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Title: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: jamyr on December 10, 2020, 12:04:41 PM Inspired by
Beware of the new type of spam, hidden in the bounty proof of registration. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5298680.msg55792089#msg55792089) Just an idea, how about implementing a limited account access for brand new accounts. Meaning they must reach total time logged in : x number of hours; or a requirement to be invited(merit), before brand new accounts can write, post. or limit their post to the beginners & help. This is only a suggestion. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: ranochigo on December 10, 2020, 12:14:10 PM Meaning they must reach total time logged in : x number of hours; Won't work, they'll probably just use an auto-refresher/script that sends a GET request to the forum in intervals. or a requirement to be invited(merit), before brand new accounts can write, post. It'll be hard to get into the forum without some form of connections and they'll probably pay someone to give them merits. Probably would raise the bar of entry too high and isn't ideal.or limit their post to the beginners & help. I think theymos stated that the newbie jail won't make a comeback so I guess its out of the picture as well.Mitchell's bot seems to be working well atm in detecting them though so there's that going for us. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: Upgrade00 on December 10, 2020, 12:14:49 PM Newbie jail was a thing before, but it was stopped by theymos and I do not think it would be implemented again.
It makes the forum unwelcoming to new members, both the legitimate ones and the spammers, and if any is going to try and jump through the hoops, it would be the spammers. Here is theymos' take on it; Limiting newbie participation is very harmful for a community. Newbie jail will never return: I consider the newbie-jail period to have been extremely damaging to the forum. When barriers to participation are too high, then the best people often just won't go to the trouble of joining, and the people who are willing to jump through the hoops are often people who aren't good for the community: people with nothing better to do, scammers, get-rick-quickers, etc. Having a permanent newbie jail policy would improve things a lot in the short-term, but would end up being a fatal poison to the community. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: Mitchell on December 10, 2020, 12:15:38 PM Inspired by You are more or less describing newbie jail, which was discontinued years ago. You had to spend X amount of time in a special newbie section before you could do anything else. Beware of the new type of spam, hidden in the bounty proof of registration. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5298680.msg55792089#msg55792089) Just an idea, how about implementing a limited account access for brand new accounts. Meaning they must reach total time logged in : x number of hours; or a requirement to be invited(merit), before brand new accounts can write, post. or limit their post to the beginners & help. This is only a suggestion. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: jamyr on December 10, 2020, 12:29:59 PM It'll be hard to get into the forum without some form of connections and they'll probably pay someone to give them merits. Probably would raise the bar of entry too high and isn't ideal. Nowadays if you put in your search engine for bitcoin related discussions, bitcointalk threads are top of the list. But I agree that setting the bar of entry too high might intimidate more than educate. Newbie jail was a thing before, but it was stopped by theymos and I do not think it would be implemented again. It makes the forum unwelcoming to new members, both the legitimate ones and the spammers, and if any is going to try and jump through the hoops, it would be the spammers. Here is theymos' take on it; Limiting newbie participation is very harmful for a community. Newbie jail will never return: I consider the newbie-jail period to have been extremely damaging to the forum. When barriers to participation are too high, then the best people often just won't go to the trouble of joining, and the people who are willing to jump through the hoops are often people who aren't good for the community: people with nothing better to do, scammers, get-rick-quickers, etc. Having a permanent newbie jail policy would improve things a lot in the short-term, but would end up being a fatal poison to the community. You are more or less describing newbie jail, which was discontinued years ago. You had to spend X amount of time in a special newbie section before you could do anything else. I see. Thanks, I never knew there exists such feature. I guess I have not scrawled the forum very much. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: LoyceV on December 10, 2020, 12:47:50 PM The only thing I can think of that won't limit real new users would be to limit the number of links they can post (per post or per day). A Newbie who posts 500 URLs on his first day is clearly a spammer, but they'll probably just use more accounts to spam with.
Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: witcher_sense on December 10, 2020, 01:03:16 PM The only thing I can think of that won't limit real new users would be to limit the number of links they can post (per post or per day). A Newbie who posts 500 URLs on his first day is clearly a spammer, but they'll probably just use more accounts to spam with. Or to limit the number of BBCode tags they can use when formatting their messages. For example, without Code: [url][/url] Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: stompix on December 10, 2020, 01:11:37 PM The only thing I can think of that won't limit real new users would be to limit the number of links they can post (per post or per day). My opinion also, but I think at first we might want to understand why are they doing this, I remember what Rizzrack said (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5296912.msg55773810#msg55773810) is this an attack? Are those simply bot posing as bounty hunters and want to get their share without doing anything? I doubt so, they would just submit twitter links. Is this a malware attack? I don't know 100% what those links are, I won't download that on my current laptop butvirus total says the pdfs are clean (https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/c890cc5e73a2f2afe425e15566b759f30901739e9cc12d2def8a76e0b364b7a0/detection), is it a SEO attacks indeed? Who else other than the bounty manager clicks those links in the first place? Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: jamyr on December 10, 2020, 01:15:21 PM The only thing I can think of that won't limit real new users would be to limit the number of links they can post (per post or per day). A Newbie who posts 500 URLs on his first day is clearly a spammer, but they'll probably just use more accounts to spam with. Very tough nut to crack automatically. Or to limit the number of BBCode tags they can use when formatting their messages. For example, without Code: [url][/url] A template can be prepared I think. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: hilariousandco on December 10, 2020, 01:57:13 PM Theymos isn't going to do anything that is this restrictive. One thing I suggested in the past is that all new users first post needs to be accepted by a mod first before it goes public and they're essentially shadow-banned until they are approved (or not). At least this would put a stop to all the obvious spam bots.
Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: NeuroticFish on December 10, 2020, 02:12:06 PM This is only a suggestion. Limiting their posts only to Beginners & Help can be an option and maybe the only one close to valid. Stopping them completely from posting should not be done. Asking for some extras (invites) is also bad idea. Keep in mind that some (few?) newbies are honest and come here with problems or simply for the reason this forum was created (discuss), not necessarily to spam and do bounties. Those should be allowed ask their questions and get the chance to properly describe their problems (which usually comes as a later post), or simply to chat a little. And yes, that quote from Theymos about newbie jail is very eloquent. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: SquirrelJulietGarden on December 10, 2020, 02:18:31 PM Or to limit the number of BBCode tags they can use when formatting their messages. For example, without It is a jail, isn't it? I can understand the jail with img brackets but with url brackets, the jail will limit the right of brandnew account to make their inquiries. Furthermore, if you think it is necessary, why not have the limit up to Newbie, not Brandnew.Code: [url][/url] Any limit with Brandnew won't work because with a single post and post count, they will become a Newbie (it takes one hour to count post and update activity). Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: The Sceptical Chymist on December 10, 2020, 02:33:04 PM I think theymos stated that the newbie jail won't make a comeback so I guess its out of the picture as well. All of your other arguments are valid, but it's the above reason why OP's suggestion (which has been made plenty of times before) won't see the light of day. Theymos putting the 1-merit requirement on Newbies ranking up is about as far as he's likely going to go with noob restrictions. Sometimes I wish he'd think of a genius solution for all of the annoyances created by brand new accounts, and who knows, maybe he's working on it. But the solutions brought up by the community over the past few years have just fallen on deaf ears. Limiting their posts only to Beginners & Help can be an option and maybe the only one close to valid. I agree with both of these, except that as ranochigo and I said above, Theymos isn't looking to put any major restrictions on brand new/newbie account and certainly not what amounts to a B&H jail.Stopping them completely from posting should not be done. