I’m talking about the ear cartilage pain thread. It seems to be bumped fairly often by new posters who come across it in a Google search and sign up to post, since it is apparently one of the few references on the web to this phenomenon.
By my conservative count, the thread has been resurrected at least 14 times. (See list below.) I only counted the bump as a resurrection if there were around 3 months or more between posts. If I included each time a new person signed up to post in the thread, sometimes only a few weeks after the last post, the count would be even higher.
Funnily, the thread was dormant for nearly 6 years but since the first bump it has been revived fairly regularly. Perhaps we are in the midst of an ear cartilage pain epidemic.
As I understand it, the spam posts are still there but removed from view. Mods can still see them.
So if any mod has some free time to go through and count them…
I went back as far as 2016. These are the dates of the deleted spam posts in that thread. I don’t have the time (or desire) to go earlier, but this should give you an idea of how often that thread is spammed.
Most threads that become spam magnets are closed. This thread is left open because it’s a sticky and while outdated, it is still a relevant thread. I’ve actually started working on a replacement for that thread (quite some time ago) but haven’t had time to finish it.
Hmm… Most likely, it gets targeted by spammers because it’s the first non-locked thread they see on top of the page (because it’s a sticky). What if we started another sticky thread called “Don’t post here-- Spam trap”, and then just banned anyone we saw posting there?
