I think it's a sad state of affairs that if these people weren't plagiarising then they'd just be shitposting instead, but it's true. The people who plagiarise are only here to earn and not contribute and if it wasn't for copy and pasting then they'd just be forcing out their generic responses about something they know little about, and that's why the forum is in such a poor state. We really should be cracking down on the unsubstantial posts or more importantly those that are paying people to make them. If users are spotted making incredibly terrible posts then the person's signature they're wearing should face repressions because they're not doing their job properly. As long as we continue to do nothing about this then it will just continue to happen. Running a signature campaign is at least a part time job. Running a larger one would probably be a full time one, but these people are not going to willingly do work that they don't need to especially when there's no repercussions for doing a shoddy job or even none at all. Once it becomes unacceptable to run campaigns in such a way they will change or start hiring people who are willing to do the work and there's plenty of people who would do so.

Why don't you make it so the thread can only be bumped to the top once per day max? That seems like fair compromise and would certainly defeat the purpose of the paid bumping whilst still allowing active threads to be bumped.


This wouldn't work either. The bumpers would then just start writing posts that contain 300 characters. They'd probably be more of an eyesore than the generic good project ones etc.

I don't think he's a spambot. I think he just struggles with English, has dozens of accounts and is rushing to squeeze out posts as fast as he can, hence all the mistakes. I often type like that when I go fast. The problem is here is he doesn't proofread his posts nor care about it. He just spouts out some generic nonsense and mostly back to back to bump his post count up and then on to the next account which he often posts back to back there too. I think he's Russian and most of the accounts have received at least one merit and they happen to be Russian a lot of the time too so I think that should be looked into. I'm sure this goes much deeper.

Not everything needs to be decentralised just because bitcoin is, but feel free to create your own forum. I think a decentralised forum would be a good experiment but you would quickly see how inefficient it would be. The only way I'd see it working is basically you become your own moderator with banning or ignoring users rather than mods doing the work, but those actions don't effect any one else unless maybe they trust your actions and they add you to some sort of trust list, but do you really want to spend half your time ignoring or banning trolls, spammers and bots all for the sake of decentralisation?


This doesn't sound decentralised to me. Bitcointalk also uses miners and blockchain. Should the forum be hosted on a blockchain and all posts have to be confirmed by miners? Maybe you have to pay a fee every time you post?


This certainly isn't decentralised. This sounds overly authoritarian and repressive. People shouldn't be banned for saying fuck, nazi or gay. What if you're having a discussion about fucking gay rights in Nazi Germany? Thrice damned?  

They can't be nuked. I've banned some of them already but there's probably dozens more.

Profile links of the ones above:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1154780 Onestepinhell September 15, 2017
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1978819 Inastran March 27, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1226553 Fredrosam October 18, 2017
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1761796 Hoenya January 27, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1229808 aldencio October 19, 2017
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1230615 expekto October 19, 2017
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1171241     beBearKing September 26, 2017

Found some more doing the same thing here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1873444 Sicithdeve February 24, 2018 [all sent merit by nerttor]
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1873417 Hadarula February 24, 2018 [all sent merit by nerttor]
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1873434 Iarnnoshre February 24, 2018 [all sent merit by nerttor]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1213483 Sondale October 13, 2017
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1079303 Hoxysado July 24, 2017
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1976695 ElnurBash March 26, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1082997 pochinkin_77 July 27, 2017
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1171165     crypthomonkey September 26, 2017
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1081860     kabzon_btw July 26, 2017
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1158941     Tonstar September 18, 2017

If you search some of their commonly used typos you get a lot of hits and they all follow the same pattern.


crypricurrency:  

Someone has been reporting a few users for posting back to back and I started to notice a pattern. In addition to the constant double posting they also make the same sort of badly-spelled posts with letters jumbled up and all in lower case. For example:













A clusterfuck of them all posting back to back:


They even use the same typos multiple times: peopel & taht for instnace.

There's probably a lot more of these. Hopefully someone can find more of them via bounty addresses.

He was banned for copy and pasting and that's only one of the very few 'crimes' that will lead to a permaban here (the others being things like spreading malware or ban evasion). Anything else he might have done is irrelevant, but they usually won't lead to a permban but a temporary one (like incentivising people to post. That would likely only get you a permaban if you're a serial offender).

