Guitar Collector Forum

It's an unfortunate fact of life for anyone who runs an Internet forum that there is a never-ending series of spammers who wish to use your website to promote their wares.

Mostly these are in the form of automated or semi-automated spam robots that automatically sign up on forums and then publish either blatant adverts (often for porn sites or viagra-type products), or posts with innoculous-looking questions, with advertising links in footers or signature lines (e.g. 'does anyone know where I can get really good web hosting?' with a link to a web host).

I am forever vigilant against all forms of Spam, and do my best to keep the forum 'clean' - this includes not only deleting spam posts, but routinely deleting user accounts that appear to be from robots.

How can you help?
It is in everyone's interest to keep spam to a minimum. You can help by....
1) Choosing a meaningful username.
If your username is something like XNscpitze29 and you do not post within the first few days of registering, it is highly likely that I will assume that you are a robot and will delete your account and ban you from re-registering. However, if you choose a meaningful name like Jazzmaster or MrCool or 57LesPaul then I will assume you're a real person!
2) Introducing yourself
If you post a message, however brief, as soon as you register then you are unlikely to get your account deleted by mistake. So please say hi!
3) Not replying to spammy posts
I have absolutely no problem with genuine forum members posting about any off-topic subject... but if someone's first ever post says "where can I buy a cheap computer" etc., then this is spam. Please do not reply to such posts, as doing so makes it more likely that they will get hidden and unnoticed by me.... and if I do notice then your post will get deleted along with the spammer's!
4) Reporting Spam
When things are quiet I spot every instance of spam and deal with it immediately. However, as the forum grows it is possible that I may miss a spam post... so, if you see one please report it by clicking the report button ( a red exclamation mark in the bottom right-hand corner of the post).

Many thanks to all the genuine members who have helped the forum grow from nothing... and thanks for your assistance in my on-going battle against spam.
Paul