Every member of the site who has visited in the past couple of months can see that the forums occasionally have posts that classify as spam or violate the Code of Conduct. While that's bad, it doesn't help when other members, instead of following the protocol of flagging the user as abusive, removing posts and occasionally threads, they reply to these posts and complicate the matter by attacking the user, which in turn results in, essentially, more spam.
To the people who have made matters worse (including myself at times):
We need to quit engaging in a debate/making jokes/attacking the user and start simply flagging the user as abusive and deleting spam posts. If someone consistently breaks the rules, then they should expect to be banned.
To spammers/abusive users:
You need to quit making spam posts and violating the code of conduct. For convenience, I copied the Forum Rules, and pasted them below:
Forum Rules
Always be respectful of other posters, including their opinions, values, point-of-view, etc.
Always try to work with other posters instead of against them; this is a community and we are all here to help.
Don't post or request anything illegal or illicit, including ROMs, music, movies, porn, etc.
No cursing, spamming, or flaming.
Don't advertise your programs or websites, unless they are relevant and have some unique value to them.
Don't reply to old threads (last post is more than three months old); start a new thread instead.
Place threads in the appropriate category; Additionally, if a thread starts to go off-topic please start a new one.
Don't try to pass off someone else's work as your own — give credit to the author whenever possible.
Code Of Conduct
Always try to be respectful of other contributors, including their opinions, values, point-of-view, etc. This means no personal attacks, profanity, and especially no threatening or harassing behavior.
Don't advertise your programs or websites, unless they are TI-Basic related and have some unique value to them. This wiki is not a catch-all for your programs and websites; there are other websites available for that purpose, so use them instead.
Be kind to new contributors, since they are still learning the ropes and figuring out how to use the wiki. If you see that they need some help, go out of your way to help them. This also applies when they make contributions to the wiki.
Compliment others on their work. When somebody puts a considerable amount of time and energy into writing an awesome tutorial, show them that you appreciate their effort and dedication. A simple compliment goes a long way.
Always try to work with other contributors, instead of against them. When somebody suggests an improvement to your work, take it for what it's worth and not a personal attack on you.
Don't post any illegal or unlawful information, unless you are willing to face the consequences. This wiki is not responsible for your actions; you alone will be the one getting in trouble. This is just a warning for your future knowledge.
Whenever you reference another website or tutorial, always remember to cite it as a reference. Other people have taken their time to make those things, so you should do the right thing and cite them.
Always be who you are. Everybody has something to contribute to the wiki, and we don't want to make you feel like your contributions don't matter. If you have a particular writing style, use that instead of trying to imitate someone else's writing style.
If you downgrade someone's program, you must give a valid reason by adding a comment to the page. It is rude to not do so, and it goes against other guidelines of helping others learn.
Now, let's move forward and let everyone have a clean slate. Any future spamming/abusive posts will be removed, and consistently violating the rules will be grounds for being banned from the site. I don't intend this to be an attack on anyone, I want everyone to either calm down, or behave themselves (or both) so we can all move on from this.