One of the many blogs I read touched on a relevant topic the other day. The one little duckblog provides the story behind a “competitions” site, like many successful sites it has an active forum. Like many succesful forums it has become the target of spammers.
The post highlights an ongoing battle between us moderators and the spammers. Unfortunately a good quality back link from an active trusted site with a good Google Page Rank is now so valuable that people are prepared to go to any lengths to get their link shoed in.
Are all link posters evil?
No. As a forum moderator this is important to understand. Google’s search works so well because counting quality back links to different sites is an effective method of gauging the usefulness of a site. It’s not perfect. I was just searching for the Customer Insight providing system produced by Tealeaf, only to be greeted by links to the finest, freshest, refreshing brews!
So there is nothing wrong with genuine, natural linking between sites. Sharing good links is actually important and when I am introduced to something particularly relevant via a forum then I am only ever grateful. If Google can then make use of this information to help someone else find the same relevant site then everyone is winning!
So what is forum spam?
Often this will be easy to spot. User joins. User posts a hundred links to some dodgy site. Moderator deletes post. User is banned.
Sounds simple?
Sadly such posters realise that their posts wont last long and so are starting to get cleverer. Thankfully, as the author of the One Little Duck blog found, they aren’t getting all that clever! As a moderator you have a number of ways to spot the rogue users. Look through their posts, look at the quality, the quantity. Compare with your other users. Use Google to search for their user name. It can be worth searching for the IPs too.
But remember, if the link is relevant, perhaps in response to a genuine query and the site provides a genuine answer, then it’s worth considering letting the link live on. Ask yourself, what is best for your users?