Bitcoin Forum

I strongly think it is and obv. this lowers the overall quality of this forum as a source for useful information. As soon as a newbie asks a question, sig spammers start crowding the topic with their 99% sensless/false/bs answers. Some (most?) of them didn't even understand the topic!
@Theymos: The problem is not created by the sig spammers, but the system allowing it. There might be a point where Bitcointalk will be rejected by the users, when you can't find the information you are looking for, because it's hidden in a flood of trash.

that is why there a people called 'Managers' in Sig campaigns, they kick people in the butt when someone spamming a discussion, and all but a trash statements, and by the way, there is an IGNORE Button that is somewhat useful.

Cheers...

Exactly, but you're wasting your time with this unfortunately. This has been brought up numerous times and various ways to combat it have been proposed and all ignored. The forum degenerated into a place for people from developing nations who can barely speak English to earn a bit of cash a long time ago and it gets worse daily.


99% of crapcoin campaigns don't have any one managing their campaign at all. They accept hundreds of users and pay them for whatever they can be bothered to churn out (or copy and paste). A fair few of the current bitcoin campaign managers aren't doing a good enough job either or taking on too much work.


Do you really expect people to ignore 99% of the forum? These shitposters shouldn't be here in the first place and wouldn't be if campaign managers would do their job properly.

That was a running topic some years ago.

Being away for a couple of years I can say that after so much time the situation bettered a little, but not so much. Asking people to make their post long (50-100 char) in some cases is even worsening the situation, with users unnecessarily being redundant.

Would be great if theymos could implement some sort of upvote/downvote so that only really valuable posts will be rewarded.

true many sig campaingn want many post weekly
soo they users come and post many spamm post for can get money from campaign

Speak of the devil.  This is a great example of a post that adds absolutely nothing,  and it's poorly written too.  I have this user on my ignore list, but I just had to see what he wrote--and of course it's pure manure.  99% of posts here aren't worth reading, hence the forum has become a place not for information or discussion but for spam.  It shouldn't be that way.  Sig managers aren't doing much these days because the worst offenders are still finding their way into campaigns.

He does not even have a signature.
You otherwise have, and are making a long empty post.

It's not empty, dude.  This is a thread that asks for an opinion, and I have one on this.

I've also already hit the limit on my campaign for the week, so I'm not getting paid for that post or this one.  I would be posting here regardless of whether I was in a campaign.   In fact if you'd read any of my other posts on this you'd know I support banning campaigns.

Sorry, I think that insulting each other is just useless. We need subforums without signatures, upvoting...there are plenty of solutions, but the real matter is that theymos and his crew seems not interested in this very well known problem.

Oh, aren't you there yet?


Indeed. A problem in which i am well versed.
Is is not becoming obvious that theymos wants it this way... for a reason.

But it's the only thing fun to do in a forum where communication doesn't exist, humor and wit fly over the heads of 90% of users, and where good posts get lost in a sea of diarrhoea.

I'm beginning to come to that conclusion as well.  I agree about the up/down voting.  That would be a nice feature, but you'll find many reasons staff and other DT members will give to preserve the status quo.  Just like they defend the trust system, which is a joke.  Anyway, I like this forum and that's why I'm pissed that it's going to hell.  However, I do realize it's not my forum and that I'm just a guest here.  Despite all its warts, I'm glad it exists.

If you check the post history it is obvious account was sold to a 3rd world spammer like you.
You lot make this forum a cesspool of shitposters.

And theymos doing nothing doesnt help much either.

The voting on this topic seems to be unanimous - 100% for yes (14 votes) and 0 for no. Apparently everybody (who reads the meta threads) thinks that this is a big problem.

Despite wearing of paid signature, I have to agree with you that something wrong with the system, which allows to produce spam. I don't want to blame users who are doing that - they are only using opportunity to earn money.
But generally, what you are offering to solve this problem? There was numerous offers to ban all signature campaigns, but it's hardly can happen.
Now biggest problems comes from altcoins bounty campaigns, which aren't managed at all. I would like to see these campaigns banned. But it won't happen, Theymos gave dedicated place for these campaigns, and it's a sign, that he have nothing against these campaigns.

I don't think it's a big problem, but I do believe that it contributes to the low quality of many posts.
It's hard to judge how much the possibilty of earning money through signature campaigns contributes to low quality posts, since there's a lot of people who are unaware of these making terrible posts anyways. This is in part due to the large profits achievable in the crypto markets, so there's inevitably going to be a strong draw towards people who want to make quick money. Most of those are simply very impulsive and not very bright, leading to off-topic random nonsense en masse.

