I've suggested something like this numerous times before. I've even suggested either a percentage or even all of the money from donator ranks/more ad slots could go there (which I am still in support of because donator ranks have multiple benefits for the forum):
I'd like to get the community's thoughts on possible alternatives to permabans for things like copy and pasting/plagiarism. One that seems to have the support of quite a few people is instead of a permanent ban a user has a signature ban instead (IE the signature is removed so they can no longer earn here). The signature ban could be permanent, temporary, or indefinite until the user has proven their worth over time and then it's reinstated. We could even make it so after the user has received x amount of merit then their signature is possibly reinstated (it would have to be a lot - at least one hundred in my opinion). I think there are several levels of severity in plagiarism and not all are equal and in some cases a permanent ban forever can be a little harsh (especially if it was just one silly mistake). I think there's a big difference in someone quoting something from Wikipedia to answer someone's question, and those that purposefully copy someone else's post here or 'text-spin' it just to earn from signatures (I'm really not sure if those users deserve a second chance, but good luck to them trying to get hundreds of merit to get it back). To be honest, removal of their signature to signature spammers might as well be a permanent ban and most will probably just give up immediately if they can't earn here, but for others it would be shame if there's no chance of forgiveness especially if they've been an active or helpful member of the community and just screwed up one time. Theymos has mentioned before signature bans and blacklists and was something that was supposed to happen with the signature campaign guidelines but maybe he could make this his next priority after the account recovery tool.
Alternatively, what do people think about paying some sort of fine to get their account back? The money probably wouldn't go to the forum or staff but to a bitcoin-accepting charity instead. That way at least a good cause benefits and they're still paying a financial penalty.
You could maybe give people two options for those that are banned for plagiarism: You can either have a sig ban indefinitely but are allowed to post, or possibly even allowed to earn the signature back by getting a sufficient amount of merit (say maybe at least 100), or just pay a substantial fine (at least $100). As I've mentioned before I'm strongly in favour of more donator ranks that give you a bigger signature and maybe they could get their signature back by purchasing one of them. I think we should also give them the option of earning it back via merit so at least they have two options and if they don't want to pay anything then they can try earn their signature back by contributing something worthwhile.
You can vote for two options on the poll just in case you are for both a sig ban and paying a fine. If you have any other alternatives or issues with the current options then please state so. You can also discuss how much a fine should be or how much merit a user should earn before they get their signature back.
1) Make it so that posts from lower ranked members don't bump the thread to the top (ideally up to Member)
2) Get rid of the Announcement board completely and instead charge ICOs a fee to list here and once they do they get their own sub board in the Alt Coin section. If this happens then paid bumping is useless. Many of them would probably like having their own board and they could even be responsible for moderating it or mod it how they like.
ICOs should probably be paying a fee to list here anyway. They get a crazy amount of advertising for free and are probably causing 95% of the staff workload by all the spam and abuse that is happening and staff are left to run around like headless chickens trying to clean it all up. It's about time they have to start compensating for this. Money raised can either go to hiring more staff to combat spam or given to charity.
Thoughts or anyone have any other suggestions to combat this abuse?
More donator ranks have been suggested numerous times by various people including me.
More income isn't needed right now
As I've said before, you could always give it to charity or use it to fund worthwhile developments that benefit the community or crypto. Out of interest, does the forum hold any fiat reserves?
Based on the fact that I now felt that the driving force behind theymos' decisions was not $
Right, I don't care about making money from the forum personally. (I've actually thought about getting rid of the forum ads, since it's often a big headache and the forum has enough reserves for a long time, but operating at a significant loss while there's money basically just sitting on the table feels
wrong, even if the level of loss is sustainable for quite a while.)
