Bitcoin Forum

1 - Newbie starts a topic - copy/paste content from bitcoin-related article + link (so no plagiarism), no own thoughts nor any other contribution. Is it treated as spam and should it be reported to mods, or is it allowed and we should just ignore it?

2 - Would you reward a Newbie with his 1st merit point, if you see a decent post of his and/or engagement in discussion, but his posting history is, in vast majority, bounty-campaign proof posts? Do you consider such people as spammers, or you just ignore campaign-report posts? After all, they don't pollute the forum and are contained in dedicated threads.

Good questions.

1 - Copy and paste with a reference link is not plagiarism or I would not consider so as long as it is clear that the poster is not attributing the text to himself nor trying to make it look as such. I would advise quotations or at least italics. I would not consider it a good post either for merit.

2 - Unfortunately now we do have to look in the post track of newbies to avoid the spam growing again. Personally, I would accept around 30 to 50% of campaign related reports as long as they are mixed with a track good posting.

Thanks. To clarify, in Q1 I'm asking is there any way to tackle such posts (ie. by reporting them as spam). We all know what it is, low-effort copy-pasting to boost up post-count + hunt merit points. The problem is, they don't break any forum rules... Maybe reporting them as "wrong board. --> Press" could help.

You are right its not a good post so Mr. paxmao is also right post like that dont deserve a merit but it is also not a bad post especially if this is very useful and informative news in the cryptocurrency.


As long as he is the first one to give the news in this community for me its not a spam but some people keep on doing this just to get enough post for his/her bounty if he/she is doing this without any sense anymore then I will.

As long as you think that the post deserves merit and you have some, why not?

Actually I see plenty of this newbies joining social media campaign's most of them are legitimate users that use their social media account to earn some coin's so for me they dont belong to those spammers as long as they are just following the rules of the bounty campaign they joined.

Because it shows that primary reason for their activity is for-profit posting. Therefore rewarding them with merit (effectively ranking them up and enabling their signatures) increases risk of them jumping straight into signature-campaigns to shit-post one liners all over the forum in very high volumes.

That's why.

1) I hate these threads but I have in the past used them to inform OP that IMO they would be better off starting a topic in their own words and still link to the article.

I can't honestly say they've ever read my posts. Most of them are likely former bans for plagiarism.  They are not here to contribute they are here to earn and boost their post count.

2)After the change I did reward a newbie their merit , who was al.ost in this category. I did look st their history and they by no means spammed the forum, there were legitimate decent posts in between bounty applications.

I may have held off if the only decent post they had made came after the 1 merit rule, just to make sure it wasn't only to earn a merit and was part of a greater trend towards Improvement.

Edit:

Good because this is an example of a shitpost in the wild.

Higher rank is good, but honestly i dont need this.
I can live without some forum ranks and merits :)

Question 1:

I usually check their post history in this case. If it's a once off, I let it slide. If copy-pasting articles makes up the majority/all of their posts, I report their most recent one and explain they are a serial spammer. The reports are always marked as "Good", but I don't know if that means the mods delete the post or they ban the user - I've never thought to check.


Question 2:

No, I would not merit them. If you ask me again in a month, and that user has shown a sustained effort over a month or longer to improve their post quality and engage in discussion I may. At the moment, there are just too many newbies itching to go back to their spamming ways as soon as they get that elusive one merit.

You have started a very interesting and correct discussion. I somehow think that with the first or second messages difficult make sure the participant has written a very interesting guides or really brought the contribution to this forum. I also wrote good posts on the forum, but I don't expect credit for them. It is important to go at least a month from the moment of their registration or that the newcomers have already written their first 30 posts. And before you give them a reward, see his latest posts.
This is my personal opinion.

Well, its up to you. Actually you can see by yourself if that person is just waiting for a merit and planning to spam again but If you are satisfied with that person's post then go give that person a reward. Because of this new merit system. Many of us newbies already learned our lesson. To be honest i'm one of those folks who cried because of this rule until Ive realise that this merit system was created for us to show that the forum is just not for earning money but on learning with it. Posting quality post to help each other, to share knowledge. More time in reading than posting. This will really clean the forum for the better growth of it.

Majority of topics created by newbies on Bitcoin discussions board is copy/pasted content with a reference link and although it's somewhat spamming, it's allowed. You can't report every such posts, but most of the times they tend to be duplicates, someone would have already shared the same content from another source either on the press board or on the same board, so reporting it as duplicate would do. Posts linking news aggregator websites as source could be reported. Users spamming their own websites/links could be reported. Press board has its own format so reporting wrong board. --> Press wouldn't be appropriate.

