theymos, monetize this forum ;)

[radokan]

I've been reading meta for some time and I see lots suggestion about signatures and how to reduce spam and so on.
I couldn't find data on how many users are participating in various campaigns, I think that number might be 100K, maybe higher.

What do you think about forcing users to pay for wearing payed signatures?
Why don't you charge few bucks for it? It doesn't need to be big amount of money, it can be around 10-20$ monthly. Discount for larger time period could be included.

Imagine it, 100,000 users will pay 10 - 20 million dollars every year just to participate in campaigns!
You can even donate some money to charity 

IMO that would be great way to monetize forum and reduce spam.

[markj113]

Great idea, perhaps you should pay $500 for coming up with it

[selenophile]

I've been reading meta for some time and I see lots suggestion about signatures and how to reduce spam and so on.
I couldn't find data on how many users are participating in various campaigns, I think that number might be 100K, maybe higher.

What do you think about forcing users to pay for wearing payed signatures?
Why don't you charge few bucks for it? It doesn't need to be big amount of money, it can be around 10-20$ monthly. Discount for larger time period could be included.

Imagine it, 100,000 users will pay 10 - 20 million dollars every year just to participate in campaigns!
You can even donate some money to charity 

IMO that would be great way to monetize forum and reduce spam.

i guess it will not reduce the spam and more likely creates more of the farm account. imagine you already earn crypto because of bounty and the only ways to make more is to pay for it.

[dbshck]

hilariousandco has proposed the idea numerous time but it seems theymos didn't like it. I personally think this is a great idea though, it's better for all those ads money to go to the forum and quality posters rather than the spammer. IIRC he never mentioned why he dropped the idea, so I would like to hear his opinion on this.

What are everyone's ideas for improving post quality?

I have mostly ruled out:

 - Removing signatures or sig ads globally.
 - Requiring payment to wear sig ads.
 - Banning account sales.

[radokan]

Great idea, perhaps you should pay $500 for coming up with it

Only if theymos make it live 

[yojodojo21]

the discussion about spamming is never ending but when merit feature was implemented the problem of spamming is somehow lesser than the old days.
hilarious suggested to remove sig and ads globally but theymos didn't take action to that, maybe Theymos Has better Idea But Hilarious's idea is also a contribution to the forum. and now OP wants  users to pay for sigs, and I/we don't know if theymos will take action to that also. Let theymos and other superiors decide what would be the best way to this Problem.

[athanz88]

hilariousandco has proposed the idea numerous time but it seems theymos didn't like it. I personally think this is a great idea though, it's better for all those ads money to go to the forum and quality posters rather than the spammer. IIRC he never mentioned why he dropped the idea, so I would like to hear his opinion on this.

What are everyone's ideas for improving post quality?

I have mostly ruled out:

 - Removing signatures or sig ads globally.
 - Requiring payment to wear sig ads.
 - Banning account sales.

I have seen his/her post about how happy he/she is because there are many people from 3rd world country who do a good job and contribution to this forum and make money from it, and the money is considered big in their country. If this system happened, then the poor will be troubled a bit if they want to join the sig campaign. It will be like a money game, one who has money will have a higher chance to be in the game.

Let me post this first and i will find theymos’ post. This reason is just a conclusion from me tho.

Okay, this.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2986106.msg32203954#msg32203954

[TheQuin]

hilariousandco has proposed the idea numerous time but it seems theymos didn't like it. I personally think this is a great idea though, it's better for all those ads money to go to the forum and quality posters rather than the spammer. IIRC he never mentioned why he dropped the idea, so I would like to hear his opinion on this.

I think a remember seeing hilariousandco post the same thing again very recently so I don't he has dropped it. Maybe he's just a bit less vocal about it since Merit has been brought in. I also thought it was a good idea but I suppose theymos has chosen another way and I'm happy to get behind that and give it a chance.

[dbshck]

I have seen his/her post about how happy he/she is because there are many people from 3rd world country who do a good job and contribution to this forum and make money from it, and the money is considered big in their country. If this system happened, then the poor will be troubled a bit if they want to join the sig campaign. It will be like a money game, one who has money will have a higher chance to be in the game.

The price should not be too expensive but enough to make it inconvenient for massive spammers, the equilibrium between the two.
The addition of merit system has prevented new accounts from being farmed so this idea is no longer urgently needed but I think it'll be somewhat effective to combat the existing one.

I think a remember seeing hilariousandco post the same thing again very recently so I don't he has dropped it. Maybe he's just a bit less vocal about it since Merit has been brought in.

I was referring to theymos.

[TheQuin]

I was referring to theymos.

My bad sorry. I've never seen him explain his objection and I didn't understand it to begin with. Since then I've seen some of his posts that make me think he has a certain outlook on life that he wants to give people a chance to better themselves and make a few bucks here regardless of whether they can afford to pay upfront or not. That's just an impression I get, I might be completely wrong.

