Spamming with 1 oneliner post per Newbie account

[rdluffy]

Are there people who use the forum by creating an account anytime they want to discuss in the forum.

Someone once told me that is indeed what he does. It was a Brand New account. It's great for privacy: one "thing" per account means nothing can be connected.

I would even believe in this possibility if the posts were serious and sensitive, some subject that really required extreme privacy, some kind of complaint, etc...
I refuse to believe one post per account 

My best guess is that someone is trying to create multiple accounts using some kind of AI, so that the accounts can later post automatically and be sold when they reach a certain number of posts, rank, or time...

[Xal0lex]

CMIIW, but doesn't the forum show message if your account cannot make post due to evil IP, proxy ban or similar reason?

Yes, banned users see this message:

Your IP address has previously been used for evil on this forum, or it is a known proxy/VPN/Tor exit node, so you are required to pay a small fee before you are able to post messages or send PMs. You can still use all of the read-only features without paying.

Your account contains (number) units of evil. To atone, you must pay a total of (number) bitcoins ((number) mBTC; (number) satoshi). Pay to the address [...]. Once you have paid the full amount, wait a few seconds and then reload this page. If the fee is so small that your wallet is unable to send it, you can send any larger amount, though you will not be refunded the difference.

Alternatively, any forum staff member and some other notable members can manually whitelist you. Paying the fee is probably easier/quicker, though.

If you don't have any bitcoins, you can get small amounts of free bitcoins using the sites listed here. It is recommended that you give the free bitcoin sites the address listed above. Do not collect money in your own wallet and then send the bitcoins to the forum — this will likely result in significant network fees.

If you find any bugs in this system, email pbbugs-...@.... For example, send email here if your payment is not registered an hour after sending it. You will be permanently banned if you send email here requesting free whitelisting.

I've reported 28 posts. If they get Nuked, I'll continue. If they only get removed (or even left alone), this is a waste of time. Spambots don't care about their effort being lost, I do.
Update: all 28 posts are deleted. I checked a few accounts, they're not banned.

Nuke a newbie for just one post, albeit a low quality one... Well, I don't even know. Even to me, a fan of bans 🤫 😉, this seems excessive. I don't in any way disparage your efforts to combat spam on the forum, but still...

[LoyceV]

when reporting what did you added as the comment, "spamming / AI"? I don't have hundreds of thousands of good reports as
you do so I'm always confused about adding the right comments!

I added a long story in this case, something like: "spamming, not really off-topic but doesn't add anything, spam because it happens from many accounts", with a link to this topic.
I only have 10107 good reports.

Since you are the best guy to ask this, is there any way to see all the posts that have been made within the 24-72 hours?

I don't think there is such a thing. I could add them together from my scraper, but don't really want another project to keep running forever.

Update: all 28 posts are deleted. I checked a few accounts, they're not banned.

Nuke a newbie for just one post, albeit a low quality one... Well, I don't even know. Even to me, a fan of bans 🤫 😉, this seems excessive. I don't in any way disparage your efforts to combat spam on the forum, but still...

I'm not talking about 1 Newbie with 1 post, I'm talking about someone with probably hundreds of Newbie accounts that make hundreds of shitty posts. If they end up with hundreds of deleted posts but get to keep hundreds of working accounts, their effort paid off and my effort feels wasted.

[babo]

In my opinion, it's enough to just tag to keep an eye on it and then evaluate it.
only that smf does not have this function you have to do it with an external tool and who better than loycev can do such a thing
clearly if it makes sense to do it and if it is used otherwise it is wasted work.

[DYING_S0UL]

Yes, banned users see this message:

You can still use all of the read-only features without paying.

Alternatively, any forum staff member and some other notable members can manually whitelist you.

Just a curious question, if it's read only then how are they supposed to contact the staff or notable members like LoyceV (afaik, he can also whitelist users)? Because if I got that right they won't be able to create any posts requesting to lift the proxy ban nor they'll be able to PM anyone, alternatively many users doesn't allow newbies to send them PMs. Or they do have the ability to send PMs?

[LoyceV]

Just a curious question, if it's read only then how are they supposed to contact the staff or notable members like LoyceV (afaik, he can also whitelist users)? Because if I got that right they won't be able to create any posts requesting to lift the proxy ban nor they'll be able to PM anyone, alternatively many users doesn't allow newbies to send them PMs. Or they do have the ability to send PMs?

The proxyban-message they see links to my topic: Remove Proxyban (evil fees) - email to get whitelisted for free.

I've updated my whitelist-statistics:

Statistics

• Users whitelisted: 426
• Users who never posted: 176
• Total Merit earned: 16634
• Total users banned: 11

[Fivestar4everMVP]

it's quite normal to come across newbies making very short posts especially in technical board and mining boards. For some I've noticed they are basically bitcoiners offline they just come here to find solutions when they have issues.

