Hi All,
Recently there have been quite a few issues with spammers and the use of profanity in unnecessary circumstances. Whether this is the same person using different accounts for fear of being found out or even just several young people who are socially unaware and feel targetted despite no one doing or saying anything bad about them I think we can all see that we are the ones who are encouraging this continual behaviour.
I am not exempt from this either as I did recently come upon an incident that I, unintentionally, kept alive. These people who come on the Forums only to start spamming and swearing at others do so for one reason and one reason only. The attention.
Clearly the first time they attempted something like this, be it on this Forum or another one, they must have received many messages in reply as a result. This entices them as they then start to feel like they are being heard and that all the attention is on them. When we reply to them saying “stop spamming” or “don’t do that”, etc. they see this as an opportunity to once again let out an insult. Our replies to them are like fodder. They long for the chance for someone to reply as this gives them what they feel is the required circumstances to insult someone.
The only way that we are going to stop these people, or even the same user with different accounts, is by completely ignoring them. @Polaris and the team are aware of these users and will get to it in their own time. We are essentially powerless over these other people so the best thing we can do is shut them out.
If you see a spammer:
- Ignore them
- Flag the post but don’t reply
- Leave a comment asking @Polaris to shut the topic down, if the spammer started it, but only if no one else has. Once this specific comment has been made make no other comment.
Thank you,
Fellow Piglet
