Second that. I know that you and other staff are likely quite busy. There is not a straightforward way to report abuses such creation of spam blogs. I have sent info to the general "comments and info" address. Is that the appropriate thing to do?

I would recommend that the staff contact either the sixapart support folks, or the six apart professional network http://www.sixapart.com/pronet/

What we are dealing with is spam blog creation more than spam comments. That is a challenging spam block and I don't think that most spam systems address that problem.

On a community site, spam is always an issue. A significant number of TPM members seem to think it is a problem here. Effectively controlling spam on a large website, that allows third-parties to post content must be a community effort to be effective. Users need to ride the fence-lines, constantly looking for breeches in it, and then contact TPM Admin.

It's not that hard or time-consuming. Whenever you believe you've encountered spam at TPM:

1: Copy the page address from the address bar in your browser;
2: Go to the very last link on every TPM page at the bottom left: "Report Abuse", and double-click it;
3: This will open up an email window on your computer, with the proper email recipient and email subject content already properly entered;
4: Simply type "SPAM" hit enter twice; then paste the URL to the spam page, that you copied in step 1.
5: Send email.

It takes less than 1 minute to do this.

Thank you for responding, Versha, and for your efforts to get Al and/or Andrew involved with us as well. I am sorry that my post was in the process of having consumed it's 24 hours when you made your comment.

> The other problem is that we can only ban IP addresses when the
user/spammer leaves a comment. With the current system we have, we
cannot track or ban IP address via blog posts. Please do trust me when
I say we're working to come up with something!

There were several suggestions mentioned by folks far brighter in these areas than I'll ever hope to be - have any of them been considered by the system administrators? It frankly seems odd to me that a site such as TPM has not developed or implimented a process by which to effectively deal with spam blogs.

If I may suggest, please consider keeping us appraised of the progress regarding this problem. As was also mentioned - there is a possibility that with the re-direct capabilities of this new version of spam member computers could be compromised.

Again, thank you for taking the time to follow up on this to the best of your ability. It's appreciated.

thanks for staying on top of it, Versha.

Is there a way to monitor the new "members". It would seem possible to get them as they come because they have to make a profile first and then blog. If you delete the spammers, they have to start over. Are there that many new members that this would be difficult.

PS - I know nothing about computers, so please do not be offended if this is painfully obvious. I'm really just trying to help.

Maybe one of TPM's computer wizzards could set up a computer to send them billions of responses. Send a few thousand a second 24 hours a day.

These peoples basic personality is similar to the grade school bully. You have to hit a bully back.

Thank you Versha for blogging about this issue. One of the best things about TPM is the active response from administration that happens around here. I hope you are able to resolve the problem quickly.

Versha is cool.