Bitcoin Forum

I suggest that posts in the off topic section dont have signatures enabled, i think we will see less spammers there
i know they will move to other boards but it will be easier to see spam in the other boards

your thoughts?

even signatures are disable in off topic section, a post is still a post that will be counted in some campaign like yobit because of automation. the only effect of your suggestion is the users wont see any signature but the posters will still continue to post there

It is stupid to think that after time, yobit and others wont edit the software that they use to avoid counting posts in those topics

at the first place, if yobit doesnt really want to pay for off topic posts they should already set their bot the to count the posts from that section but they didnt do an action about it.

yobit signature campaign is been up for a long time now and many users reported some of their advertisers already but they dont do some actions so i doubt they will edit their bot not to count posts from off topic

Why focus on yobit?
Yobit's bot is too simple, thats why they count all the posts, if signatures can be seen in off topic, they will be forced to upgrade their bot to filter good posts from those in off topic
Its hard to believe that they will pay for posts that dont show their sg

If you want to get rid of spammer is contact who helding the signature campaign or his manager.
And about the rule , it should make for not posting on selected section, example for this case is off topic,
I'm sure that it will reduce some spam on this section

What really would need to happen is the signature campaigns not pay in offtopic posts, which makes sense.  Bit-X I believe offtopic don't count (I don't go there often as I find what was your last drink and other posts in it quiet boring).

So find signature campaigns that count it and worst offenders go to their campaign managers and suggest not to count offtopic posts.   That i think is best solution assuming you can get manager to do it.

The suggestion is a good thing to reduce the spam a bit but the big step is convincing the campaign managers to not count those which their somehow firm of their rules that first implemented and if you dig a bit deeper, you could see on some campaign threads that a moderator has voiced their concern regarding these spammers and the rules that need consideration towards counting those useless posts

It is effective in getting campaign managers to not pay postings in the section but it doesn't stop spam. People would still use it to farm accounts. IMO, a more effective way to reduce signature spam is to set a rule for signature campaigns with auto bots to not count those sections and if it can be counted, manual counting is required.

Simply spammers will continue their spams whether in off-topic or elsewhere.
For example, in the other compagns that don't pay posts in the off topic section, politics... spammers will bombard game & rounds.
In this case another member will suggest to not count the post in this sub.
It is like a circle, i will not say i don't support your idea but the problem is that you may reduce their earnings but will not reduce their spam..

Better to report them to mods...

Its better to have a fixed rate for sig campaign per week like what ore-mine.org does, with fixed rate spammers will avoided too much bump, thank you, and many spam posts.

Not really no. Fixed rates with reasonable requirements in posts do not lead to less spam, but to spam spread over several accounts. This in turn will increase the demand for accounts of a certain level (Full Member+). Thus we will have more farm spam.

What might be a solution though is to proxy ban those running the campaigns. E.g. if you run a campaign and X (maybe 10 or a percentage based number) participants had to be banned for spam you will get banned as well. Accounts running the campaigns can not be replaced as easily as those posting and it would give them a very strong incentive to clean up among their participants.

Signature spammers are everywhere in the forum and not just in the off topic section. Like they've said they are l in the games and rounds, investor-based games and even in the beginners and help section etc.  The thing is,  the only solution to stop is for the campaign managers to take action against it. Be more strict with their rules and people might take effort into putting some thoughts in their posts and not just a plain shitty one.

Also the offtopic is not full of spammers, there are actually constructive topics in there, what makes it look bad is the posters.

Reporting them to mods won't stop them either unless they have been reported several times or if their posts are a bunch of nonsense.

The main reason for so many spams is due to automated signatures and even worst if there's no limit in postings. Shorena is right. However, fixed rate campaigns does lessen the load on the manager when counting posts. They should review each participant individually and ensure that they aren't spamming and is contributing something to the discussion at the very list. I have joined many campaigns which only recruits high quality posters and it does work well.

Automated campaigns depend on the initial post and last post. This will have no effects at all

Agree, like with Bit-X who do not pay you for posts in certain sections of the forum.

Another thing that might also help but which might be difficult to implement is to get users to lock a thread one it has served its purpose. There are countless times where somebody asks a question and get their answer within the first say three posts yet the thread ends up being 5 pages long as every man and his dog keep on posting the same answers over and over again. If the thread is locked this will not happen.

