Well, the biggest clue is that just a couple of days ago, another brand-new person made their very first post about Relenza. That person's post was more obviously spam-speak: things like "I've heard Relenza is a really great option." This one was a little more subtle, but nonetheless it committed the cardinal sin of awkwardly mentioning a product name in the very first post, and asking us to tell them about it.

Think about it, your very first post was an introduction to yourself: "Hi there,
I'm new here and just thought I'd say Hello to everyone. :)." This proves that you lurked for at least three or four minutes, long enough to determine that this is a community of people chatting as friends. Occasionally a genuine person will ask for random information on their first post, but they almost always include a much lengthier explanation about their situation and why they want that particular piece of information, which sort of serves as the introduction to themselves. For example:

Probably Spam: "Hey evrey1, I was wondering if anyone has seen the new [insert title here] DVD. I've heard it's really funny! Where can I buy it?"

Probably Not Spam: "Hi, I've been a lurker for awhile, but I finally couldn't resist anymore. I have 2.3 kids and live in Wisconsin. I love it here. Speaking of my 2.3 kids, the youngest is 5 years old. My mother-in-law wants to buy them [Insert DVD title here], but it's rated PG. In our house we're pretty cool about language and nudity (I mean the human body is a natural thing, right?) it's only violence I'm concerned about them seeing. Anyone seen it or know exactly what caused it to be rated PG?"

Sometimes it's hard to tell. For example, there was a first-post a couple of weeks ago, from the user laebedahs I think, that was something to the effect of "You should check out this web hosting service." That alone would have set off alarms, but laebedahs continued to post in a variety of threads on a variety of topics, thus proving he was a legitimate member.

and a sick freak like the rest of us.

Yes, but at least he's dating.

Ok, it worked....you fucked with me. :lol:
I was just about to send you a message and apoligize for "misquoting" you.

Thank you Clodfobble for taking the time to explain, it is much appreciated.

What I don't get is how and why the Cellar would be targeted by these jerks. Its not like this is some giganto on line community like I-Village or Slate or something. There's what? Maybe 30 or 40 folks who post here on a consistent basis. Then there's the lurkers and no doubt there's some statistic on the ratio of lurkers to active posters. Guessing wildly here, I'll say 10 to 1. That means that at most, these people can reach about 400 people via the Cellar with their trash. And that's if everybody happens to pay any attention to the thread. Why bother and how did they find us?

I post on another board which had around 5,000 members the last time I looked at the stats and is so fast moving that if you don't check in on it once or twice a day, you're lost. No one posts about anti-virals there, so how did the Cellar earn this highly dubious honor?

(By the way, to the assholes who spammed the board with this crap: if I do get the flu, I'll tell my doctor to give me anything BUT Relenza!) :p

The only thing spammers know is that we have over 2000 members; they've never been here before to know how many post regularly. Also, your other board may have a more rigorous registration process to weed out the less-determined spammers, and on a board with that much activity, there is likely more than one moderator with time to delete spam threads. UT does an amazing job--he gets most of them before anyone even sees them. But he can't be online 24 hours a day.

I don't remember posting about a web hosting service.... here was my first post: http://cellar.org/showpost.php?p=193166&postcount=654

Well, yeah, I guess if you just looked at the count of members that might make this place seem like a worthy target numbers wise. I think UT does a great job, by the way. I've seen more crap get through on the mega boards with several round the clock mods than I do here.

My apologies. It was someone who registered around the same time as you. lheene, maybe? Like I said, I remember distinctly noting that whoever it was continued to post and prove themselves to not be a tool, so it was okay.

The flu vaccine finally arrived at work. I got my shot, a Hello Kitty Band-Aid, and a lollypop. I will not need Relenza.

(We also get special bandaids and lollypops for TB test day. Bet you're all jealous now.)

not even a little bit.

I took the flu vac back in '88. I shall never, ever make that mistake again. I've never been so sick in my life. I'll take my chances.

(and don't give me the "dead-virus vac" line. All I know is that the one year I got the vac, I nearly died.)