Scroll down to the Save and Share part of the left hand column (or the right hand column if the lens is using the old 2-column layout). At the bottom of that section is the "Flag" option.

It sounds like it's meant for flagging adult lenses that have escaped into the family domain, or those nasty racist or other hurtful sites, doesn't it?

But that's not the only reason to use the Flag option.

Please use this option to report any spam lenses you see, or anything that violates Squidoo's TOS.

You will, by now, have some idea of what constitutes spam merely by trawling through your email inbox each day. If you see that kind of thing here, please report it.

Here are some more thoughts on what constitutes a spam lens (also known as a "Splens") on Squidoo. Feel free to add your voice to the rest. The more we band against spam, the better chance we have of creating a better Squidoo that doesn't accidentally chase our valuable readers away when they see a splens.

(If you don't know what a dashboard is, then you don't have one.)

You see that big blue box on top of your dashboard? The one that says you've earned X amount of cash?

(You don't have a big blue box? Well, create more good quality lenses and you will have one!)

Spam lenses affect your earnings on Squidoo by diluting the quality lenses. When visitors land on a splens, they leave. They don't do searches to find your lens. They don't come back. That's revenue lost for all of us.

Visitors who land on good quality content rich lenses, will stay. The may browse around Squidoo. They may land on your lens. They may email your lens to a friend. They may tell people about Squidoo. They may purchase through your affiliate links, or the Squidoo affiliate links on your lens. Either way, you get cash.

The more traffic Squidoo gets, the more we all earn. The more sincere, quality lenses on Squidoo, the more we all earn. It's that simple.

So go on - go build more great lenses...

If you're just a reader of Squidoo, why should you report spam lenses?

Simple. You get to do something about spam! How often do you get that chance? Don't you hate it? How it clutters up your inbox? How you think you have a lovely, brand new, email address, and you give it out to a few trusted friends and next thing you know you've got spam coming in your inbox?

(By the way, if that's happened to you, it's already too late - but next time you have a new email address, tell your friends to use the BCC option - it's way too easy to harvest email addies off the To: list on an email going to more than 10 people, and THAT'S how they got your addy. In case you were wondering who sold you out.)

So the question again...

If you don't have a dashboard, ie, you're not a Squidoo lensmaster:

Why not? It's super easy to make Squidoo lenses and you get paid for them. Join us!

If you sign up using that link (or this one), you and I will both get $5 after you've earned $15. So you have nothing to lose and $20 to gain, and I don't get anything until you earn that $15.

This yellow comment box pops up. You select from the options in the drop down box:

"This lens is spam"
"This lens is mature content and is not marked."
"This lens spammed my Group."
"This lens violates Squidoo's TOS."

You also have the option to type in a brief comment if you like - something like "yikes, my kid's looking at nude people!" (But you don't have to leave a comment.)

Hit Save. It will get looked at. It won't be swallowed into a vortex never to be seen again. Your opinion does matter.

Yes, the Squidudes do know who flagged the lens. You need to be logged in to flag a lens, and your user name and comment is submitted. So, use it responsibly - this is not for getting back at your ex.

But no one will die. We're not a lynch mob here. In fact, it takes about five flaggings before a splens can be deleted. Which is why you need to play your part - if you see one, flag it. Don't leave it for someone else to deal with.

If you're just reading, you will need to create a free Squidoo account in order to flag a lens. It's quick and painless, and a Squidoo account is useful for other things like voting on Plexos, leaving guestbook comments, and rating the lenses you like.

And rating the quality lenses you like is another good way to make sure the good stuff floats to the top and buries the spam lenses.

There's always the Feedback box. Tell Squidoo HQ if you've been wrongly accused - communicate and let them know you're a real person and not a bot creating splenses.

Pop into the forum and get the support of your fellow lensmasters.

They'll be able to tell you if there's a reason your lens might look like spam - and they don't bite (all the time).