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Ask DN: Is it possible to ban or forbid specific URLs?

over 7 years ago from , kreativgebiet.com

Since 45 minutes my homepage looks like this:

Direct Link: http://c.vslck.im/fg4h

I doubt, that each webdesignshare.com link is gaining 10 upvotes in 45 minutes (additionally many people in the major timezones are sleeping right now). So this would be a case of upvote-faking and spamming of DN. Please remove this posts and the author of those.

Would be great to ban this blog globally since this isn't the first time something like this happens.

Additionally: It would be really nice to have a feature to ban some urls for my personal account, so people can just blacklist urls that they doesn't want to show up on their feed.

Edit: I know, that there is an Report function for DN, but I am doing this post because this issue is facing some extensive spammers (as written before, this is not the first time). I also now that a "feature-request" post is forbidden by the guidelines, too, but this isn't a pure feature request and also see the reason for not using Report function.

27 comments

  • Kyo NagashimaKyo Nagashima, over 7 years ago

    Designer News is dead.

    30 points
  • Patrick LudewigPatrick Ludewig, over 7 years ago (edited over 7 years ago )

    Ban these guys/urls and make it invite only again. #makedngreatagain

    14 points
  • Max LindMax Lind, over 7 years ago

    In addition to reiterating Jody's spam detection note, I want to continue to encourage everyone to help us fight spam and bogus users by using the reporting tools and/or sending an email to me directly: max@designernews.co

    Any/all help is very much appreciated as we continue to grow... thank you in advance for all your help!

    9 points
  • Ken Em, over 7 years ago

    As a long time lurker who recently signed up for an account, I'm discouraged by what looks like an increase in these type of articles, even though though the rules state that they won't be allowed. It's great to have the rule, but it's meaningless if it isn't going to be enforced.

    4 points
  • Ed AdamsEd Adams, over 7 years ago

    There have been an awful lot of WebDesignShare.com articles submitted recently, as a normal user I can't verify that they're being upvoted by bots but it does seem that way because all the ones in OP's screenshot have 10 upvotes.

    Blacklisting the domain won't be enough, spammers will just use a URL shortener (as they have done in some cases, no screenshots but I've seen it). Maybe URL shorteners should be blacklisted too? I know that most subreddits ban shorteners as a way to prevent people from posting articles linking to banned domains.

    Failing that, a reCAPTCHA on the submit page would most likely suffice.

    3 points
  • David ÖhlinDavid Öhlin, over 7 years ago (edited over 7 years ago )

    I run this script to hide every post that has both 'should' and 'designer' in them. Could probably modify it to block urls if you're interested :)

    1 point
  • Catalin CimpanuCatalin Cimpanu, over 7 years ago

    I wonder if DDoSing that spam site is worth it? Still pondering it.....

    0 points
  • Ryan Van GattenRyan Van Gatten, over 7 years ago

    I thought this topic was about Dribbble... No? I'll come back later then

    0 points
  • Joe Blau, over 7 years ago

    They hit on Saturday morning too; pretty annoying.

    0 points
  • Ollie BarkerOllie Barker, over 7 years ago

    Would adding downvotes make it less likely for this sort of content to get high up?

    0 points
    • Dominik SchmidtDominik Schmidt, over 7 years ago

      It would in some cases. But since DesignerNews is a place to give everyone a chance it's unlikely downvotes are added. For a newly submitted post one downvote would make the thing go down to hell. What could be somewhat good is to add some guidelines (technically-natured) like StackOverflow has them. If you have Karma bigger than x, you are able to upvote. On an even higher Karma you are just able to downvote. That would make the community more cleaner, since no fake accounts are generating upvotes and no jerks are making downvotes to posts that are just nice.

      0 points
  • James LaneJames Lane, over 7 years ago

    I'm sending the admins a link to this post now.

    0 points