this post was submitted on
32 points (75% like it)
47 up votes 15 down votes
shortlink:
to anything interesting: news article, blog entry, video, picture...

31
32

Is examiner.com banned from Reddit? (self.TheoryOfReddit)

submitted ago* by IAmAnAnonymousCoward

Over in /r/worldpolitics, me and my fellow moderators have to approve each and every submission from examiner.com, regardless who submitted it and even though we never removed a submission from that domain.

Does anyone know what's up with that?

all 64 comments
sorted by:
best
hot
new
controversial
top
old

[–]blackstar9000 31 points32 points ago

It strikes me as possible that the spam filter picks up lots of examiner.com submissions because the spam filter has started recognizing a lot of the people who submit examiner.com submissions as spammers. That is to say, if a particular user submits nothing but links to examiner.com, the spam filter might pick up on that, and then start treating that user as a spammer, the their chosen domain as likely spam.

Lately I've been very impressed by the flexibility of the spam filter. I have no idea how it might have been designed, but it adapted in some very sophisticated ways in other reddits I run. In /r/DepthHub, for example, it seems to have caught on to the fact that I regard it as spam when a user links to their own comment.

[–]syuk 9 points10 points ago

So it's working as intended then? Makes you wonder what would happen if someone creates xxx's accounts and spams a domain with them that they want to negatively impact. A lot of things here are crowd theory, it might not take much to push domains into the 'blacklist'. If it isn't documented then who knows what is happening or how to appeal against it.

The Oatmeal was in there I think at some point?

[–]daychilde 0 points1 point ago

The only thing that happens if a domain is considered spam is that it hits the modqueue... so I suppose in an under-moderated subreddit, they lose some hits; but that's how the cookies crumble.

After all, cookies are a sometimes treat. And I think I just extended that metaphor one step too far. :)

[–]therekkoner 4 points5 points ago

Wouldn't this affect YouTube submitters at r/videos also then?

[–]blackstar9000 6 points7 points ago

I suppose if YouTube were being used primarily for spam elsewhere, then sure. But I don't see it being used for spam all that often.

[–]relic2279 2 points3 points ago

I mod over at videos... While the spamming is pretty mild, people do tend to spam their own youtube channels for adsense/partner hits. It's a little more tedious to check, but with a greasemonkey script or two and our new mod bot, it's become a bit easier to spot the offenders.

[–]LuckyBdx4 1 point2 points ago

It is used to spam more than you think. Kylde gets them all the time in some of the sub reddits he Moderates.

[–]LuckyBdx4 1 point2 points ago

A small example I just whacked in /r/android

also spammed /r/linux

http://www.reddit.com/user/ingalactic

[–]Ryan0617 0 points1 point ago

I used to submit quite a lot of YouTube videos to the point that none of them were being posted. I still have to message the moderators to have it cleared. Pain in the ass. I don't bother submit YouTube videos as often now.

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] -4 points-3 points ago

No, violentacrez is right, it's definitely on the global black list.

[–]LuckyBdx4 10 points11 points ago

examiner.com used a thousands of shill accounts over the last few years to spam and drive traffic to their site. They are merely paying the price for their actions.

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] -1 points0 points ago

Source?

[–]LuckyBdx4 8 points9 points ago

I am one of the Mods of /r/reportthespammers, and have reported many many hundreds just by my little old self.

[–]4InchesOfury 4 points5 points ago

http://www.reddit.com/r/reportthespammers/search?q=examiner&restrict_sr=on

Examiner spam is a pretty common thing.

[–]Pappenheimer 10 points11 points ago*

A global domain blacklist exists, and since examiner.com is often posted by spammers, I wouldn't be surprised if it's in there.

EDIT: There is a small chance my information is outdated, I don't know how the new admins run this site. Given how shitty the spam filter still is, I don't think there were that many substantial changes yet.

[–]violentacrez 11 points12 points ago

The global domain blacklist filter is still operational. To test it, try submitting any link from ansblog dot com to a reddit that you moderate. It will get filtered within a couple of minutes.

[–]Pappenheimer 15 points16 points ago*

Maybe not the best example, ansblog is the most persistant spammer in reddit's history. He certainly has a special place in the filter's black heart.

