What are we going to do about the Shitposters?

[Vod]

(Hopefully you even notice this thread amongst all the spam threads here)

Theymos, it is reaching a critical level.   

From my BPIP parsing, I can tell you are getting several new signups per minute. 

These accounts are immediately posting as often as they can, using simple one liners that don't contribute and in some cases are completely off topic. 

They post once on a thread then never go back.  This is making normal conversation difficult. 

Is there anything in the works to combat this?

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[Gimpeline]

Agree completly
I think the best way is to bring back the newbie jail, and delete mega spam-threds.
Not just close them, delete them so they dont credit for their spam.

[Lauda]

This place has been running similar to a anarchy for quite some time now.

I think the best way is to bring back the newbie jail, and delete mega spam-threds.
Not just close them, delete them so they dont credit for their spam.

They can be trashed, which voids their post count. There's a lot of these threads in the main sections like Bitcoin Discussion, but they are rarely handled.

[LoyceV]

I've noticed almost everyone who has an ETH-address as Location: in their profile is just posting spam.

Most new accounts don't make a single post, and have random nicknames. Could it be they're trying to find a proxy that doesn't require a payment to get rid of units of evil?

and delete mega spam-threds.

Since many spam megathreads have been deleted, many Newbies open random BS threads on their own. I've seen Newbies with more topics opened than replies made.
I've reported much more posts and topic lately, but there are much more spammers than "good guys".

Would it be an option to charge a fee to create an account? Not just based on units of evil, but every new account has to pay a small amount. Start with $2, adjust if necessary.
This is small enough to not discourage honest people, but becomes expensive if an account farmer gets 100 accounts banned.

BTW: When reporting posts, the 4 seconds between my reports often make my reports fail.

[Vod]

I've seen Newbies with more topics opened than replies made.

Yes, that is a good indicator of a spammer.

In a couple weeks, BPIP will start parsing this page, which shows the topics and replies.  I will then be able to query that data to produce probable shitposter lists.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=30747;sa=statPanel

[ibminer]

i think maybe we should ask them first why they shoplift and then if the reasons are for family but they actually did it for some reasons or they do it just for fun and then were gonna punnish them.

Thanks for the great example of a shitpost.

[Jet Cash]

I think we shoud have a Bitcoin discussion forum where we can discuss Bitcoin.

Maybe restrict posting to members and above.

[KWH]

I've been reporting spam, redundant and OT threads/posts yet my % is falling. Looks like a waste of time to report them, not bothering with it anymore.

[Welsh]

It's actually becoming unreal at this point, every day that I log on I can look at certain sections and report around 20 posts in the first 5 pages for all sorts of reasons. The majority of the reports are for the wrong section. The people who are shit posting don't even take  the time to put their shit in a on topic section and just post it anywhere. They then either farm up their posts in their thread or abandon it forever.

I've been looking into the accounts which have been making these posts recently and a lot of them seem to be compromised. A lot of them had a huge posting gap and suddenly changed languages. I'm currently compiling a list of accounts that I think have been compromised with references which I'll post over in the reputation section in the next few days hopefully and continue adding to it.

I do feel for the moderators  though, as right now it seems they are struggling to cope with the new workload that has resulted in the value of Bitcoin rising, as well as signature campaign spamming and dealing with compromised accounts. I guess I'll continuing what I've been doing for a while and report every post that breaches one of the guidelines.

As well as raise my concerns about some accounts which I suspect have been compromised. (Which I'll likely contact theymos first and see if he replies) It's not like the staff isn't doing anything as they clearly are and my reports are being dealt with a few hours later depending on the rank of the member and there is a lot of activity in the modlog I just think they may be struggling, or not enough people are reporting the posts.
 

[KWH]

It's actually becoming unreal at this point, every day that I log on I can look at certain sections and report around 20 posts in the first 5 pages for all sorts of reasons. The majority of the reports are for the wrong section. The people who are shit posting don't even take  the time to put their shit in a on topic section and just post it anywhere. They then either farm up their posts in their thread or abandon it forever.

