Spyderco's forum is a unique, engaging community. We value our members and do all that we can to protect them, and our forum. Unfortunately, the popularity of our forum puts a huge target on it. On any given week, there are thousands of attempts to infiltrate the forum by spammers. On the low end, it's around 2,000 but we've seen it as high as 8,000.
It used to be that spammers were bots programmed by some bad actor. Those bots became more and more sophisticated all the time. But about 4 or 5 years ago, we started seeing spammers that were actual people. Turns out there's big business in spam/malware. There are "businesses" that employ people to sit on a computer all day just posting spam - kind of like old-school call centers that would ring your house just as you sat down to eat dinner.
We've seen spam accounts that make several seemingly legitimate posts only to go back and edit them later to include spam.
We've seen spam accounts copy older legitimate posts just to get past filters.
Some spam accounts just join, place links in their profile, and then lie and wait. Some forums limit posting based on how long someone has been a member, so this tactic is intended to get past a filter by waiting it out.
We employ several protocols to battle spam, but post moderation is often our last line of defense. Particularly when we're dealing with actual human beings. There are many data points that we use (which I won't go into), but please understand that it is a necessary inconvenience that is temporary. I am constantly looking at new technologies to make this fight easier for all of us. Unfortunately, something better doesn't exist... yet.
We welcome all of our members and truly appreciate that you choose to spend time with us. It is for that reason that we take the safety of our forum seriously.
If you are a new member in post-approval, hang in there! It won't last forever.
Thanks much for your interest and understanding.
Kristi
, Watu, Kapara, PM2 Crucarta, Shaman, Chaparral, Manix 2, Native 5, Siren, Delica 4, Raven 2