True but it also stops others with similar problems to post follow up questions. Spammers will find a way to post one way or another.

You didn't understand what shorena said. It is not the limiting of post, she is referring to the fixed rate for lower ranked accounts, people tend to spam to raise their pay rate so thus they will make a lot of post and thus that will result to spam.

Also it is not the automated counting that does the problem. It is not a problem to have a bot to count the posts but I think implementing a rule that a participant must take care of the image of the campaign might lessen spamming, let's say there is a rule that if you want to get paid, you need to be sure your posts are constructive, if you want to get paid you need to take care of other participants, such reporting them if they are making spammy posts. Participants should be given a responsibility like this.

The only way is shutting down sig campaigns, honestly.

Have you once imagine how this forum will look like without all the spammers making those insubstantial posting? The thing is, we want to get rid of the spammers and not the signature campaign itself. I doubt people will keep working in their postings if they are not getting paid by it (for some maybe). The forums activity benefits from the ongoing signature campaigns.

That can be effective but also can kill sig campaigns. Campaign manager can do all the work so instead of the sig campaign itself the campaign manager should be one responsible for this matter.

People will just create use and throw accounts to run signature campaigns, or move the running of campaigns to other sites. This suggestion was shot down before.

i thought the majority of the campaign if not all don't pay for posting in the off-topic section, at least you can consider their "spamming" genuine there...

I agree, although I doubt this will happen. It becomes a chore having to wade through all the crap to find the posts that actually add some value to a conversation. A lot of 'members', and I use that term loosely, can't even write English properly. Just take a look at some of the posts in this thread:


Maybe you should report rivoke to your campaign manager...


Did you get that bump when your momma dropped you on your head, or were you always this stupid?


Don't forget the Meta section. Spammers sure like posting there too ;)


Oh yeah, dem managers is always their firming dem rulez an ting 8)


Obviously those campaigns didn't recruit only high quality posters if they let someone like you join...


Such reporting, many WOW


Oh the horror! What a terrible thought to imagine...

On a more serious note:

It's almost as if some of these posts were written in another language and passed through Google Translate. There's a difference between making grammatical errors here and there, and making it blatantly obvious that you really suck at English. Coupled with meaningless tripe and redundant baloney, the forum can become rather unsavoury at times, if you know what I mean.

Damn Mr.big you sure got those sneaky sig spammers with your post. Did you check your own posts lately? If you were wearing a signature you would have been banned most likely due to your super low quality posting but i guess you feel better by throwing shit at other people. I think people is looking too much into spammers that wear signatures when there are spammers like this guy with totally worthless posts without any signature that are still here.

I don't think such idea gonna work. Naming that board "off-topic" holds a specific reason.
In my opinion theymos did very good by keeping off-topic because he is fulfilling spammers desire
That is the only place where whole spammers belong to. You can only see that place full of spams.
So, give them place. We know non-spammers won't go there.

And yes your plan of hiding signature in that section might help in Reducing spams I guess


I agree. He only have anger that's why he is posting bullshits in red color
Control your attitude mate

Oh put a sock in it. I average like 1 post per 3 days, while you average like 5. I go for months at a time without posting, and I write in legible English. Plus I don't have a paid signature. Unlike you, I have no incentive to post. If paid signatures were banned tomorrow, you and most of your ilk would likely slither away back to your fetid hovels, or your posting frequency would become like the libido of a 99 year-old man. Maybe you should spend the money you earn from your signature on some English lessons.



Lol, so you're trying to tell me that indiscernible drivel you just posted isn't spam ???

Funny how you and the poster above you both have usernames that start with Xin. Gee, I wonder if you're related.

But you still post shit nonetheless, what does it matter if you are posting less per day or if your english is good? Spam is spam. Funny how you bash sig spammers when your posts are 1/10 in quality.

Your posts aren't exactly the pinnacle of enlightenment, doofus. It does matter actually, because I haven't noticed threads popping up about members like me, but countless ones complaining about paid signature spammers such as yourself. Why do you deny the obvious; that you and the majority of paid signature members only post to get paid? Just look at this thread; the OP made a post about cutting down on signature spam, and almost all of the replies came from people spamming their signatures for some bit crumbs. How ironic is that?