I've been looking into the accounts which have been making these posts recently and a lot of them seem to be compromised. A lot of them had a huge posting gap and suddenly changed languages. I'm currently compiling a list of accounts that I think have been compromised with references which I'll post over in the reputation section in the next few days hopefully and continue adding to it.

I do feel for the moderators  though, as right now it seems they are struggling to cope with the new workload that has resulted in the value of Bitcoin rising, as well as signature campaign spamming and dealing with compromised accounts. I guess I'll continuing what I've been doing for a while and report every post that breaches one of the guidelines.

As well as raise my concerns about some accounts which I suspect have been compromised. (Which I'll likely contact theymos first and see if he replies) It's not like the staff isn't doing anything as they clearly are and my reports are being dealt with a few hours later depending on the rank of the member and there is a lot of activity in the modlog I just think they may be struggling, or not enough people are reporting the posts.
 

I've been reporting posts in the wrong section as well as multiple redundant threads (activity, rank up, can't post pics) and some are removed and some are not. I dropped on the reported % so I see no reason to bother anymore.

[qwk]

I think the best way is to bring back the newbie jail

Would it be an option to charge a fee to create an account?

A combination of the two would be the best option, I think.
Newbie jail until you're at least Activity 30something AND have less than 2 or 3 "reported" posts.
Get out of jail immediately for a fee.

[Welsh]

I've been reporting posts in the wrong section as well as multiple redundant threads (activity, rank up, can't post pics) and some are removed and some are not. I dropped on the reported % so I see no reason to bother anymore.

Don't worry about the percentage, I imagine you have a decent percentage anyway. I report anything I think doesn't belong. I've even reported a staff members post a long time ago because I didn't feel it fitted in where it was posted. In the last hour I've reported at least 20 posts after coming home and not all them will likely be dealt with or I may have been incorrect on a few of them. But as long as I'm correct and have helped then it's worth it.

I know it's nice to have some feedback via your percentage and you like to keep it high. But, giving up completely isn't going to help the issue we are currently facing. I couldn't care about my percentage as long as you can clean up the board by getting a few of them correct it's worth it in my opinion.

A combined effort of everyone doing this will surely help and the moderators will appreciate it. I feel too many people are getting disheartened and giving up because of the percentage loss. I don't really look at a lot of the sections which are getting bombarded by posts. Mostly the altcoin section, I've recently taken it off ignore and it's quite frankly a mess and a haven for spammers/shit posters.

Another thing I have noticed is that there's a lot of threads which are in the marketplace section and sub forums which are being bump abused. The OP deletes his previous bump and then posts another one multiple times within 24 hours. I've been reporting them too but I'm not sure if the moderators even have access to deleted posts as I believe I remember theymos saying they are a hassle to recover/check.

[ibminer]

Maybe the solution is to offer a paid membership *cough*Copper*cough* for them to skip any rank building and be eligible for more sig campaigns as a newbie, so they can get paid, probably by scam ICO operators, for their one-liners as soon as they create an account?  /sarcasm /copper-bashing

Maybe Copper is just a clever way to entice them into a specific account type so mods can focus efforts on looking through copper members instead of all newbies.
/optimism


Newbie jail would be great.

A little off-topic but can someone explain to me why Copper membership lifts signature styling restrictions?

[Welsh]

Maybe the solution is to offer a paid membership *cough*Copper*cough* for them to skip any rank building and be eligible for more sig campaigns as a newbie, so they can get paid, probably by scam ICO operators, for their one-liners as soon as they create an account?  /sarcasm /copper-bashing

Maybe Copper is just a clever way to entice them into a specific account type so mods can focus efforts on looking through copper members instead of all newbies.
/optimism


Newbie jail would be great.

A little off-topic but can someone explain to me why Copper membership lifts signature styling restrictions?

I'm actually against a newbie jail because that didn't prevent any spamming/shit posting when it was in place before and to be honest a lot of the shit posting isn't even coming from the newbie members. (at least in the main Bitcoin sections)

Copper membership was introduced, because I believe theymos doesn't actually like putting restrictions on people because it hinders the actual legit members of the forum who want to participate and contribute to the forum. He's proven this by lifting the newbie jail in the past, allowing members to register through Tor if they pay a small fee and the recent copper membership introduction.

