You can indeed look at it as the spam hasn't changed format because they haven't banned that specific format.

But as was correctly pointed out, banning that specific format will block the spam for perhaps a single day, probably less. So, the admin could spend a bit of time banning that specific format and enjoy a slight break in the spam, only to have a new format appear. That might seem like a worthwhile trade-off if you consider the value proposition over the span of a day or two.

But a week later, nobody will remember that the spam stopped for a few hours a week ago, but your code base will remember this chunk of code for dealing with this one specific format of spam that happened once. Then you'll either continue with a long series of such steps and have a long series of short breaks in spam and a growing and unwieldy pile of code that you have to keep maintaining and the cost starts to clearly outweigh the tiny benefits. Or you just do it a few times and feel stupid for having wasted those small bits of time for no lasting benefit.

So, yes, if you don't look past step 2 in the (fairly obvious) progression, then you can get frustrated about step 1 not happening. But I'm sure the site admin is frustrated with all of the people who are frustrated because s/he knows that they aren't bothering to even look past step 2.

Dealing with spam effectively requires looking way beyond step 2 and doing things much, much different than banning specific formats.

- tye        

In reply to Re^4: Stopping spam AHHHHH!!!!! (time window) by tye
in thread Stopping spam AHHHHH!!!!! by james28909

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