[The Flayed One]

Ahem.

Forum Spam is the posting of unneeded and abusive messages on a forum. Most forums have anti-spam rules. Some forums try to prevent spam by using "Spam Allowed" sections, but those are flawed, for spam is only spam when not allowed. Anything called, "Spam" but allowed by rules is, of course, not spam.

Some spam contains ads that link to, for example, discount medicine websites. Some spam contains chain letters and pyramid schemes. Most spam is simply, for example, typing the letter "A" constantly. Some people spam to raise their post count, but some do it for attention or for no reason at all. Some spam may contain pornography, vulgarism, profanity, and obscene material, however, this occurs more often with e-mail spam because forum administrators have begun to take action when this material is posted.

Some newer forums such as phpBB, Invision Power Board, YaBB, and SMF have devices that can help prevent spam such as flood limits and emoticon limits. Some forums also have the ability to set how many characters are in each post, and how big an image can be. Administrators can also track a user's IP address and ban them from posting, or ban them from the whole forum altogether. This only happens when major spam is posted.