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: Lucius on December 10, 2020, 02:49:46 PM One thing I suggested in the past is that all new users first post needs to be accepted by a mod first before it goes public and they're essentially shadow-banned until they are approved (or not). At least this would put a stop to all the obvious spam bots. I don't know how many new members are registered on average per day, but if every first post of a new member should be checked, it would require a lot of time and human resources. Would that be feasible with the current number of staff given the total daily number of reports coming from forum members as extra work? Yet I have no doubt that spammers might find some hole in the system - let’s say their first post is good and then when they get the green light they suddenly show their true face. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: hilariousandco on December 10, 2020, 02:56:01 PM One thing I suggested in the past is that all new users first post needs to be accepted by a mod first before it goes public and they're essentially shadow-banned until they are approved (or not). At least this would put a stop to all the obvious spam bots. I don't know how many new members are registered on average per day, but if every first post of a new member should be checked, it would require a lot of time and human resources. Would that be feasible with the current number of staff given the total daily number of reports coming from forum members as extra work? Yet I have no doubt that spammers might find some hole in the system - let’s say their first post is good and then when they get the green light they suddenly show their true face. I don't think it would be an issue and you can always hire one or two more staff to deal with it. Probably half of the new sign-ups are bots which we have to handle anyway and most reports, especially the ones patrollers can handle, get done so pretty fast. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: Upgrade00 on December 10, 2020, 04:09:54 PM It is a jail, isn't it? I can understand the jail with img brackets but with url brackets, the jail will limit the right of brandnew account to make their inquiries. I do not see how it limits accounts from making their inquiry. The URL tags are used to customize links using personalized texts. This means a user can change the way a link appears and unsuspecting users can click on malwares without being aware.Newbies/brand new accounts can always drop the actual link to their inquiry for other members to check out. URL tags are not a necessity. Spammers would likely go ahead to do so, but it would be much easier to spot spam links. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: RapTarX on December 10, 2020, 04:31:17 PM I would strongly oppose this proposal as it would give newbie less chance to explore/use the forum as they need. It's likely that forum will lose a lot of real users from the forum. Spammer will find a way or another to spam their shit but real users will go away once they find the forum is not welcoming the newbies.
Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: LoyceV on December 10, 2020, 04:34:19 PM Is this a malware attack? I don't know 100% what those links are, I won't download that on my current laptop butvirus total says the pdfs are clean (https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/c890cc5e73a2f2afe425e15566b759f30901739e9cc12d2def8a76e0b364b7a0/detection), is it a SEO attacks indeed? My assumption is it's only about having links that someone will eventually click. Or SEO indeed: backlinks from Bitcointalk might help, although I'd expect Google to be smarter than this by now.Who else other than the bounty manager clicks those links in the first place? But: it's unlikely 100% of them gets removed, and if only a small portion of those posts remains, they've accomplished their goal. Theymos isn't going to do anything that is this restrictive. One thing I suggested in the past is that all new users first post needs to be accepted by a mod first before it goes public and they're essentially shadow-banned until they are approved (or not). That's like Newbie jail. How about an alternative, and I can make it myself: collect all first posts and publish them on a separate page for manual review. If it's spam, they can be reported and Nuked. It won't restrict Newbies, but (with some effort) will catch the spammers.Update: Done! See [Newbie scrutiny instead of jail] Every new user's first post: loyce.club/patrol (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5298940.0). Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: hilariousandco on December 10, 2020, 05:31:12 PM Theymos isn't going to do anything that is this restrictive. One thing I suggested in the past is that all new users first post needs to be accepted by a mod first before it goes public and they're essentially shadow-banned until they are approved (or not). That's like Newbie jail. How about an alternative, and I can make it myself: collect all first posts and publish them on a separate page for manual review. If it's spam, they can be reported and Nuked. It won't restrict Newbies, but (with some effort) will catch the spammers.It's not really. They're free to post; it just wont show up publicly until they're accepted and it should be done pretty fast. If they're not a bot then they won't even notice (and bots won't notice either :D). Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: holydarkness on January 03, 2021, 04:35:44 AM Pardon me for jumping in with a slightly out of topic question, but after searching for some time few hours ago, this thread seems the most recently active and the most less-OOT for what I'm about to ask.
