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We had a big SEO spam problem with our forum, even with verified email addresses. I guess it is pretty easy to get a gmail address.

We fixed it by:

* moderating everyone's first post

* banning spam accounts liberally

* only allowing folks with a certain level of karma to post without moderation

* deleting any spam posts that sneak through, then warning or banning the poster

I think you need to spend some time managing your UGC.

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Luckily I'm still at the planning stage, no UGC problem yet. I'm thinking of launching a new app where a single click share would be a feature worth implementing, but definitely not part of the core functionality. I'm trying to figure out if this feature is worth implementing at all, or it's just asking for trouble.

What are the benefits? The costs are pretty clear (time spent moderating), but I'm not sure what the benefits of the feature would be.

That is probably worth spending time thinking about.

I guess the benefit would be possibly higher SEO / DR, as you'd have a lot of backlinks scattered around the interwebs. But then it can be misused and then all your domain can also be trashed.

I believe this is probably beneficial for bigger companies / VC funded projects where they have the resources for moderation.

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