I personally couldn't really care any less though. In fact, the state of the forum does help with due diligence, albeit in a peculiar way.

Yeah, that's because people don't read, because they're not paid to read--they're paid to post.  And it's exactly that that makes this forum so shitty to be around.  Garbage posts, over and over.  Someone starts a topic asking "How I make money with bitcoin?" and the next 100 posts in the thread all say the same thing:  sig campaigns, trading, gambling, bounties, offer a skill.  The shitposters learn how to answer that question specifically, and it gets asked over and over.  It's tiring.  It's tiring to read threads where everyone says the same thing.  

Edit:  I'm glad this thread exists.  The shitposting problem is like the 900 pound gorilla in the room that no one acknowledges.  And no one acknowledges that campaign managers aren't doing much to keep these posters out of campaigns anymore.

Edit edit:  Those shitposters who aren't in sig campaigns:  I think a lot of them are account farmers, just posting to rank up so that they can sell those accounts.  I don't have proof, just a strong suspicion.

I also have respect for campaign managers like Yahoo62278, Lutpin, Lauda, and Edwardard and I realize they have bosses to please too. Even Secondstrade was getting good at not accepting shitposters toward the end. It's just lately I've seen tons of shitposters wearing signatures from SMAS campaigns.  I don't think some of them take that seriously anymore, else they would never accept some of these people.

You misinterpreted my quote. I'm saying that people who are not aware of signature campaigns often post garbage as well. People not reading or paying attention is a very common problem all across society, not just this forum. Places where serious discussions take place are quite rare and few in between.

Of course, this place is special in the sense that signature campaigns amplify this effect quite strongly and I agree with the notion that it's tedious to sift through all the shitposting.
But again, if you pay close attention this shitposting can help you identify successful investment opportunities in a way that a normal forum couldn't, so I'm personally ok with it. There are many other outlets for me to socialize on anyways, so I don't particularly need this place to be one of those as well.

Exactly. In part, signature managers are somewhat to blame since they keep on accepting members that clearly doesn't have a good post history and good command in English. Most of these users who do spam are those that are enrolled in signature campaigns of ICOs and the managers don't do shit once these spammers are in the campaign--just exclude some posts that they "think" were spam.

This issue has been going on for the last two years and hasn't been addressed even once. SMAS doesn't do the trick as some campaign managers just accept members to get a pay from their respective bosses.

I noticed too in recent years the quality of the posts and replies is simply 90% trash. I sometime join sig campaigns, but it does not affect my post quality because I enjoy writing long and thoughtful replies.

Mods should seriously step up their game in removing one liner post/replies. Better yet, implement a "character minimum" on posts, and mods should aggressively ban people for cheating the minimum. Bans of 1-2 weeks should be handed out pretty regularly.

I'm thinking, an average of your past 10 posts, should be higher than 50 characters. So this will allow occasional one liner, but not constant stream of one liners.

Theymos is a true liberation and is a strong believer in a free market. The signature spammers generate a lot of page views which increases the value of forum ads and increases the influence of the forum (and in turn the influence of theymos via his ability to set forum policy). Sig spammers decrease the value of each page view although the net effect I think is so that total ad revenue is higher than it would otherwise be.

I have to say, that's a really bad idea.  Sig campaigns already have character minima, and it only forces a bigger bowel movement out of the orifices of these shitposters.  That will not work.  You'll see severely padded posts,  that's all.

Theymos doesn't understand human nature.   I think he has algorithmitis--just look at how the trust system is designed.  It's so easy to game, it's almost to the point of being useless.

I think this forum reached a point where moderators are not even able to apply the forum rules anymore.

Low quality topics do not belong here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1649348.0

And then see topics, like:

- Hackers are active these days https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2061038.0 (Needs one answer and the thread would be done. Using the forum search would even be better)
- Do you think Bitcoin will survive after 100 year ? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2076436.0 (Poll: Yes or No. No answers really needed.)
- bitcoin can change anyone life? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2104648.0 (Do they simply forget an 's', because they are in a hurry collecting posts or is it really the bad english?)
- Did you learn Bitcoin in BitCoinTalk.org or in Google Articles? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2112726.0 (If that one isn't a low quality post, then ...)
- What is BTC for you? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1875364.0 (OK, there is a lower quality post)
- What is the bitcoin function for you?  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2105728.0 (Damn, it goes even lower)
- why people interest in bitcoin? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2097098.0
- How to win Bitcoins with Signature Campaigns ??? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2047002.0 (needs 8 pages to explain how to start signature campaigns)

This was only on page 1.

