Good effin' grief! Doesn't anyone read the TOS (terms of service) when setting up an account to write or comment on a website anymore? Yes, this is a rant.

When one signs up for a membership on a website, there is usually a statement with words to the effect that you understand the official site rules and you will abide by them. They even provide you with a link to those rules so there can be no misunderstanding.

If you don't bother to read them, that does not give you plausible denial that whatever you posted should be ignored by the moderator and moderation team. The trouble is, the most egregious rule-breakers don't care about the rules and their presence on the website is only to take a dump on the server and move on, hopefully making a couple bucks in the process.

What you commonly see is the site member posts an article full within site rules. Along comes the mad spammer and posts spam that has little to do with the original post but includes an affiliate link. Or the rules say that you may post a particular subject once each day, yet the mad spammer comes in and spams ten or twenty in a few minutes time. Or the rules say none of those kinds of posts and the mad spammer only posts those subjects in a run of ten or twenty, signs up for another membership and runs off another ten or twenty.

For those of us who actually follow the rules, who actually care about having a good place to write and interact in a community setting, and who are annoyed by the presence of those who plainly don't give a fig about us, there is a solution.

Back to the title of this article: What is a four letter word for "national emblem"? I'll give you a hint. It starts with "f" and ends with "lag". Yes, flag. You and I both have the opportunity to rid ourselves of these petulant little children who, by their presence, drag our productivity and creativity down into the gutter. Click the flag button and let the moderation team know that the article or comment is in violation of the site rules.

In one voice, we can tell the mad spammers to go flag themselves.

End rant.