A non-shitposting farmer?

[hilariousetc]

I started noticing a few of these accounts popping up in the same threads and posting back to back or very close to each other. Their naming patterns and them all being registered days apart are already a big enough giveaway but then their posting habits by sticking to the same threads and the way they type are even more so.

First confronted him about it below which he denied even being aware of most of them *cough* bullshit *cough*:

There's one thing I don't see anybody talking about here. I don't think it's very practical to ban selling accounts. How could you practically apply a ban like that? I mean, you can see if the quality of posts completely changes at one point of time and the person starts spamming. If they already have the status they want, they may not really post very much at all any more. I think it's also a good point, that if it would be banned, it could drive prices up more, like illegal drugs. You have to keep in mind, the original account owners put in a lot of work and effort to get their rank up. If they decide they want to move on in their life, maybe their efforts should be worth something. Then if the new account owner does stupid things, they'll just lose their whole investment. They'll get what they deserve.

Well you, an account farmer, would say this. How many accounts are you farming? How many of your accounts have you had banned now? Which ones of these are yours that I've noticed posting in the exact same threads as you:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2247852     Zayn_Nazy     June 30, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2280178     Willie_Linder July 14, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2279012     katherin_panini     July 13, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2271482 Michael_Cox     July 10, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2280138     James_Cline     July 14, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2272791     Sherwood_Archer     July 11, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2271537     Aidan_Davis     July 10, 2018


Besides, you stop it the same way we don't allow users to sell weapons or post ref links here. If they list an account for sale it gets removed or they get banned. As ThePharmacist said, it's not rocket science.

I literally have no idea what you're talking about. I only recognize seeing a couple of these accounts on the forum.

The a few days later I found some more:

Don't suppose you know who these accounts belong to either?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2271547     Luis_Gray July 10, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2274820     randall_boss     July 12, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2273291     Merritt_Baldric     July 11, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2274323         Jared_Burns July 12, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2277232     Charles_Summers     July 12, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2280233     Kimberley_Isham July 14, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2271603         Isaac_Ramirez     July 10, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2271544     Brian_Wood     July 10, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2271623     Owen_Smith     July 10, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2274435b     Stuart_Shook     July 12, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2273233 Dawson_V     July 11, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2274369 Nathan_Weymouth     July 12, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2271455     Luke_Turner     July 10, 2018

And I've just spotted even more today:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2280150     Douglas_Rhoades     July 14, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2272848 Dixon_WestSeven July 11, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2271514     Evan_Smith July 10, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2280502     Separate_Bass     July 14, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2280165 Chris_Costales     July 14, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2277130     Joseph_Williams     July 12, 2018


There may be some false positives in there but as you can see they all use names with an underscore in between them.

The thing is; he's isn't really a shitposter. One of the things that makes them stand out and links them together is he almost always just writes the same similarly structured one paragraph. He isn't really talking much about bitcoin and tends to stay in the same sort of politics and economics threads, but there is a lot of these sorts of accounts and there will be many more to find if you check more of the threads they've posted in. If we had access to the memberlist these would be very easy to find. With that being said, this farming could go much deeper. Jared_Burns is also banned (probably for copy and pasting). These two threads below he created are copy and pastes and if that account does indeed belong to the rest then it's ban evasion. I doubt this is his first rodeo with account farming either and these farmers tend to learn to adapt and evade detection after they get caught:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4873408.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4789142.msg43217945#msg43217945

If you look in them you will see more evidence of farming with users who also use 'real' names but formatted in two different ways:

No spaces:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2290691 LeadHenry July 18, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2290757     GraceEmily     July 18, 2018

Spaces:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2243002 Sydney Chapman June 28, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2243135     James Fleming June 28, 2018

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2289120     Mary Birkin     July 17, 2018,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2245205 Miguel Fulton     June 29, 2018,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2245306     Eden Thompson June 29, 2018

Maybe he's creating the threads for his alts to post in and shitposters to shit in or maybe other farmers are just taking advantage of that.

Either way I think it's worth keeping an eye on and to see if they start abusing bounties or whatever. 

[Quickseller]

Is your concern that he might make more money than others while contributing to conversations in the forum?

[The Sceptical Chymist]

It's suspicious, definitely.  Most of those accounts are not even Jr. Member yet, so it looks like they're slowly being ranked up, and my guess is that they're going to be entered into bounties eventually.  Since it appears he's not in a rush to do this, I bet there are many other accounts that weren't caught here.