It's normal for people to create an account looking for a solution. It's not normal to create an account to post "an answer", especially when there are many doing it within an hour.

Well, you only assumed I believe, no one is completely sure if those accounts actually belong to the same person or not.
And if the account actually belong to the same person, then what he or she is doing isn't right for sure, but then, there is nothing much we can do aside report the accounts for monitoring like Mia said.
 I believe the mods will be in the best position to monitor and take appropriate action on any of those accounts when such is absolutely necessary; to keep the forum clean and maintain her integrity.

So away from the above and speaking on newbies generally now, if is common, very common to find most of 'em making one like posts and comments, but the good thing is that if the account manages to get established, as many of such posts and comments they had made will eventually get deleted by that mod no matter how long it takes.

[nutildah]

It's normal for people to create an account looking for a solution. It's not normal to create an account to post "an answer", especially when there are many doing it within an hour.

That reminds me a little bit of this:


Today I learned that this event didn't actually happen and it was cobbled together by someone else, and the guy just became part of a meme. Not sure how that relates to the analogy, but anyway.

I don't really care if accounts join the forum to post answers but it does bug me when they start writing guides to getting merits or telling older accounts what they should be doing. Also if someone has something smart to say, I'll listen, so long as I don't get drifted away by unfamiliar jargon.

I don't remember the exact moment when but apparently I joined this forum to find nodes for a long-dead coin called Bones. I even carried around a Bones paper wallet to show people how it worked. Nobody cared.

[Ultegra134]

I don't really care if accounts join the forum to post answers but it does bug me when they start writing guides to getting merits or telling older accounts what they should be doing. Also if someone has something smart to say, I'll listen, so long as I don't get drifted away by unfamiliar jargon.

I don't remember the exact moment when but apparently I joined this forum to find nodes for a long-dead coin called Bones. I even carried around a Bones paper wallet to show people how it worked. Nobody cared.

It's been a relatively common occurrence after the merit system was introduced, but it's way more common now especially after the AI rollout. I'm seeing threads by newbies/jr. members that look copy pasted out of someone else's thread, or AI generated, but neither is detected in worrisome lengths to properly accuse them of cheating. I'm not saying that all new accounts do it, but I've been seeing some posts that you'd bet are AI generated or plagiarized, only to detect a small percentage.

Generally, it's a method of merit farming, seeing a newbie coming up with advice regarding the forum is ironic, like the f*ck do you know, you've been here for 5 days. I'm also suspecting that such attempts are from farmed accounts aimed to rank them up and enlist them to signature campaigns.

[nutildah]

Generally, it's a method of merit farming, seeing a newbie coming up with advice regarding the forum is ironic, like the f*ck do you know, you've been here for 5 days. I'm also suspecting that such attempts are from farmed accounts aimed to rank them up and enlist them to signature campaigns.

Yes, its true; in fact I'd go so far as to say most new accounts don't belong to new users -- especially the ones that are seeking attention (and merits). They are alt accounts. Some account farmers are more patient than others -- they don't try too hard & just kind of drift along unremarkably. Then there are some account farmers who are in a rush to rank up. These ones do things like relentlessly spam the WO and other merit-heavy megathreads, and they usually don't last too long before getting a neutral or red tag.

[Ultegra134]

Yes, its true; in fact I'd go so far as to say most new accounts don't belong to new users -- especially the ones that are seeking attention (and merits). They are alt accounts. Some account farmers are more patient than others -- they don't try too hard & just kind of drift along unremarkably. Then there are some account farmers who are in a rush to rank up. These ones do things like relentlessly spam the WO and other merit-heavy megathreads, and they usually don't last too long before getting a neutral or red tag.

Unfortunately, a large percentage of new accounts seems suspicious. I understand the need for seeking attention and merits, but someone who's supposedly new isn't that familiar with the whole concept. Even for myself, after a long period of inactivity, it took me a while to grasp how it worked and how to be productive and contributive to the forum, which would eventually lead to merits. I'm also suspicious of any Newbie to Member accounts that suddenly start posting "knowledgeable" and controversial subjects that are almost perfectly sentenced.

This user is one example of what I mean. User

[nutildah]

This user is one example of what I mean. User

Ha. Clearly AI use; as a matter of fact I'm going to do the writeup in the AI spam thread. Why do people think we want to read long-winded theses manufactured by ChatGPT.. If we had a question about the subjects of these topics, we could just ask ChatGPT and get the exact same answer ourselves.

My other favorite type of newbies are the ones who open a thread in Beginners & Help titled something like "I'm new here," or "I'm a newbie," going into great detail about how they found this forum through a friend or a cousin and how they are so eager to learn. Then their next thread is "How to rank up and write good posts."