The only dumb person here is you. You didn't search google for just the the answer. You searched google for the question too. People shouldn't have to google posts before they merit them and they're trying to help genuine contributors out, but people like you ruin it for everyone. It's a sad state of affairs where half the decent content that gets posted here is plagiarised from somewhere else and people are often reluctant to send merit because they don't want to give a plagiariser or spammer the opportunity to get a signature from just one half decent post (that may or may not be copied), but this is another reason why we need a higher than one merit requirement because people like you don't deserve to move up a rank for one plagiarised post.

Well that was also one of my reasonings. They're already spending a hell of a lot of money for these bumping services and they're ones that also damage the usability of the board, so they need to be stopped. I think a lot of ICOs would also prefer their own sub boards so would gladly pay a fee. Many of them create their own forums but they're usually dead, but at least here you already have access to a large userbase and would probably give the ICOs a bit more respectability with a bitcointalk.org/shitcoinabc url they could use. We could even let them self-moderate their own boards so staff don't have to waste time with it, but regardless the spam will be quarantined in their own little sections so it's probably something staff won't have to deal with, or at least let them spam away in their own squalor.


It's not really restricting anyone. It doesn't stop people from posting in the thread, it just stops it from being bumped. I don't think people saying "good project" or "airdrop?" should bump the thread to the top and it's because it does that has lead to the abuse on an industrial scale. The thread being bumped once a day should be enough and active threads will still remain at the top, but something really needs to be done about this sort of spam and these are two of the only ways that I think will work effectively without causing too much damage.

Well we could probably say the same for Ross Ulbricht  . I think it's relatively easy to remain fully anonymous if you set out from the start to do so, but it's also relatively easy to screw up just that once... or twice. Satoshi used tor if I remember correctly, but I'm sure there's ways that can leak your IP occasionally, or if the FEDs are controlling certain exit nodes maybe they can grab your IP somehow. You could further mask this though by using tor via public wifi, a proxy or connecting via a throwaway simcard. You can still screw up in other ways though, but if you're committed to privacy and remaining anonymous it shouldn't be that difficult. I think the biggest way satoshi could be discovered was if he was a person that was already public known in the crypto-sphere and his writings could be compared to that person, but if he was a relative nobody then that's pretty much impossible, and if he was somebody he would have probably been linked already.


I don't think this should happen. As r1s2g3 said, it's possible (though not probable) satoshi could return one day and he may wish to find some information from his PMs (or maybe even delete it himself, but that should be left up to him). I'm sure satoshi was smart enough to not leave anything incriminating behind though, but even if he did then maybe fair game to anyone who did manage to get access to it.

Staff (or more specifically Globals/admins) can already give the reason for a ban and also its duration, but it's clunky and time consuming to do, especially when some people are reporting dozens of copy and pasters at a time. There's a ban button that automatically bans the user and their IP so that is usually used for copy and pasters to save time. I have requested an additional ban button for plagiarisers that automatically states the reason for the ban and that's it's permanent so this confusion will be cleared up, but whether we get it or not is doubtful. 

Theymos isn't going to implement anything that restricts users from posting which he is dead against. It would just scare off genuine users whilst the ones who are here to abuse the forum for financial gain will just grin and bear it jumping through any hoops you throw in front of them. Some people will come here who will have a genuine query and need an answer, but without any points they won't be able to open the relevant thread. As others have also said, people who are against you will just down-vote you. It's hard enough to get merit here as it is so I don't think we need to implement another points system that restricts people.

It's probably not about being soft but rather having the time, energy and resources. There's only a few staff members that can ban people for a start and it's incredibly time-consuming to do so not to mention never-ending, and that's why things need to change with the culture here. Also, those specific reports you're talking about may have been handled by someone who doesn't have the ability to ban them, but it's also something staff shouldn't have to be doing and is just seen as a waste of time by most of us at this point without changing the culture of paid bumping which is at least being addressed now with this thread.

I don't think a reminder via a bump hurts either. I think they only way things will get done here is if the community keeps asking for them and the best way for that is to keep threads active on pressing issues, otherwise the threads could just get buried and forgotten about. Remember, theymos seemed to be dead against the one merit-requirement for Juniors initially but eventually came round to it. I don't know how much that decision was based on the overwhelming demand from the community but letting him know it's something we want or support is a good way to make sure it's something he sees and lets him know that it's something that is actively wanted by many.

