8

So I tried to help clear the "First Post" review today, and stumbled into an answer referring to a site, that seems legit, but in my experience may be malware site that looks like official site. I'm not sure what to do, so I clicked "No action", with the intention to bring the answer to the meta to find out what to do with the link.

Then it said "this is an audit blablabla". Okay, it's not smart clicking the "No action needed" when this answer certainly need to be reviewed for the link.

But how are we supposed to do when we encounter suspicious, but seems-to-be-legit links?

Flag it? Edit? Comment? Bring it to meta?

Note : The post has the answer downvoted and deleted.

6
  • 1
    So; Yes; The site your asking is spam and/or a click-bait website. A click-bait website is "pop-up" websites that have "content" about a single topic. When in doubt you should flag it for a moderator to look at it. This might sound bad, but if i don't recognize the website and its not in the top 50 google results for a topic I typically consider it one of those click-bait pop-up websites. I understand that this might throw some non-english websites into the mix, but my response to a statement like this, you shoudln't be using a non-english website in your answer anyways ;-)
    – Ramhound
    Commented Apr 21, 2017 at 16:40
  • 1
    If a post isn't obviously either exceptional or crap, it's a good idea to view it in context to see all of the comments and answers (by opening the post in a new tab). Audit questions are often manipulated--hiding comments, changing votes, changing poster name, changing date, etc., which may change what is an appropriate response (e.g., response to a new, poor post by a new user will likely be different from responding to an ancient post that already has extensive comments). This will also make audit questions obvious. Otherwise, just click Skip on any review question you aren't sure of.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Apr 21, 2017 at 16:54
  • 1
    The actual post was deleted, so <10K users can't see the details, and as an audit question, they may not have shown the existing comments. I had also seen that answer when it was first posted and like you, wasn't sure whether it was spam. I gave it the benefit of the doubt on the chance that a legit poster might improve it, and left a comment explaining the right way to post a software recommendation. In an audit, posting a comment is usually treated as an acceptable response to a problem post.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Apr 21, 2017 at 17:02
  • One thing I do is look up the site(s) in Norton Safe Web. Any result other than a green OK is cause for suspicion.
    – Scott - Слава Україні
    Commented Apr 23, 2017 at 3:46
  • 2
    FYI, if you're not sure what to do, "Skip" is always a correct answer. Certainly, you shouldn't mark a post as "No action needed" when you're not sure what the right action is.
    – jpaugh
    Commented Apr 25, 2017 at 19:12
  • A link to the review in question would help. I don't know of any way to find the review given only a link to the post. Additionally I don't think you should be linking to a malicious site. Including the URL in your question is good, but don't make it a link.
    – kasperd
    Commented May 1, 2017 at 9:48

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
9

Flag it.

The occasional false positive spam flag is fine. a VLQ flag would be appropriate as well.

Downvoting would be an option too here. Its terrible.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .