Does bitcointalk cause more spam with their rules?

[tonywangg]

This post is written with all due respect to Bitcointalk and their mods.  I love this board and visit it exclusively.

I believe a lot of the ideas which are being done to prevent spam are actually causing more spam on this forum.  It's fairly easy to spot the flood of people attempting to satisfy post counts for signature campaigns.  I'm guilty as well. 

The one sure way to stop spam on this forum is to stop the signature campaigns.  If the moderators were truly serious about the spam on this forum this is how you stop it.

By deleting posts and threads in an attempt to contain the spam the signature campaign bounties hunters are forced to create even more posts each week than is required so as not to go under the total needed to receive stakes. 

Another issue is the merit system.  Now that it is very difficult to raise up past jr member guess what happens.  People create multiple accounts and spam even more to get the stakes they would have gotten by ranking up by the old method we used to have. 

I feel like we have done nothing but created more spam in the end.  The signature campaigns must end if we want to stop spam.  If signature stay the rules should be continued to be studied because I do not believe this is working.  I do not have a solution unfortunately and appreciate the work the mods do to help fight this situation. 

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[Heisenberg_Hunter]

This post is written with all due respect to Bitcointalk and their mods.  I love this board and visit it exclusively.

This post is about forum and it belongs to Meta Board! Why did you post this in Altcoin Discussion? Move this to Meta by clicking Move Topic in lower left.

I believe a lot of the ideas which are being done to prevent spam are actually causing more spam on this forum.

What makes you say so? The website traffic has reduced considering the traffic present in the start of the year and it is evident from the merit implementation and the reduce in prices of btc and the forum is somewhat quiet nowadays an exception being Alt Boards and Bitcoin Discussion as usual. This had always been a hotbed for spammers to complete their posts! Meta is frequently flooded with hacked and banned account recoveries.

The one sure way to stop spam on this forum is to stop the signature campaigns.

This idea has been discussed quite a couple of times and this won't happen as theymos has completely ruled out this idea. Here is a quote of him saying so,

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.

Except the implementation of merit and deletion of some major mega spam threads often by mods there hasn't been a major attempt to stop spams till now.
The banning of signatures completely would be considered only when merit isn't able to control the spam being generated. It may happen on rare cases only when btc price skyrockets and lot more people join this forum for hunting bounties.

Another issue is the merit system.  Now that it is very difficult to raise up past jr member guess what happens. 

Yes, it would be difficult if you are not bothered to learn anything new or post anything constructive. There are handful of people who ranked up using merit. Unless you stick to Alt, Btc Discussions and other spam boards it would be impossible for you to receive your first merit. Members who hasn't received even a single merit in these 7 months is considered to be a poor poster and should never rank up past Jr Member.

The signature campaigns must end if we want to stop spam.  If signature stay the rules should be continued to be studied because I do not believe this is working.

It is the campaign managers who should be punished for not managing their campaign properly and encouraging spams.

[SFR10]

It's fairly easy to spot the flood of people attempting to satisfy post counts for signature campaigns.  I'm guilty as well.  

So you know that you're just a spammer, and yet choose to continue with that behavior?
- You might want to reconsider that (before it's too late)....

The one sure way to stop spam on this forum is to stop the signature campaigns.

In addition to what "Heisenberg_Hunter" posted in regards to this:

- An easy fix is getting rid of the whole "Alternate cryptocurrencies" section.
- It's funny how spammers keep on suggesting solutions for problems that they're directly contributing to.

If the moderators were truly serious about the spam on this forum this is how you stop it.

Only an Admin is capable of implementing such thing.

Another issue is the merit system.  Now that it is very difficult to raise up past jr member guess what happens.  People create multiple accounts and spam even more to get the stakes they would have gotten by ranking up by the old method we used to have.

Another user, complaining about merit

[Jet Cash]

Is spam becoming the new topic to replace the merit ones?