However as you pointed out, this guy isn't a typical shitposter.  I have a problem with people using alt accounts to make multiple posts within a single thread, since I think that's spammy.  That whole cryptopussies/cryptoheroin/crypto____ series of accounts I found a while back was doing this, and it was annoying--but the guy behind that was really a shitposter as well.  As I've said before, I don't have a problem with alt accounts per se, but when they all start posting in the same thread back-to-back, that's where I draw the line. 

There's also the very slim chance these aren't alt accounts, but I'm really not buying that.  Even if it's not a single person controlling them, it could be one of those Asian shitposting shops.  Who knows.

[WaffleMaster]

I agree those are almost all the same person. Text analysis alone implicates them by their speech patterns, phrasing, vocabulary use. There's several more metrics one can use to deduce that.

I would say some are definitely not the same person as the farmer, unless they intentionally only switched their writing style a couple times. Seems unlikely...

They're all posting in the exact same boards which originally lead you onto them and with further analysis it's pretty obvious they are alts.

The question though is what do you do with them? Monitor their activity in a month to see if post history has changed and then neg them for acc sales?

Probably put these in a text file and revisit them, whoever is farming these accounts is doing it on a massive scale to most likely sell to bounty spam farmers. Wonder how many accounts they're making...

A quick search through the marketplace pins this as the most likely junior seller: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4409294.0
 
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4937814.0 also seems likely. The sentences are intentionally truncated despite their good grammar.

Edit: Dang those jr accounts aren't worth shit anymore.

[hilariousetc]

Is your concern that he might make more money than others while contributing to conversations in the forum?

No. My concerns are that he's breaking the rules. Ban evasion and using alts to get around the no multiposting rule. I suspect those accounts belong to someone who has been farming accounts for a while and has multiple ones banned before but that can't be proved or disproved.

It's suspicious, definitely.  Most of those accounts are not even Jr. Member yet, so it looks like they're slowly being ranked up, and my guess is that they're going to be entered into bounties eventually.  Since it appears he's not in a rush to do this, I bet there are many other accounts that weren't caught here.

Hence why we should keep an eye on them.

I agree those are almost all the same person. Text analysis alone implicates them by their speech patterns, phrasing, vocabulary use. There's several more metrics one can use to deduce that.

I would say some are definitely not the same person as the farmer, unless they intentionally only switched their writing style a couple times. Seems unlikely...

Agreed. There could be multiple people controlling them or at least another person has took over on posting from some of them. It's going to be hard for him to rank them all up by himself. With the merit system now even good to great posters will struggle to achieve ranks so not sure what he's going to do with them. Probably not much of a market for Junior Member accounts and you'd be better using a bot to create them instead of wasting time making original posts. You never know though.

 

The question though is what do you do with them? Monitor their activity in a month to see if post history has changed and then neg them for acc sales?

I guess just keep an eye on them for now. He's obviously going to do something with them but the question is what? If they all start joining bounties they'll be busted pretty fast. Passwords start changing then we'll know they're likely being sold.

[Quickseller]

Is your concern that he might make more money than others while contributing to conversations in the forum?

No. My concerns are that he's breaking the rules. Ban evasion and using alts to get around the no multiposting rule. I suspect those accounts belong to someone who has been farming accounts for a while and has multiple ones banned before but that can't be proved or disproved.

While those are legitimate concerns, I reviewed the 1st page of the posts of randall_boss, Luis_Gray, and Merritt_Baldric, and if they are the same person, they are not making consecutive posts in the same thread (or even in the same threads at all), so I don't think multiposting is an issue currently. He may very well have a history of farming accounts, however if this is true, he would likely have banned accounts because he was shitposting. However these accounts are not shitposting, and I don't see why he would farm accounts with shit posts, get banned, then try again with fairly decent posts.

I can't support farmers who post what is effectively gibberish and other nonsense, however I have no issue with him as long as he is contributing constructively. I would leave him along unless and until he does something that is hurting someone (or there is evidence he is preparing to hurt someone). 

[LoyceV]

How is this not shitposting? I've checked a few, and they're all generic trivial posts. A summary: "Bitcoin may go up, it may go down, it may go sideways" (taken from here). It's all true, but it's just as useless as saying the sky is blue. All posts are 4 lines long to make it look as if it's constructive, and very boring to read. It's more than "good project", but just as useless.

Spammers know they get away with it. Bitcointalk would be a much better place without those posts. I've seen other forums that quickly tell a new user his thread is insubstantial, and lock it. I'd love to see that here too: when in doubt, ban!

Update: I know this is too much, hence the strikethrough. Don't take it too serious, I do love how this forum gives users the freedom to speak their mind, even when it's not a popular opinion.

[Quickseller]

-snip-
I'd love to see that here too: when in doubt, ban!

When in doubt, ban??

That sounds like a policy proposal that would be condemned by most who care about freedom. In general, negative actions should not be taken against users unless the administration is certain that a ban is appropriate and is only given out as a last resort.

[Harlot]

I do agree on what you said hilarious, them sticking to one thread might be his/her way to keep track on the post count for each account. Oh and his reasoning is flawed on not knowing one of the accounts in the forum. I for one will know a few names when I see them on the same thread I am posting frequently, I'll start to subconsciously know there names just by seeing them frequently on the same threads. He should have not denied it which is really a wrong move for a guilty person. 

[suchmoon]

I can't support farmers who post what is effectively gibberish and other nonsense, however I have no issue with him as long as he is contributing constructively. I would leave him along unless and until he does something that is hurting someone (or there is evidence he is preparing to hurt someone). 

There is nothing constructive about those posts and there is nothing in their post histories that couldn't be said with one account. And yes, those accounts are being prepared for sale to spammers and scammers... what else do you think is gonna happen?

[The Sceptical Chymist]

That sounds like a policy proposal that would be condemned by most who care about freedom.

The freedom to shipost at will has lead to the decline of bitcointalk.  Freedom does not preclude having rules and consequences for breaking them, and I would suggest that mods would know which accounts to give a quick ban to.  They know the rules and see more of the bullshit than probably any of us do.

But as I said, this guy doesn't deserve a ban.  His post aren't great by any means, but he's not breaking any rules that I know of except possibly spamming if the accounts are all his.

I also agree with others that these accounts are probably going to get sold at some point IF he can rank them up.  If not, they'll probably be used for bounties.

[pugman]

If he is a decent poster, then he probably won't join bounties. He'd go for the homerun, aka the Signature campaigns that pay in bitcoin. A lot of managers may hire him, because he isn't a shit-poster. He's perhaps one of the users who have a shitload of accounts, use it join different campaigns, and avoid getting neg-rated.  Wouldn't be surprised if he ranks up and applies for chipmixer, but that's a long way to go.

Unless he is breaking the rules, you don't really need to keep an eye on him, there's much more urgent matters that needs to be taken care of.

[suchmoon]

If he is a decent poster, then he probably won't join bounties. He'd go for the homerun, aka the Signature campaigns that pay in bitcoin. A lot of managers may hire him, because he isn't a shit-poster. He's perhaps one of the users who have a shitload of accounts, use it join different campaigns, and avoid getting neg-rated.  Wouldn't be surprised if he ranks up and applies for chipmixer, but that's a long way to go.

Unless he is breaking the rules, you don't really need to keep an eye on him, there's much more urgent matters that needs to be taken care of.

I counted 0 (zero) merits across 26 accounts. Average account age is ~6 weeks, so that's equivalent to 1 account aged ~3 years (Legendary rank date range). I think it's safe to say that Chipmixer isn't happening for this farmer but the accounts still can be sold. I've seen haiku bots that have been sold after ranking up to Jr.

[pugman]

If he is a decent poster, then he probably won't join bounties. He'd go for the homerun, aka the Signature campaigns that pay in bitcoin. A lot of managers may hire him, because he isn't a shit-poster. He's perhaps one of the users who have a shitload of accounts, use it join different campaigns, and avoid getting neg-rated.  Wouldn't be surprised if he ranks up and applies for chipmixer, but that's a long way to go.

Unless he is breaking the rules, you don't really need to keep an eye on him, there's much more urgent matters that needs to be taken care of.

I counted 0 (zero) merits across 26 accounts. Average account age is ~6 weeks, so that's equivalent to 1 account aged ~3 years (Legendary rank date range). I think it's safe to say that Chipmixer isn't happening for this farmer but the accounts still can be sold. I've seen haiku bots that have been sold after ranking up to Jr.

He'll probably just get annoyed by the forum,and by the time he gets to legendary, the forum would be asking for KYC , so he'd eventually give up on account farming, and go back to ICOforums.net, shitpost there, and get paid. 

