Hello GA Community...

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed this?

It seeems to me that more and more commmenters are using this site to
advertize their own internet business websites.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Steph53 ( No Website )

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Clarification of Question by steph53-ga on 09 Mar 2005 17:58 PST

WOW!!!

I had no idea that so many others have noticed this too.

The more comments I'm reading lately, more and more websites are being
'promoted' by commenters.

And yes, it seems to be happening all in the past 12-24 hours. Sheesh,
and I thought I was imagining things. Nice to know I'm not alone  :)

I understand that Researchers seek out websites to help answer a
Questioner...and that makes sense of course and is not considered spam
as it is not their website.

However, these commenters are clearly delivering SPAM. I sincerely
hope the GA editors will take this offensive action seriously.

Thanks to you all for your responses. 

Steph53

---

Clarification of Question by steph53-ga on 10 Mar 2005 06:55 PST

I just read a comment on another question:

"Hi. I have a good guess for you. Google Answers was just mentioned in
an online newsletter from sitepro.com. The site recommended that
people use Google Answers to get their links included in the Google
Answers pages. This apparently helps the links get boosted in Google's
organic results.

It's likely that Google will catch on soon and change the criteria."

This sounds likely to be the reason for the sudden influx of spam.

Steph53

People who try to use Google Answers in an attempt to promote their
own websites will get an unpleasant surprise when their sites are
banned permanently from Google's search engine results. Not being
listed in Google can result in quite a reduction in business for some
folks. Quite a price to pay for a day or two of being able to "play
the system."

Yeah, a massive increase just today for some reason.


Hey pinkfreud. Does using eliteskillsdotcom as a username count? I
answer questions as best as I can and try to help people in all my
posts.

eliteskillsdotcom,

I have no official status with Google, so my view is no more valid
than any site member's, but I wouldn't think that putting your
business name in your user name would offend anyone. Many respectable
customers and commenters have done this. Spammish links are another
thing entirely.

Phew... thank you.


Why so recently though... do flurries of webmasters randomly spam on
certain days? Searching old posts or new, there's been a lot of spam
in the last 10 hours.

Spring break?

An article has appeared online in numerous locations which suggests
that spamming Google Answers with links to your website will get you a
lot of traffic. And it probably will. For about one day. Then I think
it can be expected that the spammer's site will be removed from
Google's listings forever. The author of that article is gonna have
some 'splainin to do.

Thank goodness it's temporary. Posts have been getting cluttered with
irrelevant garbage.

The worst example I saw was a poor guy suffering from anxiety. Just
today I found four posts trying to tell him HE NEEDS their products.

A lot of people have been posting their url as a signature. I'm sure
google hates unrelated links in content rich pages.

Well spotted Steph!

I also noticed all the old questions bombarded with ads.

Who could miss them?

YOU NEED TO VISIT MY WEBSITES.

TO REVEAL THE SECRETS OF HAVING GREAT SEX LIFE TRY BOOKS AT AMAZON.COM
TO MAKE MONEY FA$$$$T VISIT EBAY.COM
FOR PREDICTIONS OF THE FUTURE THAT MAY MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER GO TO WEATHER.COM

Oh my gosh...   Now every comment I read seems like an advertizement
for a web site.  I never noticed it before.

Some people are so smart.  They ask a question using one user name and
then answer it with another user name.  And of course the answer
kindly suggests a web site.

But finding web sites are what this service (and Google in general) are all about.

Where is this going?  What is happening to our happy little world of
questions and answers?

This is all true.
just remember that many marketers are so DESPARATE,
they will abuse anything to get a sale.
What they dont realise is they are pushing people further away.

BUT,
I posted a legitimate comment yesterday to a question,
and I was quite proud of it actually.
It took me about 20 minutes to write.
And i did put a link to my site as a 'more info' ONLY.
(and only because I had a WHOLE PAGE on my site about that very issue)

and you know what?
I got an email today telling me my comment has been removed.
Which is, as they say, throwing out the baby with the bath water.
And it's more a pity because I actually like to help people.

BTW, nice question.
And don't worry, next week the marketers will think of something else to try.

I agree steph53- its getting annoying to say the least. Every old
comment I've made that has new replys seems to be a "let me design
your web site" Even on a few when asking about hosting I have seen it.
I guess you could always send the question id and the ads on it to the
editors.

