Disclaimer: I'm not sure how this could be financially and technically feasible, but reducing spam traffic at the very early stage of posting can certainly help reduce resources, thus voat's running costs.
Current voat's way to deal with spam is with the help of devoted voaters and janitors (@cynabuns, @dubbelnougat, @DerKatalog, @Owlchemy, me included) who report directly in /v/reportspammers. Reports are then reviewed by @cynabuns, and they are submitted for review by Puttitout.
This process can take several days, depending on Putt's availability.
Blocking obvious commercial spam (accounts and domains) minutes after being posted would definitely turn down most spammers to create new accounts and domains, knowing they are gonna waste their time.
My idea is that voat could add a new category of moderators (anti-spam) that would have the ability to site-wide ban, "only" newly created spam accounts (less than a month or to be decided) and their posts & comments.
This chosen group of truthful voaters could together help @Puttitout dealing with spam reports.
The less time spent by Putt on dealing with spam reports, the more time he'll have on improving voat.
Of course, for neutrality and to prevent abuse, bans from these "anti-spam" mod team will all be logged and publicly accessible in /v/reportspammers' sidebar, where the current ban lists are.
Now, in case a new account is mistakenly banned, any "anti-spam" mod will be able to un-ban with mutual agreement.
Imagine the /all/new queue with close to no spam that would last, at best, less than a couple minutes.
I think It would not be worth the time for most of these spammers to create fake accounts, submit random contents in relevant subs, for a determined amount of time, commenting relevant things in topics, before starting posting real spam links.
What do you guys think?
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[–] Disappointed 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
I see a lot of reports in reportspammers that are premature still and get turned down or told let's wait and see. I would rather see a few spammers get a few days off than a few legitimate voaters that could have had a warning get the hammer prematurely. If tht were me I wouldnt check back to see if I was unbanned.
Cynabuns is doing a good job and keeping up with things so far(along with the people you mentioned and the others who contribute) so I don't see the need for instaban accounts.
Edit: added the words in brackets
[–] Owlchemy 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
I tend to agree, which is why I think it should take more than one anti-spammer to disable, and then be reviewed and overturned, when necessary by Cyna. I'm not sure this will work, but as it is, Cyna is also overworked and it appears that she spends nearly ninety percent of her Voat time on spammers. It wouldn't hurt to lighten the load a little, since it's voluntary anyway.
Gonna add another comment, too, you might like to look at. Be posting in a minute, about possibly making these term limited appointments and inviting other good Voaters to take their turn at it. So those chosen are just there for a spell, then someone else replaces them ... they can rotate back in, but not permanent power mod things.
[–] Disappointed 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Alright I'll check back in a bit. As for Cynabuns being overworked, which I've asked about before(and got told it was fine then), maybe some other trusted person on her level or a helper under her(think like a night and day shift) might be good.