Paying someone for posting on ANN thread is against the forum rule or not?

[Findingnemo]

Just what the title says,I m not sure it is okay to do in this forum or not.Because in the past I had seen many signature campaign threads were trashed due to their requirement on posting in their ANN thread so paying to get an review on the ANN thread feels same for me.

Thread what I am talking about : Get paid for testing bitcoin mixer [banned mixer] and leave an honest review about us

Publish your review about the [banned mixer] service on our official bitcointalk thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4966853.  This review should contain at least 300 characters. Comment on the speed, accuracy, user interface, website design

[bernardos]

I dont think this is against the rules. It is against the rules to pay members for posting/bumping an ANN thread. But in this case they are paying members for testing their service and posting a review and giving them feedback.

[akamit]

They are not paying to post on ANN thread, they are paying to test their mixing service.
So when someone will test their service, they will need to post an honest review. I said "honest" because that's what the community expects.

ANN bumping is forbidden according to the community guideline.

[The Cryptovator]

They are not paying to post on ANN thread, they are paying to test their mixing service.

Its pretty sure they are paying for reply. Why below Sr. Member rank can't test their mixer? And why its necessary to require make reply on thread in order to get payment?

Terms of participation:

-   All participants need to have Senior or higher rank (Hurry up! We will offer free testing opportunity ONLY for first twenty members who will write to us)
-   Reply us on this thread with the readiness to participate and  send us your btc address in private message to which we will send you money for mixing  

However, I have reported to moderators, let them handle it according to forum rules.

[FFrankie]

They are not paying to post on ANN thread, they are paying to test their mixing service.

Its pretty sure they are paying for reply. Why below Sr. Member rank can't test their mixer? And why its necessary to require make reply on thread in order to get payment?

Terms of participation:

-   All participants need to have Senior or higher rank (Hurry up! We will offer free testing opportunity ONLY for first twenty members who will write to us)
-   Reply us on this thread with the readiness to participate and  send us your btc address in private message to which we will send you money for mixing  

Probably because they think Sr. Members are more trusted than newbis they dont wanna send 0.0015 btc to a newbi and have them run off with it

Also, you really didnt read their post, because you dont have to make the post to get the payment. because they send you the btc first so you can test the mixer. you get the payment before you post ;p

I don't see the issue, they are paying someone to use their service and post their honest review on their ANN thread. Its a little gray line they are playing on. I think reviews of the company should be in a rep thread or something smiliar not the ANN thread but to each their own

[LoyceV]

I've seen many companies/websites pay users for reviews. It's allowed.
What isn't allowed, is insubstantial posts, or giving people an incentive to post in a thread paid in altcoins or tokens.

Its pretty sure they are paying for reply.

They're only asking for one review per day, that's very reasonable.

Why below Sr. Member rank can't test their mixer? And why its necessary to require make reply on thread in order to get payment?

My guess is to avoid users like Fedor07, who just run with the money.

[akamit]

Its pretty sure they are paying for reply.

Maybe or maybe not...

Why below Sr. Member rank can't test their mixer?

I don't know why there is a rank limit but the reason could be that senior+ review is reliable and the community will respect that. Just a guess!

And why its necessary to require make reply on thread in order to get payment?

If you test a service or product then you need to provide a review (they are paying for the review) and they want the review to be posted in their ANN thread. So if anyone participated to test their service and don't post the review then why they should pay? This is what I understand.

[Thirdspace]

They are not paying to post on ANN thread, they are paying to test their mixing service.
~
ANN bumping is forbidden according to the community guideline.

yes, they are paying people to test their mixer and write a review
but they are asking testers to post reviews on their main ANN thread under Service Announcements subforum
isn't that considered as a disguise paid bumping service?

Its pretty sure they are paying for reply.

They're only asking for one review per day, that's very reasonable.

although not an excessive bump, I still think it looks like a disguised bumping
because they schedule only one reviewer every day in ANN thread
others usually ask testers to post reviews in the same thread under Services subforum without scheduling

[jademaxsuy]

Well it was stated there to put an honest review so meaning you can either post something gokd or something bad in their own ann thread. There is no problem so far as to what I have seen in this process though it could lead to bias reveiw because one were getting paid on it.

Anyway, I do not think that reviews were really necessary for a good project does not need to hire because satisfied users will just going to put a review on it even if you will just ask them to leave a review on the service they made.

[Findingnemo]

Its pretty sure they are paying for reply.

Maybe or maybe not...

Why below Sr. Member rank can't test their mixer?

I don't know why there is a rank limit but the reason could be that senior+ review is reliable and the community will respect that. Just a guess!

And why its necessary to require make reply on thread in order to get payment?

If you test a service or product then you need to provide a review (they are paying for the review) and they want the review to be posted in their ANN thread. So if anyone participated to test their service and don't post the review then why they should pay? This is what I understand.

They are paying to post something on their ANN thread,Isn't it?

Why senior+ rank because they want to show their service as more trusted among the higher rank members.

They can give free service for the trusted members and can get vouch for their service but asking someone to post on their ANN and paying for that looks ANN bumping (IMO).

[LeGaulois]

Looking both sides, from the owner point of view, it makes more sense to get feedbacks visible on your ANN thread than on a bounty thread.
Also, he isn't interested to get unsubstantial posts, (hence the 300 characters requirements) but real content.

For the forum, it doesn't generate shit posting it does the opposite. It could be considered in the grey line but I have seen many services doing the same and it was fine. Especially compared to what we usually got with the shit bumping services.
Sometimes we see the hell everywhere while there is no need.

