Spamming Announcements section with fake replies!!

[atinaditya]

The Announcement (Altcoins) section of the Alternate cryptocurrencies forum is being run down by fake replies and bots. I made an ANN thread about a project there and was immediately approached by some people on the telegram about services they offered on Bitcointalk forum. They claimed that they have 20-30 accounts and they can easily increase the visibilty of my ANN thread for some fees. They offered me some plans where they would make a specific number of posts every day for the thread to stay on the top and have greater visibility.

While there is nothing that looks fraudulent by offering such activity, the reality is that genuine ANN threads never get visibility on that section and are relegated to the bottom of that index in a matter of minutes. Projects that use these services can always have their threads on the top and the entire section has been gamed.

I would request the Admin team of the board to think of some innovative way to curb this problem and come up with techniques that gives each and every project the equal amount of opportunity to market their product.

[1715133437]

1715133437

[The Cryptovator]

If you found that kind of fake bumping service on any ANN thread then report full thread instead of one by one spam post. Moderators will trashed the main thread if really there is fake bumping. Write the details on comment box why are you think they are using paid bumping services. Or you might make thread on here with proper evidence who is using this kind of service.

I have remembered, previously I have sent PM to moderators about this kind of problem and moderators trashed the thread if they think really there is paid bumping. And most of my reported thread has been trashed. So you can try that way to help community.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

That section of the forum is lost forever to spam and there isn't much we can do about it since most active spam busters of the forum that have the interest of the forum at heart are bitcoin enthusiast that's why they concentrate more on bitcoin related sections in regards to reporting spam.

You can do the forum a favor by taking it upon yourself to report any spam (worthless post) you find and they'll be deleted. Also if the fee those ANN thread bumping service provider are requesting aren't that huge you can sacrifice some $$ for the forum, hiring their service and wait until you have enough evidence (high number of accounts) then start a thread reporting all the accounts they use for the service and they all will be ban.

[bL4nkcode]

Why don't ask their forum profiles for their legitimacy then report to the mods once disclosed.

I previously open an ann thread there and same as you they just pm me through telegram but i just ignore them(don't waste time on them tho) while there are someone pm'ed me here in forum but I just simply report them to the mods.

[Sharon121212]

You have just advert your thread to your project here on meta, mate.
You where approached about the bump services on telegram not so? Then go on to that platform and do the needful.
The moderators here can not stop you from getting wooed into some service on other social media platform.
But if you can get the forum profile name of this users they can be tagged If they went against the rules

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

But if you can get the forum profile name of this users they can be tagged If they went against the rules

Point of correction, spam isn't worthy of leaving negative feedbacks since it isn't trade related. (users shouldn't get tagged for posting habbit) we have other punishment like post deletion or banned punishment which can be achieved by reporting their post to moderators.

[mirakal]

Good that you raise it here, I just noticed that there are some ANN thread that are actively bump and upon looking at it, you can really tell that people are  just making some generic comments, not really informative for some readers to know the real purpose of the project.

Those who contact have groups in this forum, and I bet, they will offer you a service to simply spam the ANN with useless comments.
Beware of that as that would affect your project since investors now are smarter, and they can determine which one is legit or not.

If you found that kind of fake bumping service on any ANN thread then report full thread instead of one by one spam post.

yes it needs to be reported, but there is no difference if it's fake or real as bumping a thread because you are paid is bad for the forum.

And as theymos said .

Specifically, you are not allowed to give people any incentive to post insubstantial posts in your threads.

[hilariousetc]

Two ways to easily stop this:

Threads can only be bumped once a day as long as someone posts in it. Bump can be made random to make it fairer to all.

Get rid of the Alt Coin Ann board as it is and every coin gets their own sub board there. We could maybe charge a fee for this privilege. Most coins are spending a lot of money on promotion and bump bots so I'm sure they'll pay a fee to have their own sub board/url here.

Either of these options will make paid bumping become useless. Something does need to be done about it because it has become a huge problem. In the meantime users can report obvious bots and they'll be nuked.

You where approached about the bump services on telegram not so? Then go on to that platform and do the needful.
The moderators here can not stop you from getting wooed into some service on other social media platform.
But if you can get the forum profile name of this users they can be tagged If they went against the rules

This isn't a problem with telegram and they'll do nothing about it. It's about how paid bumping effects others here and those that don't utilise it are going to be put at a disadvantage so we need to find a way to stop it here.

