Is it just me or has the quality of this forum dropped immensely

[Lauda]

Signature campaigns have brought some spammers, but that has brought many new users and made this forum as good place to advertise

Don't make me laugh, because that is pure nonsense right there.

Don't just look at the negative side, there many campaign participants who doesn't spam and more campaign managers trying hard to kick out spammers.

What you call *hard* I call almost not doing anything.

[BitHodler]

You cannot expect everyone to speak about technologies of bitcoin, Previously there were only users who were attracted by bitcoin technology but now there are many more who uses bitcoin just for its value. So don't expect everyone to speak about bitcoin, transaction, wallet, blockchain.

Since bitcoin became currency for many services, the discussion and talks would divert from bitcoins. Now this forum is not a small community of members who just cared about bitcoin.

snip`~

Signature campaigns have brought some spammers, but that has brought many new users and made this forum as good place to advertise. Don't just look at the negative side, there many campaign participants who doesn't spam and more campaign managers trying hard to kick out spammers. Thus making this forum at least in a sense as decentralized.

They have brought people (people not knowing Bitcoin before this) that were searching on Google for ways to earn money via the internet, and ended up here.

And exactly these people are ruining this forum with their the Bitcoin and Google translate language that adds nothing beside more junk.

[buxlover]

Signature campaigns have brought some spammers, but that has brought many new users and made this forum as good place to advertise

Don't make me laugh, because that is pure nonsense right there.

See you have to look the other way! bitcoin was technology which had a currency value at the beginning, but now it is currency based on technology. So this is the way it would go, I don't justify that this is correct but personally I'd love to say bitcoin is money rather technology

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Admittedly, the spam has become worse this year, but there is nothing that you can do about it.

There are two groups that are basically bringing down the quality to all time lows.

One group is recognizable as they use Google translate to post their crap in this forum, and the other group is well known for their the Bitcoin posts.

Agreed.  People get so defensive about English language skills being piss poor here, but it IS an English language forum we're on, local boards notwithstanding.   If 90% of posts are crap anyway, throwing incoherence on top of that is an insult to me.  I think a lot of posters here ought to stick to local boards...but then they wouldn't get paid. 

[eaLiTy]

Every topic I look at lately is just a bunch of spammers trying to raise their post count when they should really be spending some time learning English...

It is a forum related to bitcoin and we are having general discussions too because people from all sort of background uses bitcoin ,tech and non tech and they are here because they see the monetary gain associated with bitcoin, about english language ,it is used as an international mode of communication and you cant expect everyone to speak proper english  

sideline notes about English:
bitcoin is not owned by any country and English is only used as a first language by ~420mill of ~7bill.
English is adaptive

Common wealth countries use English as their second language and so the figure will increase again

[Tyrantt]

Every topic I look at lately is just a bunch of spammers trying to raise their post count when they should really be spending some time learning English...

Maybe they really didn't have the need to learn it and this is the first time they're using it. Also would you like it better if they spoke on their native language or on unleast broken english? Maybe their english isn't that good but you can still, somewhat,  understand  them.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Every topic I look at lately is just a bunch of spammers trying to raise their post count when they should really be spending some time learning English...

Maybe they really didn't have the need to learn it and this is the first time they're using it. Also would you like it better if they spoke on their native language or on unleast broken english? Maybe their english isn't that good but you can still, somewhat,  understand  them.

Even if you can understand most of them, the content is 90% garbage anyway.  I don't want to have to struggle to read shit posts.  But whatever.

I have great respect for folks who can speak and write multiple languages, that isn't the problem.  It's the crap posts in broken English.  These people wouldn't be posting on an English-language forum if they weren't getting paid.  That's my take on it, at least.

[monbux]

Every topic I look at lately is just a bunch of spammers trying to raise their post count when they should really be spending some time learning English...

Maybe they really didn't have the need to learn it and this is the first time they're using it. Also would you like it better if they spoke on their native language or on unleast broken english? Maybe their english isn't that good but you can still, somewhat,  understand  them.

Even if you can understand most of them, the content is 90% garbage anyway.  I don't want to have to struggle to read shit posts.  But whatever.

I have great respect for folks who can speak and write multiple languages, that isn't the problem.  It's the crap posts in broken English.  These people wouldn't be posting on an English-language forum if they weren't getting paid.  That's my take on it, at least.

I fully agree with that.  Nothing against non-native English speakers, but when I see them trying so hard to make a basic sentence into the length of a paragraph in order to make their posts seem more legitimate, I cringe. Hard.

[mammabitcoin2u]

Every topic I look at lately is just a bunch of spammers trying to raise their post count when they should really be spending some time learning English...

Maybe they really didn't have the need to learn it and this is the first time they're using it. Also would you like it better if they spoke on their native language or on unleast broken english? Maybe their english isn't that good but you can still, somewhat,  understand  them.

