spammers and other generally lousy content

[Chris McGill]

Hi everyone-

First- we give much praise to The Bowl.  The Bowl rocks and its uinhabitants are our lifeblood!

Wanted to post a little note about our philosophy aobut spammers ans self promoters...

As we get bigger (thanks to you guys) more and more self promoters are going to come out of the woodwork.  While this is bad- the good part is that they will be more than compensated for by more quality submitters and people who have otherwise been disenfranchised by social media because they could not find that content and the people that mattered to their interests.

Regarding the self promoters- in general if someone submitts content on "look at my money making blog", we are going to let it ride.  This is of course assuming there are no voting rings- when voting rings pop-ups, we deal with the issue.

Our experience here to date is that if you ignore this stuff, it just gets 1 to 5 votes and the submitters really go nowhere.  We have also found, however, that if we rile them- with comments or otherwise, then they make it a mission to come back and screw thigns up.  so - in sum- my advice (and you do not have to take it since everyone is allowed to act of their free will) is to just ignore it.  If a voting rings forms... then do NOT ignore it and please report it.

In all I think the friendlier the better... and if we don't pick fights we find they generally get bored and go away.


This is my $0.02 and you are free to spend you own $$$! 

Mixxing Bowl rules!

-cjm

[MarkCarras]

I totally agree.  It's like religious nuts helping to promote a movie they hate with their protests.  If they just kept queit, most of these movies would go away without anyone even noticing (Golden Compass needed more protests I think).

My question is how do we know how to spot the voting rings?  Is there something we should look for?  Other then "secret" forums that some have been invited to, is there other things we should keep an eye out for?

[Bdog2g2]

My question is how do we know how to spot the voting rings?  Is there something we should look for?  Other then "secret" forums that some have been invited to, is there other things we should keep an eye out for?

I don't look for voting rings , so much, as I look for fake accounts. When you notice an odd/new name and the only content they submitted happens to be EXACTLY the same stuff another account submitted that has only 2 votes and the comments smell of a Billy Mayes commercial, then I can say that its a fake account.

[hotfuzz]

Well said Chris!  Nobody really pays attention to the self promoters anyway.

[Bdog2g2]

Well said Chris!  Nobody really pays attention to the self promoters anyway.

I could name a few that get a slice of the FP here and there.

[fatlester]

They have been becoming more frequent submitters.  I see it as a testament to Mixx's success, and I'm not particularly worried about it.  As Chris said, the system weeds them out fairly efficiently.

[Musicgoat]

I am pretty new to this whole scene. The scene I refer to is the "do-social-networking-the-right-way" scene. Do to some bad - or possibly misunderstood - advice I have basically been spamming many of the same sites over and over for months. Because of this, I have worthless accounts on Digg, Reddit, Propeller and perhaps a few others.

But I am trying to make good - via Mixx and StumbleUpon - by educating myself and asking questions. That said...

I have noticed a few Mixx users who submit an un-Godly amounts of links and have an un-Godly amount of friends. this have been great for there karma score but it seem to me that they are giving something up (or maybe not).

I guess my questions is - when it comes to adding links and friends - how much is too much? Also, what are these users gaining and/or losing by these types of practices?

I want to learn the right way so that I am not wasting my time in the future. Thanks for your help!

[robdiana]

I have noticed a few Mixx users who submit an un-Godly amounts of links and have an un-Godly amount of friends. this have been great for there karma score but it seem to me that they are giving something up (or maybe not).

I guess my questions is - when it comes to adding links and friends - how much is too much? Also, what are these users gaining and/or losing by these types of practices?

Honestly, there is no "right" way to use a social media site if you are avoiding the basic spam stuff. For some people, the friends are most important, for others it is being a top submitter. I am neither, but I do post a decent amount of have a bunch of friends. It really depends on how much time you want to devote to the site, and what you want to get out of it.

[Musicgoat]

I have noticed a few Mixx users who submit an un-Godly amounts of links and have an un-Godly amount of friends. this have been great for there karma score but it seem to me that they are giving something up (or maybe not).

I guess my questions is - when it comes to adding links and friends - how much is too much? Also, what are these users gaining and/or losing by these types of practices?

Honestly, there is no "right" way to use a social media site if you are avoiding the basic spam stuff. For some people, the friends are most important, for others it is being a top submitter. I am neither, but I do post a decent amount of have a bunch of friends. It really depends on how much time you want to devote to the site, and what you want to get out of it.

Thanks for the piece of mind.

What do I want to put in...whatever it takes to make some nice contacts, learn a few things and get as much traffic to my sites as I can without offending people. Doing my part by being a good community member and helping along the way. Sound a little goody-goody but it is the best way I could phrase it and, most of all, true.

[honest ape]

What do I want to put in...whatever it takes to make some nice contacts, learn a few things and get as much traffic to my sites as I can without offending people. Doing my part by being a good community member and helping along the way. Sound a little goody-goody but it is the best way I could phrase it and, most of all, true.

I'm with you except for the traffic thing. I use Mixx to find interesting articles, make some web friends and post the things I find interesting. I've never posted too much, nor will I. I post shit as I come to it, and only when I think it's worth sharing. I know this means my karma will always be at the low end, but my personal enjoyment of the site will be at the high end.

[naturalwoman]

I'm getting sick of seeing the MFA sites submitting half a dozen submissions at the same time to the same site with near identical content. Seems like the strategy is to run the category on at least the recent page. Then there's the question of the backlinks.

[gbarberi]

I wish I had came across this thread sooner.  I sorta antagonized a spammer today... just a little.  Next time, I'll just downmod the crap and walk away. 

I didn't leave any nasty comments (I sometimes do on Digg because the crap pisses me off to no end.  8-9,000 submissions a day and the majority is crap.  It makes it hard to find the n00bs who submit good content and need a leg up over the spammers).

I just added a few tags to the posts... spam, garbage, goaway, etc.

I did report the user and the posts, though.

[honest ape]

I wish I had came across this thread sooner.  I sorta antagonized a spammer today... just a little.  Next time, I'll just downmod the crap and walk away. 

I didn't leave any nasty comments (I sometimes do on Digg because the crap pisses me off to no end.  8-9,000 submissions a day and the majority is crap.  It makes it hard to find the n00bs who submit good content and need a leg up over the spammers).

I just added a few tags to the posts... spam, garbage, goaway, etc.

I did report the user and the posts, though.

Yeah, that wasn't so bad. There have been some rather heated debates between the light and dark side of Mixx. Some that have resorted to levels of vitriol usually seen only at wrestling matches. It's a fight you can't win via dialog or nasty comments. You can only beat 'em by reporting 'em.

[calinazaret]

Yeah, that wasn't so bad. There have been some rather heated debates between the light and dark side of Mixx. Some that have resorted to levels of vitriol usually seen only at wrestling matches. It's a fight you can't win via dialog or nasty comments. You can only beat 'em by reporting 'em.