All of them are loaded with answers, that follow the low quality of the OP and they have only one incentive: raising post count as quick as possible to make more money.

edit: do you love bitcoin https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2073793.0 (wtf?)


Where are the cameras?

And what do you want to do? Lock each topic that already answered, Then once flooded by other thread (which will happened when this principle apply) then some newbie create new thread and ask it again? Is that what you want? What is better and neat. Only one thread for discussion of one question or multiple thread with same discussion topic? ;D
Besides that, Those so called shit posters made this forum alive and created revenue due to traffic. They are not harming you and there are available search function. Finally as what you have said that question can be answer in one page, Then readers will read first page alone. No one browse on the middle page except if you are the one who post there and made  a conversation to other user.  ::)

It was mod (hilariousandco) who wrote this sticky topic (Low quality topics do not belong here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1649348.0 ) for a reason. Theymos and his crew want to keep the quality of this forum to a certain level.

I know that. But the problem is people will still keep creating that topic even if it was deleted. It is better to stay alive. The best solution is to control those campaign manager by creating some rule on their campaign regarding on posting in useless mega thread. I saw already some manager applying it.

Or simply disallow signatures in general. Problem solved.

Or pass the keys of the forum to someone who actually cares about issues experienced by actual community members (this excludes probably over 90% of the members ATM who are just account farmers, sig. spammers or similar).

I think that would involve a considerable amount of money changing hands, more money than most of those who care about the forum could afford.   It's a good idea in theory.

The whole argument that the garbage threads will just keep getting created smacks of laziness.  It's so much easier to do nothing than to try something new.

Banning sig campaigns would definitely solve the problem, but I highly doubt that's going to happen.

Maybe we can just made some pressure to signatures spammers warlords to change the rules.

Something like ask for no more than one really constructive or helpful post in a week, and then singularly review those post.

The main thing: during the old times, I used to read the signatures of honourable posters to be introduced to something new. Now I usually avoid signatures like pest, and a legend could easily wear the signature of a scammy service. At this point, they are just costly ads.

Ignore the money. Let theymos continue doing ADs, and staff payments. Pay the person as much as an admin would be receiving for a while and decide from there. The money isn't even important in this context, at least not from my perspective.

Just having a stronger stance, i.e. be less lenient on shitposting, harder bans, blacklisting services, banning account sales, farmed accounts, et. al. would kill the majority of the issue.

This is a lot more work, than just dropping signatures generally, but I agree with this point.

In my opinion, there are truly lot of posters who posts senseless replies on topics here in bitcointalk. In order to stop this, i think we need to have a better rules on Signature campaigns, accepting users in campaigns ,scanning applicant's  posts thoroughly would make at least prevent spammers, but this cannot be easily done. I also suggest that we should have a thread for where we can posts evidences and proofs who have been spamming and posting senseless things so that we mod can temporarily ban them or give them warnings. Again, this is only my suggestion, i know that this is cannot be done easily.

These topics should be in the off topic section which is an unpaid section for most campaigns. Then there would be almost no replies. Many people posting here are itself wearing a signature and this topic has been posted about 1000 times now in Meta with same replies everytime. Well, the off topic section too is flooded with newbies tries to increase their post count/rank.

Don't mind sig campaigns being banned but they exist as they get a huge exposure from this forum that's the most popular bitcoin forum.  It's become like a give-and-take relationship where spam posts are all tolerated till each one is benefiting from it. IMO, campaigns can get attention just with the ads posted on the forum itself. Worst thing is even scams are tolerated. Anything done about that?

Sure BUT along with the "trash" is a chance of opportunity and outreach to a population who CAN be educated that are geographically dispersed throughout the world!  They will eventually learn to read, decipher and see history happening for themselves first hand and see how much they are missing out on becoming free from the fiat currency slave-system with every month that passes by. And this will lead to action of opting for Bitcoin rather than holding fiat. And then spreading of this knowledge (hopefully in a less nonsensical way).

So you mean this thread is a farm for signature's farmers too right?  ;D . Yes if this topic was in the off-topic i don't think people are keep "giving an ideal" like this, except some people.

Yes, signature spamming is the cause of what we see in this forum.

It’s a complicated issue because what would happen if strong action is taken is that up to 90% of posts in some sections would be deleted. Posts together with those over-100 pages replies. Imagine the consequences for traffic and revenue.

A forum is not an Encyclopedia, if you want to find proper info you’d better find it somewhere else, it’s a place where people exchange opinions, and that comes hand in hand with some amount or rubbish. The problem here is that most of the times people are not exchanging opinions, just posting without reading to increase post count and/or get paid.