Motorcyclist Map (MM) community continues to grow at an exponential pace! With such growth, its not surprising for issues and concerns to crop up. One of the biggest concern several members have expressed is the spammers/scammers. I have no shame in accepting that atleast 10% of the members could be spammers/scammers. So lets dive into the details and understand a little more.

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Whats This Growth You Talk About?

On an average day, we have about 500-1000 folks becoming members and another 500-1000 visitors requesting to participate. On a bad (or good however you see it) day, we have had upto 5000 people wanting to participate.

 

What Is The Difference Between A Visitor And A Member

A member is someone who has joined the group - duh! :-) A visitor is someone that hasnt joined the group. Remember, unlike Private groups, where you have to be a member, anyone on a public group can view, post, comment or react even without becoming a member.

 

What Are The Different Types Of Groups On FB?

There are two types of groups on FB - Public and Private. MM FB Group is a Public Group! Heres the FB explanation of the differences between the two. From MM Group perspective, there are a few things to understand :

 

 

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How Do The Admins Keep Spammers/Scammers Under Control?

As you might have figured out from the above, preventing scammers/spammers on a Public Group is more of a reactive approach vs the proactive options that a Private Group Admin has. With an in-depth understanding of Public Group nuances, MM Admins follow strict policies to make sure members have a great experience. One of the few good tools available is Participation Approval. Anytime a new members wants to participate, they are verified by the Admins. Heres how we use the tool :

1. Group Rules - If you havent accepted the group rules, your request to participate (post/comment), is declined

2. Questions -  If you havent answered the questions, your request to participate (post/comment), is declined

3. Member - If you havent joined the group (become a member), your request to participate (post/comment), is declined

4. Participation - If you do not post/comment, your request to participate (post/comment), is declined

 

The above lets an admin verify any member that participates for the first time. This is when we verify profile and make sure you are a right fit for the group. We decline 50% of the requests (for not following the rules above) and ban another 40% of the requests based of their profile.

Keep in mind that we have participation approval enabled only for the first/initial comment/post. We do not want to baby the group/members by enabling approval for each and every post comment. So far we have had 0 issues with approved members.

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What Exactly Do The Admins Look For In A Profile/Post/Comment?

While its no top secret, we do not want to display this information here. Imagine a spammer/scammer coming across this post and knowing exactly what needs to be done to get approved

 

Why Do I See Spammers/Scammers On The Group?

As much as we would like, there is no way Admins can screen each and every member that joined the group. About 1000-5000 a day. This is easier in a Private Group because they cant join until they are approved. Its the opposite in a Public Group - WE CANT PROACTIVELY RESTRICT ANYONE FROM JOINING THE GROUP. As such our focus is only on the members that want to participate (post/comment) in the group.

 

Note - Most members dont realize when they say 'on the group', several spammers/scammers arent even members, they are visitors. While non members arent allowed to post/comment they can still react/like your posts/comments and there is no way for us to prevent that until FB modifies its Public Group policies.

 

What Can A Spammer/Scammer Do Or Not Do On The Group?

With everything explained above, there is very little they can do but heres a few :

1. React/like your post or comment

2. Send you a message (*Depends)

3. Send you a friend request (*Depends)

*Depends - They can send a message or send you a friend request ONLY IF YOUR PROFILE ALLOWS IT! Keep in mind this can happen irrespective if you or them are on MM FB group or not.

 

In the exceptional case, if you see a comment/post from them, click on the "Report To Group Admins" and we will immediately take care of it.

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What Precautions Should I Take As A Member?

1. Control Who Can Friend Or Follow You

2. Control Who Can Message You On Messenger

3. Ignore their Reactions/Likes. That really is not that difficult on a Social Media Platform

 

 

What Can I Do To Help The Admins?

One powerful tool/mechanism that you as a member have at your disposal is 'Report To Group Admins". Use it as often as you can. When you block a member, you are only blocking them from your profile but when the admins ban a member, they get banned from the entire group!

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Why Dont The Admins Proactively Ban Obvious Spammers/Scammers On The Group?

Great question! Its not rocket science to identify a member as a spammer/scammer especially with access to their profile. But what will that achieve? What about rest of the 2.999 Billion accounts who arent even members? The time/resource to outcome ratio is very poor

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Why Dont You Add More Mods/Admins To The Group?

How many? 100? 500? 1,000? There is no end to this

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Million Dollar Question - Then Why Stay Public?

A public Facebook group offers several advantages:

1. Visibility and Reach: Anyone can find and join the group, increasing its visibility and allowing more people to discover and engage with our content.

2. Engagement and Interaction: With a larger and more diverse audience, there's greater potential for active discussions, sharing of ideas, and community building.

3. Open Access: Content is accessible to everyone, even non-members, which can drive more traffic and attract new members interested in the group's focus. You might not have joined the group if it werent public. You wouldnt have known about it!

4. Promotion and Networking: Public groups serve as a platform for promoting events, products, or causes, and for networking with a broader audience.

5. Transparency: Being public fosters a sense of transparency and openness, encouraging trust and credibility among members

These benefits make public groups an effective tool for building a vibrant and engaged community

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Summary

The worst a scammer/spammer can do on this group is Like/React your Post/Comment. Thats it!! If you are not ok with it, we highly recommend (rather insist) you do not join this group. If you still end up joining, we are happy to have you but please dont whine and complain about something that you were informed in advance. Its not fair to you and its not fair to us!

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PLEASE DO NOT POST ON THE FB GROUP ABOUT THIS. Email Me or FB Message me anytime with constructive feedback