[Feature Day] Spam Control and #Hashtags
Killing Spam
Oh how we hate spam! Everyone hates spam. In the begining of Pring, we were small and spam wasn’t a problem. Eventually as more and more people joined Pring the spammers came. A boy did they came in droves. The result was a lot of spam accounts being created everyday with the sole purpose to create more followers. The problem is that these accounts perform very low-value updates and annoy users terribly. No one likes spam SMS.
We’ve been working to identify common patterns of spamming on Pring such as private message spam, comment spam, update spam and tracking spam. We then build systems to automatically identify and flag these messages. First time offenses are ignored, repeat offenders are warned and eventually suspended.
The result is a much cleaner ecosystem with more useful content and much less spam. From the feedback we’ve been recieveing, you all seem to love it too. Thanks to our spam prevention system, we’re now eliminating more than 2 million spam SMS everyday and have suspended 1300+ accounts since launch.
Improved Tracking
Tracking is a command that advanced users use over SMS to get updates around keywords they track. So, if you were tracking cricket you would receive any updates that contained the word cricket. Unfortunately, this gave rise to a new type of spam: keyword stuffing. A spammer could flood popular keywords with irrelevant spammy messages which would break the usefulness of the tracking command. We’ve changed the tracking functionality after giving it considerable review and thought. You can now only track #hashtags not regular words. So, if you are interested in cricket you can track #cricket. Any updates with the #cricket hastag will then be delivered to you. This allows us to manage keyword stuffing and reduce any spamming that would occur. Your existing track words automatically are now #hashtags.
Here’s an example:
I hope they make #ShahidAfridi the captain #cricket #worldcup
Currently, to reduce spam, we are limiting #hastags to three per update. You can track up to a hundred #hastags at a time.
We hope you like these changes. Happy Pringing!
January 26th, 2011 at 10:45 pm
Job well done, sir!
January 27th, 2011 at 2:48 am
Yay! We hate spam!
And hashtags are for losers!
But they are a necessary evil =[
February 6th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Yes Very nice……….. We Hate Spam
February 16th, 2011 at 8:09 pm
as far as spamming z concerned,well nobdy loves it,bt yay there’s a need to review the spamming filter rules,cuz accounts nt intending to spam are banned the most being a regular pringer i claim,if spamming filter z meant to control undesirable content meant to stuff other users inbox,do it by banning updates containing words as follow,add etc.
tracking system improvisation makes sense,compells to admire ppl at pring…..
February 17th, 2011 at 6:37 pm
@Haroon those are some good observations; we work on a mix of both policies of remove spammy content and demoting repeated spammers.
February 23rd, 2011 at 12:45 pm
@nash @Haroon Yeah everybody hate spams but the problem is How someone can intoduce himself/herself on pring. i.e. I am very much inspired by OMGfacts on twitter and I want to make a facts profile on pring so that I can provide interesting things to Pakistani people, so how can I introduce facts profile? So I’ll ask people to check that profile and if they are interested they can follow it. But still I hate spams.
February 24th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Although u intoduced the good option, but it did`nt cleared the concept of hastags and spam msgs…. I sent a msg yesterday on pring that “if u want to know more about libya`s situation then follow this link. And after that msg, Pring blocked my account for 5 days….. Its really a tragidy for me…. Any1 here, who will hwlp me… plz….
Regards
ITclub.
February 26th, 2011 at 12:36 am
@mohsin Mohsinr bhai,,,simple z coaxing a popular account having k’s followers to give u a shootout……
@nash what if pring introduces an account,telling intersting accounts to follow lyk mohsin mentioned,OMGfacts,quotes jokes twitt accounts run by responsible pringers??
February 26th, 2011 at 9:57 am
@nash
my poor id “cursed” got banned for spamming allegations 7days ago,mentioning 5days ban……
nw um in harsh fix,,worthy nash bhai aint replying,no response 4m feedback,,,:’(((
February 28th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Slmz Everyone! Pring is doing well to reduce Spammers and Block/Ban them. But as Mohsin said, You guys should introduce the thing like fact profiles , such like some Pringers are concerned with the News Updates and Cricket Updates, so their profiles should be shown around. Hope you guys would look forward to it.
