Proposal: Disallow Ads in Signatures

[apsvinet]

Of course it's because we're using the signatures ourselves. But we are doing that for a reason, probably ( in my case at least ) because I don't see why it should bother anyone.

One word. Spam.

Spammers should be dealt with anyway. My point was not everybody spams, I'm sure you wouldn't consider yourself a spammer just because you use an advertisement in your signature, and neither do I. Disallowing everyone is a collective punishment that's not really called for, imho.

[EFS]

I consider all of you spammers. This is a forum, not a chatbox. 10 quoted posts are looking ridiculous. You are lucky other moderators don't think that way.

[DiamondCardz]

I consider all of you spammers. This is a forum, not a chatbox. 10 quoted posts are looking ridiculous. You are lucky other moderators don't think that way.

That is not spam when we are actually discussing the topic raised in the OP. Which you currently aren't, just so you know. A long chain of quotes for discussion purposes is not spam.

Anyway, on-topic: There is no need to dis-allow everyone from having a signature. Just dis-allow signature ads or make people damn well know that if they spam for cash, they're going to be punished.

[apsvinet]

I consider all of you spammers. This is a forum, not a chatbox. 10 quoted posts are looking ridiculous. You are lucky other moderators don't think that way.

How is discussing the topic of the thread we're posting in spamming?

[MUFC]

I consider all of you spammers. This is a forum, not a chatbox. 10 quoted posts are looking ridiculous. You are lucky other moderators don't think that way.

How is discussing the topic of the thread we're posting in spamming?

You seem to be the biggest spammer here. I've only been on this forum only a short while but i see u all over posting rubbish obviously just for your sig deal.

[apsvinet]

I consider all of you spammers. This is a forum, not a chatbox. 10 quoted posts are looking ridiculous. You are lucky other moderators don't think that way.

How is discussing the topic of the thread we're posting in spamming?

You seem to be the biggest spammer here. I've only been on this forum only a short while but i see u all over posting rubbish obviously just for your sig deal.

Havn't you got better things to do with your life than chase me around in posts spewing out your jealousy? :/

[MUFC]

I consider all of you spammers. This is a forum, not a chatbox. 10 quoted posts are looking ridiculous. You are lucky other moderators don't think that way.

How is discussing the topic of the thread we're posting in spamming?

You seem to be the biggest spammer here. I've only been on this forum only a short while but i see u all over posting rubbish obviously just for your sig deal.

Havn't you got better things to do with your life than chase me around in posts spewing out your jealousy? :/

Havent you got anything better to do than spamming up this forum with your 1 word replies an quoting people without even responding? And I don't follow you around, i just see your rubbish everywhere. What am i jealous of exactly?

[apsvinet]

I consider all of you spammers. This is a forum, not a chatbox. 10 quoted posts are looking ridiculous. You are lucky other moderators don't think that way.

How is discussing the topic of the thread we're posting in spamming?

You seem to be the biggest spammer here. I've only been on this forum only a short while but i see u all over posting rubbish obviously just for your sig deal.

Havn't you got better things to do with your life than chase me around in posts spewing out your jealousy? :/

Havent you got anything better to do than spamming up this forum with your 1 word replies an quoting people without even responding? And I don't follow you around, i just see your rubbish everywhere. What am i jealous of exactly?

Stop spamming this thread with your off-topic ramblings. If you have any questions directly towards me feel free to PM.

[MUFC]

I consider all of you spammers. This is a forum, not a chatbox. 10 quoted posts are looking ridiculous. You are lucky other moderators don't think that way.

How is discussing the topic of the thread we're posting in spamming?

You seem to be the biggest spammer here. I've only been on this forum only a short while but i see u all over posting rubbish obviously just for your sig deal.

Havn't you got better things to do with your life than chase me around in posts spewing out your jealousy? :/

Havent you got anything better to do than spamming up this forum with your 1 word replies an quoting people without even responding? And I don't follow you around, i just see your rubbish everywhere. What am i jealous of exactly?

Stop spamming this thread with your off-topic ramblings. If you have any questions directly towards me feel free to PM.

Stop replying to this thread to bump up your post count then. Funny how its now you care about being off topic.  Doesn't seem to stop you everywhere else. And this thread is about why signatures should be banned and your a perfect case of why.

[kjj]

Why should Members and below be blocked from having a signature because people are spamming due to signature ads?

Damn.  You broke the streak.  If not for your two posts, I was going to have 100% ignored posts on page 14.

[DiamondCardz]

Why should Members and below be blocked from having a signature because people are spamming due to signature ads?

Damn.  You broke the streak.  If not for your two posts, I was going to have 100% ignored posts on page 14.

