So what is the general consensus of Spam on StumbleUpon? [Sp@m-Free Terms of Posting: Visit here to see Group Rules]
1.) Unsolicited Commercial PM's/Unsolicited PM's promoting *any* site [Non-profits & Charity included.]
2.) Forum posts having nothing to do with the group, the topic, or the conversation
a) Advertising something: a website, an affiliate program, traffic etc.
b) Soliciting an action unprovoked: "Read this website! It's great!"
3.) Multiple SU Alters - meaning one person *pretending* to be more SU users, or bots being controlled by one person - reviewing, thumbing up a particular site is said to *spam the system* by inflating the *real* audience approval for the website.
4.) It is against Stumble Guidelines to ask another Stumbler to give something a thumb up or review so this, too, could be considered spam. Also another form of this could be "Stumble Exchanges."
a.) This WILL be considered SU abuse if multiple people participate in an offsite forum with the intention to exchange Stumbles. [Why is this "bad?" This is "bad" because whether they're quality sites or not get left at the door for the sake of promotion.]
Other Illegal ways to use StumbleUpon:
1) Multiple Accounts without permission are illegal and are in violation of SU.
2) Bots. Bots are illegal.
3) Using any script to access SU in any way.
4) Posting PM's without permission.
Not Illegal ways to use StumbleUpon
1.) Stumbling, thumbing up, reviewing your own content.
2.) Negative reviews of you. Negative reviews of your friends.
3.) Hostile people. Unkind people. Mean people.
4.) People who negatively review the stuff you like.
5.) Shameless self-promoters. Shameless "other-self" promoters.
6.) Friend Whores
7.) People who PM you with "Thanks for viewing my page!"
...in a nutshell...
Help Guide: Suggested ways in how to handle certain situations
1.) "I found a spammer."
Thumb the spammer down. If you're on Stumble Beta interface you can flag the person as a spammer. You can also invoke tags and a negative review. [What I sometimes do is review the person as spammer and suggest that others do the same.]
2.) "I hit the Stumble button & got spam."
If you're on an SU toolbar that supports it [Toolbar version 3.005 for IE does not] go to Tools--> Report last Stumble--> Spam
Otherwise, I thumb it down and tag it "spammed-site", "spamvertised", or "spam".
3.) "I see spammalicious reviews [or SU alters] reviewing sites or Stumbles."
When you're on the Review Page of a site and you see what you think to be SU Alters and/or spammy reviews, you can select [beside their review] Review as Helpful --> NoSee here. This, in a way, discredits their opinion. I am sure it takes more than one person doing this as I am also sure it's calculated in the algorithm how many times they have been "discredited."
4.) "I found a website that I think has SU-alters promoting it!"
In addition to #3, I thumb it - the website - down and tag it "spamvertised, spammed-site" and I negatively review it as spam. I sometimes will go to some of the SU-Alters pages and thumb *them* down and label them "spambler, spamalter, spammer" and write a negative spam review. [Again, if you're on Beta, flagging is your best course here.]
5.) "Someone has just given me a bad review."
If you want to, you can hide the review. When you do this, you will also *block* the person from PMing you or from seeing her/his posts in the forum.
Another Option:If you're feeling brave, you could PM the person and appeal to their humanity; It might work on me - It would not work with Italian-Scallion.
6.) "Someone called me a spammer in this forum!"/"Someone labeled me as a spammer."
Well. Are you? Seriously. Take a step back and look at your activities. If you've been unjustifiably labelled as a spammer and it bothers you, you have recourse:
a.) Stumble Powers don't delete accounts based on people calling you a spammer. They DO look at the accounts after a threshold of flagging has been implemented.
b.) You can apologize and change your ways if you are a spammer. As long as you're still on Stumble, there is time.
c.) If you really ARE innocent you can PM me. I'll do what I can to help. Contact Me. Or you can go right to SU Power: Right here.
7.)"What tags do people use relating to spam?"
As for spam-related tags,we have a thread on various tags many of us use with regularity. It helps keep us consolidated so we can see what's going on in the SU Spam Arena.
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