Edit: Click. Ansblog comment gets filtered, examiner comment doesn't. The examiner submission however got autobanned, which indicates that it's indeed in the blacklist.

[–]violentacrez 9 points10 points ago*

Yes, but I can promise you he has never submitted to /r/_va_, the private reddit that I used to test it. So the spam filter in that specific reddit has never encountered ansblog before, yet the post was still removed by the filter. So, despite

  • the filter in that reddit never having seen an ansblog post before,
  • being submitted by the creator and sole moderator (which should presumably whitelist my posts)

it still got caught.

[–]Pappenheimer 2 points3 points ago

Yeah, I wasn't trying to prove you wrong. Check my edit!

(which should presumably whitelist my posts)

I don't think that's how it works, weirdly enough. Or at least in the past pretty innoculous submissions of mine got autobanned in subreddits where I'm moderator. I'll whitelist myself and check if that overrides the blacklist...

... oh, of course I'm already whitelisted. That's that, then.

[–]Xert 2 points3 points ago

Interesting. So reddit's site-wide hardcoded blacklist overrides subreddit specific whitelists?

[–]Xert 2 points3 points ago

Did you repeat with an examiner.com link?

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] 2 points3 points ago

I did. It's indeed banned.

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] 4 points5 points ago

The global domain blacklist filter is still operational. To test it, try submitting any link from ansblog dot com to a reddit that you moderate. It will get filtered within a couple of minutes.

I did this test with a link from examiner.com and the spam filter removed it immediately.

[–]violentacrez 3 points4 points ago

Excellent!

[–]syuk 0 points1 point ago

I think that is also why uri shorteners aren't allowed in some subs.

We could make our own link shortening service that might help things across the site?

edit: but then people would have to be told if they submitted a link from a dodgy domain..

[–]Pappenheimer 2 points3 points ago

Comments with shorteners are generally removed everywhere. And yes, that is because of the ansblog spammer, he used every shortener there is.

http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/ctk3o/ansblog_our_comments_have_been_spammed_for_quite/

http://en.reddit.com/r/ideasfortheadmins/comments/d23yf/could_comment_spam_get_cracked_down_on_a_little/

[–]syuk 0 points1 point ago

Good to know that link shorteners are not tolerated, who knows what evils hide behind them. I had never heard of ansblog before.

[–]Pappenheimer 0 points1 point ago

The problem is that this is not communicated to the users - they use shorteners all the time. One could argue they should just learn how to properly format a link though.

[–]roger_ 7 points8 points ago

Comment keywords are filtered too, even non-URL ones.

Even mods can't say 'Luis Gu(z)man' on /r/community without being filtered (don't know why).

[–]faceplanted 1 point2 points ago

Is this something a mod could control? I'm suddenly worried about abuses of mod power here with this.

[–]roger_ 6 points7 points ago

No, us mods have no control. I had to make a bot for /r/community just to fix that particular issue.

[–]hawaii_dude 0 points1 point ago

So reddit just hates Luis?

[–]syuk 0 points1 point ago

If mods abuse things then the community just moves on to somewhere else. I don't think mods can control anythings like this (at least I can't see any way to). The worst thing imho is that mods can ban people and there is no 'user was banned for this post' type thing unless the mods want to mention it, that is perhaps more sinister and open to abuses.

[–]roger_ 0 points1 point ago

mods can ban people and there is no 'user was banned for this post'

Unless things were changed recently, people are notified when they're banned from a subreddit.

[–]doubleprime 1 point2 points ago

But others aren't and, unless other members try to figure out why that user stopped posting, it might not become known.

[–]syuk 0 points1 point ago

The user is notified but there is nothing in the thread?

[–]roger_ 0 points1 point ago

The "[deleted]" text pretty much means that I guess.

[–]syuk 0 points1 point ago

Doesn't explain to others what has happened though. I know there are sub reddits for people to air grievances but it might be better if when a user is banned a moderator has to explains why?

a lot of the time people sometimes just post stuff that is offensive, or they forget themselves, taking part in civil discussions. I'd rather moderators said the reason why posts or users were deleted or banned than just 'disappearing' people and posts.