I will now begin plugging my new site:

www.stopspamminggoogleanswersyoucheapnumbskullbecauseifyourservicewasworthwhileyoucouldsucceedwithoutpostingitallovergoogleanswersyoucheapcheapcheapidiot.com

I suggest that all in need of a quick plug visit it today! Top search
engine ranking I promise!

Hi guys, 

I noticed this too, and just yesterday I alerted the editors to a guy
posting as patentattorney-ga whose posts were direct solicitations to
his/her web site and legal services.  The editors removed his posts. 
I think the two latest posts at
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=475592 are also an
example of this conduct.  I e-mailed the editors today.  I think the
legitimate GA community needs to be vigilant and alert the editors
when we see this crap.  It manifestly offends me, even though I am
just a lowly commenter, when people corrupt what I percieve as a
fairly pure and undefiled information source with spam.  Together we
can stop these miscreants!

IPFan

Another one here . . .
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=317701  (the March 9, 2005, post)

Arrggghhh . . .

www.microsoft.com

goodness....looks like I am not the only one with the problem.

Now I dont want to give anyone any ideas, but the major problem with
this is that if you wish to take out a competitors website then how
will Google know that this was the case or not the case?

Yes remove the links, but to be honest I dont believe that Google are
going to remove sites from their search engine.  What would happen if
someone where to promote GA?

BB

I have to add that the only true way to avoid SPAM is to remove the
ability for commentators to add hyperlinks or web addresses.

I am sure this will be soon enforced

BB

*argh*...its still  happening!! Most recent question question:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=491217

Steph53

Considering that sources need to be cited, not allowing links would not be feasible.

Cited from the researchers point of view? considering they are the
only ones who can answer a question.

BB

The Google Answers team did a great job of stopping the flood of fake
questions posted by the credit card scammers. It may take a little
time, but I'm sure they'll get a handle on this problem as well.

- Hammer

I received that newsletter too and of course it is tempting to put
your URL in the message too. Well, I am sure google.com will get a
hold of this very soon and then do something about it. So use it as
long as you can ;-)

Cheers
Ole

Isn't it sad, Steph?  Abusing a legit, helpful service like this one
is such a dishonorable way to do business.  If a webmaster would
simply create a legit website with no cloaking, hidden keywords, etc,
and just follow the webmaster guidelines set forth at Google
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
then they would know that building a legit and relevant website is
very easy without any underhanded tricks.

As my dad is fond of saying, there's no accounting for taste.  lol

Best regards,
journalist-ga

shockandawe 

That was evil. You should have warned before that I shouldn't have
that coffee mug while reading your comment, now its all over me.

I agree with journalist-ga.  How sad.  If only these people would
follow the published guidelines, and make an effort to provide
information of value to their site visitors, they would find
themselves almost effortlessly rising to the top of results, with a
fraction of the effort they spend trying to deceive and trick people.
It IS completely dishonorable, and very disheartening to see happening
here of all places. But I do have faith in the GA team to be able to
find a way to restore and preserve the high quality of information
we've become accustomed to here.

I also strongly encourage anyone who notices any of these blatant spam
attempts to help by quickly notifying the Editors. If we all work
together, we can hopefully mitigate the damage from this outpouring of
spam and prevent its reoccurrence.

Byrd-ga

Spammers.


Your site can still be blacklisted. What email did you sign up with?
Was it the same as the site you've been spamming? Do you use gmail
adwords or adsense? They probably have your IP and can prove without a
reasonable doubt that YOU are spamming and blacklist your site.


They will go this extra measure if they're losing revenue, potential,
and old customers in what is supposed to be a scholarly resource.

Yes I also had the feeling it was like the empire striking back over
the last day or so. There was one link that was a forty minute spam
audio recording in the form of a telephone conversation. The subject
matter was kind of interesting; it was about using communication
skills to scramble peoples? minds and how to defend against this. What
interested me was that if it had been in the form of a straight audio
speech, listeners would have had no qualms about turning it off when
they realised it was spam but psychologically, many people would have
difficulty putting down a phone call which was directed to them
personally. Talk about using the tricks you are trying to discredit in
order to drum up business. (thread view #486593 for those interested,
if it is still there).

The problem is that researchers are for the most, (with some notable
exceptions) interested in picking answerable questions that they can
make some money on. Take for example thread view # 425052, not because
I made an input into it, but because the questioner had a genuine need
for the answer and none of the researchers wanted to pick it up. The
commenter?s input, with links helped provide the answer. The
questioner was so disappointed with the GAR?s he cancelled the
question. If commenters? were not allowed to post links, this person
would have had a much reduced answer.

I think that GA as it stands is not the problem. The problem comes
from outside; society is used to taking spasmodic onslaughts, it just
needs tougher policing. Perhaps the GA editors need another level of
editorial department staff to sort the spam from the helpful links? If
this sounds like censorship then maybe it is, just give the
questioners and the commenter?s the service back that has made GA so
popular over the years.

Norman.

I got that email too SitePro.. but who can denote someone for trying
to promote their business. you never know what their situation is and
everyone here commenting needs to be a little more compassionate and
stop acting like an expert.. give Google the chance they'll handle it
and stop being so selfish. Google answers is not yours, you're not an
expert, and its probably great for the promotion of "google answers".
its called quality assurance.. if I were google.. I'd find out who
figured out the loop whole and give them an interview...

>> who can denote someone for trying to promote their business.

Assuming that, by "denote," you mean something like "denigrate," I
damn well can "denote" someone for trying to boost their business by
despoiling someone else's workplace.

This is like scrawling hundreds of advertising messages on an office
building. I work here. I don't like it when people come into my
workplace and write on the walls.

I hope the people who have used this execrable technique in an attempt
to improve their fortunes are banned from all Google sites forever.
They don't deserve to benefit from Google's services. They have
smeared crap on Google.

Yes ,the comment -posting resouce allows me, you and ,well , almost
anybody to write anything they want for the world to read.

That is part and parcel of the brainstorming process many questions
seem to require before a reseacher or humble commentator gets to
actually answering the question posted.

I have the feeling that there are oh so many questions that cannot
actually be answered completely ,accuratly and relevantly for the
price offered or within our limited lifetimes.

Some questions openly are searching for a (subjective) opinion ;
others are obviously planted , because the persons questioning ask in
their comments or clarifations as to why their expected answer hasnīt
come.

Any question related to buying a product or service requires a
hyper-link which advertizes that product or service and that opens the
gates for spam.

If you want to know my favorite shop then I could give you my honest
opinion with an advertizing link or I could link you to my very own
web site where I can sell you things.

You can draw the line from where an appropriate advertizing link is
relevent to the question posed to where the link is pure spam wherever
you want to draw that line.It is up to me, you and the team of
reseachers to keep an eye on all postings and not any inappropriate
question,clarification,aswer or comment with the ID number.

Then after you have blown your cool and ranted and raved for a bit
,please send an e-mail to answers-editors@google.com .

But please be gentle with small fish. Aspiring authors, painters and
people who have not yet gotten their businessesīup and running should
be let though the  net.

If the commentor keeps his/her plug for their business relevant,
please allow them too.
://www.google.com/answers/search?q=andrew_hutch-ga&qtype=all&btnG=Google+Search
has cleverly mentioned his very own mom and pop operation,and in all
three comments has kept his plug sort of relevant to the question in
hand.

Please check out questions that get a lot of comments regularly!
They are open invitations for spammers ,especially my favorite
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=161982
still going strong after two years and some 1087 comments.

So please be vigilant but fair and do report blatant spam with the question ID !

Peter

What happened here is not a loophole - anyone could have thought of
doing this, and it has been done before, just in small doses.

The true name for what has happened is exploitation.

Exploitation is right...and breaking the Terms of Service of Google Answers.

2. "...Furthermore, you agree that you will not submit questions or
comments that are unlawful, defamatory, harassing, abusive,
fraudulent, obscene, contain viruses, ***intended to advertise or sell
goods or services***, or are otherwise objectionable."

"Nonetheless, Google reserves the right...to delete or edit questions
or comments, in whole or in part, from the Service at any time for any
reason. Further Google reserves the right to refuse service to anyone
at any time without notice for any reason ***and to remove
objectionable or personally identifiable information*** from any
comments or research questions in its Use of such questions and/or
comments."

From http://answers.google.com/answers/termsofservice.html

**********************************************

From the FAQs:

1.What happens to people who spam Google Answers?
Users who spam Google Answers will have their posting privileges
revoked. If you see evidence of spamming, please report it to us by
sending us email at answers-editors@google.com.