Even if you can understand most of them, the content is 90% garbage anyway.  I don't want to have to struggle to read shit posts.  But whatever.

I have great respect for folks who can speak and write multiple languages, that isn't the problem.  It's the crap posts in broken English.  These people wouldn't be posting on an English-language forum if they weren't getting paid.  That's my take on it, at least.

I've been here almost a year? and YES "this" forum has gone down (even further) from then.  Agree with other poster, "this" forum is known for scamming/easy $ etc.   It's kinda like the Bitcoin Blackmarket and YES L.E. IS HERE!!

The farming, selling, pretending, scamming, is just laughable.  It doesn't take long to figure out there are a few groups here with tons of accounts engaging in the same scam  

The sig campaigns, I don't have issue with.  I wish they would use some discretion.  For me-when I see a scammer/bullshit post with a siggy attached...........I'm not looking at that website, not even a click.  YOU ARE KNOWN BY THE COMPANY YOU KEEP!

The broken English gives me a headache, yet, gives me many laughs so eh even trade off. I've seen shit here that I've never heard before.  Other countries version of insult:  Your Dads Gay (ya i LOVE that one) I just don't get it I'd rather be called an Asshole/Cock/Cunt/Bitch at least I understand those insults.

I can't blame owners/moderators/others.  If you have a legitimate point, hit report to moderator. Don't waste their time on nonsense there is plenty abound.
 
I think members should do their duty by other members/forum and add feedback positive/negative (Although, I have a problem with it's legitimacy -at least it's a starting point for one to come to their own conclusion).

Lastly, there ARE some good people here.  Gotta take the shit w/the glory.  

[Wendigo]

The only cure for this cancer is to turn the signatures off completely and rely on selling ad spaces to people willing to advertise on the forum. But I think the trade-off for that will be decreased traffic to the forum because 90% of the forum population will just leave when they have realized they are not getting cash. Do you think the moderators would spend most of their time in here every day if they were not getting paid? No. Because they are the garbage men dealing with the heaps of crap every day pouring in here and frankly I have limited my time in here only to reading news and checking out sports tips because believe it or not I have been gambling way before I ended up in here so yeah. So embrace the shit storm or press that Ignore button until your fingers start to hurt   

[deisik]

Every topic I look at lately is just a bunch of spammers trying to raise their post count when they should really be spending some time learning English...

No, it is not just for you. Spammers ruined the forum, and we can't do nothing.
Maybe the only way to fix this problem is to ban all the signature campaigns.

That would be too drastic a measure. Disabling signatures for anyone below a Hero member rank would do just wonders in this regard and most likely sweep away a lot of spammy campaigns along with their shit posters. While enabling signatures back might be an option at moderators' or trusted users' discretion, though not completely free from abuse...

I don't like this way or ranking up with points every two weeks because it's allows spammer to rank up easily, maybe something like after a certain period of time you can pm a mod or admin and ask to review your account, if you weren't spamming and your posts are on point, then you will get a higher rank. Tho, there might be some more things to add to that like what does a certain rank require and things like that. That's just my opinion on how to solve that problem, since then spamming would leave you nowhere and people will actually give a productive response that just "yes haha" or things like that. I've gave my proposal, it's all up to admins. :p

And that would definitely be a hell of a job

But that wouldn't be that much often, and someone can surely make a  scrypt for sorting comments based on number of characters, time posted, frequency of posts, etc... Like there should be some criteria, or maybe like an upvoting (like + and - trust) where people could be upvoting  a user if they fell like they're contributing the forum, so if someone is really active and really helping out the community, maybe they shouldn't wait as long for their rank.

I suggest another tactic. Instead of directly banning or otherwise punishing spammy users, ban managers of the campaigns that these users are spamming under. Yeah, I understand that it is a drastic measure in and of itself, but in this way, we would nip the problem in the bud. The forum rules should be appended with a special section about campaign managers bearing personal responsibility for their campaign members and what they post...

A monthly ban for negligent and promiscuous managers would most likely resolve 90% of spam issues here

[btvGainer]

Signature campaigns have contributed a lot in making bitcoin mainstream and in growing bitcoin community.Campaigns have also helped many bitcoin related business to establish.

That's BS. It has only ruined this forum by encouraging junk posting and keeping year-long pointless threads alive with banal content.

The solution is just to turn off forum signatures completely. They add nothing.

I created a thread with discussion of why disabling signatures is the only solution, and of course after a few pages and months even that thread was just signature spammers rehashing junk posts at each other.

By inaction, Theymos has made this forum not worth the time.

Lol the irony is that you yourself is wearing a signature albeit your own site.Practice what you preach.Why blame theymos his job is to run this forum efficiently and he his doing his job well.
Every forum allows signatures and there are some kind of incentives on every forum for encouraging members participation.
Just using technical jargons or grammatically perfect English doesn't make a quality post

[deisik]

Signature campaigns have brought some spammers, but that has brought many new users and made this forum as good place to advertise

Don't make me laugh, because that is pure nonsense right there.

