I am quite new to DEV and experiencing that the level of spam accounts advertising things from steel sheets for construction work in Dubai to whatever else following my account makes almost the entire list of my followers (exceptions confirm the rule).
May someone point me to a daily updated list of accounts worth to be blocked? Or point me to another way of knowing which articles and accounts are really worth attention and are in the original spirit of DEV which is bringing software developer together?
Top comments (7)
Welcome to Dev.to!
Spam has become pretty problematic in recent times, unfortunately I don't possess any such list of spam accounts. I'd advise you to spend some more time on the site so that your curated article feed can be set to what technologies you prefer. Generally, if I'm not wrong, newer accounts face spam issues but as you spend more time here reading about your favourite technologies, this issue should automatically disappear.
For now you should just block those spam accounts that follow you.
Welcome to DEV! I can't speak on behalf of the DEV team, but spam on DEV is a real issue at the moment, and I'm sure someone is looking to resolve it.
I admire your trust that someone will take care of it. The way things look at the moment, one has to take care of it oneself, and the fact that it is as it is certainly has a reason behind it, most likely with some intention of some kind.
Sorry, I guess I meant that the DEV team is aware of the issue. Didn't mean to sound like it's someone else's problem. As a low level moderator, I peruse articles every now and then and flag spam, but I'm not sure exactly what happens after that.
Another issue with the platform is that there is a lot of introductory articles or listicles that are not high quality. It's a tough one, because on one hand, I would love to find and read more high quality articles, but on the other hand, I think it's great that people who are new to programming can share what they learn.
The contradiction between freedom of speech and quality of articles can't probably be solved except by some AI-engine. It's always the team of admins and moderators who gives the directions, but without appropriate users or facing intentionally spamming they are powerless to increase quality. Stackoverflow tries this by extensive punishing and reputation score - with the final effect that I am no more or very rare contributing. Once established an admin/moderator team imposes their point of view on contributors - it's less moderation and more police work in false believe in some guidelines and proud of doing what they do exerting their power.
Google, Wikipedia, ... same problem. It's so easy to take established platforms over which are not ready for the WAR ... and it is an ongoing WAR out there ... sorry to say it, but it seems to be a fact.
Lack of reaction from responsible admins suggests it is all for a reason ... and my problem with it is that I don't like the reason ...
Maybe is this the strike back of evil forces trying to destroy what has been created? There is probably no chance to handle this without strong dictatorship of someone with much of good will ...
Yeah, Stackoverflow is downright toxic in its policing strategy. I don't use it anymore either. You have alluded to a reason behind the spam tolerance on DEV. Maybe you know something I don't? Could you elaborate? Or DM me if you want to take it off the thread. (Email is fine).
Empty response conveys sometimes more meaning then one full of words ...