velospace blog

velospace is a thriving social network. Bikers contribute to a steady stream of photos, sales, comments, and private discussions. The value of velospace, like any social networking site, comes from the content generated by its users. Because the site relies on user contributed content, the tools for adding content must be easy to use. We have a simple user registration forum, easy to use uploading and comment tools, a flexible private messaging system, and so on. Erecting barriers to user participation would result in less content being added and ultimately result in a less valuable site.

Balancing simple participation and spam is tough.

Encouraging users to contribute as much as possible is important, but the tools which let legitimate users engage one another also gives spammers an easy route to post their crap. There is a tension between ease of use for users and controlling the constant flow of crap that spam bots put out there.

velospace uses a couple of less-than-obvious tools to control spam that you may be interested in:

1. Each link posted to any public part of the site is treated with rel=nofollow. nofollow nullifies any value a spammer tries to get by slipping links onto velospace in hopes that their page will show up higher on search engine result pages. Drupal modules and Vanilla plugins have completely automated this process, requiring no human intervention (thankfully!).
2. Every bit of content with a link included is reported and reviewed. Database queries allow us to quickly review content that contains links, and spam users are deleted when they post crap almost immediately. This is a time intensive job, but the result is important enough to make it worth out time.
3. Moderation tools are very important and have been in place and used since March of 2008. As we said back then:
   

   This tool gives users a direct say in the quality of the content on the site – if someone tries to lower the value of velospace by spamming the site, posting derogatory comments, or otherwise being a jerk – the community can raise its voice and be heard.

We are always looking for new ideas when it comes to spam control. If you have any ideas please send us a feedback note.

- Greg