Do we need guidelines for suspicious posts?

[Lorinda]

We've seen an uptick in suspicious posts of late: Seemingly innocuous posts on old threads that are probably preludes to more focused spam attacks.

I've had no problem deleting and reporting those that have a link to an unrelated website, but I'm wondering what to do with something like this one:

https://trinity.neooffice.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=54011#54011

There are no links, nor are there any in the user's profile. But the post is very much a non-sequitor in the thread, for all that it appears affirming and innocuous. And the user name (credit01) is suspicious.

I'm wondering if we need an agreed upon set of guidelines for dealing with these posts.

At what point do we risk deleting legitimate--if rather clueless--posts?

Lorinda

[OPENSTEP]

Particularly if it is the first post from a new registered user and it seems suspect, I would err on the side of caution and delete the posts. They have been part of spam attacks in the past, essentially tests to see how moderated a board is. Again, it does no harm as if it is a legit post and not from a spammer the user can always post again.

ed

[James3359]

Yes I wondered about the post Lorinda referred to, as I did earlier about the Marinax one Patrick subsequently deleted. Is there someone I should notify if I come across suspicious posts, or should I just note them on this thread, or are there enough people on the lookout already so I can ignore them?

[OPENSTEP]

IF you see anything odd just note it here and we'll delete it. Usually the suspicious posts are all coming across as some form of "Thanks for the informative post..." or "Great news to hear, excelent job on the forum", etc. and have several spelling mistakes. The ones I've seen all have a similar vein, which is why I tend to suspect it's a start of a spam attack (or one that hasn't been tuned quite right yet). They also tend to not reference any of the previous posts or even reference Neo

ed

[sardisson]

[OPENSTEP]

Yes, there is fine as well

ed