It's a mark of just how f'ed up the Neluns thread is that the above exchange seems entirely consistent with the ongoing "conversations" therein.

FWIW, I tried pressing Welch in this thread to consider banning the OP and locking the thread, because until that happens the bots/bumping service/OP have won.

Nope, just Forward; 30stomachs had <28 activity but both of them were banned at approximately the same time which strongly implies the same criteria were being used to evaluate them for banning, despite the difference in activity levels. I realize the mods have a difficult job, but they make it more difficult by requiring 5 examples of plagiarism over the course of 3 days before banning an account that was clearly stolen (a newbie that registered before the 2015 hack and which has only just recently started posting...).

Furthermore, after successfully getting dozens of accounts banned for plagiarizing each other over the course of a month in the aforementioned threads, the bumping service appears to have learned to not plagiarize anymore so now there's no wrongdoing to report. The bots have instead shifted to spewing out nonsensical conversations that repeatedly tread the same topics over and over again but which avoid plagiarizing or text-spinning. For example, here's a recent exchange from the Neluns thread:





Etc. and so on...

Unfortunately, the current set of rules don't really prohibit bots having a fake conversation with each other, hence I switched tactics and tried reporting the OP for incentivizing posting and requesting they be banned and the threads locked (or trashed, but preferably locked so the evidence of their misdeeds would persist). Sadly, those reports have been shunted off into what appears to be permanent "unhandled" status, which is the passive-aggressive version of marking them "bad"... 

Sorry, missed this reply in my ever-burgeoning watchlist.

Over the last month I've reported at least 250 posts in the 3 threads that appear to be using the same bumping service so I have got quite the data set to work with here, and I can assure you that accounts in these threads are requiring more than one report of plagiarism to get banned based on them continuing to post even after the first report was marked good. For example, I submitted 2 plagiarism reports each for the users Forward and 30stomachs - both "newbies" dating from 2011 and 2014, respectively - at around 5:00AM my time on Nov. 3rd and the reports were marked good by the following morning (likely the mod is in a very different time zone from me). Those users were still posting, however, so I reported 2 more instances of plagiarism for both of them and the next morning those reports were also marked good. Both accounts were still posting, though, so I found yet another example of plagiarism - a total of 5!? - and finally they were banned (30stomachs was nuked, actually). This was one of the more extreme examples, but *all* of the accounts I have reported for plagiarism in these 3 threads (Neluns, Neogame.io and SafeInsure) have required more than 1 example of plagiarism before they were banned, whereas when I report plagiarism in, say, the HoweyCoins thread that user is generally banned as soon as the report is marked good.

The way I see it, providing just one example of plagiarism with a link to the/a* original post should be sufficient to get the user banned, and that does appear to be the case everywhere EXCEPT these threads that have been using a thread bumping service for far longer than the ~1.5 months I've been hounding them. Unfortunately, my reporting dozens of their bumping bots appears to have taught them to program them to come up with unique gibberish rather than plagiarize. Consequently, I've also reported the OP's for "incentivizing posting" and recommend they be banned and their threads locked, but those reports have remained unhandled for a few days to weeks now.



* -  "the/a" because there are often many instances of the same post being used and I just pick a link to one that is dated earlier than the current post to provide with my report.

EDIT - corrections made

You are preaching to the choir! I reported all of those accounts for plagiarism - plus about 60 more - but I guess that isn't enough reason to ban the OP and lock the thread...

Hmm, you're right... Maybe it was because I hadn't (yet) left milonite negative feedback?

Ah well, it was fun while it lasted!

EDIT - in other news, I see a new pair of bots are spamming the Neluns and SafeInsure threads today but, unfortunately, this pair - and the last pair - haven't plagiarized anything (yet) and my request to the mods to lock the thread/ban the OP remain unhandled... le sigh.

Nah, no obstacle at all, because Neluns doesn't really exist, remember!  

I'd say you've already been promoted well past the rank you actually deserve thanks to the marit airdrop... To quote from that cinematic masterpiece, Caddyshack:

Clean looking calculator, but consider adding the RX 550 and RX 560 to the AMD card selection as those have proven to be very economical performers on Ethash and CN.

Anyone can post but the thread won't rise back up to the top unless they are member rank or higher, correct? That's a novel proposal and one I can't really find any fault with, though I suspect it might be difficult to get the forum software to play along.

FYI:

I agree, and I started the thread that tmfp linked to already, but I have had no luck getting any of the global mods (maybe just mprep?) to actually lock any of the 4-5 threads that are using the same thread bumping service and (likely stolen) accounts that are all newbies but registered anywhere from 2011 to 2014 (ie - before the epic hack of this forum occurred).

