If a forum member blocks a spammer is that spammer get blocked for the forum? [I hope not]
If the moderator can block the user, then how many moderators are there in this forum? If 1, then it will be difficult to block such spammer by the time multiple irritating posts are posted. Can multiple users [of course selected from different time zone] can  be made as moderator to battle these spammer, as they are creating different IDs.
What else can we do to solve this issue?
 
If 5 members (joined before 2011 and posting number more than 1000) block an ID that ID will be considered as spammer and will be permanently blocked.
 

I thought 3 people can flag posts as spam and that will temporarily ban the user. This does not remove their posts, however. I am not sure if this applies to all subforums either, but a permanent ban/post removal does require a moderator IIRC.

If you raise a ticket and report the spam one of the Hosts dotted around the globe will deal with it.

Bcoz I am seeing for last couple of days this is happening.
 

We can only shut them down if we know about them. I bagged one the other day 7 minutes after he posted - score! But it takes the community to tip us off to them. Like Wookie says, the hosts are an international group but we only represent half the time zones in the world.

The most prolific repeat spammer seems to be based in or near India going from the time they post, though they could be based anywhere and just pick their posting times for when the Americas are asleep. Which is why we in Europe seem to often be the first to spot them, because we're in a time zone between the two.

Toughening up the account creation process might make things more difficult for them by the increased/better use of captcha and similar anti-bot techniques, though if they are creating the accounts "by hand" that won't work. There are businesses in some parts of the world that use humans to post spam, add fake "likes" to facebook and so on at a few dollars a thousand.

Preventing a new account from immediately posting more than a limited number of posts might limit the damage, but this is a help forum and preventing a new forumite with a bunch of problems from posting would risk undermining the whole point of the forum.

mettelus
I thought 3 people can flag posts as spam and that will temporarily ban the user. This does not remove their posts, however. I am not sure if this applies to all subforums either, but a permanent ban/post removal does require a moderator IIRC.

That function apparently no longer exists. You gotta use the "Report Abuse" button and the Host/Mods have to deal with it.