You can keep denying the obvious, which even you yourself know to be true, or you can just admit what everyone already knows, and tell me to get lost because the admin and mods allow you to spam your paid signatures. Either way, I don't care, and I'll continue to ridicule and poke fun at the mediocre advertisements posing as actual forum posts as I please.

The standards for almost every sig campaign are laxed, that's why you get a bunch of garbage posters.  Banning campaigns is not a viable solution, because since when has prohibition solved any problem?  Answer: it hasn't.

I am proud to be a member of the sig campaign I am in because it's members are vetted for quality posting and the campaign manager does his job well.  If all the campaigns paid this much attention to who was in and what they were posting this website would clean up dramatically.

Editorial comment: I post a couple times a day, same as before I was in a campaign, so why not get some coin for something I do anyway.  My campaign doesn't honor posts in meta, so this post is "free".

I wish someone with authority could disable signatures completely for everyone for some test period of time.
I want to see if that helps reduce spam on bitcointalk. Because from what I could see on other big boards, Reddit included, spam is still overwhelming there.

It would but when there were almost no signatures people posted crap too, i once got like 10 posts deleted in like 3 days and never got banned, of course no signature back then so really the sig campaigns have brought the spammers to atention but there were plenty of them back then

Back then they had nothing to gain, now spammers are spamming with the intention to make money, cut down their most profitable board and they will surely get banned as spam is easier to catch when not in off-topic
cutting signatures completely would stop them indefinately

I recently rarely look what people post in off-topic, but I used to post there a lot in the past, it was fun. Restricting boards is not the answer, spam will likely move to the unrestricted sub boards.
I also don't think that off topic is so profitable since 95% signature campaigns do not pay for posts done in off top section.

Bitcointalk is now very big forum and spam will not end, no matter what. Even if you remove signature campaigns, spam is it is here to stay. They only answer is moderation.

One solution may be to allow users to vote posts up or down, with posts that receive many down votes becoming hidden. Then adding an option to ignore all users with many negative posts. I've noticed some websites have such a system implemented in their comments section.


The quality of spam has gone down while the quantity of it has gone up since paid signatures have become popular. Obviously not every post is going to be a treasure trove of information. But if we had cheap posts back then, we got straight up knock-offs nowadays. Online money-making forums advertise posting on bitcointalk as a way to make money: http://thebot.net/threads/make-money-posting-on-btctalk.321232/

Of course, the 'Engrish' speakers on those sites see that opportunity and figure that it's more profitable than making 10 cents per 1000 captchas and descend upon here like hyenas on carrion. These aren't people like Mikestang who post here anyway and figure, 'why not get paid for what I already do?' Rather, they're only posting here because it's the best way for them to make money online. It's not very difficult to spot them either, especially since they become very defensive whenever someone calls them out.

Would be an interesting experiment for sure. If signatures were banned shitposts and traffic would drastically decrease but there will always be spam and trolls. In fact, most of the disruptive  trolls here never have signatures. I think we need to crack down on shitposters though and hopefully just banning people who put no/minimal effort in will quickly get the idea. Campaign managers need to step up their game too and start moderating their participants.


Most campaigns don't pay for off topic but it's the ones that do that are causing the problem. Go look there and you will see all the shit posts are being made by people with a yobit signature because they can get away with easily spamming one word responses. Go look in games and rounds and you'll see it plastered with secondstrade sigs. Why? Because bizzarely they pay for that sub (and don't for off topic). Those campaigns are the worst offenders here because they don't do anything to actually manage their campaign and pay people automatically whatever drivel they post. Personally, I think those campaigns should be treated the same as sig spammers and banned as they're the ones causing it. Probably going to leave both campaigns negative feedback soon until they clean up their act but a ban will be more appropriate.


Wouldn't work and would easily be abused by people with bots and multiple accounts. If someone didn't like you or something you said then they would just use their alt army to downvote you. If people are obviously posting crap then they should just be temp banned until they get the message. If they don't then a perma ban should follow. I wouldn't be opposed to removing signatures entirely if my suggestions ultimately don't work but I think we can quickly get on top of spam  by both mods and signature campaign managers being more strict. If people aren't going to get paid for shitposts or banned for making them then they either will up their game or not bother making them at all.

