Does this mean one can get away with spamming the community?

[HotCakeX]

After reading this:

Tagging users - etiquette - Microsoft Tech Community

specially this part:

"We do not have a rule against tagging other users "

this means one can tag/mention a user (a dummy account even) in every single post of the Microsoft Tech Community, which is more than 500,000 posts, and get away with it because you don't "consider" it as spam?

[#2]

@HotCakeX I'm also confused.

[#3]

@HotCakeX We judge spam based on context and judgment from our team. Obviously in your hypothetical example (I hope it's hypothetical!) that would be spam. If your post is content-free - i.e. no additional context - then yes, it could be spam.

The difference would be if someone posts:

"@HotCakeX"

vs. 

"@HotCakeX - I know you have a special expertise around this element of Edge, do you have any insight on this question?" 

The first example seems off-topic/spam.

The latter might be spam if they posted this in every single thread - and I'm sure would be off-topic for most of them - but one time posting this (the 2nd version) seems fine to me assuming no additional context.

Sorry for any confusion! If you have suggestions on how to handle this or document this better, feel free to let us know. 

[#4]

@Eric Starker 

Thanks for the explanation, appreciate it.
yes of course, it's just a possible hypothetical situation.

Yes, the content-free posts are my main concern, those that don't add any value to the related thread (the 1st example).

the 2nd example is totally fine because it's just an acceptable normal comment/post and I also personally never have had any problem with it.

I'd suggest few things, in my sincere opinion, these can boost overall experience and usefulness of the contents of the Microsoft Tech Community and I hope these are reviewed and considered by you and other decision makers.

Change the name of the thumbs up button from "Like" to "Like/Thanks"

the use of the 'Like / Thanks' button is preferred over simply posting 'Thanks' or something similar. it makes an excessive amount of posts which add little to nothing to a topic.

(penalty: post count reduction followed by warning or ban if repeated excessively in a short period of time)

Make "@username" posts (and posts that say things such as "mentioning @MSFTEmployeeUserName just to tag them and send them notification" a hard law, consider them a straight up content-free/spam post. ***

(penalty: 2 separate warnings, then ban)

Add a requirement to the forum for minimum number of characters required for a comment to be posted under a thread. this will potentially prevent posts that have contents similar to: "Yes, me too, same here, I like it, I don't like it, I want it, true, +1, false, etc. "
(character requirement can be 10-15)

It will help posts to be more explanatory, technical and detailed. 

No Backseat Moderating

Let the moderators do the moderating. Backseat moderating is when people who are not moderators try to enforce the forum rules. If you see a person breaking the rules, take advantage of the Report button or simply ignore the offensive post(s) or thread.

Don't openly argue with moderators.

Don't bypass any filters, included but not limited to: writing the F-word in a different manner or fashion that is not detected by the forum software's filter.

*** This article can be summarized into this rule.

[#5]

@Eric Starker Thank you for posting an example; now I can be friends with HotCakeX again. Thank you again!

[#6 · Accepted solution]

@HotCakeX Thanks for the feedback. I'll pass it on to the rest of our team and we will take it under consideration. Appreciate it! 

[#7]

Anytime!

[#8]

@HotCakeX 

You previous reply is in conflict with your suggestion:

Add a requirement to the forum for minimum number of characters required for a comment to be posted under a thread. 

Is that spam? I don't think so, comments as Great!, Thanks!, Okay, are not something uncommon and can't be considered as a spam.

Related:

Change the name of the thumbs up button from "Like" to "Like/Thanks"

We may call it as we want, but people will use it as. My main usage is as Okay, Got it. Other words just to inform I read this post.

I see nothing wrong if people  who really like something or would like to say thanks will articulate that in words, not by gestures or signs. Why shall we limit them by only one option and ban for using other ones?

I agree with No Backseat Moderating but why Don't openly argue with moderators. ? By the way, do we have actual moderation here? I don't see.

[#9]

@Sergei Baklan 

---

@Sergei Baklan wrote:

@HotCakeX 

You previous reply is in conflict with your suggestion:

Add a requirement to the forum for minimum number of characters required for a comment to be posted under a thread. 

---

Well guess what, those are still being considered and not officially added to the rule, and also the like button is still called like and not like/thanks.

next time pay more attention to the thread.

about the rest of your questions, yes true, if one or two people say thanks, no big deal, but if everyone wants to thank someone and post it under a thread, that's spam and I've seen a lot of occasions where people just go to each tread and write "yes", "me too", "I agree" and spam it repeatedly in 10-15 threads.

[#10]

@HotCakeX 

I could agree, lot of such messages could be annoying. As well as lot of long messages - with long title, after that that title is repeated by system, after that author repeat the same in bit different or sometimes the same wording, after that question/answer itself, after that long message which author automatically append to each post.

MTC team could publish recommendations and repeat them from time to time, but I'm against banning and moderation of such.

[#11]

If Moderators don't want to ban users and instead keep giving them warnings, infinitely, because for some reason they have extra time to do this, then it's their decision.