“Forum Spamming” refers to the irrelevant content, affiliate links, advertising material and abusive content that is posted within the post/threads of a forum.

Individuals who “spam” forums, often known as “spammers”, look forward to publicizing links in forums. Forum spamming has become an industry within itself with “spammers” using softwares to advertise their products at large. Forum spamming breaks the sense of community building by adding irrelevant content, thus discouraging the members of forums from participating in discussions.

Types of Spamming

Advertising of affiliates links by new members.

Forum members publish links within posts to promote a particular product/service for which they receive commission in return. Generally, this is not allowed as a forum is created to exchange crucial information and develop partnerships between members.

Manual Spamming and Automated Spamming.

“Spammers” manually create fake member registrations in a forum and fill the forum with obnoxious content and links. This is often known as “manual spamming”.

There is another type of spamming known as “automated forum spamming” which happens through automated programs known as “spambots”.

These “spambots” follow the method given below:

They register an account with a fake username and fake email address.
They disguise their true Internet Protocol address.
They publish “spam” such as advertisements, irrelevant content and affiliate links within a forum.
Finally, they leave and get into another forum.

Posting irrelevant content in the right thread.

Forum members often post content in the wrong thread, thereby, creating confusion and annoying disturbances in the thread. It leads to arguments, debates and miscommunication. This is also called “spam” by forum moderators.

Posting adult and obnoxious content within posts.

Content that is obscure, rude, adult and pornographic in nature will discourage members from contributing in the right way. This type of content is originally known as “spam” and disturbs the process of community building on a large scale.

Effects of Forum Spamming

The spamming of a forum costs plenty of time and energy to moderators in keeping the forums clean, i.e. without any spam. If the forum owner/administrator wishes to employ professional moderators, it costs a lot of money as well.

Measures for discouraging spamming in forums.

Image Verification.
During the time of registration, the prospective member is asked to verify the alphabetical and numerical characters in the image by typing them in the box below the image. This way, the forums employ the “CAPTCHA” methodology of visual imagery to verify the authenticity of a user’s existence.

Email Verification.
Each user, who registers as a member for the forum, is sent a link in an email to verify their existence and email address. Unless and until, the user does not click the link in the email, he/she cannot become a confirmed member on the forum to be able to post comments/suggestions.

Moderating posts through keywords.
There are certain keywords used in spamming the forums and various moderators of forums create a list of these keywords. This list is inserted as a plugin within forums, which automatically keeps a check on the content within the forums. Any post that has any of the keywords of the plugin, will be automatically highlighted to the moderator for moderation purposes. If the post is found to be a spam posts, the user might be banned and the posts might be edited/deleted.

Using anti spam softwares.
There are various anti-spam softwares available for free on the Internet, which monitor the spamming activity within forums and reduce the spam load up to 90%. These softwares are to be installed on the server on which, the forum has been installed.

Restrictions for new members to post links.
New members are often restricted to post links if they do not have the minimum number of posts, which are generally 15 posts. Most spammers are found to posting just 3 to 5 posts with advertisement links, which can be stopped using this measure.

There are other anti-spamming measures as well through which spamming can be considerably decreased such as blocking common offenders, creating infractions to post, creating a list of anti-spamming suggestions, banning IP’s of spammers, limiting edit time for each posts and creating a team of Human Moderators.

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A forum is an online discussion-board where a group of visitors discuss a certain topic and exchange notes by leaving messages and replying to the one’s that have been already posted. Most people build forums to increase the exchange of crucial data that would help them grow and achieve a certain purpose of their lives. Each forum can help achieve multiple purposes and help create buyer-seller relationships as well that lasts forever.

Establishing “free” scripts on a server can help you create a forum for free. A number of software’s such as PHPBB, vBulletin, Invision Power Board (IPB) and Simple Machines Forum (SMF) are also available to create a professional looking forum. Choosing a forum’s categories, sub-categories, skins, designs, style and colors is critical, as the forum must be designed to look smarter and simpler. The better the skin and design, the easier it would be for member’s to contribute.

The number of Internet users are increasing day-by-day and it is becoming much more difficult to manage a forum. There are many complications that arise while managing a forum as and when, the number of member’s increase. Due to this, each forum has started to create a set of rules and regulations that are to be followed by its members and non-compliance of these rules lead to a ban. Also, most forums do not allow person’s below eighteen year’s to become part of them though it cannot be determined convincingly whether the user is an adult or a child.

