Notices About Sports in The Just Diagnosed Forum

They ARE spam. Report them. Why do You THINK you would be seeing them?

yorkiemom, they're definitely spam, and we delete and ban them as quickly as we can. The professional spammers who post them are trying to sell live streaming and other "services," and they spam this stuff all over the internet.

We believe they most often post in Just Diagnosed and Not Diagnosed but Worried forums because their programming (these are bots, not real people) sends them to large and active forums.

Thanks to so many members who report these spammy posts!

Early in my membership on bco, I reported a post which I thought was spam. It wasn't one of these "streaming" posts, but looked "off" somehow. It was a generic statement, which to me sounded like the lead in to a sales pitch, and the username sounded like it might be a business rather than an individual. The mods determined the post was not a spam, and I received in reply to my report a warning against abusing the "report" feature, which IIRC included a statement that I could be banned for inappropriately reporting posts. Since that first experience I haven't reported any posts, even obvious spams like the ones mentioned by the OP, lest I end up the one who gets banned, rather than the spammer. Instead, I just block the sender.

If the mods want bco members to notify them of spammers, they might want to use a lighter touch, and not issue a warning the first time someone submits a report, even if it is determined that the reported post is OK. I think the time for a warning is if someone repeatedly reports posts that are nothing like spam, not on the first report, and not for a post that (in my opinion) was on the borderline of spam/not spam. (It's interesting to note that the post I reported, and the other three by the same user, are no longer on bco.)  I also re-read a thread I started about reporting that post, and someone on that thread mentioned that there are only two choices in the report feature-- reporting as a rules violation and reporting as spam. I think it would be good if there were a box for "Mods please review" for posts like the one I reported, that just seem "off".

Mods, just to clarify, if I see a post that seems iffy or off in some way I should send you a PM about it rather than using the "report" feature?

I didn't realize the warning email is automatic. I agree that having the mods decide whether a warning message is appropriate would be a big improvement over sending it automatically! Until that capacity is added, are you mods able to change the text of the automatic email so it's milder in tone? The wording of the message I got really scared me out of reporting anything at all, even obvious spams.

I just spent 10 minutes reporting a deluge of "watch sports" type SPAM. What's going on?

Caryn

I have been reporting them too. Crazy!

Good Grief! You think people would have better things to do!

So true Ruth! If you read the first responce from the Mods here. They say they are doing this to sell the ads....to make money. It's all computer programed by a person to repeat this process many many times here & other places. With the touch of a few buttons! Looks like our reports are taking effect & stopping some of it.

I think @exbrnxgrl is right. It seems like most of these posts come from a username that has only one post. I bet the program that generates the messages changes username each time to make it harder to ban the spammer.

When someone tries to join BCO couldn't there be one of those windows with the funny letters and/or numbers that have to be reproduced by the person trying to sign up?  Would that stop this type of spam? 

We hate the spammy posts too, and although today's were banned promptly, we missed the additional step of also deleting them. We'll work on that, and also see if the tech team can suggest changes that will slow spambots down without also restricting access for those who genuinely need to get in without delays.