The Brand New accounts, were they restricted from creating a new thread as their first post? And, if this is true, wouldn't they only need to do one post to "rank up" and remove this restriction? I would really appreciate the help, I needed the info for a project I am currently investigating, where the dev claimed they created an account (currently on BN rank) but they can't create ANN, and someone had to give his old account to the team so they can publish the ANN using said acc. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: Upgrade00 on January 03, 2021, 05:23:37 AM The Brand New accounts, were they restricted from creating a new thread as their first post? And, if this is true, wouldn't they only need to do one post to "rank up" and remove this restriction? No.Brand new accounts can create threads with their first post. (Except new changes have been made and I missed the announcement). And the restriction can be easily bypassed, even by bots, reason why it would probably not be implemented. I would really appreciate the help, I needed the info for a project I am currently investigating, where the dev claimed they created an account (currently on BN rank) but they can't create ANN, and someone had to give his old account to the team so they can publish the ANN using said acc. New accounts are limited from posting embedded images and have to wait for a much longer cool down time between posts, but they can start their posting with a thread.Does the old account have a negative trust rating? Is the old account a Jr member ranked or above? Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: so98nn on January 03, 2021, 05:47:58 AM How about limiting the number of accounts that are created every day or lets say each hour?
I am not sure if anyone has this data but there must be numerous accounts that are being created ever day. Out of these accounts only countable once could be from genuine or brand new user whose visiting the forum for first time. Some of them could be come back users with lost/hacked accounts. . . . and most of them might be with the intentions of spamming. Limiting account creation will slow down the burst spamming and might give more time to moderators and other users to fight against spam. It won't stop the spamming but it will slow down the process. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: holydarkness on January 03, 2021, 06:00:31 AM Does the old account have a negative trust rating? Is the old account a Jr member ranked or above? No, it was a completely brand new, created just yesterday, and I don't think the restriction they claimed were because of evil IP, for AFAIK the evil IP restrict people to create account instead of posting, CMIIW. [...] Later some of us (from the group) wanted to make our own project and we were not able to post from our new accounts here. We created multiple accounts and it was not working. We wanted to launch the project on the 1st January and we were in hurry because we were running out of time so we utilized this account of Raj upon his permission (donation). You can check our new accounts created yesterday which were not able to post anything. 1. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2955876 2. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2955892 Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: Upgrade00 on January 03, 2021, 06:06:50 AM for AFAIK the evil IP restrict people to create account instead of posting, CMIIW. Wrong. Evil IP actually limits new accounts from posting (threads or replies). The account would be created and registered, but they can't post until they pay the evil IP fees or get whitelisted.Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: holydarkness on January 03, 2021, 06:20:22 AM for AFAIK the evil IP restrict people to create account instead of posting, CMIIW. Wrong. Evil IP actually limits new accounts from posting (threads or replies). The account would be created and registered, but they can't post until they pay the evil IP fees or get whitelisted.So it is most likely the restriction they had were indeed true and were due to the evil IP? Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: Upgrade00 on January 03, 2021, 06:44:32 AM So it is most likely the restriction they had were indeed true and were due to the evil IP? It's plausible, especially as there's no extra benefit from using the older account to post the thread.However their claim about 'negativity and censorship' on the forum is unfounded. The reason for the evil IP restrictions is obvious and it can be lifted easily. The fee would also be added to copper membership if they plan on getting that later on. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: FIFA worldcup on January 03, 2021, 07:22:14 AM Inspired by Beware of the new type of spam, hidden in the bounty proof of registration. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5298680.msg55792089#msg55792089) Just an idea, how about implementing a limited account access for brand new accounts. Meaning they must reach total time logged in : x number of hours; or a requirement to be invited(merit), before brand new accounts can write, post. or limit their post to the beginners & help. This is only a suggestion. Lets suppose you are the owner of a company and you want to advertise your company on this forum. Also suppose you are an skilled individual and you come to the forum to advertise your services. In both cases, you will not be interested in spending time on the forum and ranking up/merits doesn't mean much to you. If we implement you proposal, we will limit these newbie people from using the forum and it will not be good for the forum. Please remember, that all newbies does not come to join the bounties on this forum. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: LoyceV on January 03, 2021, 10:23:07 AM the dev claimed they created an account (currently on BN rank) but they can't create ANN, and someone had to give his old account to the team so they can publish the ANN using said acc. New accounts are limited from posting embedded images and have to wait for a much longer cool down time between posts, but they can start their posting with a thread.How about limiting the number of accounts that are created every day or lets say each hour? That would mean new (real) users have to compete with automated spam bots or click farms to create their account. It's worse than Newbie jail, so it won't happen.~ It won't stop the spamming but it will slow down the process. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: shield132 on January 03, 2021, 11:12:51 AM Theymos said that no limitation will be implemented on this forum for newbies and registration will be as easy as it was and is right now.