Thanks
March 4th, 2011 at 3:05 am
I don’t know you guys will agree with this or not but I think if
1) Real time web interface
2) Better notification system
3) Blog buttons
4) Pakistani celebrity profiles
5) Sports, News media profiles i.e. Geo News etc as they are having on facebook/twitter
6) Integration with sites like youtube, flickr etc.
are achieved then its going to be a massive active Pakistani social media network.
March 4th, 2011 at 3:44 am
I think hashtags are nothing without trending lists, a list which mention all most pringed hashtags. i.e. List could be
1- #RaymondDavis
2- #Cricket
3- #PTVawards
4- #Politics
5- #PakFloods
so that by viewing this trending list I can track my interesting hashtag and if I am having any update then I can use those keywords. Currently I don’t know what keywords to track?
March 5th, 2011 at 10:17 am
Slmz.. Hope you guys are doing well.. I just wanted to know that why is the UPDATES LIMIT on the Website being Decreased? It won’t help any User.. Please look forward into this and Reply Asap!
March 28th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Salam 2 All ! I agree with everybdy , everybdy is saying right.
April 16th, 2011 at 3:23 am
I think its so good that the spam control system is now on pring.
Aur ye double acha hai k without report ids spammer ids block hotey hain,
lekin jahan tak mera khayal hai k *follow*, *add* etc words ko block list karny se spamming katam hogi,
q k en words ko block list karny k bawajood ad dia ja sakta hai,
for example ek shaks apny flowrs ko ye ke kar b MOBIFUN follow sakta ha k *Joke , poetry etc k liye MOBIFUN ko try karo* pir log mobifun ko flw karen gy yani FOLLOW aur ADD wagera ko black list karna zyada payeda mand nai hoga.
April 28th, 2011 at 4:35 pm
@nash Plz Create A Rechecking System Of Blocked Sms Becuase I Sent A Massege In Which I Wrote “Plz Follow Our Holy Prophet, The Best Hero In Muslims History”
But I Got Banned!! Plzzz!!!
NoMiKw
April 28th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
@nash and @Haroon..
sir mera aik id 5 din k liye ban hua hy halankay main ny koe ishtehar bhi send nhi kia lakin mjy aik din msg aya k “”apka account 5 din k liye ban kar dia gaya hai q k ap ishtehar bazi kar rhay hain”‘ main to just news update sent karta tha, sir es ka solution kia hy, aur haan main apni updates k start aut end pe # hashtag b use karta tha for exapmle
# kia haal hye #
sir mjy guide kia jaye es mamlay main, any one from u can do that…?
pringit.com/al_jazeera ki updates jis tarha ki hain main b es tarha ki news send karta tha…
Waiting ur reply
April 28th, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Please cleared the concept of hastags and spam msgs. mu ID is banned for 5 days with out of any reasong may be due to hashtage usage. very poor pring service yaar.
check it you all guys
http://www.pringit.com/backbencherz
above link was only for breaking news alert but banned due to some other reason, and the interesting thing is that, there were no reply from Feedback
Please cleared the concept of hastags and spam msgs
April 28th, 2011 at 8:43 pm
private message spam, update spam ko clear kar skta hy koe.
thanks
April 29th, 2011 at 10:32 am
Lo g aik msg send kia aur account hamesha k liye ban, very poor software engineering
main ny ye update send ki thi.
: mere 2 groups hain backbencherz aur AL Jazeera, political news k liye Al_Jazeera likh kar news alert walay number pe send karain
Ab es update main kia ghalat aur kia sahi, mujhy to samaj nhi a rhi, main konsa es update se kuch earn kar rha hu, pata nhi aap ny PRING ki service kis purpose k liye launch ki hy. I am so much disappointed, your engineers need more hard work to control this.
Banned Account
http://www.pringit.com/backbencherz
May 6th, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Slam to all. Hash tag system is very good. And ur stradegy to control spam is appriciable but it must be review. I am really not agreed with it.
December 9th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
sir kya D-news pring pe spam nhe karta D-news k har din pring pe 400 followers zada hota hai us k khlaf apne koi spam nhe ki plz dakho pring pe spam D-News wala karta hai