How can i curb link spam from new members without hurting the community?

[Benjamin23]

I’ve been running a small hobby forum for a few years, and lately I’m struggling with how to handle the flood of new members who only join to post commercial links. It’s starting to really change the feel of the place from a community to a billboard.

[Samuel93]

Been noticing a flood of new members dropping links right away. We added a simple gate: new accounts can’t post external links until they’ve posted a couple of times and a mod approves. It didn’t fix it overnight, but it slowed the billboard vibe a bit.

[Penelope.J]

Automated filters felt like overkill. Lots of legitimate questions got stuck in the queue, and I spent more time digging through false positives than helping people.

[Richard.M]

I tried a pinned guidelines post and a friendly welcome message that explained what kind of posts we value. It helped some, but the link posters still show up now and then.

[Kenneth.G]

One pattern I noticed is that a handful of users appear, post a dozen promos in a single day, then disappear. We banned repeat offenders after a couple of warnings and moved on, which cut chatter but also felt a bit heavy-handed.

[DavidTT]

Do you think the real issue is visibility or trust—that people just want a quick billboard because they can't find a way to contribute meaningfully?

[Savannah_T]

I once wandered off topic, thinking a 'promo thread' would solve it. It did the opposite—people treated it as a spam lane, and I stopped using it after a weekend.

[Tyler10]

Maybe the core problem isn't the ads at all but how the space feels when a lot of new faces crop up overnight. If the vibe stays open and forgiving, some of them might stay for real discussions instead of promos.