It has it's pros and cons. We can't request this action from theymos because he wants traffic on this forum and such members generate huge traffic of bitcointalk. High traffic means higher cost of ads on the website, i.e. high revenue for theymos. Forum runs on servers and has costs, moderators need money too (I remember hilariousandco said that they are paid according to their work). Btw this forum has "ignore" function. I think the best alternative will be if theymos adds "hide" function and we won't even see users and their posts once they are hidden for us. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: LoyceV on January 03, 2021, 11:29:24 AM We can't request this action from theymos because he wants traffic on this forum and such members generate huge traffic of bitcointalk. High traffic means higher cost of ads on the website, i.e. high revenue for theymos. Forum runs on servers and has costs, moderators need money too (I remember hilariousandco said that they are paid according to their work). The forum sits on ~1250 Bitcoin and theymos already said it doesn't need money, and he doesn't personally need to profit of it either (I'm too lazy to find back the posts). I don't think high traffic is a priority. Instead, the forum's mission is to be "as free as possible".Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: actmyname on January 03, 2021, 11:58:57 AM Instead, the forum's mission is to be "as free as possible". What if Newbies were, at least, prevented from continuing to pollute a useless board (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=207.0) with threads when (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2954489) you (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2955413) have (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2944994) so (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2859308) many (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2919973) accounts (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2941336) there (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=993572)? (or better yet, close the entire board altogether!)**that whole original premise of moving things away from the Gambling section doesn't make sense when it has extremely low traffic at this stage. I think most people have clued in to things, and even if they haven't, you have users that will post on every new ponzi that comes warning people from participating. Btw this forum has "ignore" function. I think the best alternative will be if theymos adds "hide" function and we won't even see users and their posts once they are hidden for us. I don't think I have the patience to hit ignore for every new user that comes along. Multiply the effort by all active users and you've effectively wasted cumulative years of work on what amounts to swatting a few flies away... which come back swarming every time.Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: AdolfinWolf on January 03, 2021, 12:12:32 PM Are we discussing this just to discuss or are you seriously arguing we should severely limit the posting capabilities for new users even more?
At what point does this forum become a mass circle-jerk just to farm bounties and signature campaigns? (Or have we long surpassed this point ;)) Inspired by I know that if I were a new user, I know I'd have long left by now if you'd implement any set of the above. Have you looked at the Beginners & Help section? It's completely riddled with morons that do have a rank just posting stupid shit and reformulating other people's answers for their bounties.Beware of the new type of spam, hidden in the bounty proof of registration. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5298680.msg55792089#msg55792089) Just an idea, how about implementing a limited account access for brand new accounts. Meaning they must reach total time logged in : x number of hours; or a requirement to be invited(merit), before brand new accounts can write, post. or limit their post to the beginners & help. This is only a suggestion. Quote or a requirement to be invited(merit) Esoteric, I like it. It fits the design and general vibe of the forum. I mean, there's so much good shit being shared everywhere...I think i'm delusional as well -- Perhaps I idolize the "new user" as some savior that'll bring intellectual prosperity, for which is too much credit, given that the average new user is likely to be some pajeet shitposter which will follow whatever bureaucratic rules you impose on him (or his rank, rather), but will too contribute zilch. Instead, the forum's mission is to be "as free as possible". What if Newbies were, at least, prevented from continuing to pollute a useless board (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=207.0) with threads when (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2954489) you (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2955413) have (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2944994) so (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2859308) many (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2919973) accounts (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2941336) there (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=993572)? (or better yet, close the entire board altogether!)