More on Tumblr’s spam problem

kateoplis asks: so should I block every last one of them until/IF Tumblr gets it under control? do they in any way harm my traffic?

» SFB says: According to a support e-mail we just got about this, blocking doesn’t have an effect on that. “If you’d like, you can Block any blogs that are causing you concern,” the note says. “Blocking does not prevent someone from showing up as Follower or prevent them from viewing a public blog’s web pages or RSS feed.” So, blocking has no effect on your traffic … it just makes them invisible to you. The real issue is that they have a method to continue spamming a post forever. Disqus allows you to turn a comment thread off after two weeks. Tumblr should do that. Tumblr’s note says they’re working on the problem, however. Our suggestion to Tumblr on the spam issue: Prevent posts from getting liked or reblogged after a certain period — say, two weeks. The really old posts are the ones getting affected. — Ernie @ SFB

EDIT: We’re getting a lot of dissenting opinions on the blocking thing … but Tumblr could make it an option to shut off the hose. That would prove helpful. What I’m finding, personally, is that posts that haven’t had any reblogs in months are the ones getting targeted by likespam. It would be nice to simply be able to have a way to block it.