We'll still have hilariousandco asking theymos to initiate a welcome message for newbies. Awesome.

[suchmoon]

We'll still have hilariousandco asking theymos to initiate a welcome message for newbies. Awesome.

Nah, theymos will just buy a lambo for hilarious to shut him up.

[Quickseller]

That sounds like a policy proposal that would be condemned by most who care about freedom.

The freedom to shipost at will has lead to the decline of bitcointalk.  Freedom does not preclude having rules and consequences for breaking them, and I would suggest that mods would know which accounts to give a quick ban to.  They know the rules and see more of the bullshit than probably any of us do.

I was referring to LoyceV's statement (that has a strikethrough):

when in doubt, ban!

Which implies a presumption of guilt when deciding if someone should be banned. I would much prefer a presumption of innocence. It would be much preferable to allow a few shitposters to continue to post (a while longer) so that some people who maybe struggle with english, but have a strong interest in learning about and discussing Bitcoin can continue to participate, over banning everyone and their sister who shows even small signs of putting little effort into their posts, excluding many who have a legitimate interest in the community and of Bitcoin. 

[suchmoon]

Seems to belong to the same gang:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2277118 Brian_Hunt

[hilariousetc]

Another two:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2280121    Emily_Davis     July 14, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2280248 Martha_Ferris July 14, 2018

Noticed this one posting in the same thread as above as well:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2276976     John_Muck     July 12, 2018

Has "Moderator to www.reddit.com/r/Lisk/ and aid to projects built within the Lisk Ecosystem." in his signature. Could be a coincidence and unrelated but quite uncanny.

Notcied some diffferent farmers whilst looking for more the above ones:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2289500     EfficientGrasshopper365     July 17, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2289447     EtherealBlaze612 July 17, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2289440     WealthAscent345         July 17, 2018,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2289439 CupidParkway003     July 17, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2289435     HyperFinish523     July 17, 2018,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2289503     IndependentExtend32     July 17, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2289495     HyperService08     July 17, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2289505     PirateMuscle20 July 17, 2018
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2289508 SamuraiBlender322     July 17, 2018

All shitposters posting one after the other. Don't seem to have logged on since.

[hilariousetc]

I thought that these accounts had been abandoned but I saw one today that had reactivated and started posting again:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2280138     James_Cline July 14, 2018

Last post was on August 12, 2018 then starts again on October 08, 2018. It's a similar story with all the others. Stop posting in August and either reappear recently or have yet to be active again.

The first one I spotted (Aidan_Davis) has been inactive since  August 20, 2018, 08:15:36 PM https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2271537  July 10, 2018

But his "sister" hasn't:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2280121 Emily_Davis July 14, 2018,

"She" was inactive since August 12, 2018 to October 12, 2018.

Interestingly she made this thread on the 16th:

As of August 2018, there are over 1600 cryptocurrencies that exist, according to Wikipedia. I know that Wikipedia isn't the most reliable of sources because anyone can edit it whenever they want, but the point is the number of cryptocurrencies being introduced. Some of the new cryptocurrencies I've heard were DeepBrainChain, ByteCoin, IOST, and Elastos. There's also a new coin called Virie, which is apparently a cryptocurrency used to crowdfund and jumpstart the Virternity Project, a project that aims to digitized our minds, economy and the society. I believe that not all new coins aim to scam people, but do we really need more cryptocurrencies? Do we need new cryptocurrencies for every project that exists? Why can't there be one or five cryptocurrencies that all projects can use?

If we look a few posts down in that thread there's another one:

I have to agree with this. Not all projects would work on other existing coins such as bitcoins or ripple or other altcoins. Some needs a specific coin to run their projects, like DeepBrain I think and Virie. That said, I wonder how people would react to too many coins if and when cryptocurrencies became a worldwide digital currency. Do you think that people will be open to the idea of learning about different coins for different purposes?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2280133 Blanca_Gregory July 14, 2018

Gap from August 12, 2018 to October 12, 2018

I wonder if they've been created to shill for DeepBrain and Virie (amongst others)?

[BitcoinSupremo]

Maybe the gap shows they are getting bored with the forum and their sole intentions here was to shitpost the hell out of this forum to make as much money as they can. Anyway as long as Altcoin Bounties will continue, these shitposter will be here, this is what I see out of the big picture here.