Basically anybody who goes out of their way to say they are "new", isn't.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

it’s just either farming and keeping them for some reason best know to them.
They intentionally neglect the accounts for the main time and will probably comeback someday.

If I had to guess, it'd be some kind of farming rather than the theory LoyceV proposed--but despite the fact that such behavior is odd (and by 'odd' I mean suspect), I've long since given up on questioning why these members do shit like this.  I just assume there's something going on whereby they're trying to abuse some feature of the forum, most likely sig campaigns and the like.

Ha. Clearly AI use; as a matter of fact I'm going to do the writeup in the AI spam thread. Why do people think we want to read long-winded theses manufactured by ChatGPT.. If we had a question about the subjects of these topics, we could just ask ChatGPT and get the exact same answer ourselves.

My other favorite type of newbies are the ones who open a thread in Beginners & Help titled something like "I'm new here," or "I'm a newbie," going into great detail about how they found this forum through a friend or a cousin and how they are so eager to learn. Then their next thread is "How to rank up and write good posts."

Basically anybody who goes out of their way to say they are "new", isn't.

Lol, you're absolutely correct about those new accounts not being new, and I'm fairly certain that's been a phenomenon for years now.  Also, I look forward to your AI writeup.  That's the one thing that's got me worried about the current state of the forum as well as its future.  That crap scares me to death on a number of levels.

[LoyceV]

This user is one example of what I mean. User

I checked one of his posts, and it looks like typical chatbot verbal diarrhea. He's throwing around numbers without reference, and the text reads like typical chatbot output. I've left neutral feedback.

I look forward to your AI writeup.  That's the one thing that's got me worried about the current state of the forum as well as its future.  That crap scares me to death on a number of levels.

I see no reason for this to get better in the future, only worse. It's the Dead Internet theory in the making.

[Ultegra134]

I checked one of his posts, and it looks like typical chatbot verbal diarrhea. He's throwing around numbers without reference, and the text reads like typical chatbot output. I've left neutral feedback.

I see no reason for this to get better in the future, only worse. It's the Dead Internet theory in the making.

Yeah, it's quite evident that he's using AI, and he's gotten away with it for quite a while, as he's already a member, and on his way to becoming a full member. It's perfectly clear that it's not human-written, but GPTZero doesn't detect anything major, I'm quite sure he's using some kind of software to hide it. I wanted to check with Gowinston and Originality, but their platform is more strict (used to be able to take advantage of free credit trials in the past) and I haven't had the time.

Ha. Clearly AI use; as a matter of fact I'm going to do the writeup in the AI spam thread. Why do people think we want to read long-winded theses manufactured by ChatGPT.. If we had a question about the subjects of these topics, we could just ask ChatGPT and get the exact same answer ourselves.

My other favorite type of newbies are the ones who open a thread in Beginners & Help titled something like "I'm new here," or "I'm a newbie," going into great detail about how they found this forum through a friend or a cousin and how they are so eager to learn. Then their next thread is "How to rank up and write good posts."

Basically anybody who goes out of their way to say they are "new", isn't.

I'm also confident that if I ask the right question to ChatGPT, it'll come up with the exact response.

[Churchillvv]

it’s just either farming and keeping them for some reason best know to them.
They intentionally neglect the accounts for the main time and will probably comeback someday.

If I had to guess, it'd be some kind of farming rather than the theory LoyceV proposed--but despite the fact that such behavior is odd (and by 'odd' I mean suspect), I've long since given up on questioning why these members do shit like this.  I just assume there's something going on whereby they're trying to abuse some feature of the forum, most likely sig campaigns and the like.

You can’t be far from the truth, probably the end result of all the spam or shilling, lately I tend to see such accounts in the altcoin discussion making similar kind of post with some mentioning of bitcoin and some related crypto topics while ending up with suggesting some shitcoin as the base of the discussion. It seems organic in their pattern posting just like the op identified.

[Rikafip]

I checked one of his posts, and it looks like typical chatbot verbal diarrhea. He's throwing around numbers without reference, and the text reads like typical chatbot output. I've left neutral feedback.

Beside using some sort of AI, he is also shill for some unkown exchange called Cryptomus. He thinks that no one notices that because he is not shilling in every post, but its still pretty obvious.

Speaking of this shitty exchange, another Newbie showed up doing the same thing, but in a more obvious way

Que pena, foi uma das minhas primeiras exchanges alguns anos atrás. Eu atualmente uso principalmente a Cryptomus, não tão popular no Brasil mas é uma boa exchange, também útil pra aceitar pagamentos crypto.

I've already tried some options, my best personal experience so far is with Cryptomus, a solid crypto exchange and it also offer a payment gateway solution, easy integration and safer than most alternatives