tech site (especially after the first 17 times I deleted it). Take it elsewhere. Whew, sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant there. Long story short - Don't give up!

It comes down to whether you want to spend any of your precious time dealing with stuff(spam) that you could easily ignore.

Don't ignore spam!!!! If you do they will take over. I delete every spam account the minute it shows up. How stupid are spammers? They spam the admin.

I think you are taking it a little too seriously. Pop ups no good but if you dont have to see it then just dont click ya know