Weeding out Worms
Ma.gnolia’s Adventures in Spam Control

Re: Spam
• spam is a drag
• spammers heart social software
• our tools for good also are spammer’s
tools for bad
• ugly numbers: 75-80% of new accounts are
spam

Methods
• One site, many accounts
• Too legit to quit: few legit-looking links
• Joe SEO: getting rich quick
• You Can’t Fool Me: profile-aware
• Had Enough Yet?: Importing volume links

What Didn’t Work
• No-follow
• Akismet
• Weed-on-sight
• Recaptcha

What does Work
• Accept that there’s no 100% win
• Gardeners
• Whitelist, with a shade of gray

About Gardeners
• Enabled trusted members to move
accounts on and off of whitelist
• Not a job, contest or vendetta
• (Eventually) Gardeners will make new
Gardeners, using the network for good

Meet a Gardener

Links
• Larry’s spammer exposé blog post: http://
ma.gnolia.com/wufare