The good news is, once about three or four users are removed, a couple of thousand of the weekend spam posts will go away.

Hey Roku...

We understand and appreciate that you are working on the issue. But do you  understand and appreciate how frustrated we are with all of this spam?

Promises that things "are happening" and solutions are "in the works" are in and of themselves good. However, the entire purpose of this forum is for users to help other users. Those with issues have issues now. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, not next year, but now. And they need help now. For that reason alone, immediate and effective steps need to be taken. Those "in the works" things still need to continue, but there is an immediate situation that should be addressed.

While this is a great exaggerated, perhaps the point will still be taken: the promise of a sprinkler system being installed in the future doesn't do a whole lot for someone already sitting in the middle of a fire. Those sprinkler systems aren't helpful now. The need is now. And, the thousands of spam posts this weekend should hammer that point home.

Users needing help aren't going to get a comfortable feeling trying to ask questions in a forum inundated by spam. And users that can help have a difficult time finding help posts amidst all the spam. Over the years, I've helped one or two, but the last few months have really been frustrating. While my small contributions haven't been missed, perhaps someone who is very helpful has also shied away from the forum. That would be a shame to users that need help.

Thanks for listening.

I’m surprised there aren’t active moderators in the forum to delete these spam posts and restrict/ban users who are posting them.

WRabbit wrote:

I’m surprised there aren’t active moderators in the forum to delete these spam posts and restrict/ban users who are posting them.

If by active you mean on duty 24/7, then yeah. They only have the one guy, Tanner, who works standard hours. Spammers can read a clock and a calendar, too, so they hit big on the weekend. Really big this weekend. I can't fault Tanner. I can, and do, fault Roku for not bringing sufficient resources to bear on the issue. More mods would be a great start. Others have suggested allowing some VCMs to have a limited authority to act, but I understand Roku's reluctance to go down that road. But, Roku needs to take a look at where the current road has gone.

31 pages of spam. 31. imagine if you were a new customer coming to this forum for help and that's what you see, it's got to be driving some people away from Roku simply because of how unprofessional it appears/is, it won't drive them out of business obviously, but it's hard to see how it's not hurting business at least a bit.

+1

It's really bad when the spam is so bad it's hard to find any actual content on the forum.

I still don't see why they don't implement what I would assume to be simple restrictions like how many posts you can make a day, or within a certain time frame. You see the same login making hundreds of posts within minutes. That would slow things down considerably.

andyross wrote:

I still don't see why they don't implement what I would assume to be simple restrictions like how many posts you can make a day, or within a certain time frame. You see the same login making hundreds of posts within minutes. That would slow things down considerably.

I seem to remember Shawn saying they did implement some software solutions like those in the forum software, but the spammers got around them. Maybe due to the older codebase of the forum. 

Either way, I agree with everyone else. Spam like this just serves to drive people away, and with so much streamer competition out there, Roku needs every little thing working in their favor. 

Is there any reason there can't be a reCAPTCHA on submitting a new post? I mean, on the main Roku website I have to click a reCAPTCHA every time I log in to my account. It would only be a mild inconvenience to click one before creating a new forum post.

What did happen to roku Shawn?

rey_1178 wrote:

What did happen to roku Shawn?

Wherever he is, I do wish him well.

Bump

Another day of spam for breakfast.

I think they've finally tired of it all. I see Tanner has announced a new user activation process that requires manual approval. Unless the spammers are getting in around the login (certainly a possibility) these multi-page Asian spam posts may finally be a thing of the past. Thanks Tanner!

Good idea Roku Tanner.