There was a thread here dated 5:21AM about watching various current movies online (with links). Obvious spam - clicked the Report Post button. By the time I got the report composed (on iphone - slow typing) my report and I were caught up in some weird causality loop (thought I saw Jean-Luc Picard). Finally broke out of it.
In the future (ha!), should I just leave these alone and let the sw take care of it? Or was that a moderator?
OMG! Just looked in the mirror. I haven’t aged a day!
I just happened to notice it and deleted it apparently while you were reporting it.
In the future, go ahead and report the post. We don’t always see them first, and we appreciate it when people report things that need our attention.
Moved to ATMB from GQ.
As engineer says, go ahead and report it. It shouldn’t cause a problem unless a mod has simultaneously decided to delete it (and sometimes I have also been caught in a time warp when trying to delete a thread at the same time as another mod).
That has happened to me more than a few times. Usually it’s Marley who is on the ball with the kill shots.
What’s his personal best of the time for spam post–>cloud of random data packets?
Many spammers are banned even before they have a chance to make their first post, so the figure will be a negative number.
Hmmm, that sounds like those faster-than-light neutrinos. I’ll wait to see confirming experiments before I believe that.
I don’t know if the moderators have an opinion but I very quickly moved from “Hey, don’t want to be a bother but I noticed this post seems a little off to me and I think it might be spam so if you have a few moments and could check it out, otherwise no biggie…” to just saying “spam” which saves some time.
How does that work? (Or is this a SDMB trade secret?)
I imagine you’d have to get “read in” as a moderator to be cleared to know that. And we all understand the physical, emotional, and moral costs of being a moderator… 
Well, users like viagra4U or buywatchesonline are probably not joining for the conversation. 
Otherwise many are known spammers or from known sites/ISPs.
Yeah, it was my first (does that mean I’m different in some way now?). Also had an issue in that I couldn’t remember the word “spam” until I finished my first couple of lines of text. Haven’t seen spam in my inbox for some time.
I sometimes give them a little humor with the report, something like “Rammer Jammer Ban a Spammer ROLL TIDE!”. Cuz I’m whacky like that.
The confirmation comes before the experiment. You already missed it.
You’re not the only one.
I don’t know about the other mods, but I personally appreciate the little humorous comments that some folks make. Some of them are quite clever.
Is thiotimoline involved?