Spam Bot?

[Cory_K]

Looks like ABDU has posted a bunch of the same crap about some

"http://labview.tech.officelive.com" website.

Just a heads up.

[smercurio_fc · Accepted solution]

I have already reported this to the moderator. When you see posts like this, don't bother responding to them (or telling us about them, since we've all seen SPAM). Just report the post to the moderator via the Options menu for the message.

[Cory_K]

Ahh thanks, I didn't see the 'report to moderator' option before, so I figured this is as good a place as any.

I'll use that option next time.

[altenbach]

I don't think this was a "spam bot", just a user that wanted to showcase his LabVIEW related homepage.

The posted links are direct and don't contain e.g. referral codes.

There is no advertising on the target page and they are directly LabVIEW related (I cannot read arabic (?)).

I don't know the exact posting rules regarding thse things, but maybe a single post in the right place probably OK.

The problem would be with repeated carpet bombing of the same posts everywhere, even in unrelated forums. The user could place the link in his signature, then actively contribute to the forum, answering questions. Multiple, near empty, posts just to show the link again is probably not OK.

In a case like this, we need well defined rules what the boundaries are. Do we have that?

The poster simply needs to be contacted by the moderator and made aware of the rules. It's no big deal in this particular case.

[Laura F.]

The rules are explained in the Terms of Use linked in the footer of the NI website.  I've previously sent reminders from them to people posting advertisements.  This particular user is mostly posting in Arabic so I've contacted the NI Office in that region to review his posts.

Thanks!

Laura