How long before newbies start to ask " What is spam?", and "how do I earn spam?"

[caotringhia]

This post is written with all due respect to Bitcointalk and their mods.  I love this board and visit it exclusively.

I believe a lot of the ideas which are being done to prevent spam are actually causing more spam on this forum.  It's fairly easy to spot the flood of people attempting to satisfy post counts for signature campaigns.  I'm guilty as well. 

The one sure way to stop spam on this forum is to stop the signature campaigns.  If the moderators were truly serious about the spam on this forum this is how you stop it.

By deleting posts and threads in an attempt to contain the spam the signature campaign bounties hunters are forced to create even more posts each week than is required so as not to go under the total needed to receive stakes. 

Another issue is the merit system.  Now that it is very difficult to raise up past jr member guess what happens.  People create multiple accounts and spam even more to get the stakes they would have gotten by ranking up by the old method we used to have. 

I feel like we have done nothing but created more spam in the end.  The signature campaigns must end if we want to stop spam.  If signature stay the rules should be continued to be studied because I do not believe this is working.  I do not have a solution unfortunately and appreciate the work the mods do to help fight this situation. 

What makes you think of removing the signature campaign to prevent spam while you are joining the signature campaign.
Do not complain about the merit, it has helped the forum limit the shitposters like you.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

How long before newbies start to ask " What is spam?", and "how do I earn spam?"

You're probably being tongue-in-cheek, but I wouldn't put it past these desperate idiots who don't read or understand anything.

OP, I don't think Theymos wants to do away with signature campaigns.  They bring in a lot of traffic to the site, and I suspect this forum would be dead without them.  It's sad but true.  One good thing about them is that they bring in a lot of people into the world of crypto who might not have been interested in it had they not been given the chance to earn money here.  It's true that most of them shouldn't be here, but the net effect on the bitcoin economy is positive (I think).

I don't think spammers should be allowed to keep doing what they're doing, however.  As I've said many times, and others have as well, there need to be some restrictions as to who is allowed to participate in campaigns, and campaign managers need to be held at least somewhat responsible for what the campaigners are doing.  That's the next logical step, but it remains to be seen whether Theymos wants to do anything.

[audaciousbeing]

You have made some sensible comments and propositions. Although, I don't quite agree with all of them but it worth commending.

When people have auto accidents, others won't stop using vehicles or the solution would be that there should be ban on the use of vehicles so also in the case of aircraft crashing, people will still fly the next day to their various destinations and that is why you see several approaches being done to forestall the mistake of today from reoccurring.

All of the things that seems not to work are actually working. Before the beginning of the merit era, the issue of spam was so massive to the entire forum but today, its largely relegated to specific section of the forum. What we should be focusing on is ensuring that adequate support is given to the the forum in other to make it better and not suggesting loopholes to defeat the intention of the forum.

[coinlocket$]

The spam is due to the signatures and airdrop campaigns of the altcoin section, ICOs are paying so many low rank accounts to advertise on the forum (often people abuse multiple accounts thanks to managers who do nothing) and the airdrop create spam on their ANN threads asking to post to be able to qualify on the various Airdrops.
If signature for jr are removed 90% of spam will be removed. (It's hard to get member accounts since the born of merit system)

[pugman]

OP, I don't think Theymos wants to do away with signature campaigns.  They bring in a lot of traffic to the site, and I suspect this forum would be dead without them.  It's sad but true.  One good thing about them is that they bring in a lot of people into the world of crypto who might not have been interested in it had they not been given the chance to earn money here.  It's true that most of them shouldn't be here, but the net effect on the bitcoin economy is positive (I think).

Have you forgetten the number of times people have applied for chipmixer,and provide a legacy address even when its clearly stated that segwit is a must. Have you forgotten the number of times people have caught abusing campaigns by making the same mistake over and over again, and sending all money to one address, or use addresses that belong to the same wallet(which is verifiable on walletexplorer.com). So no way in hell, have campaigns had a positive effect on bitcoin. And the fact that these people don't even understand what bitcoin is, or how it works, makes it even worse.

