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I feel that recently we are fighting more with the spammers. But is flagging enough to help the moderators? any other measure we can do? I don't know something like when you flag and it is trusted user with certain number of accepted flags...can delete the user automatically? It might be a bad idea. But I wish I could do more about it

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Yes that was weird, about 4 spam posts from newly registered accounts in the space of about half an hour, and I think some earlier today as well. I destroyed a few accounts and other mods have taken action too so it's all been cleared up.

Personally I think flagging's enough at the moment, while it's unsavoury to see spam it's not a massive problem on this site. We mods get an icon in the toolbar telling us how many mod flags there are outstanding, so it's rare that a post flagged as spam will be around for long.

There are already automatic bans in place for users who reach a certain level of deleted/downvoted content, but I don't think they kick in very often for spammers as their accounts just aren't around for long enough.

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    And in a wonderful irony, another one's been posted as I was writing this.
    – Clive Mod
    Jan 26, 2013 at 2:37
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    Yeah, flagging is probably sufficient. The mods here have a decent spread of timezone differences, so the coverage is good. Even when I am busy, I check flags periodically to take care of immediate needs, and handling spam is very easy (and required not thinking/judgement).
    – mpdonadio Mod
    Jan 26, 2013 at 14:05
  • Seems to be getting worse!!
    – Scott Lawrence
    Feb 13, 2013 at 1:27
  • seems to be worse on weekends or when there is football or big game coming :S
    – cayerdis
    Mar 1, 2013 at 4:22
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Just to reinforce one aspect, please just flag spam as spam. Please

  • Don't use any flags, other than spam.
  • Don't edit to remove links.
  • Don't re-tag as spam.

These three actions can interfere with the spam gets handled. Fore more information, read What are the “spam” and “rude or abusive” (offensive) flags, and how do they work? over on MSO.

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  • Are there exceptions not using any other flags besides the spam flag? What about when a post is definitely spam, but not obviously so, ...or is obviously spam but there is an additional issue warranting moderator attention? Is it appropriate to flag as spam and also use a custom flag, in these instances? (I've found such action to be well received on several other SE sites, but I appreciate if the guidelines/rules are different here.) I'll post a separate meta question about this if you like, but I suspect this could be fully addressed by clarification (or "even if" affirmation) here.
    – Eliah Kagan
    Feb 1, 2013 at 11:22
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    @EliahKagan The spam flag carries an automatic downvote, and enough spam will remove the post from the front page and delete it. I would reserve the custom flag for cases where the author is shamelessly self promoting and you want to give the mods some more info.
    – mpdonadio Mod
    Feb 1, 2013 at 14:03
  • this new spam attack is weird there are from new members and they have been members for 4 days or 2 days at least...
    – cayerdis
    Feb 6, 2013 at 0:18
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    The SE people think it is a meatnet and not automated spambots. That makes it harder to deal with.
    – mpdonadio Mod
    Feb 6, 2013 at 0:40

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