Ah, unfortunately, that's what I'm here to do. However this proves my point: If the vast majority of page 14 is being ignored by you and the vast majority of page 14 is by people with signature ads, surely there is a correlation between signature ads and low-quality posting?

[hilariousandco]

Why should Members and below be blocked from having a signature because people are spamming due to signature ads?

Damn.  You broke the streak.  If not for your two posts, I was going to have 100% ignored posts on page 14.

Ah, unfortunately, that's what I'm here to do. However this proves my point: If the vast majority of page 14 is being ignored by you and the vast majority of page 14 is by people with signature ads, surely there is a correlation between signature ads and low-quality posting?

...Or possibly he just ignores everyone with a signature advert?

[DiamondCardz]

Why should Members and below be blocked from having a signature because people are spamming due to signature ads?

Damn.  You broke the streak.  If not for your two posts, I was going to have 100% ignored posts on page 14.

Ah, unfortunately, that's what I'm here to do. However this proves my point: If the vast majority of page 14 is being ignored by you and the vast majority of page 14 is by people with signature ads, surely there is a correlation between signature ads and low-quality posting?

...Or possibly he just ignores everyone with a signature advert?

That's my point, because signature adverts will in most cases create spam...

[kjj]

At this point, the forum is mostly dead to me.  I used to be active in about a half dozen boards.  Now once every few days, I check the "new replies" link up top, check maybe 2 or 3 of the threads, click "mark as read" on the rest, and check Dev&tech for big news maybe a couple of times each week.

Feel free to go back to page 14 and check the post histories of the people I've got on ignore (everyone except DiamondCardz).  I have, and I'm not missing anything.

Ad signatures aren't the only problem here, but they sure are a big part of the decline.

Better handling of the ignore function (don't bump threads in the notify and replies lists when the only new posts are from ignored users) and ignore list syndication would help revitalize this place.

[freedomno1]

At this point, the forum is mostly dead to me.  I used to be active in about a half dozen boards.  Now once every few days, I check the "new replies" link up top, check maybe 2 or 3 of the threads, click "mark as read" on the rest, and check Dev&tech for big news maybe a couple of times each week.

Feel free to go back to page 14 and check the post histories of the people I've got on ignore (everyone except DiamondCardz).  I have, and I'm not missing anything.

Ad signatures aren't the only problem here, but they sure are a big part of the decline.

Better handling of the ignore function (don't bump threads in the notify and replies lists when the only new posts are from ignored users) and ignore list syndication would help revitalize this place.

I post in securities section primarily so not quite sure if you are arguing with my posts or the people below me since I never really noticed you in particular KJJ  were generally not in the same areas of the forum. Your more in D@T which is arguably one of the cleanest sections of the forum while I watch company launches etc in securities.

I will point out that in my opinion as a member of the Bitcoin foundation your a bit sketchy maybe I just got influenced to much by that war between the Bitcoin Education Project and the Foundation and mircea and her posts. However I can count a few cases now of Foundation members getting into a fair bit of trouble child modeling, Satoshidice,the arrest of the vice chairman connected to silkroad etc.
http://trilema.com/2014/the-sins-of-the-group-of-posers-behind-the-so-called-bitcoin-foundation/
http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-bitcoin-education-project

Foundation Stuff
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/01/27/winklevoss-funded-bitcoin-startup-ceo-arrested-in-silk-road-investigation/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-19/gambling-website-s-bitcoin-denominated-stock-draws-sec-inquiry.html
http://valleywag.gawker.com/the-bitcoin-broker-and-the-13-year-old-girl-in-the-biki-1563202590

That said if your rule is to block people with ads in general then I have no beef with you but there are productive users among the signature users.

@ Since I feel like picking on Diamondcardz for escaping unscathed
You and your coinchat shenanigans and faucet !coins although props given for not using any ad since inputs.io way back when fortress was still legit (Oddly enough inputs.io leads to the EFF page now)

That said I do see some non-traditional spam as well not just sig users but I agree in general more users has resulted in more spam, then again that is just a relation to the S shaped adoption curve Bitcoin faces and increasing mainstream media presences, influenced by the legal news surrounding Bitcoin.
http://bitlegal.net/

Promoted posts to press all from one user etc.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=77446.620

Had my fun and kjj just use bitcointa.lk and save yourself some of the trouble if you unignore long enough to see it hehe else carry on suffering snide way of contributing  
https://bitcointa.lk/

Your in D@T although this was posted in service discussion so should have seen that site by now
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=515932.0

[DiamondCardz]

Ugh, CoinChat and all that crap. TradeFortress was very smart and trust me, he could definitiely convince people that he was totally legit. Even 30 days+ down the line from the inputs.io hack CoinChat was somehow still on a leg and some of the mods were still convinced he had "lost" 4000 BTC+.

