Spamming the forum

[Will]

Just a reminder to users that genuine third-party recommendations for lawyers etc, in response to specific requests, are perfectly OK. I have, however, just removed 16 posts all recommending some apparently linked lawyer/surveyor web sites.These were from a user who joined today from a gmail e-mail address with the apparent intention of digging up old topics, some almost a year since their last posting, solely in order to 'recommend' these French companies.

As this is not, by any means, the first time that this particular group has been plugged here in the same way - once even from an e-mail address easily traceable back to the so-called French lawyer behind them - I concluded that this was advertising spam rather than genuine recommendation. This conclusion was shared by a number of other forum users who posted in response and reported the posts - thanks to all of you.

If the user concerned would care to contact Forum Admin with proof that these were all genuine third-party recommendations then we shall consider reinstating the posts. If you cannot do this, please do not repeat this exercise yet again. Meanwhile I ask forum users if you would be happy using a 'lawyer' who advertises in this way rather than through the proper channels.

Any 'recommendations' that appear out of the blue in response to old topics, or which appear in several places, will be treated as spam advertising.

Edit - just re-checked the logs and it was in fact 18 posts that this user made, some must have been done after the first count.

[Viv]

Perhaps it if happens again, we could spam them with recommendations for LF?[:)]

[Opalienne]

Just out of interest, since in one of the posts Ms Duff said that she and her husband had bought a house near Draguignan, I checked the Pages Blanches for the Var.   What do you know?   No Duffs...........

[Viv]

Well it was clearly duff information!

[Dick Smith]

So long as their supporters don't start chanting 'Up the Duffs'.

I'll get my coat...

[Cat]

[quote user="Opalienne"]Just out of interest, since in one of the posts Ms Duff said that she and her husband had bought a house near Draguignan, I checked the Pages Blanches for the Var.   What do you know?   No Duffs...........[/quote]

Ah yes, I did a bit of checking too (too much time on my hands, that's for sure, but amazing what gems you can drag up from family-tree websites).  Seems they're brothers, and one of them has a wife with a very English-sounding name.  They both have offices in the same two towns.  Draguignan is directly situated between those two towns.

I'll fetch my coat ...

 

 

[Opalienne]

I find it excellent displacement activity when I am supposed to be writing.......

[Viv]

[quote user="Cat 46"]

[quote user="Opalienne"]Just out of interest, since in one of the posts Ms Duff said that she and her husband had bought a house near Draguignan, I checked the Pages Blanches for the Var.   What do you know?   No Duffs...........[/quote]

Ah yes, I did a bit of checking too (too much time on my hands, that's for sure, but amazing what gems you can drag up from family-tree websites).  Seems they're brothers, and one of them has a wife with a very English-sounding name.  They both have offices in the same two towns.  Draguignan is directly situated between those two towns.

I'll fetch my coat ...

 

 

[/quote]

Their business must be slow then, I wonder if they do a duff job;

[Christine Animal]

... maybe they should get their duffle coat.

 

[Will]

Perhaps their duffle coats are fastened with Cordiez [;)]

[Ron Avery]

"with the apparent intention of digging up old topics, some almost a year since their last posting, solely in order to 'recommend' these French companies"

Will, I have long thought that as with a number of other Forums, there should be a time limit on posting to a thread, say 30 days after last posting date.  In addition to what you quote, recently a number of old 2005 topics long since dead and buried have been dug up again with little or nothing added to the original discussion.  This is not a problem in itself except that without a "posts since last visit option" these old threads figure prominently in the "Active" posts and suggest that they are new threads until one opens them.

[Will]

It's a good suggestion, Ron, but I'm afarid I don't know if it's possible to disallow posting after a certain time but still have topics available to read, and visible in a search. I hope Archant IS can look into it.

[chirpy]

I THINK THEY MUST BE DUFFERS![:D]

[Quillan]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]

Will, I have long thought that as with a number of other Forums, there should be a time limit on posting to a thread, say 30 days after last posting date.  In addition to what you quote, recently a number of old 2005 topics long since dead and buried have been dug up again with little or nothing added to the original discussion.  This is not a problem in itself except that without a "posts since last visit option" these old threads figure prominently in the "Active" posts and suggest that they are new threads until one opens them.

[/quote]

Sorry I diasagree. The reason for this is that sometimes when you search, which we encourage people to do, there is not quite all the information you might want in a post and it's easier to tack a question on to the post you have found than start a whole new thread on the same subject. Did we not go through all this thing some time back about people searching instead of posting the same old questions over and over again.

[P]

You have new members joining all the time, myself being a fairly new member.

The searches are not brilliant but very useful to bring up old topics and as Quillan says they somtimes go part of the way to answering a question but you wish to find out a little more about a certain aspect.

If the topic was started again then there i the possibility that those who replied first time will reply again, which is a little bit of a waste of time.

Paul

[Dick Smith]

Part of the problem is that new people to the forum with a burning question may not yet know enough about the subject to frame their question very tightly - so they ask something quite general or open which looks like it has been covered a thousand times. They should really narrow their question down, but that isn't how it works, is it? You ask a general question and then get specific as you work out what you know and what you need to know.

Where longer-term posters get cross (I suspect) is where there has been no attempt at all to answer the question even to a small extent before posting, and where a question is asked, answered, and nothing more is heard from the original poster.