Anti-Spam Getting Started

Spamwhacking Team

No CLA is required for membership on this team. Review by team leaders and spamwhacker privs are required in order to deal with spam reports.

Addition of new anti-spam team members is sporadic and generally based on current spam volume, and when the volume of spam exceeds the capacity of the current active volunteers. This does mean that it may be a long time between application for the team and any review or response.

Duties of anti-spam team members:

• Review reports of spam (comments, community entries, or private messages) deleted-and-marked-as-spam
• Determine whether any given report is or is not spam, in accordance with Dreamwidth's rules & team guidelines
• Take appropriate action on reports that are determined to be spam
• Pass along non-spam that is nonetheless actionable under the Terms of Service (such as solicitation for account trades)
• Close non-actionable non-spam (such as mistaken reports or unwanted contact) with no action
• Notice and pass along anything that requires action from a team lead or higher

The spamwhacking process is repetitive and fussy, which means it can be either soothing or tedious depending on personal reactions to fussy repetitive routines.

Non-Team Spam-fighting Actions

• Delete-and-mark-as-spam any spam comments left in journals or communities you control, as promptly as practical.
• Much of the comment spam left on Dreamwidth is anonymous; if you are comfortable turning off or automatically screening anonymous comments in your space, this will eliminate much of the spam you receive.
• If you know you will be away for an extended period of time, consider turning off anonymous comments in your absence.
• If you encounter spam journals, file a support request in the Anti-Spam category so an Anti-Spam team lead or Terms of Service member can take care of them.

Places to look for spam journals:

• on the Latest Things page
• on the Stats page with newly created journals
• through site search, looking for commonly spammed terms, or words associated with a current spam campaign