# What's with all the spam lately? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [November 23, 2017, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502 "2017-11-23T07:46:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/21 "2017-11-26T07:48:02Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > I can’t believe we’ve made it this long in this thread without someone saying "Spam spam spam spam. Lovely spam! Wonderful spam! " > > Ooops. Sshh, dear, don’t cause a fuss. I’ll have your spam. I love it. I’m having spam spam spam spam spam spam spam beaked beans spam spam spam and spam! ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2017, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/22 "2017-11-29T11:05:40Z")
Wow, 8 spam posts on the front page of GQ at this moment. I don’t think I’ve seen that many before. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2017, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/23 "2017-11-29T12:33:16Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Wow, 8 spam posts on the front page of GQ at this moment. I don’t think I’ve seen that many before. Normally, the late night ones are caught by **Colibri** and the early morning ones by **engineer\_comp\_geek** and I get the 5-8 shift. Guess we all slept in the last eight hours. They’re gone now. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2017, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/24 "2017-11-29T12:41:24Z")
I see the machinations of Richard Gere, Tom Cruise, and The Illuminati ( **The Triumvirate** ). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2017, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/25 "2017-11-29T13:38:04Z")
One of them had this fascinating come-on: > [@dghydfghf](#): > > staleness not be one writer day underprivileged of freedom . Imbutiles and louts My represented are not a leader of anything they can be apodictic imbeciles louts particular simplistic infantiloids but they are virtuous children rattling chummy to their home. What scares me is maybe he stole that from someone’s blog. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2017, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/26 "2017-11-29T13:47:46Z")
And another: > [@fdgyfcghfgj](#): > > A senior woman was also among the clients. She narrated that the delinquents demanded that she throw herself to the floor, but because of her health condition, she could not do it as quickly as they asked. She was accompanied by her son, he was able to reassure the criminals to leave in peace his anguished mother of more than 70 years. Maybe Mr. Hossain is taking a creative writing course. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/27 "2017-11-29T14:01:40Z")
No other Google hits for “A senior woman was also among the clients”, but a search for “they are virtuous children rattling chummy to their home” shows that [atlantablackbusinessnetwork.org](http://atlantablackbusinessnetwork.org) is also getting visited. (As an aside, doesn’t every parent that their children will grow up to be virtuous chummy rattlers?) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2017, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/28 "2017-11-29T20:34:09Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I would love to know how the spam sponsors verify how much spam the spammers have posted and on what basis they pay them for it. The spammers appear to care only about posting the spam, and oblivious to how long it stays up before being deleted. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m amazed at how much time and effort they put into generating new accounts that are going to be immediately banned. Many a sage has pondered: How much spam can a spam poster spam when a spam poster is paid to spam spam? ---
**Author:** ![Harrington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac8455/32.png) [@Harrington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harrington)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2017, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/29 "2017-11-29T23:52:48Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > The spammers get paid. > The streaming sites hire the spammers to drive traffic to the streaming sites. > [@Leaffan](#): > > How do the streaming sites know who directed whom to which stream? > [@Colibri](#): > > I would love to know how the spam sponsors verify how much spam the spammers have posted and on what basis they pay them for it. I suspect the spammers _are_ the owners of the streaming sites where, as has been said, they charge a nominal fee for watching the events. I think the owners do the spamming work themselves. No need to account for who did what, when, and where, just go to different sites, especially sports related sites, or sports threads on generals sites, cast their line, and hope for nibbles. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2017, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/30 "2017-11-30T02:31:04Z")
That would certainly be consistent with a small number of individuals being responsible for the bulk of the spam, as we observe. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2017, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/31 "2017-11-30T04:31:35Z")
