Spam in comments

Oh, thank you!

You can see on the dates, when the request was written and the answer I got it took quite some time. I am used to it, since unfortunately this is the standard for now. Maybe in future it will improve. Anyway, the problem is known. You can read about the meaning of “Guest”.

Hope this will help you understand it better. Viki is not the “first” instance for the comments but Disqus, whenever there is another party involve things tend to be solved a little less quickly.

For your information, this is the communication I had with Viki about this phenomenon (I replaced the name of the POC with “Viki”

===========================================

  Request #129962
  advertising in comments as "guest"    

lutra February 26, 2015 18:35
Hi there!
There is at least one “guest” advertising some kind of “job”.
I flagged the comment, but still wanted to inform you, since maybe a new “spam wave” is in sight.
Greetings
lutra

lutra
March 29, 2015 21:55 adding this to my last message
http://www.viki.com/videos/1060863v-rosy-lovers-episode-48
in the comment section was a comment and all around other channels as you can see in the screencast

**Viki-answer - March 31, 2015 02:21

Hello lutra,
Thank you for writing to the Community Support Team at Viki! I sincerely apologize for the delayed response.
I’m sorry to read that you’ve been having these issues with Viki. If
you’re still experiencing these issues, please let me know, and I’d be
glad to look into it for you.
Cheers,
Viki**

*lutra April 03, 2015 10:21

Hi!
I seriously start to wonder, how Viki is handling “request”. If you
try to decrease the number of request by disgruntle people writing about
obvious events, even adding screen shots, who it seems are not even
looked at.
Then congratulation, you prevailed.
This is how you can crush a community, but I guess Viki is only
interested in high-output subbers and segmenters by now, and at the end
it’s the viewer who will make or break* the company.
(the only edit I made, there was a typo)
You earnestly ask me if the “problem” is still valid?
I earnestly ask you did you even read my request, or did you just
send a standard reply to sort out those, who are still interested in an
answer?
Even if you do not look at the screen shots, you can see those comments beneath current drama videos.
So do whatever you want with this information, I won’t care for
anything of that kind of happening again. It is Viki’s duty to safeguard
their site, it’s not mine.
And be reassured in future I will only contact you about technical
problems, that you aren’t working on, or seem not aware of and last more
than 3 days.
Sorry for my late reply.
Have a good day
lutra

**Viki April 04, 2015 02:00

Hello lutra,
I apologize for the mixup! Since your first request took so long to
be addressed, and the number of help requests continue to increase, your
inquiry was addressed by asking if you continued experiencing the same
issue after the time passed instead.
To answer your question, when a comment appears as Guest, it means
that it was already deleted by the same user. The problem is
specifically coming from the provider Disqus, and there is currently an**
open discussion with this provider to solve this problem across the
board. Spam is a real problem and we appreciate your help in trying to
maintain a Spam free community.
I apologize for this once again! If you have any other questions or
concerns, please let me know and I’ll be happy to answer them for you.
Best,
Viki

Let’s not give up hope of a spam free future :wink:

1 Like

today was my 3rd or 4th encounter of Spam in comments. I flagged the previous ones, and today I reported it cause it was a reply to my comment. Although the Guest wanted to remain incognito disqus says the name that replied to my comment, it’s the only one reply. Here a screenshot btw that AmyWGuerrero keeps her disqus comments hidden (private) while the comments appear on viki public…

Any idea what Viki does when they know the username of someone posting spam comments?

Good to know the person is caught and there is a name now. No idea what Viki can do with a name but
If you report it, put a link to her/her profile in it. No idea if Viki can search on names.

You mean in personal messages on Viki?
Maybe you can send a message to the help center: http://support.viki.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

What do I do? This is bothering me, the first message was received from a person named “Tinababy” and she said she loved me, I did not post anything associated with her statements. Then another person named Miss Adeline or Adline said the same thing as Tinababy, please help, I am already uncomfortable and I am about to cancel my membership and premium service.

Hello, don’t worry, and send a message about that to the help center or to the staff maybe.

I did, but they have not responded. I take those kind of spam messages really seriously.

Right now I am afraid my account was acquired by someone else, and that is why I am receiving weird messages and spam. I already changed my password, email, and username.

Yeah the best thing you can do is report it and delete the message, do not respond to it.

Maybe someone already mentioned it here? http://discussions.viki.com/t/received-a-pm-from-a-spammer-let-us-know/1388/70

And if you really think someone got into your account you did the right thing too by changing things.

Don’t worry too much. Many people received spam messages recently (see: the discussion page that dudie mentioned). I received one as well. I assume Viki will try to solve it.

I got a reply from Viki after a month, so don’t worry if you don’t get a reply immediately. They’ll reply eventually.

I’d advise you to have a look at this discussion post and see if someone else received the same message as you. I have no idea how spammers ‘‘choose’’ the people they send messages to, or why they even try to send these messages on Viki, a site that’s clearly not created for dating purposes, but I guess the chance that you’ll receive another spam message isn’t that big, so don’t worry :slight_smile:

QCs should get mod status for the comment section. Maybe that would help clean up quickly. The spam comments are eyesores.

The comment section is a “product” of -disqus- not viki.
And every non-QC has the possibility to flag it, and should use it.

I don’t know what the criteria for flagging is for removal/hidden (how many different IPs required). Viki upkeeps the comment section even if it is a product of disqus. For example, any profanity requires viki approval before the post is live. Either QCs or the moderators of the channel should get comment mod status and that would solve some of the problem. If viki can’t do this directly they can discuss with disqus.

As far as I know many people have asked Viki if mod’s could get the power to moderate comments in the comment sections of channels they work on. Mod’s where able to do that in the old Viki but since the restyle that is gone. No idea if Viki ever gives mod that power back.

Is anyone having issues with spammy comments lately?
I feel like in the past few weeks, so many of my comments have been getting spam replies, talking about making money or whatever… :pensive:

I report them to disqus, but that doesn’t really do anything for the “now.” I don’t really know what else to do other than flag them, but one flag will hardly make them go away. And Viki seems super slow dealing with it.

I once collected names and direct links to the comments and send them to Viki. You can get the direct links by clicking on the time it’s posted.

Couldn’t get that to work for some reason on mine. I have been receiving those for a while now. The problem is like everywhere else, the right person being asked that is lonely or gullible could get taken advantage of. This isn’t a dating site nor a site to push your work at home ventures etc, and though most of us are adults here, there are a lot of minors that could be taken advantage of. Would love to see VIKI do as much as they could to get this taken care of.

Believe me or not I even reported it on Disqus, but I see that troublemaker again… someone isn’t doing their homework…