Bitcoin Forum

A while ago the way bumping works was changed on several boards (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5183553.0). I don't actually use most of those boards much, though, so it's difficult for me to get an intuitive sense of how well the change worked. What do you think? If you think that tweaks are needed, what tweaks would be good? Keep in mind that minor tweaks are more likely to be done than major changes.

Regardless of the poll result (which I will analyze in several ways besides raw vote count...), probably things will not go back to how they were in those sections, since they were an absolute mess. But if a lot of people think that it should be undone, that'd be good to know for future changes.

As i first thought it was not good it changed my mind of 360 degree after a few hours to very good ! For the altcoin section it was the Best for against spam, bumping threads with Bots, and the malware problem!

From me a 10+ for that!

While perusing those boards I've noticed a significant number of threads that I had never noticed before.  Even the Altcoin Ann board has a few gems in it, but prior to this change those threads were buried, and if you don't know they are there, they're impossible to find.

I also think there's been far less spam in those boards since it doesn't help for newbie spammers and bots to post in the threads they've been promoting in the past.  Suchmoon had recently done some statistical evaluations that support my suspicion.  

Overall, the system has been working quite well, in my opinion.  

A couple of things that would help:

1) opting out of mini-bumping, discussed ad-nauseum in the main thread.
2) showing thread's bump-order position inside the thread. For example I'm reading a thread, find it interesting, and would like to super-bump it but only if it's not already on the front page (or below page 3 or whatever). Something like "#107" would be great, perhaps next to the red "bump" thingy.
3) some stats would be interesting, e.g top viewed threads before the change and after.

The change itself has been great I think. Not sure if all spammers have figured it out already. There still seems to be some shitbumping going on, perhaps they don't know yet, perhaps they're fighting for scraps on page 4.

It's possible to sort threads by their bump score on any board you want.
Here are the links for sorting threads by their bump score on "Bitcoin discussion" and "Altcoin discussion" boards.

Bitcoin discussion: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=1.0;sort=bump;desc
Altcoin discussion: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.0;sort=bump;desc

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The effect has been very positive.
I suggest to provide the possibility of sorting threads by their mini-bump score.
In this way, it's possible to find the threads that high-merited users are interested in regardless of whether they have been super-bumped or not.

Considering that the system essentially wiped the incentive to use thread pumping services / pump a thread with alts  or run on-forum altcoin giveaways (both of which generate insurmountable amounts of spam and clutter), it's definitely a positive change IMO. As for tweaks: maybe try and communicate the system to new users better. When I saw the "bump" button the first time, I had to go check Meta for a thread explaining the change. I really doubt that's the first thing newbies would do.

At the end of the day, "bumping" services will still exist as users will still create fake conversations for fake buzz. However, now that the majority of the forum doesn't get to see that I'd say its a positive change for that alone. Unfortunately, its hard to tell whether the bump changes is effecting legitimate altcoins without seeing how many users have used that bump button. Assuming, that a lot of users would have used it in the first day or so just to test it out it'd be interesting to see the last 7 days or so.

I think publicly showing who pressed the bump button could be a way of establishing whether there's any paid bump services going on, but other than that I think its reduced the amount of spam, and if it hasn't reduced as much as I think its definitely decreased the amount of exposure it has to the majority of forum users.

A public list of bumpers is useful for bumping services more. If list of bumpers becomes available, it will be a good tool for bumping services.
Also, It's not easy to prove that someone has been paid to bump a thread. The bumper can claim that he was interested in the thread.
I think the list of bumpers shouldn't be shown or it should be shown only to moderators.

I'm not quite sure how it would benefit bumping services to know this as they already know which threads they have bumped. Its not easy to prove, but its another tool on the communities belt to spot bad projects. I understand that the bump score is based on merit etc, however some of these projects may well have highly merited users, and the same goes for the bumping services.

It would make it easier for them to sell their services - they could show their "portfolio". And prove to clients that they actually did what they got paid for.