There are a certain number of requirements that a forum manager must look after while managing a forum:

First, a forum manager must create a group of moderators to track the content in the messages posted by the forum member’s. Irrelevant, obnoxious, adult and discriminative content would lead the discussions to a different track and the purpose for which the forum has been created will not be met. Forum spamming is very much prevalent these days. Member’s writing habits will have a huge effect on the objective of the forum. Thus, the content on the forum must be moderated.

Second, a forum manager must increase the traffic to the forum. Increasing the number of members is a mandatory requirement to increase the comprehensive brand popularity of the forum. It is the member’s who share their technical expertise on a prevalent subject and so, it becomes immensely important for the forum manager to have large scale “contributors” as members in the forum. Increasing the traffic can be done through various ways such as submitting the forum profile in a forum directory and search engines. Viral marketing is a great tool for promoting the forum.

Third, a forum manager must constantly post fresh content for members to read on these forums and make the forum search engine friendly. This hooks the members to the forum and invites new readers through mouth-to-mouth publicity as well as search engines. Search engine spiders are well equipped to scan the content on these forums and depending on the quality and uniqueness of content, these spiders evaluate the page rank of these forums. The higher the page rank of the forums, the higher will be the value of the text/banner advertisements on the forum and thus, higher the return-on-investment of the forums.

Four, a forum manager must decide the right style, color and skin for the forum. The skin has a huge effect on the morale of the “contributors”. There are various skins available for free and one has multiple options to change the skin colors as well. Some skins are made to give the forum, an encouraging look. For instance, a forum about superheroes with a batman-like skin, will give it an enhancing effect whereas a forum for customer relationship will need a sober skin.

Five, a forum manager needs to decide the right hosting provider who can provide service without any “downtime”. The more number of times the forum experiences downtime, the more it will discourage visitors to contribute. Repetitive succession of downtimes will irritate visitors and make them leave the forum.

Management of a forum becomes simpler and smarter if the decisions are taken in the right manner. Understanding the requirements carefully helps a forum manager to run the forum successfully.

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By Andres Munoz

By now I’m certain that a great number of you have participated in online forums and exchange ideas on just about everything (business, search engine optimization, marketing or doll making). Online communities or discussion forums come in all different flavors and styles. There are some forums that receive tremendous traffic and it seems that everyone is post questions and receiving free advice.

I’ve been asked several times by newbies when is it appropriate to start an online forum. It’s difficult to answer that question but all forums must have 2 basic requirements already stamped out:

Focus on a particular niche subject
Very high traffic ­ at least 3,000 unique visitors per day
Forum Subject
In order for a forum to succeed you must give visitors a reason to join. You must offer real value and you can easily accomplish this task by zeroing in on a particular subject for example ‘CGI Programming’. This forum would focus solely on CGI programming and only attract those that are seeking help in writing or understanding CGI.

Any forum that is too broad in scope will never succeed so research what subject you want to showcase. It?s best to showcase a subject that you, yourself have a passion for. It will be better maintained and your enthusiasm will show through.

Web Site Traffic
If you are just starting a new website don’t even try to start or build a forum. It will take a while for you to average 3,000 unique visitors per day ­ every day. There is no negotiation, either you have high traffic or not. If a visitor sees too few posts and even worse they’re old you will quickly lose that visitor only to never come back. Once you have the traffic then can you plan a forum to the site.

I must be very honest about online forums you will need about 100 participants to make it worthwhile. About 85% will be lurkers or those who just read and never post a question. About 10% actively participate and the remaining 5% are real chatterboxes. That 5% really get into the discussion and answer every ones questions. It’s those 5% that really make the forum come alive and make the best posts and answers.

Moderate Your Forums
It’s also very wise to have forum moderators. Discussion forums can quickly degenerate into flaming matches where 2 or more members begin to verbally abuse each other. Moderators help keep the discussion on topic and avoid any problems. Offer your most prolific members increased responsibility to handle moderation.

Add Value For Members
Finally give your members some extra added value. Offer a free membership and give members free bonuses either eBooks or other useful resources. Your members will appreciate your commitment and respond in kind with livelier discussion topics.

Andres Munoz is the author of “The Mail Order Starter’s Guide”, where he reveals some of the most closely guarded wholesale and drop ship sources for FREE. The information you’ll take away simply isn’t available elsewhere unless you want to pay for it. To subscribe visit: http://www.mybusiness-resource.com/ and receive this powerful eBook.

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Author: Juhani Tontti

So the breadth and quality of know-how in discussion forums, like Warrior Forum or AssociatedProgramsForum, is amazing. Members dig into all detailed aspects of their businesses, which gives other members real, practical help.

