Why are these spambots getting on a bluegrass forum to talk about shoes?
Spambots don’t even have feet, so why am I gonna take their advice?
Spambots
I don’t know how they got here, but I always wear pointed shoes when I flatpick, now.
Noticed a couple of new ones in the “Guitars” and “Questions about the site sections”. Wish nobody would post replies to these topics. Can’t Ben or whoever is moderating delete this garbage from the forum?
I flagged one of the message to alert Ben and Andy that the bots were back. They usually get them shut down in a day or two.
Good job Mike. Seems they’ve disappeared.
— Begin quote from "Bulldog"
Wish nobody would post replies to these topics.
— End quote
I didn’t know that replying to them would encourage them. I had the Clint Eastwood video ready! 
I think there should be a list that names companies that try to benefit from using bots, malware and other associated methods. I bet one could easily get a bunch of people to boycott them, and maybe then they would stop. I can’t believe anyone would intentionally try to gain customers employing such methods.
There is a list – called stopforumspam – that tries to collect spammers’ signatures or characteristics. There is anti-spam software that uses this list to deny spam messages during the posting process. But the drawback is, it creates a hassle for the legitimate users. Most forum spam comes from 2 programs, one named s c r a p e b o a r d, and the other names x r u m m e r. A better strategy than going after companies that spam is to go after the makers of these programs. x-rum is russian, so it’s impossible to go after it. But s-board is australian and can be sued in a class action if anyone decided to go to the trouble. The reason it’s useless to go after the companies that benefit from spam is that they’re usually unaware they’re employing spammers. They just hire a so-called SEO expert to increase their exposure in the search engines, but they don’t realize that the techniques used by these experts are underhanded (at best). Google and other search engines are always pulling the rug out from under spammers, but the spammers find other ways to trick the search engines. It’s a never ending cycle of adaptation to each others’ tactics.