A more effective way to reduce signature spamming

[Blazed]

Yeah, I'm thinking that a good response to sig spam might be to ban the person for ~5 days and disable all but the most basic styling in their signature for 60+ days. (With times increasing for repeat offenders.)

I think that is the perfect punishment for signature spamming.

Also about post length...sometimes a 2-3 word response is all that is needed. I have seen some spammers that type out multiple sentences, but it is worthless and not really useful or related. I am glad the forum is cracking down on spammers, but I am sure it creates a lot of extra work for BadBear and Theymos.

[marcotheminer]

I'm ready to cooperate to reduce spamming.

[Lauda]

I think that is the perfect punishment for signature spamming.

Also about post length...sometimes a 2-3 word response is all that is needed. I have seen some spammers that type out multiple sentences, but it is worthless and not really useful or related. I am glad the forum is cracking down on spammers, but I am sure it creates a lot of extra work for BadBear and Theymos.

We don't need '+1' posts. We're behind that phase. The forum is in a state where we have a lot of good minds, that can work together and share opinions.

I'm ready to cooperate to reduce spamming.

I've already sent you a notice (I'd send more, but my time is limited). You could however get someone to work with you and closely watch everyone and report it back to you and mods.

[maku]

I'm ready to cooperate to reduce spamming.

If you want to reduce spaming please look at DaDice's signature campaign and check out their spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_RyLrCa3saxwHPz8mgPuNlV8ewuX7RlC15ZUQRVp99w/edit#gid=1029585434
Managers of Dadice are really reading people's posts and evaluate them. While it is still subjective and not ideal solution but post quality is now significantly higher and I think it is step in good direction.

[Blazed]

I think that is the perfect punishment for signature spamming.

Also about post length...sometimes a 2-3 word response is all that is needed. I have seen some spammers that type out multiple sentences, but it is worthless and not really useful or related. I am glad the forum is cracking down on spammers, but I am sure it creates a lot of extra work for BadBear and Theymos.

We don't need '+1' posts. We're behind that phase. The forum is in a state where we have a lot of good minds, that can work together and share opinions.

I'm ready to cooperate to reduce spamming.

I've already sent you a notice (I'd send more, but my time is limited). You could however get someone to work with you and closely watch everyone and report it back to you and mods.

So when I bid in an auction rather than "I Bid 3BTC" would you prefer something like "Hey guys and gals I am wanting to make a bid on this amazing item. I think I will start my bidding at 3BTC and we will see how it goes. I am really excited to watch this auction, and will be bidding later" Somethings do not require any more than 2-3 words...

[XinXan]

Before all these signature things were famous no one was getting banned, at least i wasnt, i once got like 10 posts deleted by mods with another older account and i never got banned for it.

[Hazir]

So when I bid in an auction rather than "I Bid 3BTC" would you prefer something like "Hey guys and gals I am wanting to make a bid on this amazing item. I think I will start my bidding at 3BTC and we will see how it goes. I am really excited to watch this auction, and will be bidding later" Somethings do not require any more than 2-3 words...

I feel that too. People now are being paranoid about 'length' of every post.  But you can be very descriptive with few words really... Quality response is not always long, but no all short messages are quality posts.
I fear this is highly subjective matter and it can;t be explained easily. Each case is different.

[SaltySpitoon]

So when I bid in an auction rather than "I Bid 3BTC" would you prefer something like "Hey guys and gals I am wanting to make a bid on this amazing item. I think I will start my bidding at 3BTC and we will see how it goes. I am really excited to watch this auction, and will be bidding later" Somethings do not require any more than 2-3 words...

I feel that too. People now are being paranoid about 'length' of every post.  But you can be very descriptive with few words really... Quality response is not always long, but no all short messages are quality posts.
I fear this is highly subjective matter and it can;t be explained easily. Each case is different.

Yeah don't worry, we don't just check people's post histories and judge by that. We actually read the OP of a thread, posts already made in that thread, etc. There are a couple word phrases that sum up a constructive post, and there are paragraph long posts that just repeat what has already been said. Constructive post equates to new ideas or interpretations. If you just repeat the same thing that has already been said without giving it an interpretation of your own, that is still insubstantial. Its quite easy for us to see if its an occasional, "Ok that person was tired and didn't read the post above them" or if its something that has been done on their last 30 posts.