[Parodium]

There is no rule stating users cannot be paid to post an announcement thread.

I would say the majority of new projects pay or recompense trusted members here for launching their ANN thread.

Remember, the ANN thread is just part of the marketing of a project, used for discussing its details and interfacing with the community.

[Steamtyme]

I read through the thread and I don't see anything wrong with it for a few reasons.

1) Is that they have a limit to how many times/members they will accept

-   All participants need to have Senior or higher rank (Hurry up! We will offer free testing opportunity ONLY for first twenty members who will write to us)

2) They are not allowing a free for all. 1 person per day can write a review, they do not proceed to the next reviewer until the previous one finished

Only one review per day can be published. So, the first who will write to us and will be approved as a participant will get 0,0015 BTC the same day. The next participant (the second one to write to us) will get money only after the first review will be published. In this regard we kindly ask all participants not to delay with publishing.  

I would feel differently if they were requiring multiple reviews or mandatory replies about their experience, or multiple per day with no end. The reason other threads are trashed is they are telling people to just post there or comment on the project with no regard for quality or purpose. That encourages spam and shitposting, for visibility. This is a paid review which could be positive or negative, and is just looking for essentially a beta test with higher rank members and a quality review.

[r1s2g3]

I do not see any rules here that says paid ANN bumping is prohibited.

I guess it is frowned by community because it is generally used for shilling and promoting scam projects.

[morvillz7z]

There is no rule stating users cannot be paid to post an announcement thread.

Look at the sticky ones: Incentivising posting within one or more threads is not allowed.

I understand this as you are not allowed to get paid for making a comment/replying in their thread, more specifically announcement threads.

Earlier this week I reported some shitcoin - Borocoin (BORO) asking people to leave constructive comments under their ANN, it was trashed right away by mods.

[LoyceV]

Look at the sticky ones: Incentivising posting within one or more threads is not allowed.

Look at what board that is: Alternate cryptocurrencies > Announcements (Altcoins).

[morvillz7z]

^ Yup, you are correct this one ([banned mixer]) is under Marketplace > Services. The one I gave as an example is only valid for Tokens (Altcoins), Marketplace (Bounties) and Announcements (Altcoins).

[Findingnemo]

Look at the sticky ones: Incentivising posting within one or more threads is not allowed.

Look at what board that is: Alternate cryptocurrencies > Announcements (Altcoins).

So this rule only apply for ANN threads on altcoins section?

What if someone using paid bumping services on the other ANN threads like exchanges or service announcements?

Will moderation allow it to do?

[chenille]

Look at the sticky ones: Incentivising posting within one or more threads is not allowed.

Look at what board that is: Alternate cryptocurrencies > Announcements (Altcoins).

So this rule only apply for ANN threads on altcoins section?

What if someone using paid bumping services on the other ANN threads like exchanges or service announcements?

Will moderation allow it to do?

Paid bumping services are never allowed if they violate the rules:

13. Bumps, "updates" are limited to once per 24 hours.[2]

21. Old bumps should be deleted. [2]

1 bump per 24 hours is allowed, more than 1 bump per 24 hours is not allowed.

[akamit]

They are not paying to post on ANN thread, they are paying to test their mixing service.
~
ANN bumping is forbidden according to the community guideline.

yes, they are paying people to test their mixer and write a review
but they are asking testers to post reviews on their main ANN thread under Service Announcements subforum
isn't that considered as a disguise paid bumping service?

I don't consider this as a disguise paid bumping service. Normally paid to bump is considered when a thread gets bumped multiple times in a day with shit posts and those posts usually come from brand new or newbie accounts. And we all know how it looks, we have seen this in bounty board.

In this case, they asked "Only one review per day can be published". So it doesn't go against the forum rule which is "one bump every 24 hrs"

On the other hand, posting the review in bounty thread will be a waste IMO because bounty thread will be lost at some point.
Sometimes we see peoples posting in service discussion board asking for reviews of x sites, so if a user looking for [banned mixer] review then he/she can check the ANN. Just my point of view!
Though these reviews will not be considered as Trust Review, these reviews can be considered as Technical, How good the mixing is, User-friendly or not etc. Trust cannot be bought, this has to be earned.

Anyways, it seems they have changed the rule.

Publish your review about the [banned mixer] service in this topic.  This review should contain at least 300 characters. Comment on the speed, accuracy, user interface, website design

They are paying to post something on their ANN thread,Isn't it?

Why senior+ rank because they want to show their service as more trusted among the higher rank members.

They can give free service for the trusted members and can get vouch for their service but asking someone to post on their ANN and paying for that looks ANN bumping (IMO).

1. IMO they are paying for user testing and the review. Posting on ANN was a requirement.

2. We all know Bitcointalk community doesn't give value to lower ranks reviews unless the member is reputed, they will think a self-made review. Senior+ rank requirement is not an issue

3. Rewarding for someone's time is not bad, and you can also say they are giving free service for reviews from trusted members.

For using [banned mixer] you will need to pay 4-5 % commission fee. So, after mixing you will get at  least 0,001425 BTC on your forward to address (no coins of dubious sources participate in mixing, so those will be only BTC with good history). That will be your reward.

So this rule only apply for ANN threads on altcoins section?

What if someone using paid bumping services on the other ANN threads like exchanges or service announcements?

Will moderation allow it to do?

Paid bumping is not allowed in the entire forum. It's a thing to discourage and should take necessary actions against those threads.