I don't disbelieve you when you say that you don't care that much about making money from here as there could have been numerous ways that you could have personally enriched yourself both legitimately and illegitimately from the forum over the years and I've even suggested that you pay yourself a reasonable wage and do admin duties here full time before because one is badly needed, but saying things like you've thought about getting rid of ad slots baffles me. Why? Because they're too much of a hassle and headache for you to organise? If so, can't you either automate the procedure of people buying them or delegate a staff member to be in charge of advertisements instead of just considering removing them completely? Delegating workload to various people will seriously free up your time to do much more productive things and stop you from being pestered about things you don't have the time or energy to do (and other staff members are then pestered who don't even have the means or authority to help). The forum shouldn't be losing money or throwing it away and even more ad slots wouldn't hurt (especially when the forum is covered by sig ads that the vast majority only contribute to the deterioration of the board).
Even if we don't need the money the reserve funds won't last forever, but you could even put the money made to good use. Use it to finance worthwhile projects that will benefit bitcoin or even the world, or even give it all away to charity. Nearly 500 people died in floods in Kerala, India last month. We could make sure it gets into the hands of people who actually need it there. What's even worse is that you always get scumbags popping up here trying to use various tragedies to scam by asking for donations. Happens with every natural disaster. I'm sure if we had some sort of official donation drive many people would contribute to it in knowing that the money will actually get to the right people and make a difference. I lost access to my thigh ranked accounts on bitcointalk.
What is your original account? Did you follow the procedure to recover it?
this forum really is not about making money, but making money is now part of this forum. Actually, it's okay to earn money here as long as you also contributes in discussions pretty well.
I think this is well put. As I've said before, this forum (along with bitcoin) is a victim of its own success and just attracts both the desperate and nefarious. I think it's great that people can a earn here and the money made can actually make a difference to people's lives (I know it has mine), but it's frustrating how it's being exploited by masses of people just crapping up the forum in the laziest and greediest way possible (and it's the campaigns that should be held responsible for this). Whilst this forum isn't about
making money, it is a forum
about money (and a new type of money) and I don't think we should forget that. Measure should be put in place to try stop the abuses that go on though and I think punishing campaigns that don't do their job would go a long way. I also still think we should introduce paid bitcointalk ranks like Silver and Gold Member that have the same benefit of Seniors and Heroes or whatnot. This would essentially kill account farming and account sales and like the op has already experienced the majority of account sellers are just opportunistic scammers now. Most of them don't even seem to have any accounts for sale and just hope they get someone desperate enough to send them money first. I honestly don't see any negatives about letting users purchase such memberships.
The money made could either be used to fund worthwhile projects (I've suggested before a decentralised forum software, a better DDOS-type service or even a bitcointalk seastead/Island) or just give the money to charity. The only people who are going to lose here are account farmers whilst the benefits are numerous.--------------
I've thought before about giving forum badges (or maybe even forum BTC credit) for donating x BTC to Bitcoin-accepting charities,
No theymos don't involves badges, I see a situation where forum users will only donate just to be recognized via badges which goes against the whole idea of charity.
It doesn't go against it. Many charities actually give out some sort of badges if you donate to them:
They used to (or still do) do a special gold one every year which became quite collectable:
Then there's also the more famous poppy appeal:
It's just an incentive for people to donate and a way of showing your support and everyone benefits. The original bitcoin donation drive to fund the new forum came with additional perks like the VIP tag and custom titles etc. Getting a few perks for donating to a good cause isn't a big deal.
I'll love it, if every one could donate anonymously e.g I won't what to be judge based on the amount of bitcoin I can afford to donate.
You can already send money to any charity you like anonymous. You don't need to involve the forum with that and there are plenty of charities that already accept bitcoin.
More seriously, this sort of donation pool might have some extra positive effects due to its ability to more effectively market itself and its ability to engage in more complicated projects than just "donate to x charity". But for it to be better than just having donors donate to whoever they want, the pool should probably be an actual tax-exempt nonprofit.
I've suggested we set up our own charity before. The community could vote on where the money goes every month/year/whatever, or maybe we even only send it to charities that accept bitcoin directly. We could also work with trying to spread adoption of bitcoin by working with charities to adopt it themselves if they already don't.
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BTW, there are already a couple of British charities that accept bitcoin directly:
https://rnli.org/support-us/give-money/bitcoin-donations https://www.savethechildren.org/us/more-ways-to-help/ways-to-give/ways-to-help
