On spam, scams, and new karma requirements for participation.

Howdy! With the season creeping in on us, I wanted to post a “state of the sub” type post, explain how things are going from our view, and hopefully get some momentum going for the season.

First, I want to thank everyone who diligently uses the report button. We’ve seen a massive increase in spam since the API changes. And you may not have noticed because the spam has actually gotten quite sophisticated, and they’ve learned to do the bare minimum to make it look organic.

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The pattern usually looks like this:
> Post title: “Looks perfect on my wall” and [this picture of the stanley cup in the reflecting pool]( https://www.etsy.com/listing/701006802/washington-capitals-minimalist-stanley).

There will almost immediately be 2 top level comments, one that’s just generally supportive, and another that says something like “OMG I need that!!!”. Then a **third** bot comes in with a link to a drop shipping, print-on-demand website that may or may not be legitimate. The first commenting bot then immediately replies “Thanks just purchased!!” or something similar. All these comments will have 2-7 upvotes, and if you mention the original artwork (either the etsy above, or the artists primary site) or call out the scam, you’ll immediately be downvoted to -2 or so.

This scam works in a few different ways. First, the bot making the post looks innocuous enough, and the bots making the comments all look like different posters. Second, the website they use may or may not be legitimate, they mask it with a redirecting service, and they sometimes do use legitimate printing services, which are set up for content creators to do group sales. Other times they’ll use their own “print service”, and just walk away with the credit cards and other information you provided when making your ‘purchase’. **Even if you get the print or shirt, know that they are ripping off the original creators** of these pieces.

I’ve seen this scam on various t-shirts, jerseys, and some other artwork, but they must have made a fair amount of money with this print, because they love to keep posting it. The link above is the artists etsy store, where he has an affordable reprint for sale. You can also find it [on his main website](https://sprestondesigns.com/products/minimalist-stanley-cup-2018).

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Another way we’ve seen an uptick in spam is with the use of referral codes. They’ll post to ebay stores or partner sites of companies like Adidas, and with the referral code, they’ll make a small % on each purchase. These bots are easier to find, as they tend to solely post for that specific vendor, and will spread their posts across multiple subreddits, such as highlighting hockey jerseys on ebay for each team to each subreddit.

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Finally, we’ve seen an increase in scalpers and scams around tickets come to the subreddit. Offering tickets for free will almost guarantee a few responses from scalpers, who will gladly take those tickets and try to resell them. Similarly, we’ve seen a few scams where people have come in offering tickets to a particular game, for cheap, and then disappear once the money is sent. Please look at these people’s account history, and if they aren’t regularly contributing to the caps subreddit, proceed with EXTREME caution. I’ve held off on the resell thread this season for this reason.

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I lay all this out so that you can hopefully begin to identify these scams, and keep yourself safe. We’ve had a rule in place for many years now that after 5 reports a post is immediately filtered by automod, and the moderator group is then notified of what happened. This rule without a doubt has been the most effective piece of anti-spam we have, thanks to your efforts.

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I’ve added a few other rules, that will hopefully not add friction to legitimate participation, but should cut down on this spam. The first thing we’ve implemented is a subreddit karma minimum to create posts.

* We now require that you’ve earned 10 karma (either post or comment) to create posts without moderator approval. This means that you should participate in other people’s posts before you start posting yourself. Should you need to post without meeting this threshold, simply message the moderators after submitting the post, and we’ll get it approved.

* We’ve added a requirement for net-positive overall comment karma to participate without moderator approval. It is not hard to maintain positive karma, but again if you need an exception, simply message the moderators.

* The third rule I’ve added is for new accounts. Should you be participating on an account under 3 days old, you will need moderator approval for every post you make.

Lastly, I’ve been neglecting the main or ‘new’ version of the subreddit for some time. We still have our 2018 banners up, and it needs some updating. I’m sorry its taken this long, living on ‘old’ reddit means my experience has slowly gotten vastly different then what I think most people see here. Does anyone have experience designing subs that may be able to help out? Message me, lets get something done before the preseason wraps up.

**LETS GO CAPS!**

by hustlebird