Signatures aren't going to be removed, this is only going to be a last resort to combating spam. There are so many suggestions that have been made, but none have been worthy enough to make theymos implement immediately whilst not restricting members to participate in campaigns.

[bitmover]

OP, I don't think Theymos wants to do away with signature campaigns.  They bring in a lot of traffic to the site, and I suspect this forum would be dead without them.  It's sad but true.  One good thing about them is that they bring in a lot of people into the world of crypto who might not have been interested in it had they not been given the chance to earn money here.  It's true that most of them shouldn't be here, but the net effect on the bitcoin economy is positive (I think).

I agrre that sig camping have a effect impact in bitcoin economy.
There are lots of daily transactions , involving lots of people and bringing new people closer to bitcoin. Maybe this is not so important now, but I believe those sig campaigns are a nice contribution to bitcoin adoption. We are getting paid with bitcoin for some services through the forum.

I have earned a few dollars now with campaigns that I recently transferred to my mobile phone. I am going yo travel to a country where I expect to find some stores that accept bitcoin. I hope I can use these coins I earned here in the forum there

However this effect ia restricted to campaigns that pay with btc.

Most of hose campaigns have no positive effect, only in forum traffic. However, without them probably the forum traffic would be so low that btc campaigns would die too...

[tranthidung]

It's true.
Nevertheless, the solution is the last choice as @Theymos stated months ago.

The one sure way to stop spam on this forum is to stop the signature campaigns.

Moderators, staffs are simply human, as all of us. Therefore, we all can not require or expect them to glance around the forum, topics by topics, threads by threads to find out and deleted non-sense, spamming ones.
It's unrealistic.

If the moderators were truly serious about the spam on this forum this is how you stop it.

You are wrong. Deleted threads will not stop spamming endemic in the forum. One of the reasons is mods/ staffs can not find and delete all spamming threads.
Instead, merit system will do it, have demonstrated its good capability to do it at some extents.
Months after the start day of merit system, since January, the system has shown lots of positive impacts.

By deleting posts and threads in an attempt to contain the spam the signature campaign bounties hunters are forced to create even more posts each week than is required so as not to go under the total needed to receive stakes.  

Easily ranking up to Junior member is a fault of merit system, really?
I don't think so,  mate.
Someone suggested that it should have required merits to rank up to Junior rank.
I support the idea, but I would like to raise my viewpoint that you are totally wrong by blaming to merit sytem.

Another issue is the merit system.  Now that it is very difficult to raise up past jr member guess what happens.  People create multiple accounts and spam even more to get the stakes they would have gotten by ranking up by the old method we used to have.  

Hate to say this, but you are one of members who contributed to make the Meta board a little bit looks like a shitty place by non-sense, crying topic on Merit system like this.
Dozens of available topics on the same issue as yours. All of them failed, ignored by forum users due to those ones are actually spamming topics which contribute nothing to the forum and potential improvements of merit system.

I feel like we have done nothing but created more spam in the end.  The signature campaigns must end if we want to stop spam.  If signature stay the rules should be continued to be studied because I do not believe this is working.  I do not have a solution unfortunately and appreciate the work the mods do to help fight this situation.  

Bonus:
For the OP author,
There is link to a Theymos' thread on his thoughts about bounty industry:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.msg29540717#msg29540717
I quoted part of the thread for your interest:

It's too early to get a clear picture, but my thoughts so far:

First, most people complaining about merit are constantly posting garbage, and should not rank-up.

You should discover more by yourself with full original thread.

I very much do not want to destroy the sig-ad/airdrop/bounty "industry". But I am not going to tolerate people posting garbage upon garbage. If the merit system completely fails and I can't think of anything else to replace it, then my next step will probably be to completely remove all ways for forum users to make money from posting (eg. removing signatures entirely).