[hilariousetc]

I think charging people to have a signature is going to be the only way we'll stop the majority of the abuse. If it doesn't cost people anything then they will find a way to get around the system. Merit is a great idea in theory but we're just seeing people farm merit now and those with a lot of accounts or "friends" just trade it between themselves in a you scratch my back I'll scratch yours scenario. Remove signatures and make everyone pay $500 or something to get one and that would pretty much kill account farming and severely limit the amount of accounts people could have. Punishing badly run campaigns would go a long way as well. If we'd have done this then we wouldn't have had this issue in the first place and as long as spammers continue to get paid nothing will really change.

I have seen his/her post about how happy he/she is because there are many people from 3rd world country who do a good job and contribution to this forum and make money from it, and the money is considered big in their country. If this system happened, then the poor will be troubled a bit if they want to join the sig campaign. It will be like a money game, one who has money will have a higher chance to be in the game.

Let me post this first and i will find theymos’ post. This reason is just a conclusion from me tho.

Okay, this.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2986106.msg32203954#msg32203954

You seem to have missed this bit:

Though no amount of this sort of thinking excuses those who choose to post garbage posts, for whatever reason. I hope that we can eventually reach a balance on the forum which will satisfy the forum's primary mission of enabling real discussion while also continuing to create opportunities for many people.

[Zackgeno96]

IIRC he never mentioned why he dropped the idea, so I would like to hear his opinion on this.

It may reduce the traffic on this forum and ultimately it may affect the revenue generated through the paid advertising on this forum. I am not sure, there could be some other reasons also. Overall its a good idea but need to work on it, in order to implement it effectively.

[athanz88]

Well pardon me, but it seems you have missed a bit too @hillariousetc

Snip

I have seen his/her post about how happy he/she is because there are many people from 3rd world country who do a good job and contribution to this forum and make money from it, and the money is considered big in their country. If this system happened, then the poor will be troubled a bit if they want to join the sig campaign. It will be like a money game, one who has money will have a higher chance to be in the game.

Let me post this first and i will find theymos’ post. This reason is just a conclusion from me tho.

Okay, this.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2986106.msg32203954#msg32203954

[lukyanli]

I've been reading meta for some time and I see lots suggestion about signatures and how to reduce spam and so on.
I couldn't find data on how many users are participating in various campaigns, I think that number might be 100K, maybe higher.

What do you think about forcing users to pay for wearing payed signatures?
Why don't you charge few bucks for it? It doesn't need to be big amount of money, it can be around 10-20$ monthly. Discount for larger time period could be included.

Imagine it, 100,000 users will pay 10 - 20 million dollars every year just to participate in campaigns!
You can even donate some money to charity 

IMO that would be great way to monetize forum and reduce spam.

I do not agree to this idea because:

1) One of the reasons behind the popularity of this forum forum is that it provides an earning opportunity to new members without paying any money. There are various other websites that charge extra yearly fees for special ranks that are associated with privileges like signatures. Those forums will never be able to touch bitcointalk in terms of popularity.

2) Because of the above reason , a lot of new members keep joining the forum in the hope of getting accepted. They also make posts here and all this results in forum getting traffic. Indirectly, these members are also helping forum and are responsible for the advertisement slots being sold here.

[hilariousetc]

Well pardon me, but it seems you have missed a bit too @hillariousetc

Snip

I have seen his/her post about how happy he/she is because there are many people from 3rd world country who do a good job and contribution to this forum and make money from it, and the money is considered big in their country. If this system happened, then the poor will be troubled a bit if they want to join the sig campaign. It will be like a money game, one who has money will have a higher chance to be in the game.

Let me post this first and i will find theymos’ post. This reason is just a conclusion from me tho.

Okay, this.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2986106.msg32203954#msg32203954

I didn't miss anything. You're just taking things out of context and only reading what you want to see. Why wouldn't theymos be happy if somebody can earn for making quality contributions. It's the shitposters that we're not happy about and the number of Indonesians and Filipinos contributing much of value to this forum is dwarfed by the thousands of shitposters who contribute absolutely nothing and are only here to earn on their 12 accounts by posting meaningless drivel post after post.

[jackg]

Since it's been stated above here in a quote of one of Theymos' posts that he's ruled out this idea already.
I could only offer two additional suggestions (I've been skimming this thread so it's possible these have already been mentioned).

However:
 • Charge campaign runners to run campaigns here (as charging for signatures seems a bit rediculous IMO as some people might just want to put random stuff below their posts to advertise their services, and if we charge for signatures then do we also charge for a personal message and avatar - like my bitcoin address that I have left there?)

 • Issue fines for BOTH or Either campaign managers or signature campaign owners for running campaigns that just support bad posting quality. I don't mean, one user posts with a low quality, I mean that the entire member of a campaign continues to get posts deleted by moderators (like more than 5 or 10%). This money could then be donated to the moderators for the job that they do to help clear up the forum and to theymos and his developer teem to keep new ideas like the merit system flowing.

