Reporting or ignoring dubious user names?

A Former User

Sometimes I see new members appearing in Opera's latest users overview whose member names suggest the conclusion, that they registered solely to promote something, without the intent of participating in the discussion on the forums.

Example.

I wonder, if it is welcome to report such intended abuse of the Opera forums:

On the one hand, such reports may cause an unnecessarily quick reaction of the moderators, because these members have not posted anything yet and are also on a moderator's preview list with their first post(s), as far as I know.

On the other hand, such registrations alone can already reach the goal of SEO without any post.

So should such covert attempts to do SEO be reported or simply ignored?

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest

If you think something in a user profile is not correct, breaks the rules and/or the terms of service, etc, you should always report it.

sgunhouse

sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer

If they have an obvious company name and website or phone number (and they aren't reporting a real issue with Opera on their site) we will usually do something about it. Though I have no trouble imagining someone legitimately wanting, oh, tesla3 as a username and not being related to the company.

A Former User @sgunhouse

@sgunhouse Yeah... Tesla 3 would be an interesting name. Funny you mentioned this name, Steve. I just watched a Casey Neistat YT video in which he was testing the new Model 3. If you haven't seen it, check it out. It's pretty interesting.

A Former User @leocg

@leocg said in Reporting or ignoring dubious user names?:

If you think something in a user profile is not correct, breaks the rules and/or the terms of service, etc, you should always report it.

It is the amount of conspicuities that makes me hesitate and ask.

Registrations only of the last thirty days that seem dubious to me:

Clear SEO attempts:

Registrations, probably all done by the same spammer (I):

Registrations, probably all done by the same spammer (II):

Member's cover picture contains the SPAM-URL:

Very nice modding of the example member profile I gave in my opening post in this thread.

A Former User @sgunhouse

@sgunhouse said in Reporting or ignoring dubious user names?:

Though I have no trouble imagining someone legitimately wanting, oh, tesla3 as a username and not being related to the company.

Of course. Unfortunately, spammers also like to use as their member names those company and product names which they want to push.

(names removed)

So after the feedback received, I'll report any such findings in the future (via 'Flag Profile'), okay? I don't want to bother anyone with this.

A Former User @Guest

@yanta Hey, yanta. You're very observant. I congratulate you on trying to keep the forum free from spammers. Thanks.

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest

Unless those new members post something, they will be almost invisible in these forums.

And even if they post, they probably won't do enough and relevantly to be remembered.

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest

Just remember that reported user profiles, username included, should be violating the rules and/or terms of use. Just because the username looks like being from a spammer may not be enough reason for something to be done.

A Former User

Thanks to all for your detailed comments and explanations.

I'll learn to deal with the situation.