Why don't you make it so the thread can only be bumped once per day regardless of how many people post in it? I think if we make it merit or rank-based then they'll just find a way around it by paying the relevant users to post in there. That would at least the defeat the purpose of paid bumping and it'll probably stop whilst still allowing active threads to be bumped daily (but just once a day. The time could also even be randomised so people can't just choose a certain time of day to bump it).

Have you thought any more about this that you put in the Maybe category:



I think that would once and for all solve the paid bumping issue and it's about time ICOs started contributing financially to the mess they're causing here and the extra manpower that is needed from staff to clean it up.


I think a better solution (and as I have suggested before) would be that lower ranked member's posts in there just don't bump the thread at all. I think they'll just get around it though by using higher-ranked accounts which could easily be purchased (if they don't even have them already or some high ranked bumping service will then pop up to meet demand).

You mean they get their own sub board not thread? I've suggested something similar in the past as a way to eradicate paid bumping. Basically the Alt Coin section would be scrapped as is and Alt Coins have to pay a fee to get their own section in there. Would put a stop to people paying users to spam bump their topic to keep it at the top as it would be useless then.

Not only do Wolves score in the fourth minute of injury time to thwart my correct score, but that then gives another correct score and the full three points to slaman29 who breaks further away from the rest of us. He's now 23.5 points away from me in tenth place and that's going to be hard for anyone to catch I think. A top five place isn't out of reach yet though at only 8.5 points. It's still pretty close from place 5 to 19 really and I think any of those players still have a chance of winning something.

Champions League is on tomorrow so for those playing don't forget to put your predictions in for that.

I agree that we need more staff/admins to help out with things like account recoveries, but theymos did say a while back that he's working on an automatic recovery tool that should be ready by the end of the year. Not sure if that's still on track but hopefully it'll be ready at some point. With that being said, I do think we'll still probably need some admins to help out with them and with other things, especially for those who can't sign a message or can sign one but from an altcoin addy.

Theymos did put my suggestion I made in this thread to create more admins or demi admins in the "OK in principle, would require thought/adjustment/implementation" category so hopefully that will happen at some point and sooner rather than later.

Nobody could have predicted where bitcoin would go but I believe he did say something along the lines of (and I'm colossally paraphrasing here): In ten years time either nobody will be using it or everybody will be. There are a lots of potential reasons why he may have wished to be anonymous, but we'll probably never know his true reasons. Maybe he wasn't sure of the legality of it or didn't want to run into any potential legal problems in the future. I'm sure governments would have wanted to talk to him at least. If someone knew who he was then they could certainly pressure him to take bitcoin in a certain way or even try to sabotage it. Maybe he just didn't want the attention or hassle of being the founder/figurehead of it. Being famous in any sort of capacity for me would be a nightmare. I like my anonymity. I like being able to walk down the street and nobody hassle or bother me for anything. That changes when you're famous. Maybe satoshi also felt this way.

It would be funny if satoshi's dox and home address were just sat in those PMs all along  . Maybe he did an Ulbricht and colossally screwed up right at that start (I seriosuly doubt satoshi was as dumb as Ross)


I think satoshi is probably safe, but it's surprising how much the way people type gives them away sometimes (especially if they're still active on another account or elsewhere... would be hilarious if satoshi was still on the forum trolling on another account haha. Maybe he's one of the fud trolls  .).  Most people have mannerisms or some identifying marks when they talk and especially type - typos, grammar mistakes, sentence/paragraph structure, specific slang or usual words they use. I've spotted quite a few alts (or suspected ones) over the years just by the way they type. mdayonliner fairly recently created a new account that he purposely wanted to keep separate and anonymous from his original and within a few days I had an inkling that it belonged to him. He then referred to me by a variation of my name in a specific way that I had only ever seen him use that gave the game away fully. A few other people have since noticed it. A similar thing could be used on satoshi, but again, I think he probably took this into consideration. The fact that he wasn't around for that long also helps. The longer people are here the more evidence and personality traits they leave behind and it becomes easier to identify them.


Why would you think some government would be hiding him and why would they be doing that? I think he just took sufficient steps to remain anonymous. Probably not that difficult to do if it's something you're conscious of before the get-go. Most of us here after all are mostly anonymous but with a few additional steps most people could leave little trace of things that could be tied back to them.


Why would he? I believe theymos has said before he doesn't know who he is, but whether you believe him or not is up to you. Satoshi seems to have taken sufficient steps to tell nobody about his identity and remain anon for obviosu reasons so I'm sure even theymos doesn't even know.