How much spam is needed before we ban someone?

[o_e_l_e_o]

User EriksonPartners

5th March - starts 8 new spammy threads in Bitcoin Discussion in 3 hours. I report them all, and suggest banning him. All reports marked as good, but threads are not deleted.
6th March - posts 20+ spammy one liners in Bitcoin Discussion in 5 hours. I report them all, and suggest banning him. All reports marked as good, but only 3 replies are deleted.
Today - starts another 10 new spammy threads in Bitcoin Discussion in 3 hours. I report them all, and suggest banning him. Currently unhandled.

This is not an isolated case. There are plenty of times I keep reporting the same users over and over and over again, and they show up again the next day with 10 or 20 more useless one line replies. How much does someone need to spam before we ban them? What is the point in even reporting spam if we aren't going to ban serial spammers?

I just feel like we are fighting a losing battle in trying to clean up the forum, and if we aren't going to ban spammers, then it seems like a massive waste of time.


Edit: All reports from today also now marked as "good", but threads not deleted. Still nothing in modlog about a ban.

[Jet Cash]

I'm with you in this.

I'm also finding it difficult to discover good discussion threads, and posts, and I'm starting to wonder if this is the result of a changing attitude in me. I do start a few topics, but it's a bit discouraging if they don't generate much activity. Excessive spam posts in a thread can kill the topic, and we all lose out as a result of this. I'm finding that spam can make me less tolerant, and sometimes I just exit the forum for a while.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Have you tried getting their attention through PM or any other means. What you/forum consider as spam, to the user it might not be spam. I went through users few post history and saw some post kinda average although mostly one line reply. Banning of user won't solve the problem since they can just create a new account and continue in their old ways.

That user isn't wearing a signature so I won't say he's posting for post count. Maybe a pm to inform users to increase his post quality might work (it worked for me). Banning won't always solve the problem.

archive

What are technical challenges in implementing Block-chain infrastructure in support of digital currency being formally accepted by the National Banks?

One less plagiarizing spammer out there!

Now this a good reason to ban. o_e_l_e_o, case solved.

[manfredmann]

I'm with you in this.

I'm also finding it difficult to discover good discussion threads, and posts, and I'm starting to wonder if this is the result of a changing attitude in me. I do start a few topics, but it's a bit discouraging if they don't generate much activity. Excessive spam posts in a thread can kill the topic, and we all lose out as a result of this. I'm finding that spam can make me less tolerant, and sometimes I just exit the forum for a while.

indeed the excessive spam posts will defeat its main purpose which is to discuss about in relation to the topic. We know that MODZ are also human and could not entertain or check all the reports and give sanction one by one to a certain violator. Spamming is not allowed in the forum but there is no ban sanctions for the spammers stated in the forum rules. So OP, THE MODZ and other.governing concerns will need to get along for now with the spammers.

[o_e_l_e_o]

-snip-

Banning would at least alert the user that what he is doing is against the rules. He can make another account if he wants, but at least then he knows if his behavior continues he would be banned again. Marking reports as "good" but taking no action against him does absolutely nothing.

He's not wearing a signature because he can't - he's still a newbie. Given his name and his profile link, it's obvious he's doing it as a means of advertising his business. I would assume a signature to that effect would show up as soon as he could.

I'm not really up for PMing every spammer I see - I would literally spend all day doing it. Reporting their posts should be all that is required.

[morvillz7z]

Haha, I feel you o_e_l_e_o.

Was going through the same thing with when reporting bumping bots. It's a never-ending battle which feels unrewarding at times as you cannot do anything to get rid of them. In this particular case, EriksonPartners has plagiarized posts, I haven't reported him, will leave that to you.  

What are technical challenges in implementing Block-chain infrastructure in support of digital currency being formally accepted by the National Banks?

archive

What are technical challenges in implementing Block-chain infrastructure in support of digital currency being formally accepted by the National Banks?

One less plagiarizing spammer out there!

edit: reported

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Maybe if you ever tot up something like 50 or 60 posts that have to be deleted by a mod then you get a ban.
Only an idea, don’t be too harsh on me

[o_e_l_e_o]

-snip-

Good catch. I'll let you report it though, since I've already reported that post - I don't want to get another "bad" report added to my excellent stats.

Maybe if you ever tot up something like 50 or 60 posts that have to be deleted by a mod then you get a ban.

The idea has occurred to me, but I think it would be too open to abuse. I'm sure with the majority of legendary members on the forum you could find 50 posts amongst the thousands they had made over several years which could warrant being deleted for one reason or another. I'm also certain that some users (mentioning no names) would report every single post some other users had made, in the hope of getting them banned, and completely overload the moderation queue.

Perhaps something like 20 posts in the last week or 50 in the last month might work instead? Still open to being flooded though I guess.

Now this a good reason to ban. o_e_l_e_o, case solved.

It's a good reason to ban this user, agreed, but it doesn't solve the wider issue.

[sapta]

I added that guy to the ban queue like 6 hours ago. Soon enough, we won't see him posting some crap again.

