This is a copy of the post I submitted to the Open University at Swom (OU).
The OU is only available to upgraded members of Swom.

Are you tired of the dashboard spam?

When I go to the dashboard these days it’s full of spam.

My number 1 definition of spam on the dashboard is:

Congratulations Roger Bjornerud you won 10 cc.

It’s bad when it’s 1 message, but horrible when they divide
their congratulations into 3 or more posts like:

Good job Roger
Very good points
Happy swomming Roger
Well done Roger

Then the others come running and do the same.
Some actually think they are nice to me, but most have
one thing in mind and that is to earn points and get a
chance to win a Community Chest.

The only way you have a chance to see people “congratulating”
you is if you go to dashboard immediately after winning and
search for the posts that gratulate you.

Some people aren’t even connected to the ones they congratulate.
Easy to see these days with the contact list sorted alphabetically.

These threads will then not be seen by the person who won.

Some swommers get it all wrong and start congratulating the person
who started the thread and congratulates them for winning instead.
It doesn’t really seem to matter to them which name they use.
The only thing that matters are points.

Something has to happen.

Although Swom clearly states that they don’t allow spamming it
seems that congratulating people for winning is accepted.

If it was up to me, I would be teaching, warning, suspending, deleting
members until this stopped and everyone swommed in a good way.

A good way is something that contributes something that can be valueable
or the start of a discussion or exchange of ideas or just for fun.

A bunch of people copy/pasting their congratulations is no fun at all.

While I wait for Administration to do something with the spammers,
if they ever decide to do something, I can do my little part now.

While I can’t tell people what to post where, because I don’t have
that authority, I have the right to tell everyone that posts in
my threads, or use my name in any way, excactly how I feel.

Disregarding my feelings on these particular subjects will of course be extremely rude. :)

Here’s what I do to increase the learning and reduce pollution:

When I win a Community Chest I look for people congratulating
me on the dashboard. If they congratulate me on my profile I
don’t have to look because I get notified of every single post.

When I find them I post this in the thread:

Stop using my good fortune as a reason to spam please.
The only way anyone can see your gratulations is if they look
for it on the dashboard, unless you post directly to the one
you are congratulating. This means your congratulations has
no other value than to earn you points.
Earn points by posting something valueable instead.

I might also post this on their profile and add their name
so they know it’s a personal message from me to them.

Have had a few discussions about this, and expect to have a few more.

Interesting that they insist they are doing something of value for me,
and that I should like and approve of it, or that they have the right
to congratulate me whenever and wherever they want. :)

If you want to congratulate me, do it by going to my profile and
post it so I can see it and reply to your post.

For those that do some extra work and post on my profile I tell that
I don’t want to be congratulated for anything below 100 points.

If you feel the same way as me you are free to copy me :)

You can also do your own personal version and tell me about it.
Maybe I like yours better than mine.. ;)

Feel free to comment