Bitcoin Forum

Hi, i noticed spamming from this account , link bellow, 80 posts spamming -advertising!

user https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=952330

Yeah... but it's their thread. The worst thing you could pin them for is consecutive bumps but it's not a huge problem

This user used at least 8 different threads to spamm this link!

Rules
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=703657.0#post_rules

"12. No duplicate posting in multiple boards"

"24. Advertisements (including signatures within the post area) in posts aren't allowed unless the post is in a thread you started and is really substantial and useful."


His threads are not useful, there is nothing really important and useful. There is just this user spamming short posts with the same link.

It is one thread, they changed title above post.

Move it to meta, report posts and write in comments "bumping thread without removing last bump" or something, but to be honest I don't see how is bumping one thread less than 80 times during 2.5 years spam.

Even that is a huge stretch. Most of those are valid posts with content in them and arguably not subject to rule 21:


I think rule 21 makes sense only for posts like this:


There are bigger fish to fry.

What about this user, spamming the same copy paste message 7x today on multiple topics.

User 1 profile https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2506522''

Threads:

1. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5169372.msg52010419#msg52010419

2. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1580422.msg52010487#msg52010487

3. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5108121.msg52010360#msg52010360

4. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5169984.msg52010122#msg52010122

5. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5167476.msg52010051#msg52010051

6. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5170502.msg52009886#msg52009886


user 2 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2656861

 Threads

1. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5170694.msg52011705#msg52011705

2. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1739955.msg52010552#msg52010552

user 3 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2554563

That one is worth reporting. Spams sale threads of other users, not cool.

Can you report user instead of reporting all of his messages?

No, but you can report one of his posts and tell the mod to check his post history. If you need to provide more info, you can even link a thread with all the details about him.

Let's just be responsible and report posts when we see them spam.
Creating a thread every time we see a spam posters won't help much because if we try to look closely, we will see a lot of newbie spammers in the forum.

BadBear mentioned this:
Successive "updates" are moderated (removed or merged), PM for example.
Of course, the way OP presented it, for a second I thought someone created new account and spammed 80 messages to advertise something, which is not the case here.

I guess it depends on how anal the mod is about whether the post serves a purpose or not. I know a few boards where even large images get resized by mods so yes, I can imagine such posts getting merged or deleted but I wouldn't report them.

It's really about the intent of the rule.

Yes, bumps that recycle the same content should be removed. However in this case 85% of the posts on the thread are from OP and the updates don't disrupt the conversation... OP responds and then updates.

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If we really wanted to tackle the "bump crisis" then just look at the Russian Бapaxoлкa (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=236.0) child board (e.g. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2688283.0;all)

Ok, i won't open new threads for 1 spamer only. I edited for 3 more users/spam. I wonder if the rule still applies? Advertising is not allowed except if the thread is useful. I don't see that it the first users case. I think it's not useful at all. It's obvious the thread is used  just for  advertising.

Well, yes... because the thread is for their product. I don't understand what you think the problem is here. It's their announcement thread: do you expect them to not update their thread with advertisements?

Ok, i'm sorry but then i don't understand this rule

"24. Advertisements (including signatures within the post area) in posts aren't allowed unless the post is in a thread you started and is really substantial and useful."

Maybe if you open your thread it's considered useful and you can advertise. I'm confused. Is there any case where user opened a thread and wasn't useful?

I believe rule 24 is in the context of threads that you have not started for the purpose of advertising a product.

Think of it like this: if you start a thread for a Gambling site, are you now disallowed from advertising the site in your subsequent posts? You would have to talk about something completely irrelevant (which is in conflict with spam rules) in order to correspond with rule 24.

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At the crux of it, the most important rule to keep in mind is that rules are enforced at the moderator's discretion.

24 also relates to the opening posts of very substantial threads, for example pugman's thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4412712.0

Theymos said that in this case, post must be long enough where the advertising seems insignificant, which in my opinion is not the case here. Maybe i should ask theymos. I'm new in reporting, i started reporting a couple of days ago when i saw a massive spam, maybe more than 100 accounts. So i'm sorry for my noob questions.

Don't stress too much about it.

For rule 24, focus on users that are spamming random/irrelevant advertisements in threads that are not about the same service. The spam wave (maybe what you're talking about?) consisted of users posting advertisements across the forum on various threads. This is very different from one user that has a thread to announce a service, who is updating their thread every so and then.

However... most of the spam you will encounter will be from insubstantial posts. Lots of repeated information, vague posts, one-liners that are just "yes you are right bitcoin is very volatile", or posts that agree and paraphrase. Egregious forms of spam consist of plagiarism and cross-forum spam.

Ok, thank you for your time and answers.

It's really about something like banner ads that promote stuff not related to the topic. E.g. if this post contained an ad for Amazon or something like that.

As actmyname said, don't worry too much about details and there's plenty of posts out there that are waiting to be reported for much more obvious spamming. I just opened a few threads in Altcoin ANNs (don't even remember why I went there) and ended up reporting ~100 posts for serial bumping. Spammers are getting smarter though. Not a lot of "good project" spam anymore but lots of contrived fake discussions that are clearly intended to circumvent the bumping rules.

Ever since the implementation of the merit system, publicly reporting spam, scam, shady business has become a mainstay for the average user as a way to earn merits. So, no, your advice won't be heeded. The day won't be too far away when spam threads would spawn because they reported about some other spam thread. (They might even exist right now).

I think we really need to have a way to control the spam, maybe there should be a way to give anti-merits, and we can automatically hide posts by people with negative merit.

There is a way to control spam. It's called the Report to moderator button.
There is a way to hide posts by spammers. It's called the Report to moderator button.

Take TEN minutes to report some posts. With the right tools, you can erase hundreds of spam posts in that amount of time.