**that whole original premise of moving things away from the Gambling section doesn't make sense when it has extremely low traffic at this stage. I think most people have clued in to things, and even if they haven't, you have users that will post on every new ponzi that comes warning people from participating. Quote Btw this forum has "ignore" function. I think the best alternative will be if theymos adds "hide" function and we won't even see users and their posts once they are hidden for us. I don't think I have the patience to hit ignore for every new user that comes along. Multiply the effort by all active users and you've effectively wasted cumulative years of work on what amounts to swatting a few flies away... which come back swarming every time.Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: actmyname on January 03, 2021, 12:38:30 PM At what point does this forum become a mass circle-jerk just to farm bounties and signature campaigns? (Or have we long surpassed this point ;)) It's not even really a circle-jerk, it's a masturbation squadron. You have all these fucktards shitting on themselves, tripping over one another just to reply to the topic title with whatever asinine combination of regurgitated froth and repetition they could scrape from the posts they do read.Indeed, I see an average of 2-3 thread bumps/replies a day, with almost every thread having people warning others of the dangers of a ponzi-scheme. To be honest, I would rather theymos completely wipe that section off the forum. I see no purpose for it and I see no point of hanging on any excuses: it's not as if moderators will have to do much extra work if they just need to get rid of a few ponzis a day. That, or you can just get condoras to do it for them. :PHave you looked at the Beginners & Help section? It's completely riddled with morons that do have a rank just posting stupid shit and reformulating other people's answers for their bounties. You can see many sections reduced to this state. Peer into Lending... if you create a new thread as a Newbie and request a loan, I guarantee that within half an hour someone is going to respond with the typical response. Same thing when you talk about any account trading. Same thing in the Scam Accusations section, with slightly more nuance (ooh you didn't read ToS).Makes me wonder how many Hungry Hungry Sig Spammers have the BTC Address staking thread on "notify me when new posts come", ready to quote the reply? Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: shield132 on January 03, 2021, 01:16:42 PM We can't request this action from theymos because he wants traffic on this forum and such members generate huge traffic of bitcointalk. High traffic means higher cost of ads on the website, i.e. high revenue for theymos. Forum runs on servers and has costs, moderators need money too (I remember hilariousandco said that they are paid according to their work). The forum sits on ~1250 Bitcoin and theymos already said it doesn't need money, and he doesn't personally need to profit of it either (I'm too lazy to find back the posts). I don't think high traffic is a priority. Instead, the forum's mission is to be "as free as possible".I amn't 100% sure what theymos said about signatures but one thing that comes to my mind is that signature campaign drives a huge traffic on this forum and is the major part of forum's ecosystem. By removing sigs, forum will lost traffic and high traffic = profit. Also, I remember that Roger Ver wanted to add signature campaign on forum.bitcoin.com in order to boost the website's traffic and make his forum more popular. Btw this forum has "ignore" function. I think the best alternative will be if theymos adds "hide" function and we won't even see users and their posts once they are hidden for us. I don't think I have the patience to hit ignore for every new user that comes along. Multiply the effort by all active users and you've effectively wasted cumulative years of work on what amounts to swatting a few flies away... which come back swarming every time.Also, direct answer to OP's idea (quote from theymos): there are an awful lot of newbie restrictions, and I don't want the forum to be unwelcoming to good newbies. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: actmyname on January 03, 2021, 09:34:53 PM Also, direct answer to OP's idea (quote from theymos): Maybe theymos is purposefully selecting hardcore Bitcoin users.there are an awful lot of newbie restrictions, and I don't want the forum to be unwelcoming to good newbies. The lack of Newbie and safety restrictions would probably eke out a small percentage of incoming users, which would have to stomach the nonstop spam in all the discussion boards. If you're trying to enter a forum and talk about this massive new technology you've discovered, you probably don't want to do it around people with broken English ranting about how The wind for Bitcoin is on our side but anytime it could change that is why I don't fall for FOMO at all because I've learned the lesson way back 2017 and that lesson really hurts. The basic "buy low sell high" still works for me and at the moment I got nothing to invest coz I lost my job. I don't know how many times I've seen the same post rewritten in slight variations. Hundreds. Thousands? Certainly at least a few thousand. Asking for users to make their own ignore list is like saying, "fuck that whole moderator concept, do it yourself". The users that decide to stay must really love Bitcoin. What is this, a cult? Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: WinBitcoins.Casino on January 04, 2021, 10:14:50 AM Inspired by Beware of the new type of spam, hidden in the bounty proof of registration. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5298680.msg55792089#msg55792089) Just an idea, how about implementing a limited account access for brand new accounts. Meaning they must reach total time logged in : x number of hours; or a requirement to be invited(merit), before brand new accounts can write, post. or limit their post to the beginners & help. This is only a suggestion. Dear there are already too many restrictions on new accounts. Some just loose access to the old accounts or some have to use a new account. Imagine how a 4 year patron will think with a new and restricted account. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: hilariousetc on January 04, 2021, 11:57:48 AM How about limiting the number of accounts that are created every day or lets say each hour? I am not sure if anyone has this data but there must be numerous accounts that are being created ever day. Out of these accounts only countable once could be from genuine or brand new user whose visiting the forum for first time. Some of them could be come back users with lost/hacked accounts. . . . and most of them might be with the intentions of spamming. Limiting account creation will slow down the burst spamming and might give more time to moderators and other users to fight against spam. It won't stop the spamming but it will slow down the process. This is only going to penalise genuine users whilst giving advantage to bots who can automate the process. Theymos is never going to do anything that is this restrictive so we need ways that only effect the bots. I think we should look at ways at stopping all these bots though as there's masses of them right now and it's only going to get worse. Shadowbanning would at least stop the spam from being an eyesore to everyone and genuine users won't know any different. We can't request this action from theymos because he wants traffic on this forum and such members generate huge traffic of bitcointalk. High traffic means higher cost of ads on the website, i.e. high revenue for theymos. Forum runs on servers and has costs, moderators need money too (I remember hilariousandco said that they are paid according to their work). The forum sits on ~1250 Bitcoin and theymos already said it doesn't need money, and he doesn't personally need to profit of it either (I'm too lazy to find back the posts). I don't think high traffic is a priority. Instead, the forum's mission is to be "as free as possible".I doubt forum funds will be used for things like that, but I'm sure you could get people to contribute to it. Things like seasteads are easier said than done though and usually will end in tears or deaths as they inevitable turn into cults or megalomaniacs take them over via their leadership. Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: Csmiami on January 04, 2021, 12:44:06 PM This is only going to penalise genuine users whilst giving advantage to bots who can automate the process. Theymos is never going to do anything that is this restrictive so we need ways that only effect the bots. Something like adding a simple captcha to brand new/newbie accounts before posting?It'd be a bit of a pain, but it's not restrictive, and most already do that on faucets, so doing another one to send the bounty report won't really matter to them. Bot owners could of course pay for the services that solve captchas for their bots, but it could reduce the number of bots (or so I want to believe). The "only" downside I'd see is that depending on the captcha type, it wouldn't be very TOR friendly Title: Re: Suggesting this: BrandNew account limits Post by: hilariousetc on January 04, 2021, 03:41:19 PM This is only going to penalise genuine users whilst giving advantage to bots who can automate the process. Theymos is never going to do anything that is this restrictive so we need ways that only effect the bots. Something like adding a simple captcha to brand new/newbie accounts before posting?It'd be a bit of a pain, but it's not restrictive, and most already do that on faucets, so doing another one to send the bounty report won't really matter to them. Bot owners could of course pay for the services that solve captchas for their bots, but it could reduce the number of bots (or so I want to believe). The "only" downside I'd see is that depending on the captcha type, it wouldn't be very TOR friendly Well I have suggested that before but there's already a captcha and the bots are getting past that and I think they can get past the other more complex ones so it's a case of how annoying it is to genuine users vs how many bots it potentially stops. Captchas can be very annoying to new users, especially when they take repeated efforts to pass like they do with tor whereas a bot doesn't care and it will keep trying until it gets past it somehow or like you said they'll pay people to solve them which can be done very cheaply. Maybe we could require a captcha if the new user makes a post that contains an url or the first handful of posts a new user makes containing an url need to be approved by a mod before they go live (they could still appear as posted to the user essentially being shadowbanned until verified). |