Below post:

And yet you guys drone on about it by the thousands of posts. Endlessly. Repeatedly. Like broken records. Have any of you ever READ your posts in this thread? Over and over and over and over and over and over.

You expect us to sit here while the forum is overrun with spam due to mostly signature ads? Making an argument is not "droning on about it by the thousands of posts". The level of quality is just being brought down due to signature ads in general.

[brush242]

I stopped putting ads in my signature when I realized it makes me look similar to those who just spam for money. Many people would complain that they can't spam for their $50/month that they get from signature ads, but in the long run it'd be much better for bitcointalk.

BTW I get more around $100-200.

The amount isn't the point nor the topic of this thread, it's the spam that it creates.

Why not only allow Full Members + to have a signature in the first place?

Why should Members and below be blocked from having a signature because people are spamming due to signature ads?

Or maybe not allowed to have a link.

Truthfully there is no medium. Its either get half of the forum pissed, or get the other half.

And yet you guys drone on about it by the thousands of posts. Endlessly. Repeatedly. Like broken records. Have any of you ever READ your posts in this thread? Over and over and over and over and over and over.

[freedomno1]

Ugh, CoinChat and all that crap. TradeFortress was very smart and trust me, he could definitiely convince people that he was totally legit. Even 30 days+ down the line from the inputs.io hack CoinChat was somehow still on a leg and some of the mods were still convinced he had "lost" 4000 BTC+.

TF was very smart, I even enjoyed using inputs.io it was a very fast and quick service to send Bitcoins although I always cashed my balance or played that battle game for a bit. Never really trusted online wallets since the first one I made instantwallet died the next week, although I only was using it for faucets, it made me learn right away that QT is King and to keep a small balance on online ones.
(Less the exchanges where you take the risk)
I saw you a few times on coinchat when it was still around and they were if I recall correctly still paying out after that hack, so can see where the mods came from that and they were still on salary I believe.

That said he did a pretty smart move running coinlenders to build up a loan and line of credit service, then combining that with inputs.io and giving double payouts to members who used that service to build up it's reputation and to increase the balances held there. Add to that coinchat for goodwill which gave out small amounts to users and his campaign against ripple demonstrated with the Ripple IOUS and you have a multi-layered attack.

That said all the related sites and domains expired a while ago so in retrospect it was probably used in order to get more traffic for inputs.io as much as it was used to point out issues against ripple.

More Time Machine Links
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=206948.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=230114.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=230114.msg2483381#msg2483381
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=230114.msg2490249#msg2490249  he-he

Fun stuff, if I recall correctly the first sig campaign was Coinlenders so we can say that the spam is a legacy of TF
Partially (He did use activity tiers and a posting range unlike the current sig campaigners)
(Best payouts - NO POSTING NEEDED & Updated)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=198934.msg2916241#msg2916241

Back to lurking

Actually Bonus Addition
Good old Tradefortress trolling
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=576904.msg6324933#msg6324933

[boumalo]

At this point, the forum is mostly dead to me.  I used to be active in about a half dozen boards.  Now once every few days, I check the "new replies" link up top, check maybe 2 or 3 of the threads, click "mark as read" on the rest, and check Dev&tech for big news maybe a couple of times each week.

Feel free to go back to page 14 and check the post histories of the people I've got on ignore (everyone except DiamondCardz).  I have, and I'm not missing anything.

Ad signatures aren't the only problem here, but they sure are a big part of the decline.

Better handling of the ignore function (don't bump threads in the notify and replies lists when the only new posts are from ignored users) and ignore list syndication would help revitalize this place.

Maybe the staff could perform a small investigation on users that have been ignored by the highest percentage of members and if they are spamming, the staff would message them and disallow their sig for a while if they keep spamming

As it was previously said, I think allowing ads in signatures is good for new members, for the forum and for Bitcoin if it is handled correctly; it gives back to the new members that can accumulate some bitcoins while becoming part of the community; we should be careful not to always ask for changes that benefit us at the expense of others. Let's ask the new members if they want to disallow ads in the signatures.

When you don't like to see endless advertisements for PD or RGC you can always check "Don't show users' signatures." in "Look and Layout Preferences", you won't see the signature ads anymore and you will have a clear thread but you will still get the spam from the half dozen members that spam to get money;these members should be dealt with by staff : it is not easy to punish them since they usually kind of post comments related to topics but you can still tell they post for money because their posts are not interesting to read and usually don't add anything to the discussion

[oureptsC]

For a newbie: it doesn't matter at the moment since my member status can literally participate in no signature campaign now (and I think my sig doesn't even hold links  )