The bumpers know which threads they have bumped. But those who have hired bumpers don't know whether the bumper has done the task or not.
If a user is hired to bump a thread, how can prove that he has bumped the thread to get paid? Every service needs some users of the forum. How can they know how much bump power the user has? (For knowing the bump power they should know how many threads the user has bumped in the past 30 days).
If there is a list of bumpers, these problems would be solved.

Definitely a public lists of those who bump a thread would be good. Maybe we could use or create a LoyceV's tool just like those users who have most post for the last hour/s, I guess that will be applied to those who bump regularly a thread for  the last week or maybe bi-weekly.

Overall my impression to the bumping system is gratifying though we can't say overall that it reduces spam but in optimistic view that is on track.

Altcoin ann board is looking much better after adding this change,
and I think number of scam coins are going down because of this,
but some people just moved to Altcoin discussion topic

i don't think bump makes any sense in any other board that is not announcement-y and it may even make things worse in other boards.

for example in altcoin announcement board, a topic that was made 5 years ago (assuming the coin isn't dead) is still worth being on top today as it is still announcing the same valid thing. but a discussion topic in bitcoin discussion board that was started 5 years ago has no place to be on top!

also another point of "bump" feature was to remove the "bump by posting in the thread" incentive which only exists in those announcement-y boards.

Good point that didn't come to my mind.

Although, I feel like knowing the list of bumpers would be useful, and I'm assuming those hiring these services will keep an eye on whether the thread is actually being bumped higher. So, if they pay attention they could work out whether the bumping service is working or not.

It could be a staff only feature, but I don't think that would be as beneficial as to allowing the community to expose these sorts of services.

It's certainly good to prevent dominating the first page by shit projects, fake bump etc.
But on the other hand, the new ANN thread which are being posted, are getting lost on the 2nd page or even others. I know it's possible to find out the new thread with adding a little in the url but I doubt a lot of people know this or even they can remember it.
I would request to add an option on those board so that users can check the latest posted ann easily. For the new ANN, very few people bump them, in fact, no one. So, new ANN get unnoticed most of the time.

That's already possible. Just click on "Last reply" to sort it by the last reply and everything will show up as it was before the new bump changes.

The feedback is very positive, personally I have tested my bump power on several occasions both on the altcoin ANN and bounty thread and it's quite appealing how it works, it give decent projects that with the old way the system worked such project won't have had the change to get some visibility, it keep them visible for quite sometime which is welcoming since every project noi has a fair chance to benefiting from the visibility they get.

As per everyone feedback, mine is the same too but I would like to add here that since this is a good addition can we spread it across more boards too specially on Service discussions and Altcoins discussion boards ?  The smart ones continues to keep their services / ico bump by making a thread about it in these two boards.

"Service Announcements", "Announcements (Altcoins)", "Tokens (Altcoins)" and "Bounties (Altcoins)" boards are used for advertisement and some people are always trying to bump them. So changing the bumping system was needed in these boards and Theymos did it well.
Other boards like the two boards you referred to are different from them and that's why Theymos didn't apply the new bumping system to them.
I think sorting the threads by their bump score is useful to find useful discussions but I don't think this should be the default sorting.
You can use link below to sort the the threads by their bump score on two boards you mentioned.
 
Service discussion: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=85.0;sort=bump;desc
Altcoins discussion: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.0;sort=bump;desc

This would be great if somehow implementable. Often I find myself accidentally bumping scam projects to the first page just by posting a "Warning" comment in them with a link to a Scam Accusation thread. This is the only way in which the new system is worse, IMO. It is superior to the old in all other ways.

Don't get what you have referred to. Looks like I didn't notice what you shared.

Agreed, the new announcement should be on the top so that people get what's new. When people check, by default they see the bumped projects which are mostly old, not new at least. While most people visit the section either for getting a update from certain announcement or to discover a new project.

I spend some time reporting in those sections so quick review from my side.
The changes made a big difference.
I see a lot of threads are still using the old-style bumping service but without success, like those > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4720640.msg52997151#msg52997151
With the time they will realize that they just traw away money for nothing in rerurn, only ANN thread volume with very low quality.
So we are doing great.