Thats one of the reasons paid advertising spam is so annoying to us, we don't just ban on a whim, there is a lot of time that goes into it. We have always had to contend with spammers/bots and the occasional person who needed a ban, but paid advertising spam has more than 10x increased our usual routine and is costing us a lot of man hours. I suppose this is why the site has staff, but at the same time, its far more enjoyable helping people and nudging users to keep the discussion quality high than it is to be constantly hunting for disruptions.

[Quickseller]

Yeah, I'm thinking that a good response to sig spam might be to ban the person for ~5 days and disable all but the most basic styling in their signature for 60+ days. (With times increasing for repeat offenders.)

I would like this idea. I had previously proposed(original) something similar to this a few weeks ago - my actual proposal would be to completely disable signatures for a certain period of time starting when they were banned for signature spamming (insubstantial posts + paid sig) and to have it reenabled sometime after they can start posting again. My idea was later somewhat rebutted by SaltySpitoon in that it would stop people from displaying their PGP keys, etc., and this would be a good rebuttal to that rebuttal in that people could still easily display things like a link to their PGP key but would effectively prevent people from participating in signature deals.

So when I bid in an auction rather than "I Bid 3BTC" would you prefer something like "Hey guys and gals I am wanting to make a bid on this amazing item. I think I will start my bidding at 3BTC and we will see how it goes. I am really excited to watch this auction, and will be bidding later" Somethings do not require any more than 2-3 words...

exactly. A good amount of the time, anyone with a paid signature who is posting in the auction section and not making a bid post alone, is more likely then not spamming and doesn't actually have any interest in winning the auction. There is sometimes legit conversation in auction threads, however I think it is pretty rare

[BG4]

I'd like to give an Idea.. It might seen over the top but after all its just an idea....... 

Anyone entered into a sig campaign must register their sigs.... Registration will attached a spam button onto their posts....if enough people think the post is considered spam then a flag is sent to mods to investigate...

my 2 satoshis.....discuss

[Blazed]

Yeah, I'm thinking that a good response to sig spam might be to ban the person for ~5 days and disable all but the most basic styling in their signature for 60+ days. (With times increasing for repeat offenders.)

I would like this idea. I had previously proposed(original) something similar to this a few weeks ago - my actual proposal would be to completely disable signatures for a certain period of time starting when they were banned for signature spamming (insubstantial posts + paid sig) and to have it reenabled sometime after they can start posting again. My idea was later somewhat rebutted by SaltySpitoon in that it would stop people from displaying their PGP keys, etc., and this would be a good rebuttal to that rebuttal in that people could still easily display things like a link to their PGP key but would effectively prevent people from participating in signature deals.

So when I bid in an auction rather than "I Bid 3BTC" would you prefer something like "Hey guys and gals I am wanting to make a bid on this amazing item. I think I will start my bidding at 3BTC and we will see how it goes. I am really excited to watch this auction, and will be bidding later" Somethings do not require any more than 2-3 words...

exactly. A good amount of the time, anyone with a paid signature who is posting in the auction section and not making a bid post alone, is more likely then not spamming and doesn't actually have any interest in winning the auction. There is sometimes legit conversation in auction threads, however I think it is pretty rare

I have seen a bunch of people who "kick the tires" asking questions with no intentions of buying (mainly in the goods/computer sections). I think the spammers who make those paragraphs of utter junk are worse than the short spammers!

[Quickseller]

I have seen a bunch of people who "kick the tires" asking questions with no intentions of buying (mainly in the goods/computer sections). I think the spammers who make those paragraphs of utter junk are worse than the short spammers!

Some of these people are trying to find information that might protect a potential trading partner. For example warning that a newbie selling a gift card might have purchased it with a stolen credit card. But yea, I know what you mean when people ask a lot of random questions, the answers to which often would not sway most people one way or another in deciding to buy

[guitarplinker]

I have seen a bunch of people who "kick the tires" asking questions with no intentions of buying (mainly in the goods/computer sections). I think the spammers who make those paragraphs of utter junk are worse than the short spammers!