[stompix]

We need some serious cooldown for opening threads based on rank, merit or something, anything.
Both B&D and the Press section are sometimes bombed by topics made from the same guy just like this one.
And there is still unblocknews that is firing topic after topic to earn clicks, one phrase, link, topic posted!

Excluding Beginners & Help or Meta so that if it's something urgent you can open another topic to seek help but I really don't think any serious poster would open more than 5 topics a day.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Maybe certain individuals should be restricted to how many posts they’re allowed to make in Meta per 24 hour period.

**Not mentioning any names**

[TheBeardedBaby]

This not the first time this question is posted and left without an answer.
What I'm guessing is that every case is checked separately and there is no specific rule.

Here is one example from the last year.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5050269.0

Still spamming but no change....
107 deleted posts already....

[o_e_l_e_o]

-snip-

Ooft. This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. I spend a fair amount of time reporting spam and trying to clean up the forum, and it just seems a bit, I don't know, demoralizing? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of spammers who can churn out some one or two line trash every couple of minutes for hours on end. We could spend all day every day reporting these posts, but if we aren't going to ban these users, or let them spam for several weeks or months before we do, then we will never win the war.

I think there is a strong argument to made for being stricter with spammers. Since most of them are doing it for bounty campaigns, a 1 or 2 week long ban (and therefore no payment +/- being kicked off their campaign) seems like a logical first punishment, with a month long then permaban for repeat offenders?

[The Cryptovator]

This not the first time this question is posted and left without an answer.

I second that, I have remember somewhere I have asked same question. But I don't get appropriate answer. Unfortunately there is no rules about it and moderators can't take action.

There should rules something limit and duration. For example, if 15 reported post mark good from single user withing 24 hours then he should got temp ban for week. I don't think it will be bad.  

[The Sceptical Chymist]

It takes a hell of a lot, unless the posts are obvious off-topic  advertising spam, or short shitposts like what Leo posted here, and I suspect that member reported in the OP will get banned eventually.  And I don't think that example shows any sort of decline in the quality of the forum, since there's been numerous posters of at least that shitty of post quality before.  It's not anything new.

What's worse is the type of wall-of-text garbage that people like cryptohunter spews, because he keeps repeating the same noxious slime across quite a few of his own threads, those of his confederates, and even those who don't want him in theirs.  There's nothing original in any new post by him (or Thule, for that matter), nor are they innocuous.  If Theymos actually listened to their nonsense, it'd be a field day for scammers and riffraff.  That crap should be first on the bonfire IMO.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I suspect that member reported in the OP will get banned eventually.

He has now been banned, thankfully.

-snip about cryptohunter-

Since he posted in my thread, I felt it only fair to take him off ignore and read his post, to see if he had anything constructive to add. I also don't like leaving people on ignore permanently as people can change for the better, and so I try to read one or two of his posts every couple of weeks, to see if he has calmed down at all. Is this the general caliber of his posts now? Just frothing-at-the-mouth insults? If so, I completely agree that this level of idiotic trolling deserves a ban as well as the mass shitposting I'm referring to above.


Edit:

Is this the general caliber of his posts now? Just frothing-at-the-mouth insults?

I'll take his below post as a "yes" to this question. Back on ignore we go. Serious question though, how long do we plan on letting him derail every thread he wants with incoherent insults before we ban him? I'd quite like to have a serious conversation about the shitposting issue.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Serious question though, how long do we plan on letting him derail every thread he wants with incoherent insults before we ban him? I'd quite like to have a serious conversation about the shitposting issue.

Depends on Theymos, unfortunately, and I doubt he's going to silence someone for their viewpoint, however distorted, loud, and repetitious it is.  I do agree that he and others are constantly derailing threads and that this should stop.  I've reported a few of his posts, but that only makes him create threads about deleted posts....you just can't win with someone like that who's perseverating about his delusions of persecution and power lust.

But hey, at least the shitposter you mentioned got banned--at least that's something.

Edit:

You are a chicken shit coward who dare not debate with me because I would crush your lies and false accusations in about 5 seconds with observable events and facts.

Delusions of grandeur.

[Pmalek]

There should be a rule that if a user has a certain amount of threads deleted in the period of one week he shouldn't be allowed to open any new threads for a certain amount of time with a message telling him he will not be able to open new threads for X days/weeks due to excessive spamming or low quality threads.

[o_e_l_e_o]

My spammer for today is teejayrichard2. He's a step up from the worst of the worst one-line spammers, but if you read his comments, they don't actually say anything, contain any original thoughts, or add anything to the conversation.

He necrobumped 5 spam threads in Bitcoin Discussion yesterday within the space of 15 minutes, each with a useless posts which added nothing to the conversation. I reported all 5 of these posts, and all 5 were then deleted within an hour or two of posting, but a couple of these spam threads now remain on the front page of Bitcoin Discussion with a bunch more useless spam posts added to them since the necrobumping.

Looking at the last post of these 5 threads (before the necrobumping), they were likely all on the same page on Bitcoin Discussion. He's clearly just picked a random page, and then chosen a bunch of threads from it which he figured would be easy to post some spam in, and churned out 5 post in 15 minutes to hit his bounty requirement. I suggested banning him in my report comment, but he's back again tonight spamming some more.