We’re adding some new language to the Netscape FAQ, so that everyone knows where we stand on people gaming the site. Today, we placed a 14 day ban on any stories submitted to Netscape that came from Starpulse.com. The homepage refreshed and there were suddenly about 15 stories from that source, all submitted by the same user and voted on by the same set of users nearly simultaneously and our anti-spamming algorithms notified the Netscape Anchor on duty (yours truly) at about the same exact time that my Anchor “spider-sense” went off. The 14 day ban is a warning shot. If the behavior continues, we’ll add another ban, and if it happens a third time, we’ll permanently ban a site. We want good content. But we want it to happen as naturally as possible.

In case you’re a website owner and you want to know our policy, here’s what will be added to our FAQ soon:

Why was a link on one of my stories changed by a Netscape Anchor?
In order to ensure that there are not multiple duplicates of the same story, it is important that Netscape community members always link to the original source of a story. Whenever the Netscape Anchor team spots a story that is not linked to the original source, we will change the link and leave a note in Anchor Commentary noting the change.

For example, if you have posted an AOL UnCut Video, YouTube or Google Video video to your personal blog and you wish to submit the story to Netscape, unless your blog post presents substantial analysis or discussion of the video, you should link directly to the source video.

This same rule should apply to any stories—regardless of whether they are audio, video, pictures, or text—that you submit to Netscape. We want to avoid cluttering the system with rehashed stories, and we appreciate your help in this matter.

Netscape is not accepting submissions from a specific URL, noting that the site has been banned or is under investigation for spamming when I try to submit a story from that URL. What gives?
In order to prevent duplicates, we permanently ban sites like TinyURL.com or other URL aliasing services online. We also permanently ban URLs from sites that clearly violate our Terms of Use (this includes links to pornography, sites which are abusive, or sites that promote crimes).

If sites are reported by users or our anti-spamming algorithms for spamming the system with stories, we place a 14 day ban on the site while we investigate and as a warning to the possible spammers. If there is a repeat second offense the ban will be reinitiated and extended for 90 days. If the site has been reported and temporarily banned multiple times and shows evidence of actual spamming tactics, Netscape will ban the URL permanently.

What do you mean by spamming?
You’re more likely than not familiar with spam from email. It’s unwanted content that is often trying to sell you something. Besides eliminating actual spam stories in the system when they are reported by Netscape members and our anti-spamming algorithms, the Anchor team watches for spamming behavior.

For example, if a group of individuals (or a single individual registering multiple Netscape member accounts) only post links to sites with which they are affiliated (more likely than not profiting from any traffic coming to that site) and only vote and comment on stories with which they are affiliated and all these actions are clearly a coordinated effort to push the stories to the Netscape Homepage, these individuals would clearly be trying to game the system and spamming Netscape with their stories.

That being said, if you and your friends have similar interests and tend to vote on the same stories or on each other’s stories, but this clearly isn’t done as a concerted effort, then that would qualify as normal social behavior, which we not only approve of, but encourage.

If you want to make sure that you aren’t setting off either community of computer alarms, we recommend that you paricipate fully in our community, submitstories from multiple sources, avoid group voting, and clearly announce when you submit stories with which you are affiliated.

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