Sadly there was yet another incident of SPAM earlier today. Luckily Stuff got rid of it within a couple of hours(?) & my reply to said spam post was deleted along with it!

What is it with these losers?? Surely they are aware of Stuff readership being a bit more savvy than the hoi-paloi?!?! 

With a few anomalies, most spam is posted by bots. Considering that there isn't any form of filtering, either for signing up, or posting, I don't think that we do too badly. In cases where the spam is the original post, there is no other option but to remove the subsequent posts in that topic. Generally, it's not worth splitting as such posts tend to only refer to the removed spam post.

We're always grateful for members reporting posts which we may have missed.

---

Tech-Me Blog | Twitter

I got some deeply annoying spam from Stuff.tv on my phone advertizing the coverage of the Apple announcement.  I don't remember giving you permission to do that or if I did, this was a little too well hidden to be acceptable. 

The message asked me to text back if I wanted the advertizing to stop.  Do you profit from that?  Strictly speaking, you should offer an alternative way of switching off your advertizing that does not cost me money.  I'm sure Oftel would agree.

Whilst I don't know specifically about your case, you're more than likely to have opted into something like that; perhaps by entering a competition via SMS? How else would your mobile number be listed on their mailing list? By entering such competitions (or even if you asked to be alerted to such a service), you will have agreed to such terms, which would have explained the method to opt out should you not wish to receive further updates.

Edit: In fact, I vaguely recollect Stuff offering a service that was intended to send such updates by SMS to your phone. Although I could be confusing that with something else as I can't find a news article about it on the website (although it could've only been promoted through the magazine).

---

Tech-Me Blog | Twitter

Interesting: I think I probably opted-in through competition entry or whatever, but I received no less than FIVE identical text messages from Stuff about the Apple launch! Can Stuff confirm who is paying for these?

HectorHughMunro:

I got some deeply annoying spam from Stuff.tv on my phone advertizing the coverage of the Apple announcement.  I don't remember giving you permission to do that or if I did, this was a little too well hidden to be acceptable. 

The message asked me to text back if I wanted the advertizing to stop.  Do you profit from that?  Strictly speaking, you should offer an alternative way of switching off your advertizing that does not cost me money.  I'm sure Oftel would agree.

 

HectorHughMunro

We take our responsibilities very seriously when it comes to your privacy, and you can check the options we hold for you on your profile here on the site ('My Account').  I'll also check with our online marketing people and see if your details are held for anything else (competitions is a good example).

cheers

JD

---

John Duncan is the tech manager for Stuff.TV (amongst others)

---

skype: kevin.b.yates
Twitter: DrunkenMax mention stuff.tv otherwise i tend to block

I think text messages are in a special class of annoying which go beyond email spam (which most of us really take for granted).  It can effectively make a mobile phone unuseable where spam by email is manageable. 

I think there is some additional information that we need;

1) How much does the text to stop the spam cost us (eg. normal network rate or something else)?  Is it some kind of premium service and does stuff.tv benefit financially.

2) What alternative way do we have of stopping text spam from Stuff.tv which does not cost us money?

I've passed all your comments onto the database marketing people, and will get a response back to you as soon as i can.

 

---

John Duncan is the tech manager for Stuff.TV (amongst others)

There isn't even a field for a mobile phone number in the user account settings*, so to get such updates you must have entered a competition or likewise via SMS rather than through the website. I've never received an SMS from Stuff.

 

* - as a side note, I'm not sure why the address fields are mandatory. 

---

Tech-Me Blog | Twitter

I've never responded to an SMS competition so it must be something else on the site.  I'm glad I didn't hold my breath waiting for the response.......

John, any response?

This still needs a response from Stuff.

I'd be grateful for  a response by Stuff.

I actually think its quite bad of Stuff to be ignoring this request. Apart from the forum there's not much point in visiting this site any more. There are any number of tech sites that have more updated content. Stuff.tv seems to be dying a slow death.

---

skype: kevin.b.yates
Twitter: DrunkenMax mention stuff.tv otherwise i tend to block