I was away for some training from the first week of July until second week of August . I posted that I would be away and that I wouldn't be signing on very much.

This caused some delay on deleting spam. Especially with Cal's absence as well.

Then we had a baby born on August 17. We went home on August 19th And then I spent most of the first week and part of the second week in a prolonged hospital stay . Again this caused me not to be very active on the site .

As to deleting spammer accounts: as mods we did. Hundreds of them. But we've continually been told that they aren't an issue. Why spend hours of our time trying to delete things that supposedly aren't an issue and that the ownership doesn't seem to care about.

As for recognizing spammers, all mods, as well as members should generally be able to tell the difference . You may be referencing the member that flags brought up. My guess (and this is only a guess) is that Cal was simply able to tell by posting style primarily. Personally, I don't know the political forum posters well enough to determine that. I PMed CI and asked if he knew how Cal was able to tell and he mentioned the things that I already knew (such as IP addresses) but wasn't able to specifically recall how cal was able to know for sure .

As for mods stepping down. That's for them to reply to. But I know the spam, and the time spent dealing with it played a role for some.

As I said before. If you have an issue, if you see a spammer, a rules infraction, please PM me. I see those before I see the reported posts. And I'll always reply to PMs first thing when I logon. OT I know someyo PMed me before I'm just saying this for everyone else.

PM me. I may not get it right away, but when I logon that's the first thing I'll deal with .
-Jake