11

This is a question regarding the AskUbuntu Latest Questions forum, I imagine that there a point at which a post will automatically get deleted from the question list.

The reason I comment is that sometimes, spam is a real problem, like the obvious spam shown below, which seemed to hang around for quite some time before vanishing.

Recent example

I'm not complaining but I would be interested in finding out how these questions are dealt with.

24th August 2013

This has cropped up again.

Example 24 August 2013

9
  • 5
    Please keep in mind that AskUbuntu (like all Stackexchange sites) is not intended as a forum (usually a place with sometimes very long discussions) but as a Question&Answer site. That doesn't invalidate your question but you might choose a different wording.
    – guntbert
    Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 12:16
  • 3
    One thing of note, as I see those questions reached -9 votes: Do not downvote SPAM questions. Flags already generate their own automatic downvote - further downvotes reduce a spam question's visibility and make it harder for other people to find and subsequently flag them.
    – user98085
    Commented Jun 21, 2013 at 12:54
  • 1
    This something which is not made obvious. Thanks for the information
    – Simon
    Commented Jun 21, 2013 at 13:48
  • 1
    @FEichinger Are you sure about that we should not downvote it? Extremely low voted questions appear higher in the moderation tool - so it will generate more attention to 10k+ rep users. Also note that non-spam negative voted questions get nuked (see answer of Jorge).
    – gertvdijk
    Commented Jun 23, 2013 at 1:31
  • 1
    @gertvdijk For one, non-spam downvoted posts take a while to be deleted. Secondly spam-flags can delete a post fully on their own - preventing the post from disappearing without being deleted reduces the amount of people that can see it and subsequently act upon it. The spam flag's own downvote is sufficient - and it helps everyone see just how many flags the post already has.
    – user98085
    Commented Jun 23, 2013 at 10:15
  • 1
    @FEichinger How would downvoted posts be less visible? Is there a threshold to what questions get hidden from the listings? I am not aware of such filter on StackExchange.
    – gertvdijk
    Commented Jun 23, 2013 at 10:18
  • 1
    @gertvdijk The "official" phrasing is "When you vote down, you are nudging that content "down" the page, so it will be seen by fewer people". This translates to (for example) questions disappearing from the front page after a certain threshold (-4 on main).
    – user98085
    Commented Jun 23, 2013 at 10:39
  • 1
    @FEichinger Surely this is not the case when viewing the questions as NEWEST, which is the default view for AskUbuntu Questions Section. The newest question stays at the top no mater how many negative votes it gets, until another question is asked.
    – Simon
    Commented Jun 23, 2013 at 10:54
  • 1
    @FEichinger Spammers want their spam to be more visible. We want it to be less visible. There is absolutely no truth to the idea that one shouldn't downvote spam. Of course, we should flag it, whether or not we downvote it. Flagging spam also makes it less visible, by the way--even before it is deleted, and whether or not it is also manually downvoted. That is the system working as intended, to make spam less visible.
    – Eliah Kagan
    Commented Aug 25, 2013 at 11:13

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
10

The questions in, erm, question are spam.
Flag them as such and they'll get eventually auto-nuked by the community bot (it a number of votes to reach the threshold).

3
  • I did, as soon as the questions appeared, but it took a further 8 minutes before they were finally deleted.
    – Simon
    Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 14:56
  • @SimplySimon It takes more than one flag vote before Community steps in.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 15:17
  • There were 5 quite quickly then the other 5 staggered over the next 5 minutes or so. 9 votes in all and at least 8 spam flags.
    – Simon
    Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 15:22
9

See this post:

We already auto-remove negatively voted unanswered old questions automatically after 30 days, network wide, with no human intervention required.

4
  • The link came some way to explaining how things work, but I was particularly interested in finding out how these spam posts managed to stay on the Latest Questions page for around 10 minutes before they were deleted.
    – Simon
    Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 15:05
  • 1
    @SimplySimon Sometimes they can linger for an hour, even. It really depends on who is awake/paying attention. We are all volunteers here and not everyone knows to flag obvious spam, or even sees it. Personally, I think that we do a great job of policing spam, here.
    – Kevin Bowen
    Commented Jun 21, 2013 at 9:55
  • I guessed this was the case, and brilliant work you all do. Thank you. The question was posed for information, not to knock the reputation of any of the fantastic volunteers. I hope one day to join the ranks of volunteers. The answers I have received have been interesting, clearing up a few points and posing others. Thanks again
    – Simon
    Commented Jun 23, 2013 at 8:34
  • By asking, and doing things you are already a volunteer ;)
    – Mateo
    Commented Jul 11, 2014 at 19:16

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .