Proposal: Disallow Ads in Signatures

[t3a]

It seems that a good number of posts here have ads in their signature. While it is annoying to be bombarded with ads, I don't see being advertised to as a problem in itself.

The problem is that these advertisers pay users per post usually, so users will try to get in as many posts as they can. This leads to low quality, short, and often meaningless posts.

There are many examples of users polluting this forum, one user consistent enough for me to have ignored is Bitpop https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=14283;sa=showPosts


Users normally wouldn't be allowed to include ads in their posts, and most other forums disallow ads in signatures. Overall, this change would have a positive effect on this community by filtering out poorly thought out, short posts that are 20% content and 80% ad.

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[b!z]

[Sirrah]

@b!z: Good pickup, haven't laughed so hard in a while. Now that I think about it, I sense rather than actually wanting to advertise, OP is simply mocking the idea of selling his sig space rather than actually doing it.

[t3a]

@b!z: Good pickup, haven't laughed so hard in a while. Now that I think about it, I sense rather than actually wanting to advertise, OP is simply mocking the idea of selling his sig space rather than actually doing it.

Yep, no one has taken the offer of $5000/day yet.

[Tonka Branded Truck]

@b!z: Good pickup, haven't laughed so hard in a while. Now that I think about it, I sense rather than actually wanting to advertise, OP is simply mocking the idea of selling his sig space rather than actually doing it.

Yep, no one has taken the offer of $5000/day yet.

No one would take that offer. Ads Signatures did contribute to the forum in some way. Many members want their business to got known and other members who don't have bitcoin that no other means to obtain them has a chance now to earn a little bitcoin for their work. It bring new adopters to bitcoin. Not all posts is spam don't generalize.

[Sheldor333]

I think quite the opposite, I think this is helping this site, especially when you are required to write high quality posts and not just garbage. It's not same for all. Some just write +1 or ok or few words, but there will be people like that even if there are no ads in signatures or not.

[tysat]

I think it's a great idea, paid signatures add nothing to the site and only encourage useless posts.  There are way too many people who post in every topic because it gets their post count up, the posts look useful but overall it really just adds to the noise.

Good luck getting glorious leader to make a change!

[Welsh]

I agree it's getting rather annoying, even if they aren't banned all together it's very easy to put limitations on signatures I think that signatures shouldn't be bright colors or anything above 14pt. Obviously, this is my opinion but, I think they are good limitations which would keep the advertisers happy and the business which is using people to advertise. Though, I hope they do get banned from advertising.

I have participated in a ad campaign a few times, however I had to reconsider advertising for a business which promotes spam and useless posts, especially with one of the businesses offering double the amount of posts for double the money now. I think something needs to be done otherwise, we are going to continue to see increase of spam.  I have added my first person to my ignore list  and I think he'll be on a lot of peoples ignore list as he is probably the most famous spammer on the forum right now. Most of his posts are useless and have repeated what someone has already said and he continues to do so every day. I always see his username posted in one section where he has replied to 5 or more topics where he didn't need to contribute to but, felt the need to earn a little extra. There was discussion a few months ago that his type of spam is acceptable and the staff members talked and said that it is only just acceptable.  

I'm going to be adding a few more people to the ignore list too soon which I hate doing too much because I can't read half the topics because no doubt that the people I ignore nearly post in every single topic there is on this forum.

I think it's a great idea, paid signatures add nothing to the site and only encourage useless posts.  There are way too many people who post in every topic because it gets their post count up, the posts look useful but overall it really just adds to the noise.

Good luck getting glorious leader to make a change!

 



Edit: Maybe, I should inform people running the campaigns like Stunna about the people who are spamming useless posts or generally annoying replies and maybe he will remove them from the campaign.

[MakeBelieve]

It's increasing the amount of registerations and the amount of people posting and keeping this forum active also I'm hoping to get 10 Bitcoin to donate to the forum 

[tysat]

It's increasing the amount of registerations and the amount of people posting and keeping this forum active also I'm hoping to get 10 Bitcoin to donate to the forum 

I would argue that it's killing the forum...  Increasing registrations and people posting isn't always a good thing, it's quite hard to find useful information here now.  The only reason I come to the forum is to moderate really, I hardly spend any time at all browsing because it is way too hard to find anything of importance.

Also, why do you want to donate to the forum?  More money is definitely not needed, you should look how current funds have been handled, and it'll take a long time (if even possible) to earn 10 BTC from paid signature advertising.

[MakeBelieve]

It's increasing the amount of registerations and the amount of people posting and keeping this forum active also I'm hoping to get 10 Bitcoin to donate to the forum 

I would argue that it's killing the forum...  Increasing registrations and people posting isn't always a good thing, it's quite hard to find useful information here now.  The only reason I come to the forum is to moderate really, I hardly spend any time at all browsing because it is way too hard to find anything of importance.

Also, why do you want to donate to the forum?  More money is definitely not needed, you should look how current funds have been handled, and it'll take a long time (if even possible) to earn 10 BTC from paid signature advertising.

I would love the abilty to change my name and have donator as personal text because that looks badass. What do you mean people have donated and have not recieved their rank? Where can I find this? theymos recently paid 1 million for a new forum which would have a impact on the remaining donation amount and the up keep and security of that said software would cost a lot more which I would expect him wanting more donations soon?

[mgburks77]

Does this thread seem useless?

Yes.