Perhaps if a few other high ranking members also report the OP with a recommendation that he be banned and the thread locked the global mods will take the requests more seriously? Here's the OP of the Neluns thread ready to be reported: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4694028.msg42366589#msg42366589

EDIT - FWIW, I put something like this in my report: "Rampant plagiarism in a self-moderated thread and incentivizing posting via a thread bumping service; please ban OP and lock thread"

EDIT 2 - @morvillz7z, I think those two are, indeed, the same person; the second pic is without makeup and a different hair color, is all.

My first red trust! I'll treasure it forever!  

EDIT - on a more serious note, the bots used by Neluns have also showed up in several other projects, most recently, EvenCoin and SafeInsure. Make sure to spread the love around!

The Neluns moderator milonite did, indeed, delete one of my posts! EDIT - make that lots of my posts!

re:

Sweet mother of Crisco... forward and 30stomachs are still posting, despite that I have submitted 3 reports of plagiarism for each on them! Well, a new day with plenty of new plagiarism to report so I just nailed them for a couple more infractions each, bringing their totals up to 5!

It will definitely be interesting to see if milonite deletes any of our "off-topic" posts, but I'd really like to see the little spaz banned for "incentivizing posting" through the use of bump-bots. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but a man can dream...


EDIT 1 - 3 of the 4 reports I submitted a few minutes ago have already been marked good; let's see if Neluns grinds to a halt for at least a few hours before a new pair of bots are brought online!

EDIT 2 - Keep your eye on the SafeInsure thread as two ancient accounts from 2013/14 have been wiped clean and started posting gibberish so these are likely bump-bots running a new script (no plagiarism yet).

EDIT 3 - posts 1126 & 1127 in the SafeInsure thread are plagiarized and reported.

EDIT 4 - bots from earlier were nuked (ie - accounts banned and all posts deleted) but new bots came online to replace them and I've already nailed each for 1 plagiarism report so far.

The same bots currently in operation the Neluns thread - 30stomachs and forward - are going strong on a thread I targeted early on here: EvenCoin. Also as mentioned in my last post to the Neluns thread, the same bots - though not this pair - have been used on the Neogame.io thread.

Finally, another thread that I also targeted in the beginning - DBX - appears to have been trashed, as it is no longer available and I didn't add that section to my ignore list. So, global mods are taking some action against these artificially bumped threads, it's just taking a lot of reports to get to that point (or someone higher ranked than me to do the reporting - xtraelv helped with nailing DBX).

The italicized is precisely why I started this thread: this new scheme of simulating a conversation could be an insidious way of spamming the forum with little recourse available in the current set of rules. Right now we are able to take them out - albeit highly inefficiently - because they are committing plagiarism by recycling entire conversations over and over again, but if the bots get just a little bit more clever and start spouting random gibberish instead of copying and pasting we'll just be left with reporting them for "low value posts," and mods are far more reluctant to nuke/ban for that offense compared to plagiarism.

Really, the OP for each of these threads needs to be banned for "incentivized posting" and the threads locked or nuked since both threads are self-moderated and the vast majority of the posts therein are plagiarized. However, the mods are not only leaving the reports in which I have requested such unhandled, they are requiring 3 or more examples of plagiarism for each user before banning them. I hear you on not coming down too hard on the mods because they have a shitty job, but in some respects they are the ones to blame for making the job shittier than it need be. Mind you, I understand why they might be reluctant to nuke a thread just on the report of a full member like me, but when you or xtraelv or others that have been here for years join the fray they really ought to take more notice.

Her expression is priceless, and that graph might as well have a drawing of the moon in the upper right corner!

I see you are trying to fight the good fight in the Neluns thread, but the mods failed to nuke the two old newbie accounts brought online yesterday - 30stomachs and Forward - even after I provided 2 examples of plagiarism for each of them. I submitted a 3rd example for each this morning but, really, one should be sufficient for banning anyone, much less a <30 activity newbie!

Purple kush, but I hardly see the relevance of me being stoned out of my mind when the real problem is that you failed the reading comprehension portion of this quiz.

HoweyCoins was created by the SEC to educate people to be wary of investing in ICOs; like, for example, people that bought into the AML ICO... ahem...

None of the above. Keep reading, grasshopper, or you could just join the sig campaign and bring in them there bountiez!

This clip from LA Story is exactly how this is playing out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVMTfGQe51g