2) Because of the above reason , a lot of new members keep joining the forum in the hope of getting accepted. They also make posts here and all this results in forum getting traffic. Indirectly, these members are also helping forum and are responsible for the advertisement slots being sold here.

Also, more members getting involved in Bitcoin increases the acceptance of the currency as a thing and also pushes the price up a bit.
So many members discussing Bitcoin shows that the currency has a user-base behind it and that it's potentially worth its value as it is.
And it helps with the delocalisation of the currency and if more peopole have a small amount, it becomes more valuable as it's split across more people.

[zigfridkr]

Since it's been stated above here in a quote of one of Theymos' posts that he's ruled out this idea already.
I could only offer two additional suggestions (I've been skimming this thread so it's possible these have already been mentioned).

However:
 • Charge campaign runners to run campaigns here (as charging for signatures seems a bit rediculous IMO as some people might just want to put random stuff below their posts to advertise their services, and if we charge for signatures then do we also charge for a personal message and avatar - like my bitcoin address that I have left there?)

 • Issue fines for BOTH or Either campaign managers or signature campaign owners for running campaigns that just support bad posting quality. I don't mean, one user posts with a low quality, I mean that the entire member of a campaign continues to get posts deleted by moderators (like more than 5 or 10%). This money could then be donated to the moderators for the job that they do to help clear up the forum and to theymos and his developer teem to keep new ideas like the merit system flowing.

2) Because of the above reason , a lot of new members keep joining the forum in the hope of getting accepted. They also make posts here and all this results in forum getting traffic. Indirectly, these members are also helping forum and are responsible for the advertisement slots being sold here.

Also, more members getting involved in Bitcoin increases the acceptance of the currency as a thing and also pushes the price up a bit.
So many members discussing Bitcoin shows that the currency has a user-base behind it and that it's potentially worth its value as it is.
And it helps with the delocalisation of the currency and if more peopole have a small amount, it becomes more valuable as it's split across more people.

I would like to start with the information you shared about the benefits of more members getting involved with bitcoins. This is really an important point. Once the member starts getting some bitcoins and then sees growth in the price of those bitcoins in future, he will be encouraged to invest own money in bitcoins as well. Most of the people think that signature campaigns are giving free money. If we observe carefully, some time goes in making posts required for getting paid by the campaign. If you use that time for any other freelance activity, you will get paid there also but in cash mostly.

[athanz88]

Well pardon me, but it seems you have missed a bit too @hillariousetc

Snip

snip

I didn't miss anything. You're just taking things out of context and only reading what you want to see. Why wouldn't theymos be happy if somebody can earn for making quality contributions. It's the shitposters that we're not happy about and the number of Indonesians and Filipinos contributing much of value to this forum is dwarfed by the thousands of shitposters who contribute absolutely nothing and are only here to earn on their 12 accounts by posting meaningless drivel post after post.

Okay that is a good point which i missed a lot, i am sorry for the post before. I too believe that there are too many cheaters that come from Indonesia which make Indonesia name bad and affect all the "good" Indonesia. I guess it is better if theymos him/herself can gives us the reason why he/she doesnt want to charge people like OP and you @hillariousetc suggest. For now, i think the suggestion is good until we find other compatible solution and compare them head to head, and i cant think of one now.

[uelque]

I guess it is better if theymos him/herself can gives us the reason why he/she doesnt want to charge people like OP and you @hillariousetc suggest. For now, i think the suggestion is good until we find other compatible solution and compare them head to head, and i cant think of one now.

Maybe because it won't do anything at all!
Do you, or does anyone of you, think that most shitposters are indigent people? Actually, most shitposters are those who can pay that fee (OP said above) rather than those who can't. And let's assumed that it is already implemented, people who can afford to pay fees would pay fees no matter what, even if they are shitposters or not. Then let's say a shitposter pays for a certain signature, do you all think he/she will stop spamming? It was like, "a criminal always remains a criminal no matter how long he/she spend his/her life in jail".

Even merit system can't stop them, am I right? Only those who want's to rank up "shitposter before" would be change by merit system. Ask them a question, those who are shitposters, do you want to rank up if you already earning at you current rank? He/she will say yes! But I assure you it's a LIE...

So maybe, theymos and other mods should think a much better way other than that.  

[Wind_FURY]

hilariousandco has proposed the idea numerous time but it seems theymos didn't like it. I personally think this is a great idea though, it's better for all those ads money to go to the forum and quality posters rather than the spammer. IIRC he never mentioned why he dropped the idea, so I would like to hear his opinion on this.

What are everyone's ideas for improving post quality?

I have mostly ruled out:

 
 - Requiring payment to wear sig ads.
 

Am I the only one who believes that this is a BAD idea?

That will not stop the spammers from paying to have their signatures on but it might discourage quality posters from participating in the forum.

Why don't the mods start by disallowing newbies and Jr. members from starting new threads and delete spambait topics at the same time?