Maybe the forum will have to go private

[Barbara]

Spam appears to be slowly increasing, and I'm wondering if, once again, the forums will have to go private. I've reported all the spam I've seen (2 just this morning coming out of India), but there may be more that I haven't seen, given that I don't visit all sections. Frankly, I'd rather the forums didn't go private since it's yet another avenue for Zazzle to get its name out there.

Why spammers think they'll gain traction on a forum like this is incomprehensible.

[CreativeLeahG]

I think bearing in mind the audience size, 2 spam posts every other day isn't that problematic, but obviously, it needs monitoring. 

[Barbara]

@CreativeLeahG  I've seen a slow build in the spam, and though it's simply annoying at present, the increase bothers me because I suspect spammers share URL's with one another, in which case, we may end up seeing a lot more of it.

I'm not sure why Zazzle turned the forums private when they did. It certainly eliminated spam at the time. If so, it's not necessarily something I'd like to see, given that I've sometimes found good places to go after landing on a forum when running a search. I don't know how easy it is to single out specific forums here to make them private, but besides wanting to see private pro forums again, I'd imagine turning the tech forum private would be good too. Who needs the public to be peeking behind the curtain?

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[CatsEyeViewGift]

I've previously seen a <past> affiliate quit zazzle because the forums were no longer private.  I don't remember the reason they gave - but if there is a reason affiliates are quitting, maybe they should go back to private?  I know under the old forums, I used to see more affiliate requests then I've seen since we moved to this new forum.

[CrazyMermaid]

I have been in affiliate marketing for 20 years - most of it full-time. Most power affiliates don't even post in the forum. I can't imagine how it would matter. 

[Scott]

The forums are not going private.

[Barbara]

Excluding the pro forums, I assume.

[Windy]

I see pretty much all the spam because I have this page bookmarked, and I check in every time I open this tablet. This shows me all the brand new threads https://community.zazzle.com/

I have seen two spam threads in one week a few times, most weeks no spam at all. So either there really is not all that much spam or it's being wiped away pretty quickly, so the spam level appears to be to be well-managed. I always report it right away and I am guessing others do as well. 

Or are you now seeing spam within existing threads? This is not something I have yet encountered, and I have been consumed the last few days with a big project, so I have not been in that much in the last little while which might explain why I don't see that.

[Barbara]

As I said, I haven't seen a huge amount of spam. The chat spam that a lot of us have received has been the most concerning because, if it were to continue, it would ruin the purpose of chat. Those messages look more like a scam than spam. When it comes to the latter, such as the recent stuff from India advertising clothing and medical supplies, I've no patience at all.

Overreacting? Maybe I am. I have no patience for lack of principles.

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