> [@Harrington](#): > > I suspect the spammers _are_ the owners of the streaming sites where, as has been said, they charge a nominal fee for watching the events. I think the owners do the spamming work themselves. No need to account for who did what, when, and where, just go to different sites, especially sports related sites, or sports threads on generals sites, cast their line, and hope for nibbles. But as I’ve pointed out in previous threads, the cost/benefit ratio to spam this site seems very high compared to most spam. They have to generate a new username (even if it’s gibberish) and a new email, and register the account. They have to generate a thread title, and often post an OP before editing it out (or sometimes leaving it in as in the cases above). Most of their threads are posted in GQ rather than in the Game Room or Cafe Society. Their threads get only a few views before they’re deleted (and hopefully zero clicks on the links). Anymore, they hardly ever seem to even try to post multiple spam messages with the same username. And most mysterious of all, if they were trying to get the maximum number of people to visit the streaming sites you would think they would title the threads “See streaming sports now!.” Instead they disguise spam as spam with titles about smart phones etc. If they gave them real titles they wouldn’t be deleted any faster and might get a few more views before being deleted. ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2017, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/32 "2017-11-30T05:18:36Z")
My guess is that they’re not trying to get us to click on the links – they’re trying to get Google to index their post and thereby bump up the PageRank of their streaming links, making those links nearer the top of the relevant search results non-SDMB people get when they search for illicit sporting content. One way to fix this problem would be to have the server add [rel=“nofollow”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow) to every link in a post. This keeps Google et al. from boosting the rank of the streaming links when indexing the post. (I don’t know how easy this would be to do in vBulletin. Maybe it’s a setting somewhere?) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2017, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/33 "2017-11-30T05:24:10Z")
> [@Kimble](#): > > My guess is that they’re not trying to get us to click on the links – they’re trying to get Google to index their post and thereby bump up the PageRank of their streaming links, making those links nearer the top of the relevant search results non-SDMB people get when they search for illicit sporting content. > > One way to fix this problem would be to have the server add [rel=“nofollow”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow) to every link in a post. This keeps Google et al. from boosting the rank of the streaming links when indexing the post. (I don’t know how easy this would be to do in vBulletin. Maybe it’s a setting somewhere?) I thought Google was onto those tricks years ago. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2017, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/34 "2017-11-30T05:31:43Z")
From here: [Google Product Forums](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/webmasters/UZPh0EPOXcE/dLpq3f_qbfUJ) > [@](#): > > Just to be absolutely clear, if you are dropping links to your site in other people’s forums in the hope of gaming search engines, then that’s considered web-spam and can be taking into account by both our algorithms and our manual web-spam teams. It doesn’t matter how much “PR” the other site has, it doesn’t matter if it’s a .gov forum – what you’re doing would be considered web-spam by us. > > If you care about how search engines like Google view your site, I’d recommend cleaning those link-drops up, removing the link to your site, and not doing that in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2017, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/35 "2017-11-30T05:39:12Z")
Some time ago, I found a site, similar to Amazon Mechanical Turk, where people could go to pick up those really cheap piece-work gigs like AMT has. A very large proportion of the gigs listed there were for people to go to various other web sites and post links there. I don’t know how they kept track of who was posting what for them to get paid. ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2017, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/36 "2017-11-30T06:15:22Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > I thought Google was onto those tricks years ago. You’re right, but I didn’t say the spammers were successful. 😉 Maybe the spammers think they have a workaround? (Of course, if they did have some technique that could beat Google, it would probably be more sophisticated that what we see here.) If we did nofollow all the links (or just the ones from new accounts?), at least those specific spammers could 100% know that their work was for naught. Would that make them stop? I can only hope, but I can’t say for sure. Would it make the world a slightly worse place since the SDMB wouldn’t be indirectly curating the web anymore? I suppose so, for certain values of “slightly.” Is it worth it? Beats me. ---
**Author:** ![MustBeFit05](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@MustBeFit05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MustBeFit05)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/37 "2017-12-01T17:18:32Z")
I second that, the spammers gets paid. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502/38 "2017-12-01T17:40:41Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > I’ve also noticed a big uptick in new users who think we’re a site for the discussion of drugs (sorry, wrong kind of dope, dude). [PSA]The SDMB is the only high I need![/PSA] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-spam-lately/802502.md?page=1)