[TheButterZone]

I'd like to see people only advertising their own stuff (for sale, for free, advice, resources, funny or serious quotes, identifiers) in sigs.

[George_Welsh]

I would agree if it wasn't about your signature.

[t3a]

I think it's a great idea, paid signatures add nothing to the site and only encourage useless posts.  There are way too many people who post in every topic because it gets their post count up, the posts look useful but overall it really just adds to the noise.

Good luck getting glorious leader to make a change!

Will link Theymos to this thread if I ever see him on IRC (which is rare).

I'd like to see people only advertising their own stuff (for sale, for free, advice, resources, funny or serious quotes, identifiers) in sigs.

I can agree with this. I think most people motivated enough to start their own service will be able to make an insightful post. Along with that, making dumb posts hurts your image and by extension the image of your company, which promotes good posts.

I would agree if it wasn't about your signature.

It's not about my signature. I've had that since long before every other user had an ad in their sig.

[SaltySpitoon]

We have been talking about this for a long while. We are looking for an effective compromise between removing Sigs all together, disallowing Signature advertising, allowing signature advertising, and allowing you to advertise your own things.

I still think allowing signature advertising, but basing payouts off of activity is the way to go. That way it leaves signature advertising for those who dont abuse it, it makes it so spammers only need to spam 7 posts per week for maximum profit, and it allows people to keep up signature advertising if they want.

[roslinpl]

It seems that a good number of posts here have ads in their signature. While it is annoying to be bombarded with ads, I don't see being advertised to as a problem in itself.

The problem is that these advertisers pay users per post usually, so users will try to get in as many posts as they can. This leads to low quality, short, and often meaningless posts.

There are many examples of users polluting this forum, one user consistent enough for me to have ignored is Bitpop https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=14283;sa=showPosts


Users normally wouldn't be allowed to include ads in their posts, and most other forums disallow ads in signatures. Overall, this change would have a positive effect on this community by filtering out poorly thought out, short posts that are 20% content and 80% ad.

you don't know what are you talking about .... I am a sig seller and I can tell that you MIGHT have right for some of sig sellers but not for all of US.

We are paid to post CONSTRUCTIVE posts.

If our companies will see that we make only short-nonsense posts they might say bye bye to us.
So good sig seller is someone who is writing many posts (yes) and he indeed want his posts to be creative.

For example - science I am a sig seller I read a tooons of posts from all users, and I learned so many new things about bitcoin and not only.

So I improve my knowledge, reply to posts, and earn some BTC at 1 time.

What's wrong with this?

Anytime you see a post that is off topic you can report it to mods and post will be removed and guy will be not paid for this post.

So good sig sellers are just people who LOVE this forum, love to post in here and need some cash....

Eh..

[t3a]

We have been talking about this for a long while. We are looking for an effective compromise between removing Sigs all together, disallowing Signature advertising, allowing signature advertising, and allowing you to advertise your own things.

I still think allowing signature advertising, but basing payouts off of activity is the way to go. That way it leaves signature advertising for those who dont abuse it, it makes it so spammers only need to spam 7 posts per week for maximum profit, and it allows people to keep up signature advertising if they want.

I think one possible compromise is to make it against the rules to have consistently content-less posts (as determined by the moderators) while advertising in your signature.

The problem is that this is tough to enforce for every user.

Ideally, advertisers would pay bitcointalk.org for adspace.

It seems that a good number of posts here have ads in their signature. While it is annoying to be bombarded with ads, I don't see being advertised to as a problem in itself.

The problem is that these advertisers pay users per post usually, so users will try to get in as many posts as they can. This leads to low quality, short, and often meaningless posts.

There are many examples of users polluting this forum, one user consistent enough for me to have ignored is Bitpop https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=14283;sa=showPosts


Users normally wouldn't be allowed to include ads in their posts, and most other forums disallow ads in signatures. Overall, this change would have a positive effect on this community by filtering out poorly thought out, short posts that are 20% content and 80% ad.

you don't know what are you talking about .... I am a sig seller and I can tell that you MIGHT have right for some of sig sellers but not for all of US.

We are paid to post CONSTRUCTIVE posts.

If our companies will see that we make only short-nonsense posts they might say bye bye to us.
So good sig seller is someone who is writing many posts (yes) and he indeed want his posts to be creative.

For example - science I am a sig seller I read a tooons of posts from all users, and I learned so many new things about bitcoin and not only.

So I improve my knowledge, reply to posts, and earn some BTC at 1 time.

What's wrong with this?

Anytime you see a post that is off topic you can report it to mods and post will be removed and guy will be not paid for this post.

So good sig sellers are just people who LOVE this forum, love to post in here and need some cash....

Eh..

That is good. The problem is that there are users that abuse the system. I clearly do know what I'm talking about because I linked an example of such a user. Reporting the user doesn't do anything because even if he is breaking a rule by not contributing, he won't be banned.

If you are monitoring your users and making sure they have quality posts, then I commend you, but there is an obvious difference between the posts of those here because they love Bitcoin and those here because they love money.

[SaltySpitoon]

I think one possible compromise is to make it against the rules to have consistently content-less posts (as determined by the moderators) while advertising in your signature.

The problem is that this is tough to enforce for every user.

Ideally, advertisers would pay bitcointalk.org for adspace.

That already is against the rules, we ban tons of spammers every day. We just cant get all of them.

[tysat]

The easiest solution seems to be stopping them from paying per post.  Salty has the right idea.