Well the voting option may not be that bad, you could always make only full members and above to be able to vote posts, of course poeple can buy full members accounts but how man? Like if someone really hates you at most he is going to have 5 accounts and you could make 30 negative votes for a post to be hidden. Legendary members votes could also be worth more and people with good trust too, seriously this could be a good idea, it wont stop the spam but it would help and it's a simple thing to do.

It's not a good idea. It will easily be abused by people trying to censor others. Doesn't it already happen on reddit? If a post is bad or spam report it. You're basically giving regular users the ability to moderate the forum which is never a good idea.

It doesn't really happen on reddit, i have been browsing reddit for years and the downvotes are usually right and even if they are not it takes a lot of downvotes to hide someone's comment and even after that you can still show the comment anyways, it's not like it gets deleted.

There is an ignore button already, but a reddit system is IMHO not suitable for a discussion(!) board. It removes unpopular opinions. Yes I can do the extra click and read it, but over time most - me included - will just ignore it. I dont like the idea of a hive mind deciding what is worth to be seen and what not. I rare use the ignore function for the every same reason. I can spot a post not worth reading after I read the first (half-) sentence, but that user might have an interesting post from time to time.

it wouldnt be just unpopular opinions, it might extend to the opinions that dont agree with any single member of the forum that is willing to go far enough to make sure that train of thought is silenced. account trading here is more or less allowed here on the forum; whats going to stop a single person from buying up dozens of sock puppet accounts just so they can control the way speech works in the forum if such a system were to be implemented? it'd be a lot worse than the reddit hivemind imo.

Make that a post needs -100 votes to get hidden and only high ranks accounts, do you really think someone would buy 100 accounts or more if the other post has positive just to make it hidden because he doesnt like his opinion, come on now your arguments are really the worst shit I have ever read.

Mall signature campaigns don't include off topic as part of payment so spamming there would
Be useless. Honestly it's not a big deal

given that this forum is a pretty central place to discuss all things bitcoin related, you really think theres not a sliver of a chance that people might be willing to drop a few thousand doollars to control free speech on here? come back when you can make a solid argument instead of just lashing out.

If a post requires a ridiculous number of votes to get removed then it would be almost useless anyway. How long do you think it would take a post to receive 100 votes? Ages if at all. Makes it even less likely if only higher ranked accounts can downvote things as well. And again, if a post is so bad that it is getting a lot of downvotes then it is likely against the rules and it can be reported and it will be dealt with, but if it's not against the rules a mob shouldn't be able to remove it.


Exactly. Just look at what lengths determined trolls go to on here botting accounts etc. Shady or unethical businesses and scammers would buy up or create numerous accounts to silence any negative opinions or criticism. If signatures ever get banned or campaigns rates significantly drop in the future imagine all the accounts that will come on to the market when they have no use for them anymore. Even higher ranked accounts will be sold for next to nothing so it wouldn't be that difficult to buy up a shitload.

Considering that the person that created >>6000 accounts just to spam a link got hold of a handfull of accounts that are at or near the 4 seconds per post limit is really scarry. Its possible right now, but I assume they are not willing to dump the money required into it. If timed right it could stop the board for a few hours until someone is awake to handle it.

Well thats the thing, right now anyone could create accounts all the time to spam something or troll someone but it doesn't happen that often and when it happens it gets handled by the mods, i don't think the upvote system would be that easy to abuse and I doubt anyone would buy 100 accounts just to do it but whatever.

Only Newbies get handled quickly. For a while after the last hack higher ranked accounts pop up spamming, spreading links to malware etc. It often took several hours until someone was online able to handle it. I would guess paroler coverage against newbies is pretty close to 24/7.

I would also think that someone willing to write an automated system to run a lengthy spam attack against this board just because they have some beef with a bitcoin company should be considered very determined. If a Hero account could be gotten for 0.1 or even less it might be worth it for them to burn a few BTC on accounts.

AFAIK most of the sig. campaigns do not already pay for the posts made in newbie section so it would be kind of a waste idea if you remove the signatures from off topic. And if you want to remove the signatures then why simply not remove the paid signatures from the whole forum?

Maybe because most of the posts made there are paid for by the few signature campaigns that pay for posts in that section, stop them from spamming there and they will have to migrate elsewhere where their spam would be easier to see and they will get banned

You are correct but it is those from the campaigns that pay for posts from off-topic that make the most spam there