About 90% of the demoted members have a history full of post pyramids. If an user with all the bounty spam do have a decent post history then bounty spam posts isn't a criteria to not reward a merit worthy post.

copy paste needs to be demotivated.
several unemployed people are finding bounty campaigns as the new platform where they can earn their livelihood by providing their services.  If he is posting quality posts along with bounty campaign posts; I think he should still be motivated by giving merit.
Sorry i am not high ranked but still i could not stop myself writing my views.  :)

i don't think newbies can get merit now because newbies can't Wright a helpful post beacause most of  us are"newbies" almost all questions here are answered by long time members here.

1.I don't consider it as completely spam,maybe it is some helpful information required for the forum people but there is no effort from the person so it doesn't deserving merits in my opinion but some newbies copy paste very old articles which was already exhausted in that case we need to report them for spamming.

2.We can count the newbies among the crowd who is really creating helpful posts or topics in that case I may reward them with merits if he doesn't get any merit for that post.

If a user not contribute something from himself and he just copy paste from others artical I will call it soft spam even there us useful content. Every one can quote from reference link but it doesn't mean they just copy paste total post. In that case reporting to moderators will not work. They will not consider as spam.  Also you can't report for plagiarism as well he added reference link. But if a user doing same thing continuously than you should PM to moderators with description.


If I merit newbie I check his post history. Especially after implement new merit system. Because they could copy paste other post or from others articals. So they made one decent post it doesn't mean they are not spammer if his post history full with spam post. But I encourage to send merit new people if they are not spammer. But it's really depend on sender. There is no rule that you should visit post history. Usually a decent post deserve merit.

1 – I ignore these posts. To me they seem more of a waste of time than anything else. I mean if the poster is not able to come up with a summary in his own words, and/or some sort of opinion on the content, I can’t see much point to it. More often than not, it’s a “merit bait” post, where one may overlook the link and at a quick glance and merit the post.

2- There are some decent current hybrid cases that balance social reports with good posts. As you say, the reports only pollute the history track on the posters profile, but it does not give out great signs of really wanting to contribute here (equilibrated exceptions aside). Since last week, what we are seeing more often is people turning a full 180 degrees on their posting habits, going from 90%-100% social reporting to plain regular posting, some of them may even be decent. In these cases I’d rather wait, and if the trend continues and we cross paths again, I may merit the him further down the road. What I don’t want is to reward a momentary change of attitude, and my doubts there can only be dissipated over a larger period of time.

Beginners can participate in discussions and also write quality posts.Our thoughts can be useful to others.Participate in discussions, offer interesting ideas and eventually you will be rewarded.

1. Yes, we can`t consider such posts plagiarism, since the source of information is indicated. But basically such posts don`t bring any benefit to the forum, as they don`t show the level of the author's awareness of this or that problem. If the author of the comment doesn`t share his conclusions and reasonings based on the analysis of this or that news, then such a post is useless, since other forum participants can always get acquainted with the material from the primary sources. It is necessary not just to share information (the relevance of which, moreover, often remains in question), but to create a problematic field for discussion and argumentation.

2. I believe that a person should be given a merit for a worthy post, not relying at the same time on his post history. Yes, mostly newbies write bounty related posts, but if a person tried and wrote something interesting and useful, why not give him a merit specifically for this post? After all, merits are given for certain posts, and not for post history as a whole. If we all paid attention to the post history, before giving merits to newbies, the latter would hardly ever have received them.

Yes copying and pasting links or article that highlights the idea would be annoying.

However, here is the positive side:

*The article would be helpful if it talks about the current updates of governance that relates to cryptocurrency.
*It supports the topic which the OP has started and without the links and those details provided in the thread it could not really be that credible.
*The best sources of information does not only produce on one single blog, website, in a forum and etc. The best sources are coming from everywhere that one should consider.

Yet, I do not support topics with no sense and you can just see it by reading the topic or title of the topic itself.

If they clearly say the text is from someone else and the post is not repeated, I think it cannot be reported as spam. Reporting as a wrong board... may be difficult as the news may be about the topic on the board, so it qualifies.

I know few guys from few Telegram group who posted an article, it's just a more perfidious way to get attention on his posts.
I always mark them as spam. Also here on btctalk

I'm not really a high ranked member so, you can take it as is - a Full Member opinion:

1. I would treat that as spam, Bitcoin & Altcoin Discussions is already full of things like this, we all read the news no need to post it again if you don't have opinions on it.

2. No, I would not award merit for spammers, or users that have their main post history composed of endless bounty quotes, because that means they're not here to learn about bitcoin but just to make money.

Great Questions. The agreement seems to be:

1. Article based posts without original thought don't deserve merit.
2. If post history is mostly quoted reports, we should wait at least 2 months from zero-day.

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My thoughts are the same on this. I am maintaining a list of zero-merit newbies to later check back on. Probably others are doing it too. My suggestion to newbies would be to refrain from campaigns that want you to post nested reports on their ANN page. Go with  the ones which allow filling through Google forms. This way you can maintain a better presence of forum and avoid being ignored by most merit-givers.