2. How do I report questionable content to editors at Google Answers? 
At the bottom of every question page we provide a link to
answers-editors@google.com. We encourage you to use this link whenever
you see questionable content posted to the site. In your email, please
provide information about the question, its ID number, and the reason
you find the content questionable.

http://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html#aboutproper

**************************************


Apparently in their zeal to use a backdoor to Google, the spammers
didn't even bother to read the FAQs or the TOS when they signed up.

Although this recent spam is terribly annoying to GA Researchers,
customers and the legit commenters at Google Answers, I'm delighted to
see the speed in which these spammers are being reported and their
spam being removed.

I'll wager that the person who wrote the article about this spam
procedure is quaking in her proverbial boots right now.  Funny thing
is, had she kept her mouth shut, she would have benefitted from it for
a long time.  Now all she seems to have accomplished is trashing her
credibility and her name.

I urge everyone to report spam in Comments when they see it.  The
purpose of this service for customers is to receive well-researched
and hassle-free answers.

Best regards,
journalist-ga

The site to report it now has a pagerank of 0.


They wanted to get an article to gain them some credibility and fame,
but now they'll likely end up dropped.

It's not just exploiting adwords but google search itself.
The relevency is supposed to be determined by how many people link to
you because you're a good resource, not how many times you can link to
yourself in unrelated pages. Using a GA to exploit Google search is
pretty offensive.

I hope google does it's best to preserve the integrity of GA and have
a few sites made an example of to discourage further spam.

>> But please be gentle with small fish. Aspiring authors, 
>> painters and people who have not yet gotten their 
>> businesses up and running should be let though the net.

So, if some total stranger were to spray-paint a garish advertising
message on the side of your car, costing you quite a bit of money,
time, and emotional distress, you'd excuse them if they had artistic
aspirations or if they were running fledgling businesses?

Sorry, but I think everyone who has spammed GA in the past two days
should be dealt with as harshly as possible. When a few hundred folks
have their websites permanently banned from Google's listings, the
cockroaches will carry the word of the carnage back to their nests,
and perhaps these jerks will get the idea that they cannot use Google
Answers as their own personal billboard.

Due to yesterdays spamming- more than one person lost commenting
rights. I was one of those that did, only by mistake. Gladly I have
regained my commenting rights and the way I see it is that using a
service to spam not only is against GA rules, but if you look at many
of the sites listed, they lack the requested information. The whole
point to coming to GA is to obtain credible resuls to the questions.
The ablility to do that is lost when people abuse the system for their
own benefit.  If questioners wanted spammed answers or comments they
could go anywhere for it, and if site owners truely wanted to "up
their search results" they would take the time to improve their site
rather than post it here.

The tipoff that a commenter is posting spam is that the same commenter
promotes the same site over and over.  Legitimate commenters and
researchers don't do that.  Yesterday I spotted a comment that looked
suspicious almost as soon as I signed on, and I immediately searched
on the poster's name.  Up came seven postings, variously worded, that
all pointed to the same website.  It was clearly a new phenomenon
whose purpose was grossly obvious.

I agree with pinkfreud that there's no distinction to be made between
"big fish" and "little fish."  An abuse is an abuse.  Doing something
under false pretenses to take advantage of others when you believe you
aren't going to get caught at it does not suddenly become an innocent
act just because you've been caught.

Archae0pteryx

Why dont Google Editors just do there job?  

They take .50C on each question and a further 30% on each answered
question.  How damn difficult can it be to have some poor fool (or 2)
go through each fresh comment (or answer) and remove any offending
material???

This is THEIR service after all... it's not up to unpaid commentators
to bring to attention something that is affecting google's bank
balance, let them pay for it!!! or at least offer some kind of benefit
to those that actively report spammers.

PS - This is not a workplace! and right now I'm looking around MY
(real)workplace and every bloody peice of kit in this building has
advertising on it! and BTW why doesn't anyone condone Google for
placing it's own SPAM on this service, why? because they get paid for
it! not us... them... so stop whining about the source of SPAM but
instead start whining that google isn't doing enough to stop this
phenonomom.

BB

Gross bill.

That's not fool proof logic. In fact, a fool could probably rape that
logic like sporous apple pie.

