Classified section needs to change to combat the Spam

[tubejay]

I don't know if you've done any thinking about changing the way the classified ads section is set up, but you really should make it a little more difficult to list an ad on there with some type of security check to ensure that a real human being is posting an ad instead of a spambot. There were literally 2 or 3 pages of ads for Chinese manufacturing and other nonsense on there this morning and the problem is getting worse and worse, and it's only going to continue to get worse.

As it is, it entirely shuts the classifieds down for the whole weekend. I love your classifieds section, and love the way it's set up, but there has to be a fairly non intrusive way to ensure that there's a human being inputing the ad instead of a spambot.

[Tarktones]

Idea #1: Include a captcha in the posting process.
Idea #2: Disallow posts from African IP addresses. Of course, there are scams coming out of everywhere, but Nigeria is the most notorious and I'm not sure Sweetwater has much of a customer base on other continents.

[michaelhoddy]

The first five pages of the Trading Post are all (with about one exception) Chinese knock-off manufacturer spam. This is sad- I used to buy and sell a lot of things on the Trading Post. Now, the signal-to-noise ratio is swung toward being mostly "noise."

[DAS]

Thanks for the heads up. I hadn't been over there in a while and didn't realize how bad it had gotten. We'll have to figure something out.

[SweetwaterSound]

We implemented a solution this morning that should help decrease the level of spam on The Trading Post. We are sorry for the inconvenience that this has certainly caused and rest assured that we will do our best at keeping The Trading Post free of spam. Thanks

[Tarktones]

The voice has spoken!