Is this spam? Why is this allowed?

In my opinion, it is allowed by a2k members - even the members who complain about it, quite often. Because trolls get their regular diet of attention here. If to a man (or whatever) we put cretins on ignore, nearly all of them would give up and vanish from this site.

One post after the other might be considered spam and I agree with Edgar, I put that idiot on ignore, she will fade away into oblivion and soon I hope.

s/he/it isn't selling a product

that's the only difference I can see

even then, there are sometimes differences in administration of product placement

<shrug>

we get what we pay for

I have this person and their posts on ignore, but when you see a chunk of 20 ignored posts on someone else's thread, you have to wonder. I mean what makes this poster any different aside from the fact they are peddling hate?
I have noticed that at least 1/3 people I have on ignore seems to have crawled back under the rock from whence he came.
I just wonder why it's ok to pepper or take over another persons thread with an endless barrage of garbage? Will every conversation on racism now potentially become free game to this person and their brand of hate? And any thread they want can become a depository of shite? It's not like they add much to the conversation if its just a series of cut and paste jobs.

I prefer to thumb down posters like that.

If enough of us mark the posts down, they won't be visible to anyone who innocently goes into the thread (the posts end up "below viewing threshold", if people keep the automatic default).

Ignore leaves them visible to others.

But what if they get their gang to thumb down all of ours? Then we have a blank forum.

there are days when that would be a good result

OK. I never realized you could do that..
Thanks Beth.

Edgar if that were the case I thumb them up.

Nothing like deciding for others what they may see or not see.

Join in the fun and feel free to thumb up posts.

No I do not play those games as it is silly and morally questionable even when dealing with racist scumbags.

Adds, as ehBeth knows - you can tell by how she explained the process - one can choose to have multiple thumbs by others affect what you see - it's not just one or two down thumbs, but some mass of them - or can opt out of not having others thumbing choices affect what you see.

Everyone should check their preferences to customize their a2k experiences.
That's a click on Preferences in the blue banner at the bottom of the page.

Adds - I switched from ignoring the Tab poster to going back and thumbing down all I can find. I'm not so sure that's a disincentive to such a poster but is momentarily rewarding for me.

I don't get bothered by any of this, I just take what I need and leave the rest. Sometimes I find the untoward opinions of some posters to be rather interesting, I am not at all afraid of reading them dispassionately. The world and it's people are interesting to me, sometimes the offbeat is fascinating.
I don't thumb down posts, I think it disrupts the continuity of the thread for me.
I've used the ignore feature once, when I felt I was becoming addicted to a particular posters bizarre postings. Most of the time, trolls lose interest in awhile and move on.
I think a2k would be pretty boring if we didn't have oddballs showing up to shake things up a bit.
The best part of a2k, imo, is that you can be real here. There's no requirement for political correctness, I get enough of that in the flesh and blood world. I don't see this as some kind of social enclave where content gets sanctioned, it's as colorful here as reality can be.

I think the default should be to see everything and then you can personalize down from there. It seems like censoring the view should be a opt-in thing instead of an opt-out.

I think if enough of us vote to off him, we should be able to send in a trojan worm, and fry his computer.

say 2/3 majority?

with an appropriate warning of course...

I agree one of the big goods about a2k is the realness (when it is real).

Still, it's a place designed as an information site for people around the globe and people from all over's tolerance for continuous thread disruption varies. In some threads of the debate type, digression at all is non grata, and in many threads it's fine and usually reverts back to subject quickly enough or at least eventually, the digressions part of the weave, sometimes part of the fun. In some threads, it's pests on parade, which we are somewhat used to and differ re tolerance. 20 hate posts in a row? Well, a2k gives us tools to deal with these.

I've been here many years (and many are weary of me too), but I don't like this place being hate flamed.

I don't remember which is the default - I've picked no since this option started myself.

I agree Osso, it does get out of hand at times, and particular posters are wearying, but you're not one of them.
We got a few tar babies around here, that's for sure.

I thumbed down the main thread these people have. I'm not interested in ever reading it again, it does nothing for the quality of my life. I realize even racists need a soapbox if for no other reason to make fools of themselves publicly. I just don't need to see it.
The mods are incredibly efficient at removing all the ads placed here under false pretenses. I can't for the life of me understand why some posters get away with the same annoying patterns and other spammers get the boot.
Is there a set number of posts one has to make to get the privilege to hijack a thread?
Digressions happen, conversations go off topic, c'est la vie. Like I said, I don't care if these idiots make their own threads but I don't think they should take over another. So now I have an option, I'll use it and if others disagree with me, they can counter my thumb up or down. Seems fair to me.