Identifying users who only want to sell their product/services

Community Building

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Identifying users who only want to sell their product/services

The discussion revolves around identifying users who join a forum solely to promote their products or services. DigitalStartup shares an experience with a “shiller” who posted a reply with a link to their product, making it obvious by switching from a customer to a seller’s perspective.

To deal with such users, hosna suggests filtering genuine and spam replies based on user trust level, as users with trust level 0 linking to other websites are often spammers. david recommends installing the Akismet plugin, which is effective at catching advertising posts.

Additionally, DigitalStartup and DigitalStartup mention that indicators such as the “first time posted” notification and implementing anti-spam measures can help identify and prevent such users from promoting their products.

1

I’ve had my forum online for less than 6 months but it’s growing everyday.

But today, I had my first “shiller” (or whatever the term is). Basically, someone who joins signs up and leaves a reply in a post leaving a link back to their product or service. Classic reply example:

You have highlighted a common issue. Some customers are not comfortable with [Problem]. We purchased a [Product] from [Company] and that really helped us. They have an amazing reputation and their customer service is spot-on, checkout [Link to Product].

In my case today, it was really obvious because he/she switched from “We purchased…” and ended with “We now offer a convenient…”. That mix in language speaking from the alleged customer to the sellers perspective tipped me off.

Normally, these can sometimes be pretty hard to spot if done correctly. How do you deal with these people? I just don’t want to upset any genuine users by flagging their genuine replies or posts.

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2

I think you can filter genuine and spam replies based on user trust level. In my experience a user with trust level 0 linking to another website in their reply, is almost always a spammer.

3

Do you have the Akismet plugin installed on your community? It’s quite good at catching this kind of advertising post.

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4

I think the recent update that says “This is the first time [name] has posted — let’s welcome them to our community!” is also a good indicator.

5

It can’t hurt. I’ll do that, thanks.

1 Like