Spammers ruining this board

[PurpleDaisies]

Does anyone else feel like the spammers are ruining this board? I feel suspicious of any new person popping up here and am just waiting for them to start extolling the virtues of you know where.

This board is full of people in awfully hard positions and it is really low to try and exploit that for financial gain.

Dodgy clinic you do realise that all your spam posters are actually putting off potential clients?

I was thinking the same. I have used every forum, visited every website and read everything there is to read about infertility and this is by far my favourite forum. It is so disappointing that it is spoiled by these posters. It's hard enough to get traffic to it as it is, let alone with people like this putting everyone off.

Could MN apply a criteria for posters? For example, you have to post ten meaningful replies before you can start your own thread?

Yes, I totally agree. It's also made me suspicious of all new posters and especially if their grammar/English isn't perfect and maybe I'm being unfair on some of them.

This is also by far my favourite fertility forum Tips. I can't be doing with all the baby dust, ridiculous over positivity and excessive enthusiasm on every other forum I've found and feel that I've found my sort of people on here.

In the sex topic you have to be registered for 90 days before you can post (I hear! I don't post there).

Maybe a similar criteria might be good for frequently spammed boards. It feels like every other post here at the moment is a spam one.

Unfortunately they are not just spamming this site - they are all over other fertility sites using the same (or very similar) usernames. (I say 'they' but I suppose it might be just one person).

Unfortunate for anyone experiencing it, but MN might still be able to place restrictions. I am in favour of a minimum registration criteria as mentioned by PurpleDaisies, as well as a minimal number of meaningful posts criteria (have seen it on other boards, not MN)

Oh god I've literally just posted about the same thing as it was winding me up so much! 😳Sorry should've read yours first...

I can't work out what's going on now - do they know we are on to them so they are switching to spamming the name of other clinics, so their's doesn't look so bad? Or is it just one c*nt who just wants to spam all the boards with their shit messages?

Y'know, I actually don't think it's an employee of any particular clinic. These posts go beyond a language/communication barrier and I still think these clinics would be cleverer than this. I wouldn't be thinking it if there were a couple of one-off's - but it's a torrent of spam with every single post being shut down.

I think they could have outsourced their marketing to another company which is paid by the post, or something similar, so they don't really know what they've been up to, or how damaging the posts are to them. But yeah, now it's getting weird, like they have a vendetta or something.

That's a good point. Seems feasible. I think 'ignore' is the best policy going forward. I just won't be commenting on suspect posts in future.

Like I said here (or maybe elsewhere) there are posts on other fertility sites using the same or similar name (almost verbatim posts) so it really does sound like it's some really shit marketing campaign. I mean, paid posting can be very lucrative, and is particularly prevalent coming out of former Eastern bloc countries (just look at recent political campaigns)

I reckon so, BiggerBoat.

Ok ladies, I apologise. I've bitten and couldn't help myself commenting on this little delight: There's nothing like a biological child birthed with ease. I know I should have just reported, but I couldn't just leave it.

I hope this doesn't make me an arse .. but please don't make it 90 days before you can post on infertility. Admittedly when I joined MN the BESH were on the conception boards but by all rights they should have been on the infertility board.

I really needed them when I found them- I was on holiday alone and had got my period again after trying for 2 years. If I'd had to wait 90 days I'd have been left to those stupid fucking baby dust, I mean serious what IS baby dust, bastards other forums.

I'm sorry the arsehole spammer is doing this to you all (fuck off you spamming twats)

Frankly I don't think ignoring them is the way to go - now their posts are staying up for hours on end we need to fight them each time they pop up, otherwise someone might fall for it.

(also it's well-established on this board that baby dust is just crushed up babies - obviously! :) )

When you put it like that, I totally agree actually.

That sodding post is still there despite my reports.

I also like the idea (because this site is googleable) that if someone googles the name of the clinic that eventually there will be enough posts saying 'Biotexcom in Kiev, Ukraine are so shit they can only recruit patients by posting fake stories all over the internet, lying about their successes and making infertile people feel awful deliberately because that's the kind of twats they are' that it will be high in the results returned.

btw, Friday was a public holiday in Russia/Ukraine which is probably why there were no spam posts then, lulling us all into a false sense of security!