Well done HQ

Thank you very much for taking the effort to post the long post Elegran.

The worst they can do is clutter the threads up and break our train of posts.

How do spammers cause hurt? Probably a pain in a backside or two at GNHQ, but - hey! [shrug]

x post with Elegran.
I will now settle done for the tutorial.

But spammers cause trouble. And hurt. No?

Spam/reporting tutorial coming up.

"Spam" is a post intended to make you buy something, or get you to follow a link to someone's website so that you boost their visitor numbers. At is an advert of a kind, not from a real member, but someone who has just joined so as to be able to send a post advertising what they want to sell or promote. Very often they are part of a bulk post-out, like the junk mail that comes through the letterbox with monotonous frequency and goes straight into the recycling. (From the Monty Python song, where spam is everywhere)

A "troll" is someone who joins to send a post pretending to be what they are not, so as to con people into responding. Often they post something controversial or insulting so as to get people all worked up to answer, then they reply with something even more insulting, or else they act as though they are really hurt and upset by the sharp answer they got and are going to leave Gransnet because of it. Then some people are concerned about this hurt poster and get into a fight with whoever argued with them in the first place. Meanwhile the troll is reading it all with glee and laughing their socks off.

To report a post, you click on the "report" button. That brings up a reporting window where you can choose whether you are reporting it as spam or for some other reason. Submitting that sends it to GNHQ and you get back an automatic acknowledgement. Then after someone has looked at the post you are reporting, it is either deleted or not, as they decide. you get a proper answer from GNHQ then. THAT is why it makes a difference whether it is day (when someone can delete it quickly) or night (when it waits until someone is on duty)

Adding a post saying reported is a separate move. you can do it or not.

If you want to see the reporting window for yourself, you can see it by clicking on "report" for any post - it only sends the report once you submit it so you can back off without sending it.

hope this helps.

Loopyloo - spam posts are similar to spam e-mails. They are generally trying to sell goods or services which may or may not exist sometimes with the idea of getting personal details of anyone who responds. For example the e-mails purporting to come from HMRC saying that you are due a tax rebate when what they want to do is get your bank details.

Trolling is where someone will pick on someone when responding to replies on threads on various social media. Some of this trolling can be very nasty. Trolling can also be of a more general nature where people post hoax threads on a website.

A troll deliberately causes trouble. Spam is more to do with sneaking an unauthorised advert in under the wire.

I don't think you have quite got it soontobe.

Apologies in advance but what is spam' and how is that different from 'trolling' (I thought a troll was an Alpine dwarf in myths and legends)

I have reported spam to GNHQ on occasion but haven't usually bothered to post "reported". I shall do so in future if the occasion arises again.

No, I havent reported any.

I think I understand how to report though.
If say POGS at night, writes "reported" on her post, and then presses the pinky-mauve Report on the strip, GNHQ receives the report. And then acts on it in the morning.

I am not sure if I am confused or not?!

#laptops

Ah! I see! You think that writing "reported" is the same as reporting it and GNHQ getting it deleted, It's not. You report it via the "report" button on the pinky-mauve strip above the post. GNHQ delete it when they get the message - but they are not there at night, so it has to wait until they get to work in the morning.

You have not reported any, then?

ok. I have copied and pasted gransnet HQ's reply. I presume that that is ok with GNHQ.

Hi soontobe,

When it comes to spammers, we do need the thread to be reported to us as there's no guarantee we will have seen it. It also helps if that person then posts on the thread to say that they've already reported it - otherwise we're flooded with reports of the same thread/post! But this isn't a hard and fast rule, and the spamming rules are separate from the trolling ones, as they aren't the same thing. Interacting with them is generally short lived, as we try to delete spam as soon as possible, but there's no particular rule against it. It's generally up to the poster themselves (unless what they're posting is abusive/unacceptable in turn).

Hope that clears it up.

Best,
GNHQ

They do not see spammers as trolls.

I will still say that I still cant see why writing "reported" at night is any different from day time.
But GNHQ are the boss, so anyone can do what they like with regards to spammers.
[They did send this to me earlier today, but I wasnt around much]

Absolutely right Elegran and Pogs Not all GNs are clued up to how these scammers work and how sneaky they can be. They may not know how to do a little research via web-searching to check them out.

No guessing I totally agree with Elegran

I take on board those who say 'report' is the beset option but there is a failure to acknowledge that the timing of the posts meant that they were on the site and available for GN's to give them serious thought and actionsactions, because of their total plausability , 'before' HQ could have dealt with themthem.

Hence to wording of the OP. I assume GNHQ are not watching 24/7, unlike some GN's

Just a thought before I go - why was that offer of visits to old people not checked out with GN before it was posted? You would have thought the poster would have wanted the GN organisation to know about it and put their approval onto it? That would have verified their position.

If they want to go into the homes of vulnerable strangers, surely they are worldly-wise enough to realise that they need positive vetting?

If posters give a phone number, or the name of a company or charity they "have connections to" then an internet search takes a few seconds. You can find out an amazing amount about people on the net, and form an intelligent opinion. Sharing that with others is not rising to the spam bait, it is passing on the information to people who may not have thought to check. There are new members joining all the time, some of them new to computing and the net as well. They don't all read the guidelines, and they may not have the experience to recognise the fakes.

Ignoring tr*lls and spammers is not a new idea of soontobe's It is standard policy at GN and has been for a long time. Getting angry at people who appear to be exploiting trusting internet virgins is not a new thing either, and it fuels the wish to check a poster's credentials and warn others. Well, it fuels mine, anyway.

We won't stop spammers posting. There are more popping up online every second, and they bulk post blindly on lists they can buy. We can avoid feeding their ego by getting into conversations with them. We can report them and ignore them. We can pass on any information we can glean about their identity and operations, as we pass on information about telephone scams and dishonest garages.

Jings - if this thread does continue until Christmas, it will be without me. I have presents to buy, parcels to wrap, the tree to retrieve from the attic, food to shop for, a spare room to clear of debris and a GN trip to the ballet - plus I only have a couple more days of my £1 for a month Findmypast bargain membership to go and I have done absolutely nothing more toward my family tree.

Have a nice discussion.

Precisely, Charleygirl! Simple as that.

The word "reported" should not be beyond most folk.

Shall we see how long we can keep this thread going? It could be another Christmas game.

Pester power. Same as cold callers use. Best ignored, and then deleted.

GNHQ approach has always been the same: don't respond to posts that you suspect are spam or worse, just report them. If HQ agrees the posts are deleted. It's really quite simple. Nothing else is necessary.

A lot of them are 'block spammers', they're not just targeting us as older people, they send out the same message to thousands of websites.

These spammers are possibly thinking that some of us grannies might be naive and trusting. We should take no notice of anyone offering services on GN unless it is a company GN are dealing with.

I would not buy any goods or services from anyone who is cold calling on me without a lot of investigation and only then if it happened to be something I had already thought of getting done.