Ning Spam Prevention Updates

Use These New Tools!

We have new tools for fighting spam, including a Quiz and mandatory Email Verification. They're excellent ways to thwart spam, and we strongly encourage you to use them.

You'll see this prompt to set up the tools when you visit your Manage page. It only takes a minute to set it up.

The Latest News on Our Spam Fight

		3 New Ways to Stop Spammers and Verify Your Members (May 6th) We've released three new tools that can be used to ensure that only legitimate members join your Ning Network. These opt-in features will help protect your Ning Network from spammers and bots, allow you to spend less time approving members and ensure that you have more time to engage your members. They include: a sign-up quiz, which new members must correctly answer to join; email verification for all new sign ups; and increased CAPTCHA enforcement for new sign ups. Read more.
		2 New Tools in the Fight Against Spam: No Follow and Soft Blocking (April 6th) We’ve been working hard to remove the ability for spambots to penetrate your Ning Network with bogus accounts. Beginning today, we have two new weapons in our arsenal: No Follow and Soft Blocking. These new approaches should make Ning even more safe and secure for your members. Read more.
		Content Flagging on Your Ning Network: Enlist Your Members (March 23rd) Last month, as part of our ongoing plan for fighting spam, we introduced the ability for NCs to suspend a member specifically for spamming. By using this spam-blocking feature, your actions directly strengthen our spam-fighting efforts; Ning’s internal team is notified of questionable accounts whenever you ban a spammer. To carry that idea even further, we've added the ability for NCs to give trusted members of their Ning Network the ability to flag — and hide — inappropriate content. Read more.

What You Can Do to Stop Spam

1. Suspend Spammers
When you suspend someone from your Ning Network for spamming, our spam team is notified. Your actions strengthen our fight against spam.

2. Set Up a Quiz
Come up with a question that only potential members of your Ning Network would know the answer to. With thousands of different questions and answers like these across the Ning platform, spamming on Ning becomes a whole lot harder.

3. Turn on blog moderation
Many spam attacks can be traced to blog posts. Ning Networks that operate with blog moderation on are much more resistant to spam attacks. Of course, you always have the option of also turning on member moderation, which will stop virtually all spam from reaching your Ning Network, but we encourage you to consider blog moderation first.

4. Fool the bots
Include a spam-stopping profile question for new sign ups. Like this one: What's 2 + 4? (anti-spam).

5. Appoint moderators
You don't have to go it alone. If you haven't already created an inner circle of your members to help moderate your Ning Network, consider it.

Advice from a Creator About Creating Spam-Proof Profile Questions

iDiver: "I have five questions that are required. If anyone writes N/A or gets the multiple-choice question wrong, I deny their membership. I have a great sense of humor, but at membership sign-up time, it’s all business. This way I can protect the privacy of my members — four networks in excess of 1,200 members and zero instances of spam."

Spam: The Devilish Details

While spam seems simple — stuff I don’t want polluting my online experience — the details of spam are insidiously complex. If you’re interested in knowing some of the details of spam, here are some interesting resources: