Why aren't spammers banned immediately?

Why don’t you close accounts like this one Profile - IvanBony - Ask LibreOffice after they were used to spam the site?

… and why aren’t those questions deleted instead of just closed?

That’s the privilege of our Site Administrators. :wink:
Registered Users (like you and me) can’t delete questions, and they can’t ban spammers. —
See also → FAQ.

@manj_k So why aren’t the site administrators doing their job? If these people don’t have the time, they should appoint replacements from among high-rep users! Also, you need to lower the karma thresholds so that ordinary users can actually help out in moderating (you see, I did read the FAQ)-

When I first saw the first comment of Joel234 I regarded it is a bit exaggerated. However the the last comment @manj_k has a quiet a kernel of thruth/importance.

My proposal is to give people like manj_k or mariosv or johnSUN or horst etc would get the rights to delete registrations of spammer/ This would help. The people I listed up, and a few more, are more or less every day and every time supporting listed members with expertise answers. Thus, they could delete spams and spammers immmediately.

The last spammer I saw (see link at the very top), IvanBony, placed only 4 spam questions. Such a person should be eliminated. But, I also understand that the same person can register under many new names. A quick delete or access blocking however would raise the effort threshold for a new registration.

+1 (I wish I could do more to help :slight_smile:

Having been the victim of some strange spam myself, I totally agree. When spam pollutes the site, it weakens the usability and helpfulness of the site.

@qubit1 - you should also be entitled to delete spammer. I know there are a few more people. I just don’t remember them when I don’t have their names in front of me.

@ROSt53, I just tried to close a spammer’s question and got the error “to close other people’ posts, a minimum reputation of 2000 is required”. I’m not sure I have the right privs to deal with spammers.

@qubit1: As long as the rules are not changed 2000 karma points are needed. Even if you keep increasing your karma point at the speed of last month (200) you would need another 8 month. That’s why I am open to support a modification of the requriements. Standard 2000 and for special people ASAP.

It is strange that a new user can post with impunity even when their posts are being [closed] as spam. Seems if you get [closed] for that reason, at least a pause is in order. Also, need higher limits for flag offensive: presently limited to five flags per day, which means as today it is too easy for spammers to overwhelm efforts to stop them.

Just to refine the comment of @manj_k:

The site administrators (@cloph, @reinsle, @floeff, @alexanderwerner) are primarily responsible for running this site in a technical way - server infrastructure, database, webserver etc.pp. I for myself try to delete spam and vote at least once a week, @cloph is also very active when he finds the time, but we often have many many other construction sites (infrastructure migration, high availability, virtualization of services, documentation of services, automated configuration management, just to name a few).

The moderators (at the moment @magicfab, @Sweetshark, @florian-reisinger) should cope with spam and do all sorts of housekeeping. But they haven’t been active any more for quite some time, so it may be necessary to replace them.

I have started a call for moderators on the website list, if you want to become moderator please answer there :slight_smile:

This is excellent news! I do hope that the very active supporters here with 2000 and less points apply for a moderator job! Please don’t hesitate.

@qubit1, I don’t know where to place a request that people like you, and the others mentioned in my first answer are given the right to delete spammers.

To me it appears that Site Administrators are overloaded, thus work should be given to people who do daily a great job on this page - even without a karma of <2000.

Should someone put such a change forward, I am willing to support.