[TalkStar]

Get rid of the Alt Coin Ann board as it is and every coin gets their own sub board there. We could maybe charge a fee for this privilege. Most coins are spending a lot of money on promotion and bump bots so I'm sure they'll pay a fee to have their own sub board/url here.

Yeah that can be a proper solution for this issue. Charging fees is not a bad idea because it will make some difference at least after owing a sub board by paying fees. Most of the coins spend huge number of fund only for promotion AFAIK and its not a secret to us. So i hope they will not defend if forum Admin implement this kind of fee charging or something similar.

OP isn't wrong IMO. Yeah every single project should have equal opportunity for marketing here on bitcointalk.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Get rid of the Alt Coin Ann board as it is and every coin gets their own sub board there. We could maybe charge a fee for this privilege.

I have some issues with this suggestions as this will put more responsibility on the forum. We have numerous ICO/IEO launching daily and they'll all love to capitalize on this suggestion of yours which means more moderators will be required also a large number of the community members especially newbies might see this as a form of endorsement to the project with subboard dedicated to them over others that don't have, just as they saw the acceptance of Grin as a payment options. If the forum was to go ahead with this suggestion that means they will have to moderate scam by not giving the scam projects this privilege but we all know the forum doesn't moderate scam that's why it can't be held responsible for any scam event carried out on the forum

What then happens if a project that was given a subboard turns out to be scam, this can damage the reputation of the forum. @hilariousetc can you clear me on this.

[hilariousetc]

Get rid of the Alt Coin Ann board as it is and every coin gets their own sub board there. We could maybe charge a fee for this privilege.

Don't think this suggestion will work as this will put more responsibility on the forum. We have numerous ICO/IEO launching daily and they'll all love to capitalize on this suggestion of yours which means more moderators will be required also a large number of the community members especially newbies might see this as a form of endorsement to the project with subboard dedicated to them over others that don't have, just as they saw the acceptance of Grin as a payment options.

How is it any different from the situation now? Whether we let them have their own board or not the spam and scam ICOs are still here regardless and requires no more moderation than they currently do. We could even let/make them moderate their own sections. Their spam; their problem, not ours. If we did that it would be less moderation and we shouldn't be cleaning up their mess for free anyway especially when they're the ones causing 90% of the issues in the first place.

If the forum was to go ahead with this suggestion that means they will have to moderate scam by not giving the scam projects this privilege but we all know the forum doesn't moderate scam

No it doesn't. Where are you pulling this logic from? Why are you not applying this same logic to letting them have a thread here? There's no difference between a sub board or a thread in this regard. A sub board is not a mark of legitimacy or endorsement just like having an ad slot here isn't:

"Advertised sites are not endorsed by the Bitcoin Forum. They may be unsafe, untrustworthy, or illegal in your jurisdiction."

ICO Sub boards are not endorsed or moderated by the Bitcoin Forum or Staff. They may be unsafe, untrustworthy, or illegal in your jurisdiction

There you go.

Also, see your own statement:

that's why it can't be held responsible for any scam event carried out on the forum

What then happens if a project that was given a subboard turns out to be scam, this can damage the reputation of the forum. @hilariousetc can you clear me on this.

Probably the same thing that happens now. Does the current scams that are all over the Alt coin and both Marketplaces damage the reputation of the forum?

[atinaditya]

You can do the forum a favor by taking it upon yourself to report any spam (worthless post) you find and they'll be deleted. Also if the fee those ANN thread bumping service provider are requesting aren't that huge you can sacrifice some $$ for the forum, hiring their service and wait until you have enough evidence (high number of accounts) then start a thread reporting all the accounts they use for the service and they all will be ban.

That is a great idea...Will definitely have this checked

Two ways to easily stop this:

Threads can only be bumped once a day as long as someone posts in it. Bump can be made random to make it fairer to all.

Get rid of the Alt Coin Ann board as it is and every coin gets their own sub board there. We could maybe charge a fee for this privilege. Most coins are spending a lot of money on promotion and bump bots so I'm sure they'll pay a fee to have their own sub board/url here.

Either of these options will make paid bumping become useless. Something does need to be done about it because it has become a huge problem. In the meantime users can report obvious bots and they'll be nuked.

I really like the idea of each coin having their own URL, but will be they be indexed?