The Spam queue reviews all types of content (questions, answers, comments, inbox threads, blog posts) for spam. Spammy content takes away from a high quality experience for users and can lead users to unsafe sites that may contain viruses and malware, or direct users to low quality material that may not be helpful.
The Spam queue contains items that have been reported by users as spam. It also contains items that have been detected by machine learning models as potential spam. Items flagged as spam in the spam queue are deleted, so it is important to be accurate.
Items will appear one a time. You will see the content type reported and the content:
Follow these steps to process the queue:
Take note of the content type reported heading.
Only review the item based on the content type heading. For example, if the content type reported is an answer, consider only whether the answer contains spam.
Label as Spam, Not Spam, or Promotional Content based on the spam policies for that content type.
Specific instructions for inbox threads:
The queue will also display a field that says "Offender" with the name of the person reported for spamming.
Users may report harassing inbox threads as “spam," but these threads aren't actually spam under our guidelines, label Not Spam if there is no spam violation.
If the offender is the spammer, label as Spam. Otherwise, label as Not Spam.
3. Flag as Spam if the content in “Answer to Review” section is identical to “Near Duplicate Answer”
Spammers will frequently post content that has grammatical errors or bad formatting, but this does not always indicate that it’s spam. Focus on determining the intent of the OP based on the content you’re able to review.
There are certain types of questions that will attract more promotional answers, such as “What is the best mobile analytics service for iOS apps and why?”. If the user does not provide a relevant answer to the question and uses a promotional link, it should be considered Spam.
Often, spammers will write relevant answers that answer the question, but then include a promotional link. Ask yourself if the link itself directly helps answer the question. If not, then it should be considered Spam.
You will come across many answers that may seem spammy or promotional. Focus on determining if the answer is relevant to the question.
Users will report content as ‘Spam’, when it’s actually because of other reasons (Bad formatting, offensive content, etc). Focus only on identifying legitimate spam, based on these guidelines.