Animation Source Forums

Just a short topic on how to recognize a spambot.

Names
Their usernames are often times awkward. It could represent the company it comes from, or it could just be a bunch of random letters and numbers.

Content of the posts
The content written in the topic is usually a few paragraphs long that includes links the spambot represents.

Signature

They don't always have one, but when they do they have links to the site it represents.


If you see a spambot on here, report it.

A good example of one just found today: but-not-the-marion-t34952.html

They're for the most part easy to tell as a spambot because the text is often unrelated to the section it's posted in as well.

Shouldn't that topic be deleted instead of locked?

Usually they are, but it's a good example to use, and no one can post in it anyway.

I'm with agreement on everything here except the names part. Sometimes people DO join with what seems to be random characters or letters in their names, but it's not meant to be spammish. Take mine, for example. Unless you knew where Skulblaka and Shur'tugal come from, you'd probably think I was a spambot just by looking at my name. If however you DID now where it came from, then you'd find it to be rather clever. (Yeah, somebody told me that. Really, I came up with it because I was bored in 2003.)

But yes, good points, Mighty. I hope a lot of members see this topic.