On Posting, Spam And Othersuch
So I've been staff for... cripes, almost three years now?... And I've seen more than my fair share of spam in that time. I've been BBC staff for about two and a half years, and I had a fair stretch of time in Artwork the Whole too. As such, I've seen just about every way possible that people can spam. I wouldn't go so far as to say I've seen 'em all: one has never seen it all, and can never hope to. All the same, I've seen a lot of that sort of thing, and I may as well go on about some of 'em.
Generic Posts
These are possibly the most frustrating to deal with, as not only are they so easy to do(and thus pop up very, very frequently), but to the poster's eyes, they can appear as perfectly legitimate posts, and are thus reposted (often in almost identical form) after deletion, even though this is not something you are to do. Deletion occurs for a reason: we don't just ride into topics and lop off posts at random for the thrill of it. The thing is, they're also some of the easiest for the poster to correct: all you have to do is take a look at the MOC, pick out something you like, and talk about that. Though, this does somewhat lead into my next point:
'Nice design' does not count as a specific comment
Oh, if I had a buck for every time I've seen this. It's akin to saying 'nice MOC', it's that generic. At the very least, 'nice legs' or 'like the weapon' narrows it down a bit(though it is still very, very borderline, and I'd highly recommend that you add more to such a post), but 'nice design' really says nothing at all. So, if that's all I see, bye bye post.
'Reporting...'/'That's spam!'
You don't need to tell the whole board you're reporting a topic/post. You really don't. Likewise, you don't need to post just to tell somebody that they're spamming. All we ask is that you just report the post/topic quietly. We'll take care of it from there. That's what we're here for, after all.
'She's hot! *insert drooling*'
Not technically spam, but it fits quite snugly into the category of 'things I've seen too much of.' After all, I was a host for Contest #30 and I was still in Artwork(I think, my memory might be a bit blurred since I still spend a fair bit of time in there anyways) when the explosion of 'borderline' art hit. Now I'm going to say something about it.
Yes, there are numerous young males on this forum that are around 'that age.' That is still no excuse to let the forum descend into an inferno of hormones. We still expect a certain amount of maturity and decency from our members: topics for a female MOC or art piece that turn into little more than a discussion of her 'attractiveness' fall below these standards. Sometimes, this starts with the opening post itself. I've closed several topics for this very reason. In some cases, I- and other staff members of the forum in question- have posted warnings beforehand, but we still wind up having to close them anyways. We shouldn't have to. We really shouldn't. A MOC/art piece being female shouldn't be an unspoken invitation to scrutinize her 'attractiveness.' It's not a necessary component in reviewing female MOCs/art pieces. I could go into BBC or Artwork and do the same with every male MOC/art piece, but would I? No.
Besides, you wouldn't stand a chance with her anyways- you best just move on from that.
And there we go. Some notes on what not to do. For your reading and reference.
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