Forum Spammers Get Sneaky

So, I finally completed my task of removing all forum profile links from accounts that had zero posts or have been inactive for several months.

Spammers have been creating an account and then adding links to their profile and signature. They never make any spammy posts or any posts at all for that matter. For the most part they try to fly under the radar.

They do this because the link from their profile helps increase their website's rankings in the search engine results.  Nothing really new but I have to keep them in check because I don't want the forum linking out to bad neighborhoods (porn sites, gambling sites, etc.)

Anyway, while I was doing this, I noticed that the spammers are getting pretty creative. They're going as far as placing links inside their avatars....had to delete those too. Removing all of these links has been a slow process but now that they're removed, it will be easier to maintain in the future.

Why not just turn of signatures? I find they're fairly useless anyway.

Why not just turn of signatures? I find they're fairly useless anyway.

Well, there are some people that use the forum (not naming any names) in order to drive more traffic to their websites. Not saying that is the only reason they participate but it's probably a strong motivator. I don't mind this because they're contributing to the comminity. I left their links and signatures in tact.

Plus, it's not just signatures that are the problem. In your profile, the forum allows you to add a link to your website and choose a title for that link. This is essentially anchor text which is the most beneficial type of link for SEO. Also, people are putting their URLs where their avatars go. 

I have even thought about disabling all out going links. It would definitely help for SEO purposes but I think most people like being able to click on a link and go directly to the website that someone is talking about in a post rather than having to copy and paste a link into their browser.

This has to do with "back-links" however, the best back-links should be within the same category of your website. You know, people get paid to do that all over the web on the cheap for $5. Good affiliate marketers are more careful where their back-links are placed "intentionally." People even post replies on blogs just for back-links. Bleh.