“No advertising of online gambling” added to the server rules

[kyu3a]

Hi! Looking at the local timeline on Vivaldi Social, I see several posts daily from accounts promoting online gambling. It is usually in Vietnamese. Every time I see it, I report it to the administrator. I think these accounts are obviously spam. And I think maybe these are accounts for phishing scams.

Whatever the purpose of these accounts. I think it would be better to add “no advertising of online gambling” to the rules of this server. I am not sure if the man who are making these spam accounts will see the server rules. But I think it would be at least somewhat of a deterrent.

By the way, online gambling is illegal in Japan where I live. Also, I don't know if this is true or not since I just checked the internet. I believe that online gambling is illegal in Iceland as well. If that is the case, I think these spam accounts are in violation of the server rule number 5 “No content illegal in Iceland, Norway or the EU”. In that sense, I think it would be a good idea to add a new “No advertising of online gambling” to the server rules.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[Pathduck]

@kyu3a This is against the Terms of Use already. Users of Vivaldi Social are still under the terms of vivaldi.net

8. Follow the Terms of Use and Code of Conduct of Vivaldi.net

"Post content with the sole purpose of driving traffic and increasing the search rankings of another website, product or service."
"Distribute spam or unsolicited commercial content."
"Facilitate gambling or betting."
https://vivaldi.com/privacy/community-terms-of-use/
And many more rules including automated posts, bots etc.

If you see content like that, make sure to report it to the VS moderators (I'm not one of those).

But: Also make sure that's it's actually from a Vivaldi Social user, if it's just on the "Other servers" or "All" feeds, there's usually little that can be done - unless it's all from a specific federated server, which can then be blocked from federation.

[shojivrstrinova8]

@kyu3a it is also banned in my country but some country has it allowed and they thought its okay to post it online

[far4]

@Pathduck said in “No advertising of online gambling” added to the server rules:

if it's just on the "Other servers" or "All" feeds, there's usually little that can be done - unless it's all from a specific federated server,

I judge from other mastodons in which I am much more actively involved: more often than not, this is the case. All sorts of garbage gets in from other instances.

@kyu3a
What can be done in this situation?
Block users, block instances - for yourself. Actively use keyword filters, they are in the mastodon settings. A week or two of active work with this - and your feed will be much cleaner.

[Catweazle]

All users from every instances in your timeline can be blocked or reported if it is spam or you don't like or want certain content. Some instances permit contents which is not allowed in others, butif you report it as spam, it's the corresponding mod to decide it, blocking or silent an user for you always work to keep your timeline clean of irrelevant or annoying toots.

[kyu3a]

I understand the opinions of the three of you (@shojivrstrinova8
, @far4 , @Catweazle ). I am not reporting them because I don't like those posts on LTL, but because I believe that if these spam accounts are left unchecked, this instance could become a source of spam.

The spam accounts have been posting almost daily for the past two years. On a high day, about 8 or 9 new spam accounts are created and posted. Even on days when there are fewer, there are probably one or two new accounts created and posted.

When I find these accounts, I try to report them as much as possible. So I have probably reported several hundred accounts so far. Because That is how many spam accounts are created.

So I hope that by clearly stating this in the rules, I can reduce the number of these accounts created. And I hope that many users will quickly report spam accounts based on these rules. I think this will keep this instance in good condition.

[sfoierxvphgsf]

This is good news

[edwardp]

@kyu3a The format of the vast majority of the gambling/casino posts, is the same, so I would not be surprised if the accounts posting them, are themselves created by automated means, which by itself, is a violation of Vivaldi's Terms Of Use.

[kyu3a]

@edwardp Maybe. I think so. I think these accounts are made by automated.