Google has been rolling out new Google support forums slowly. AdWords, AdSense, Google Mobile Maps, Google Analytics, Google AdManager all have been moved over. I am in the know that Google Webmaster Support is moving over soon as well.
But today when I was scanning the Google AdSense Help Forum, I noticed tons of spam on the front page. It begs the question, are these new forums up to the test? I mean, Google Groups had their spam issues but this looks pretty bad to me. It has been at least an hour and it has not been cleaned up yet and these posts are pretty nasty. Here is a picture of some of the titles:
I have also taken a full size screen capture of the page and posted it on Flickr.
I hate it, with a passion, when I see forum spam. Especially in forums that are free and give out incredible advice. To have those people spend time cleaning up spam, as opposed to providing helpful answers, to me, sounds like stealing. Makes me angry. :)
I hope for everyone's sake that these new forums are able to handle these spammers. Cause it is only going to get worse as Google moves more support areas to this format.
Update: A Google spokesperson sent me an update on this issue:
The problem is now solved (all the spam has been deleted).These 'spam attacks' happen from time to time in our forums where one person or a small group of people will go in and post a good deal of spam all at once. One of the great features of the new Google forums is the "report abuse" function that allows users to identify possible spam for removal so they can flag it before Googlers catch it. When users report spam, it gets routed to our abuse team directly, which will shorten the TAT on spam removal significantly, especially on smaller forums. Guides (at Google) can also remove spam as soon as we see it by deleting single posts or entire threads.