Spamming is disgusting and annoying especially when legitimate
questions are muddled with advertisement from biased, or irrelevant
sources.

Google answers is a good place for google ads because this is usually
a very cleanly topical site. It's good for both advertisers and
google. It is not biased and does not try to half relate to the topic
and try to sell you something. Many spammers are trying to disguise
themselves as satisfied cosutomers.

eliteskillsdotcom

At least prove you are not a fool then....

BB

>> PS - This is not a workplace!

Not for you, it isn't. However, this is where I earn every dollar of
income that I receive. Looks like a workplace to me. Or at least, it
did while I could still work in it without my question queue being
re-ordered willynilly every few minutes by spammers.

Please be advised that I most certainly NOT condoning the use of
spamming, I deplore the use of this form of advertising.  What I am
simply stating is that Google needs to take an active role in bringing
this menace down, simply relying on researchers and commentators
goodwill in reporting these instances is not enough.

As for eliteskills comments I will not continue in a debate that will
degrade the quality of this service.

pink, apologies if I you think I was directing my last comment at you,
your quite right this is not a workplace for me.

BB

Eliteskillsdotcom: If your not spamming why the name. You are
spamming. EliteSkills would be sufficient. Fall on you sword friend
and set the example or everyone will be doing it.

The last paragraph of my post above is in accordance with what
barniclebill has been saying. G***le made its own terms of service but
it seems that in the spirit of FREE enterprise they have farmed the
policing of these out on the commentators.

Come on Editors ? Sharpen up.

I am very puzzled indeed that several people seem to think that the
Google Answers Editors are asking site users to report spam. Where are
you getting this? Have the Editors been in contact with some of you,
and I'm just out of the loop???

I believe they get the idea of that from the bottom of the page where it says

"If you feel that you have found inappropriate content, please let us
know by emailing us at answers-editors@google.com with the question ID
listed above. Thank you. "

You can also find it under terms of service, and it asks to state why
you believe it is in contrast to the rules of the site (i think, well
i sortof remember reading that part somewhere)

Those statements have been there since the site's inception. They have
nothing to do with the recent spam epidemic.

True, but they need something to use in order to prove their point.
Was not defending the notion- only pointing out where they are getting
it from. And since many where not into reading the "Terms of Use"
guidelines before hand I doubt they took the time to read the that
posting either until now.

Well, I was one who contacted the editors when I saw the spate of spam
and before I knew what triggered it.  I also noticed that the spam
messages were disappearing very quickly, and by the time the editors
replied to me, a huge amount of cleanup had been done.  They actually
explained what started it before I saw this and other posted comments
on the subject.  So I said I guessed they had it well in hand and they
didn't need me watchdogging it.  And they said actually it helps them
if GA users point out problem content.  So they did not *ask* to have
customers like me do anything, but they did say that information of
that sort was helpful to them.

It looks to me like the GA editors were (a) doing their job, and doing
it very quickly and diligently, and (b) letting me (and presumably
others) know--*when asked*--that help is welcome, without imposing on
anyone by making an overt request.

I don't understand where all that anger toward GA (on the part of a
few) came from here.  GA is a profit-making service that we use in a
supplier-and-customer relationship that complies with understood terms
of operation.  It was not responsible for this flood of unwanted
messages, and it's done a good job of getting rid of them.  What's to
complain about?  If I were going to complain, it would be about rude,
loud-mouthed commenters who don't seem to respect common rules of
civil discourse and don't proofread their messages either.

Archae0pteryx

WAIT A MINUTE- I don't proofread!! Are we suppose to? I mean I know it
would be nice if I did, but my mind usually skips ahead to the next
step before I ever do!

shelfimage, It's very likely the editors will remove your the post
above this one as well. One of the terms of service is not posting
your e-mail address or real name.

That isn't my post showing person's name, etc..  I emailed the editors
that to use as an example to asd why mine was brought down and this on
wasn't brought down when I felt it was an obvious attempt of
solicition.

Or, maybe you meant they'll remove my post because it shows his post
that shows his name which makes me looked bad again!!! ...  Gawd.  I
just answered two other comments since this one and on one of them, I
felt compelled to put a disclaimer that my comment is in no way an
attempt to solicit business.

Ok, so no signatures - right?  That's the safe thing to do I guess.