See you have to look the other way! bitcoin was technology which had a currency value at the beginning, but now it is currency based on technology. So this is the way it would go, I don't justify that this is correct but personally I'd love to say bitcoin is money rather technology

This is an example of semantic quibbling. Money is a concept which is made into this world by means of technology (metalworking in case of gold and cryptography in case of bitcoins). In fact, specific technology is secondary (papermaking itself doesn't make paper into money). Though I basically agree that signature campaigns greatly contribute to the popularity of this forum, despite all their drawbacks and flaws...

The negative consequences of which (such as excessive spamming) could still be alleviated if properly taken care of

[A!]

Signature campaigns have brought some spammers, but that has brought many new users and made this forum as good place to advertise

Don't make me laugh, because that is pure nonsense right there.

See you have to look the other way! bitcoin was technology which had a currency value at the beginning, but now it is currency based on technology. So this is the way it would go, I don't justify that this is correct but personally I'd love to say bitcoin is money rather technology

This is an example of semantic quibbling. Money is a concept which is made into this world by means of technology (metalworking in case of gold and cryptography in case of bitcoins). In fact, specific technology is secondary (papermaking itself doesn't make paper into money). Though I basically agree that signature campaigns greatly contribute to the popularity of this forum, despite all their drawbacks and flaws...

The negative consequences of which (such as excessive spamming) could still be alleviated if properly taken care of

I think we need more good mods to tackle this spamming problem.

[Lauda]

I think we need more good mods to tackle this spamming problem.

There are enough people in the staff member group that are active, although they can't do much about this particular problem. You have to be a global moderator or admin. Please do more research before posting next time.

[actmyname]

Every forum allows signatures and there are some kind of incentives on every forum for encouraging members participation.

Some forums encourage member participation. I think you'll find that usually the biggest incentive in some of the non-gambling/money-based forums is just activity and reputation. I think people enjoy being part of a community and discussions.

Just using technical jargons or grammatically perfect English doesn't make a quality post

This is true, but the problem is that most of the broken English posts (let's say 99%) are not quality posts. You can try to bring up anecdotal examples of quality posts that do have broken English, but I'm willing to be that most of them are short (one sentence, but still useful). I will say that usually if the post requires you to read it more than once to understand the WORDS (provided they're moderately simple and not technical terms) then it's garbage.

And this is just from observations, but I can also say that over 80% of posters that do not use capitals (type posts all lowercase) are spammers.

Example:

to me i think i am too much good in playing gambling on cricket, as i have a good experience of cricket as i was a good cricket player i also know about all the good cricket players therefore it is very easy for me to play gambling on cricket and make good money.

yeah i think most people would agree with you here as well. we all have a sport that we are interested in and betting in those sport gives us a decent chance of winning especially if we're following a specific team or league. it's also more fun as you'll be rooting for the team that you prefer. compared to gambling games that you just sit out and wait for results. i think it's also one, if not, the most entertaining gambling type that you can try. as you get to enjoy not only your wager but the game as well

yeah these sports are actually those gambling type games that doesn't rely entirely on luck. i can say i'm pretty experienced with poker as well. it's very entertaining especially if you play with actual players instead of online. the excitement and the fun is different when you do it with real people. also sports betting. i' ve won quite a lot already with basketball and boxing betting since those are the sports that i' m interested at and i have quite a lot of knowledge about

And... when the posts begin with "yeah" or "i agree", it's usually spam.


It should also be noted that not only are one-liners spam, but also longer posts that are just recycling content over and over again.

Example:

I will not mention any because I believe that if I play any gambling games, I will win and lose. The scenario is most likely happening on luck based game like dice. It doesn't mean that if I won several times, I am already good at dice, right? Same case on others, I think it's not only me. This is just my point of view though. Of course, on games like sports betting, poker or the like, skills are also used. However, we can't deny the fact that luck will always be part of every game.

All of the examples are taken from the same thread, by the way.


And this isn't exact a thing about spam, but it's just the form of typing: When You Capitalize Every Word In The Sentence It Doesn't Look Nice. I have to strain my eyes to read, and usually it's not even worth reading - an attempt at looking grammatically correct is what the capitalization does... and it fails.

I am Not Good at Any Gambling Activity Because I am not a Gambler And I Don't Do Gambling For Making Any Money, I Gamble Only For Fun and Entertainment....
I also Suggest You that Leave these Types of Shit gambling Websites Because You Can Lose More As Compare to Your Winnings.....

What an eyesore.


So what is a quality post? Perhaps... something that takes brain power? A post that requires you to think about what you're going to type, instead of just literally reading the title, none of the past posts, and replying as fast as you can to pump out those cents quickly. Just my fifth of a dime.