Google+ Gains Better Spam Blocking Options

Google+ has gained new options that allows people to block those dropping spam comments into posts. Hurray! It’s a much needed improvement, though I wish there was the ability to delete spam comments more easily across multiple posts.

The New “Report Abuse Or Block” Flag

Here’s how it works. If you come across a spam comment, hover your mouse to the lower right-hand side of it, where you’ll see two options appear, as shown to the right.

The X option is an easy way to delete the comment. But the flag option — “Report abuse or block” — is better. Use that, and you can report the spammer and block them from dropping further spam comments into any posts you do in the future, all in one go.

When you click the flag icon, a new warning symbol will appear. You might already see a warning symbol like this instead of the usual X or flag options, if other have already reported a comment as spam.

Remove & Block

Click on the warning symbol, and you’ll be presented with three options:

1. Remove

2. Restore

3. Remove and block this person

Remove will just delete the comment without reporting abuse or spam.

Restore will make the comment visible again, useful if someone mistakenly flagged something as spam or if you made a mistake, yourself.

Remove and block this person will trigger a new window to appear:

The Report & Block Window

Using that window, you can either block the person from commenting on future posts (useful if for some reason you don’t like their comments, but they aren’t violating any Google+ policies) or select the “Report and block this person” option, which blocks them, plus allows you to select from a list of options (including spam) that you feel should be reported to Google+.

Keep in mind that once you select “Remove and block this person” from the warning icon, even if you change your mind and don’t actually block the person, the comment will still be deleted and can’t be restored.

Welcome Change, But How About Mass Delete?

I’ve wanted this type of feature for ages, because I see a lot of spam hit my posts. Until now, it’s been a two step process. I’ve had to delete the spam, then separately go to the spammer’s profile in order to block and report them from there.

My remaining wish is that the feature evolve further to match how LinkedIn does it. At LinkedIn, you can block and delete all the comments someone has made, even on prior posts, all in one click. That’s useful because I often find the same spammer has hit several of my posts. To clean that up requires going to each post.

That remains the case with the new Google+ moderation tools. But still, the changes gained are welcomed.

An Android Tip

By the way, another tip I recently learned. In the Android app, to delete or report a comment, hold and press on the comment, until the removal options appear. With the iPhone, these are more visible. I assumed the Android app didn’t have them, until this was explained to me. I’d totally missed it.