He explains himself here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2385104

[ibminer]

Copper membership was introduced, because I believe theymos doesn't actually like putting restrictions on people because it hinders the actual legit members of the forum who want to participate and contribute to the forum. He's proven this by lifting the newbie jail in the past, allowing members to register through Tor if they pay a small fee and the recent copper membership introduction.

He explains himself here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2385104

I had read the explanation, it was created with the intent to allow newbies the capability to post images, which I understand the reasoning for. What I do not fully understand is the need to give them a visible rank of "Copper Member", 2 coins under their name, and increased signature styling.

It appears to me that there have been more sig spammers asking how to rank up faster to try and get paid for campaigns compared to legitimate members asking about removing restrictions to create accounts to contribute to the forum. I certainly wouldn't want to hinder anyone legitimate from helping the forum but I feel like anyone legitimately trying to contribute to the forum should be willing to go through a newbie jail of some sort and would understand the reasoning.

I'm actually against a newbie jail because that didn't prevent any spamming/shit posting when it was in place before and to be honest a lot of the shit posting isn't even coming from the newbie members. (at least in the main Bitcoin sections)

Current sig spammers may not be newbies because a lot have had to buy accounts or have already had time to rank their accounts up to join a campaign... and yes, I do like that Copper could potentially reduce account sales. However, I'm anticipating signature campaigns to start providing rates for copper members due to the signature restriction lifts and if those signature rates pay for the copper membership somewhat quickly, this seems like a no-brainer for sig spammers.

Maybe I'm wrong though.. this is just me speculating.

[frodocooper]

Don't worry about the percentage, I imagine you have a decent percentage anyway. I report anything I think doesn't belong. I've even reported a staff members post a long time ago because I didn't feel it fitted in where it was posted. In the last hour I've reported at least 20 posts after coming home and not all them will likely be dealt with or I may have been incorrect on a few of them. But as long as I'm correct and have helped then it's worth it.

...

A combined effort of everyone doing this will surely help and the moderators will appreciate it.

Your efforts do help and have not gone unnoticed. And yes, we do appreciate it.

I do feel for the moderators  though, as right now it seems they are struggling to cope with the new workload that has resulted in the value of Bitcoin rising, as well as signature campaign spamming and dealing with compromised accounts. I guess I'll continuing what I've been doing for a while and report every post that breaches one of the guidelines.

Thank you for understanding. Yes, we are struggling to keep up with the current onslaught. For every one we take down, at least three more pop up in their place (in the Mining sections, at least; that's my jurisdiction).

Nevertheless, we are doing our very best to keep up the forum's tidiness and content quality, and we need, and appreciate, all the help we can and do get from you.

[Vod]

I've been reporting posts in the wrong section as well as multiple redundant threads (activity, rank up, can't post pics) and some are removed and some are not. I dropped on the reported % so I see no reason to bother anymore.

I've been negative trusting these bozos, which shuts them down - but for every one I tag, 50 more pop up.  :/

[erikalui]

Nothing can stop spamming on this forum as people can create 1000 accounts per day, talk to themselves and half their accounts get banned while the remaining remain unidentified. I feel there are not more than 150-200 real users on this forum as others appear to be alts. The solutions are endless and may be not letting them wear a signature till they reach a specific rank, not letting their posts appear unless they are verified by mods (but this increases the work load of mods) but that also doesn't stop them from increasing their activity.

[otrkid70]

The only way to fix the problem is banning Sig. Ad Campaigns.

Because of the Sig Ad Campaigns there have been thousands of new accounts,Threads,Replies All spam
This makes the forum "Appear" to be very busy and valuable. If you remove the Ad campaigns thousands of accounts will go Dormant and the forum loses $$

You don't bite the hand that feeds you. Revenue is being made by these spammers and will continue.

[bandar]

5. Forbid all signature campaign or disable signature feature (fastest solution).

Ok, United Traders 

No, you're right actually.

Allthough I'm in the middle of my first bounty campaign (in about 4 years), I'd say: stop them.  There is too much to be gained by bounties.  As BTC has become world news and this is THE forum where there's money to be made from bounties: it won't stop, it will just get worse...