Chipping into what you said, the other type of posts in the marketplace that frustrate me are the "do you accept escrow?" posts? I haven't seen many in the past couple months though, and I think that the staff here are thankfully deleting those.

[Brewins]

there are also side ads campaigns.

Killing the signatures won't make the account unable to earn money simply by posting

[bitkilo]

there are also side ads campaigns.

Killing the signatures won't make the account unable to earn money simply by posting

If by side adds your mean the ones in your personal message space then someone would have to be pretty desperate to spam for just that payment, the rates for PM message alone is very low, not saying some still wouldn't do it though, just very petty stuff.

[alani123]

Well first and foremost, the ignore feature of the forum is close to useless. Currently, if you ignore someone, you can still see an empty post whenever he posts and you see his full posts if they get quoted.

I try to use the ignore feature when I see constantly trolling just to see their full posts whenever someones takes their bait.

[hilariousandco]

Instead of banning the whole account, wouldn't be more effective to just remove the signature for a period of time? This will result in a denied payment from signature managers, and also should raise the posting quality, instead of creating more spamming sockpuppets from the banned users.

Maybe signatures could be removed for x amount of time but I don't think it will make them raise their quality or postings necessarily. If they're essentially banned from earning but can still post they'd more likely post rubbish out of frustration or just keep complaining about it. Sometimes a ban is better just to cool off for a bit. They can also still collect the activity points which is probably an added deterrent when faced with losing them.

there are also side ads campaigns.

Killing the signatures won't make the account unable to earn money simply by posting

If by side adds your mean the ones in your personal message space then someone would have to be pretty desperate to spam for just that payment, the rates for PM message alone is very low, not saying some still wouldn't do it though, just very petty stuff.

Yeah, you get next to nothing for those. The 'side ads' are more about just getting extra exposure for the campaign owner really.

[BadBear]

It's probably a good idea. I've dismissed it in the past because it seemed excessively heavyhanded, but that's ignoring the fact that it's an alternative to something even more heavyhanded (outright banning). Kinda like saying the proxy fee is a bad thing because anonymity, privacy, etc, when in actuality it's an alternative to not allowing those registrations at all.

It does have some downsides, but almost all of them are shared with bans, so not really an issue. There are some unique downsides, but I think those are outweighed by the upsides, that people would be allowed to continue participating in the forum while removing sig spam from the equation. Too many people just don't get the hint, or don't realize they're doing it, or genuinely don't think they are, and they will end up permanently banned, which is a shame in some cases.

 

I'm ready to cooperate to reduce spamming.

I'm not saying this to sound like a dick, or be offensive, just being straightforward. I'm not sure if you're being facetious or not, but you* had your chance, you failed. We aren't going to micromanage your campaign for you, tell you what to do, tell you what not to do, etc. If we wanted to do that, we'd just cut out the middleman (you) and do it ourselves.  

*By you I don't necessarily mean you specifically, sig campaigns in general.

[btc-facebook]

I'm ready to cooperate to reduce spamming.

turn the campaign into monthly payout will help a bit

-snip--

I'm not saying this to sound like a dick, or be offensive, just being straightforward. I'm not sure if you're being facetious or not, but you* had your chance, you failed. We aren't going to micromanage your campaign for you, tell you what to do, tell you what not to do, etc. If we wanted to do that, we'd just cut out the middleman (you) and do it ourselves.  

*By you I don't necessarily mean you specifically, sig campaigns in general.

Are you mean terminating signature campaign is the best solution ?

[CIYAM]

Am glad to see @BadBear is coming around - I've been complaining about the rubbish ad-sig posts for months and at first I was basically ignored and then next I was trolled (by the ad-sig posters of course) - but it is becoming obvious that more and more people are just sick and tired of seeing pointless posts that are being made by people "earning money" that just wastes our time (being that of normal forum users and the mods and admins also).

This forum used to be "interesting" in past years but since late 2013 it has gradually become more and more full of pointless posts (to the point that it becomes tedious to bother trying to follow topics).