[–]roger_ 0 points1 point ago*

Personally I don't think moderators should remove comments at all (unless it's spam, personal info or linking to something illegal).

[–]Pappenheimer 1 point2 points ago

That's a weird one.

[–]CDRnotDVD 0 points1 point ago

I wonder how the global blacklist works. Automated, manual, or a mix of both? If it's fully automated, there is likely a way to abuse the system. I admit, when I saw the title of this submission, my first thought was 'I wonder if we can do this to the daily mail'.

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] 2 points3 points ago

The spam filter is adaptive.

Yes I know that. No moderator has ever removed an examiner.com link in our subreddit, instead we've approved every single one and the spam filter still catches them.

[–]violentacrez 2 points3 points ago

That's because examiner.com is the devil. It's right to make you work to approve crap spam.

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] 1 point2 points ago

AutoModerator is doing the dirty work now ;)

[–]syuk -4 points-3 points ago

Every post I make to r/videos seems to get -3 votes immediately if I post a YT link, it is humans doing this don't blame the technology :)

[–]syuk 0 points1 point ago

Ha ha

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] 0 points1 point ago

You don't know how Reddit works.

[–]syuk 0 points1 point ago

Sorry, replied to wrong post.

[–]cojoco -1 points0 points ago

I have endless trouble with the spam filter posting into /r/worldnews, despite the fact that each and every one of my submissions has been allowed through by the moderators.

I suspect it's because all of my submissions come from my local paper, smh.com.au, which is the only news site I read outside Reddit.

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] -1 points0 points ago

Try /r/worldpolitics. It will get through, promise.

[–]cojoco 0 points1 point ago

It will get through, promise.

But how do you know?

Moderators don't have any control over the spam filter.

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] -1 points0 points ago

Moderators don't have any control over the spam filter.

We can train it. By approving and not removing submissions long enough we can get the spam filter to a point where it doesn't remove submissions either. Exceptions are of course shadow banned users and banned domains, but for this we have a bot (AutoModerator) that approves those as well.

[–]cojoco 0 points1 point ago

We can train it.

But I know that this doesn't work very well.

Although the good moderators at worldnews approve all of my submissions, I am still caught by the spam filter 90% of the time.

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] -1 points0 points ago

But I know that this doesn't work very well.

It just doesn't work if you remove submissions, because then the filter will start randomly removing submissions.

[–]cojoco 0 points1 point ago

But I don't remove submissions; as I said, the moderators approve them all, eventually.

[–]Xert 1 point2 points ago

Is it strictly subreddit-specific?

[–]Anomander 3 points4 points ago

No.

It's community focused, but also general sitewide learning.

If mods everywhere else are killing every examiner.com link they see, it would learn "examiner BAD" and take a lot more learning to realize examiner is welcome in /politics, but not so much so everywhere else.

[–]Xert 0 points1 point ago

As I thought. I also suspect (without any evidence whatsoever) there's a degree of admin-level modifying that allows them to respond to perceived spamming attempts by auto-blacklisting while not outright banning.

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] 2 points3 points ago

Are the spam filters open source?

No.

[–]SwampySoccerField 1 point2 points ago

You may want to make it clear that you are the moderator/creator of the subreddit.

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] 1 point2 points ago

Fixed.

[–]agentlame 1 point2 points ago*

I honestly can't remember where I read this (on reddit), so take it with a grain of salt...

It's my understanding that examiner.com has very loose criteria for who can post to the site. Perhaps, even allowing anyone to use it like a personal blog, but framed as op-ed pieces. Because of this, many people use it to promote fringe theories and propaganda, while having it look like a 'news site' is supporting their claims.

Like I said, I can't remember where I read that, though... I'll look for a link.

EDIT
Here is a bit of info on how to become an 'editor'.

[–]faceplanted -2 points-1 points ago

http://www.reddit.com/domain/examiner.com

let's find out...

[–]IAmAnAnonymousCoward[S] 6 points7 points ago

This isn't really helpful, as all those submissions could have been approved by the moderators.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy. © 2012 reddit inc. All rights reserved.

REDDIT and the ALIEN Logo are registered trademarks of reddit inc.

π Rendered by PID 16945 on app-146 running 86c9e1d.