I'm trying to train people not to post replies to spam. The fastest and easiest thing for a moderator to do is delete spam as soon as it shows up. But if someone has posted a response to said spam in the mean time, then now there's a link that looks like an interesting topic, that other people are likely to click on. Then maybe those people will post something saying "the link doesn't work", and the moderator might have to spend a long time explaining things, instead of just a few seconds deleting and banning.Moosey wrote:It’s a clever attempt to advertise something without looking like they’re advertising somethingwildmyron wrote:I don't know what this post is, or where the user's sig link goes to, but it's not a useful contribution to the discussion.
EDIT:
This is not the first time I’ve worked on a reply to something and then see it disappear before I post my reply.
I fixed the above link so it goes somewhere after all, but you don't want to go there either.
So... my recommendation is, don't bother responding to spam. Report it using the little exclamation mark icon if you want (though that usually isn't necessary either) -- but don't bother making a post anywhere with a link to the offending post. And there's no point in responding to responses to spam either. The entire chain will probably get deleted too, again because that's way quicker than what I just did instead.
TL;DR: Sometimes the best action is no action. Just keep breathing in and out for a while, and spam will become Not a Problem.