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Ask PG: Why did I just get a "stop spamming us" message?

90 points by krmmalik ↗ HN
I just got a "Stop spamming us, you're wasting your time" message when submitting a genuine link which was the new video from RSA. "the paradox of choice".

I've never spammed this site, at least not knowingly. Please help?

39 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 95.7 ms ] thread
ColinWright
I also got that the other day when submitting something via the bookmarklet. When I opened the "submit" page and copied things into the boxes (copy/paste) then it all worked.

Not sure what is being triggered, but it looks like more than one false positive for "spam" detection.

EDIT: As an experiment I've just tried to submit using the bookmarklet the RSA Animate of the talk and got the message again ... then I tried "by hand". Both times I got the "Stop spamming us" message.

I wonder if it's the direct link to the YouTube video that's the problem ...

Now I've succeeded with a link to a different site.

PG: You have an interesting glitch in your spam detection.

krmmalik
I just used the search function to look for HN submissions that contained the same keywords in the title, and noticed there are previous submissions that do. Even though its a different link and different content. I wonder if that's causing the glitch?
davidw
It looks like you post an awful lot of stuff from your own site, maybe that triggers something.
ColinWright
That seems to have been a long time ago, and the same can't be said of me. I've triggered it now twice by submitting direct links to YouTube.

Not conclusive, but it's a start.

stonemetal
I know there is a list of domains that are have been banned maybe youtube has now made the list.
hugh3
Nope, I successfully posted a youtube video yesterday.

(Nobody upmodded it though, which is a shame, cuz it was totally awesome.)

ColinWright
Not according to your list of submissions you didn't.

http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=hugh3

dangrossman
It's there but [dead]. You have to change your preferences to show dead links.
hugh3
Well shoot. I didn't get a "stop spamming" message.

For what it's worth, the video is called "The Kepler Orrery" and it's an animation showing all the multi-planet systems discovered by the Kepler mission so far, side by side, with the same length and time scale. It's pretty awesome.

ColinWright
As an experiment (and I wouldn't normally advocate this) try submitting it again, see if you get the message this time.

EDIT: Actually, having gone and found it, don't. It doesn't really contain any seinsible information that I can see - it just appears to be a lot of spinning circles, some music, and no real information about what you're actually looking at. It might be great, but it's impossible for me to see why.

krmmalik
I dont post that often, and i've had other submissions go straight through only just last week.
shawndumas
I got it once when I tried to post an Apple Press Release when iCloud was announced...
mattdeboard
Reminds me of the link last week re: 130% effective spam filter.
revorad
RSA submissions on Thursday afternoons from accounts less than 2 years old are banned.
nextparadigms
I got the same message when linking to a Youtube video.
jcfrei
maybe some bayesian learning algorithm disseminates the url you submitted and calculates a spam possibility based on the tokens (then the token 'youtube' might have a high bias for spam). just a thought though, that I got after reading http://paulgraham.com/spam.html
johnx123
Hackers may not eat their own dog food!!
pg
This happens when you submit a link to a spam site. When it happens to innocent people it's usually because some site has been mistakenly classified as a spam site, e.g. by an admin fat-fingering something on an iPhone.
anotherjesse
It is very easy to fat finger the "flag" link as a user when browsing from a phone.

Any thoughts on a mobile skin to HN that removes flag?

pg
One day I'll make a mobile-optimized version.
wensing
In the meantime keep funding fledgling companies and we'll choose from the abundance of HN apps already available. :)
joelhooks
Do you have a favorite? The one I liked and paid for hasn't been updated in a long time and is essentially broken.
halostatue
I switched to news:yc recently and am very happy with it.
joelhooks
Ahhh, thanks. That is just what I was looking for.
palish
HN already is a mobile-optimized version (except possibly the up/down arrows). No need to waste your time.

EDIT: Well, the community has spoken.

[dead] BadHabitz
Are you referring to the knee-jerk reaction of a few downvotes in the last hour?

I wouldn't put too much into that...

smackfu
You think? On my iPhone, the page width is about twice as wide as would be comfortable to read, so either you read tiny print or zoom and scroll constantly.
WiseWeasel
The other problem I've encountered on mobile devices (and even occasionally on a PC with a mouse) is that the voting arrows are small and quite close together, making it rather easy to hit the wrong one.

One possible solution would be to have only the arrow you click disappear, so you could always hit the other one and at least cancel out your own vote if you made a mistake.

Wilduck
I hate doing this. I just want to see the comments for an interesting article and end up flagging it. I always hammer on the back button, but doubt it does any good.

I don't know if a single user flagging a post on accident has any real effect, but it makes me feel terrible.

pmjordan
You can unflag! The 'flag' link turns into 'unflag' next time you view that comment/story.
jammur
An alternative to a mobile skin might be to have the option to "unflag" something. Even with a mobile skin, I could see submissions still being accidentally flagged.
samstokes
The "flag" link does turn into "unflag" after you click it.
pg
I investigated further and that is in fact what happened. Youtube.com mistakenly got marked as a spam site. I unmarked it, so you can submit your video now. Sorry about that.
johnx123
Probably another bug... I couldn't submit anything new, always bugging "you're submitting too fast".

BTW, wanted to ask if you have supported any non-YC projects? (planning to build better AirBnB)

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