Everybody in those forums is in a need of better and new tips for his internet marketing. In forum communities you can discuss with real legends of internet marketing, which would be impossible otherwise. Some members are newbies some are ” all seen ” seniors or millionaires, but the target is the same: share what you know.

Discussion forums are very ” honest ” places. If a member tries to advertise his business, he´ll be skipped out. Discussion forum communities are for relationsbuilding among the most useful people in the internet, internet marketers. Members build joint efforts, share opt-in leads for instance or participate each others businesses. The members of high quality forums are a huge and powerful internet marketing tool: when you share your benefits, you´ll benefit.

At forum a member can specialize in certain topic or topics only and build his respect with that. A good way to track your forum participation is to look at how many have looked at and responded to your topic. The more - the more useful you are.

Normally forums accept a few lines of advertising at the end of your post, called sig file. This is the only place to advertise, even with three copylines including urls. Using sig file you can get tons of inbound links to your website, which will inrease your rank in search engines and bring more traffic to your website. Search engine spiders will also pick your posts, and they will be seen in search results. This will exponentially increase the effect of your post.

You can think that sig file is like leaving a business card in business meeting. It must be hidden advertising. Many forums accept even three different copylines. When you plan your adcopy, think like forum member and about the nature of the forum. My opinion is to use two kind of ads: one for rapid ” sign up my newsletter “- type and another for your website.

Regular posts build your authority inside internet marketing community. The more you´ll post - the more respect you´ll get. The more respect you have - the more sales it generates.

Forum post will live forever in the archives of forums and all over the internet - real residual effect.

Discussion forum members are the best of the best target group for internet marketer. This also sets some quality requirements on how you contribute in the forums. Be active and helpful. Be yourself and honest and never try to advertise. Keep in mind that the idea is to build relationships and give help.

The best internet marketing forums, like those mentioned earlier, are among the most visited sites in the internet. This tells that internet marketers see them very, very usefull for their businesses. It also tells that forum members are the best target group for any internet marketing business.

The richness of the forumcontent is amazing: people from different countries and cultures, people with different education, different internet experiences, different businesses etc. share their tips to each other. What can be better! This is possible only in the internet!

About the Author:
I am Juhani Tontti and my passion is to co-operate with other NetBizMarketers. Take a look at my site, which gives a living to me: www.Way2Miracle.com and download my gift to you, Dotcomology. You can also sign up my newsletter. Thanks!

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Submitted by KistinaRobin

Forum spamming is the posting of messages that are either rubbish, abusive, a marketing gimmick or useless. Many forums normally set rules against forum spam, as these can be bothersome for other forum visitors and administrators. However, those who often commit this usually do not hold any regard for the rules the forum administrators have set.

In a forum, spamming can happen as often as possible, especially when the forum is left unmediated. It could take place in just a couple of hours, or even minutes and may even bring the forum server to crash. It also can take place in many forms. Forum spam can either be any of the following:

• When a user or a forum spammer successively revives more than one thread within a matter of hours. These are threads, which have not been participated into for more than a couple months and have been demoted to the back pages of the forum.
• When a user or a forum spammer repeatedly posts the same message in several boards. These messages are normally advertisements in nature, and more often than not, involve pornographic content or website links.
• When a user or a forum spammer posts a message that is not related to the topic or does not contribute to the discussion. The message may also be advertisements or promotions.
• When a user of a forum spammer simply posts endlessly, just to increase post count and forum ranking. Their posts contribute nothing substantial to the thread and may even be just one-liners or graphics.

For forum administrators, preventing forum spamming is not that very difficult, especially when you already have the measures at your disposal. Forum software’s like phpBB, YaBB and SMF have incorporated modifications to their software specifically to combat this problem. These modifications may be installed or set by the administrator to their preference. These modifications are normally very flexible that the controls and use of it may effectively be customized to what the forum needs. Modifications like this can help prevent forum flooding, trolling and forum spam. It can alter posting successions (where the time of last post to the next post is set at a certain interval), image posting (where the administrator can either deactivate it or set a pixel range) or the use of member privileges (like disabling or limiting signature text and avatars).

Additionally, the forum administrator can also double check a forum spammer’s identity through his or her IP address, and may act on this accordingly. Banning forum spammers’ IP address often does the trick, particularly if the forum spam happens too often and too plenty. Extra measures like moderating new registrants and approving or disapproving their posts, may take up a lot of work. But this is also a very effective way to curb forum spamming.

Also, forum administrators must be wary of bots, crawlers and spiders as they often bring in these forum spammers. There are also special modifications so that these may be prevented. Check with the support group of the kind of software your forum uses as they normally have the fix for these kinds of forum spam.

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