• Should spammers be banned? Yes, if they can't get understand the initial warnings and continue to clutter.
• Do spammers hurt the community? Yes and no, they annoy certain people, yet some find it amusing.
• What is "Spam"? Useless clutter that serves no purpose, is in no way actually funny

And the obligatory picture:

When you've posted in every thread on the first page of Hot Topics.

Pezus, you have had over 10k posts since January 1st 2012, which is ridiculous... Anyway, you know you a spammer when you post a pointless thread about what it means to be a spammer.

Could a mod please lock this shit?

Also, when a large majority of your posts are shallow or 'filler' posts. Meaning you're not giving any genuine thought into the topic, and your just posting the first thing that comes to your head. These posts arent made because you want to engage discussion. You're simply posting for the sake of posting. Also, when your posts looks like they were directed solely at the title. They don't seem to respond to the OP or the posts in the thread. It's okay to do this occasionally, and it's normal actually, but when the vast majority of your posts are like this, then you are a spammer.

I like this thread, it's a good idea, sorry MBP gotta disagree with you here. (unless you were just kidding of course)

I think spam comes in different flavors. I consider trolling a type of spam, in that it is undesirable. Yet, at the same time, some people have taken a liking to that flavor as it can spur discussion and lead to proof by contradiction, in which the troll gets raped.

However, there is a form of spam which smells "I want to get my post count up, so I'm saying this". That's the kind of post that kills a thread because others who at first showed interest in the OP now no longer want to be there and participate.

In the end, I think it's important not to take this too far and let people be free and feel at ease on the forum they call home. Yet at the same time, users should be sensitive to others and make posts that they consider (as much as they can, by their own judgement), as adding value and substance to the topic at hand, trying at least to find a way to say something that others may find enlightening or interesting.

Ultimately, it's about a balance of self-respect, being interesting, and being yourself and free.

When the right balance is set, there should be no more problem, at which point those who cry "spam" are the ones in error and are just not letting users be happy. They then become the primary ones to blame.

In essence, Spam should be dealt with on an individual level as much as possible, unless a group of spammers can be addressed at one time. Otherwise, locking a thread due to spammers and calling it "a topic with a lack of substance" is, in my opinion, not good moderation.

Not to say our mods do a bad job, AU CONTRAIRE, but that part of their policy I just strongly disagree with, especially when people put time and thoughts into their threads which, subsequently, get sabotaged due to the carelessness of others. To me, that's not fair.

Deal with the spammer, not the thread. Having said all that, again, I wish we all improve and just make this place even more awesome than it already is.

Thanks for a good topic.

You know you're a spammer when you post strange pics. Here is a non strange pic.

i like this....

I thought we were friends!? I contribute to conversations, just like now eh, EH?

I have vast gaming knowledge and I always express my opinion, sometimes I just post a pic to lighten the mood.

When you post in a topic to say you have nothing to add to the topic or when you post more than 10,000 times in a year.