Vote Spammers = Pbase Junkmail

[camera0bug]

I received a request to look at a gallery and vote for it this morning
which I equate with vote spamming. This was from someone I had never heard of and from a country I didn't even know existed.

My simple reply: "I do not engage in vote spamming on Pbase."

Maybe if enough citizens here stand up against these bottom-fishers,
they'll get a clue and go elsewhere to farm votes and force feed viewers.


Anyone else willing to take a stand?

[perkins123]

I think I got the same one

[michaelsv]

Look for my post about same issue from couple of months back.
I'm getting some from time to time. If it's just friend's announcement about new gallery, I might take a look. But if I see request for voting.... I ban it normally

Michael.

[barry_2718]

I am guilty of doing this once after one of my holidays. I was just excited to show my pictures. i have also just reviewed a Pbasers gallery of a NZ holiday, and they where well worth the look.

So its a difficult call. I will have a quick peep at registered Pbasers sites if they are good a longer look. If I get repeated "look at these" I just turn off.

The problem is how to get noticed on Pbase. The forum's and challenges are the best way to do this.

Cheers Barry

[clickaway]

You'll always get these people how matter hard you try to repel them. I'm surprised you bothered to even reply!

Why do some people think they deserve special attention?

I think they are related to the species who post on this forum proclaiming that they have completed a given month's PAD. But the trouble is, so have countless other people....

Ray

[texces]

I got the same pmail, TWICE! Makes me not want to go visit the gallery at all.

[johnwaine]

Isn't that what the Show and Tell forum is for?

Say NO! to vote spammers!!

[djwixx]

Someone awhile ago spammed a load of people suggesting they needed to get to the top of the pops with their zoo gallery so they could sell prints to make money to help endangered species. Sadly, he gots the votes he wanted!

Now that was crass. I did ask him how much money he made and he came back with some BS about how he was misunderstood.

[1designguy]

Too easy to spot (smell) them. I've get a few regular Pmail requests. Yeh, like I have the time to waste.

I think most people in the forums could instantly call out by Pname the offenders or VOTE WHORES Its the latest level of self-promotion in this fine community.

I can remember when you could go to the Photo-a-Day metagallery and for the most part see the regular entries for true efforts to participate in the challenge. It did not take long for many to see the potential for exposure and take over that source.

Now its the PIMPING of votes to climb the Popular Image metagallery (really not just right now, its been quite some time). Who knows what the next resource will be conquered in their quest for attention and exposure.

All things we learn to live with for the joy and learning of the broader community. I hate it but live with it. No easy solutions.

[camera0bug]

Vote Whores!

I like the ring of that!

Perhaps there should be a whole 'nother section of Pbase just for them.
Maybe a Pbase Red Light District.

[1designguy]

Vote Whores!

I like the ring of that!

Perhaps there should be a whole 'nother section of Pbase just for them.
Maybe a Pbase Red Light District.

...or even a whole other SITE

[emmaelice]

I like Scott's Idea I got the same spam last week, I just blocked the guy and that was that. People and their need for votes, really! You would think they would get a life.

[adalberto_tiburzi]

Yes, I agree with all the others here.
Lonely spammers begging for votes are pathetic.

But pay attention, there's another reality much more important: the well organized mafia which controls the Pop Photos.
They don't beg for votes.
They are not so naive.
They start begging for "comments" at first ... LOL

Beware, folks

[1designguy]

I have to admit the I am a view freak. I gain a lot of satisfaction from having people desire to (and take the effort to) look at my images. There is an invisible line in self-promotion that has been crossed here on Pbase. We are the only ones who can really regulate it (by seeing it for what it is and not "seeing it" anymore).

For whatever reason (selfish), many people will stop at nothing to get their pictures into the limelight. If Pbase creates anything new that will allow us to find the efforts more easily of our fellow photogs, it takes very little time for it to be overtaken by this minority.

I used to enjoy a visit to the PaD recent postings metagallery. It was a good source for finding new people with a common goal that would be hard to find without it on a site of this magnitude. I still on occasion go there but find that many of the images I click to look at were taken months or years earlier. It has just become too much of a waste of my time.

Do a weekly challenge (TITC) or a monthly challenge and you'll find the same thing. People will jump on for exposure. I understand, it just destroys the comradery and integrity of the intent of challenge and betterment. A frustration for sure. Taxing at times.

All in all, the Pbase experience is worth the frustrations. I gain so much more from the exposure to others' vision than I ever have at any point in my photographic journey. Like I have said before, I would rather have an open place to share my images than one with over regulation. Take the good with the bad.

[barbara_heide]

Vote Whores!

I like the ring of that!

Perhaps there should be a whole 'nother section of Pbase just for them.
Maybe a Pbase Red Light District.

excellent idea, Dan! Would love to join this one lol!