Hired shillers/thread bumpers?

Nope, not allowed but yep, it happens constantly. Those members are obviously trying to disguise an advertisement as a genuine post, but IMO all of it qualifies as spam and should be reported. Did you report these posts? If not, please do so. Mods will probably delete the posts and perhaps nuke the members.

I haven't reported them yet since I am not yet sure if it's allowed or not. Anyway, thanks for the info.

There's nothing new in connection with this.
This happened to be even worse in the past when there were no restrictions in certain boards, and the altcoins were skyrocketing (and had decreased when the bear market appeared)...
So yes, it's something we can do nothing against it but reporting...
If it seems a bit pointless for you, don't worry, if enough people report, it can change the situation in the future...

Quote from: The Pharmacist on July 04, 2019, 05:52:33 PM

I've tried reporting and identifying paid thread bumpers for months but action is never taken.

There's at least 50 accounts connected with this service:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5160199.0

I found about them because one of them was bumping the Bitconnect 2.0 thread, and others are bumping what is likely to be a scam project, Blue Hill Mining. There's several other illegitimate projects they are hired to bump.

As we all know competition for ANN threads is fierce, but at the same time we need to dissuade those who would be professional spammers. Its just a dishonest use of the forum.

While browsing through the Altcoin section, I noticed some accounts promoting one projects in different threads. I checked their post history and it appears those newbie accounts woke up or created just to promote it. Can their posts be reported as spams also?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1846569;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1853131;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2290429;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2584550;sa=showPosts

Kinda offtopic but someone should take a look at this topic as well: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4971628.0

It's just 6 people talking to each other constantly. It's obvious these accounts are connected, yet i am not so sure what exactly can be done about it... (Nothing?)

All of the accounts talking in the topic also recently had their passwords & email changed. & previously to their account sale they would only post in russian and russian boards.

Oh well.

Quote from: AdolfinWolf on July 25, 2019, 07:03:19 PM

yet i am not so sure what exactly can be done about it... (Nothing?)

Those accounts in the OP who does the same thing were all banned after being reported. Maybe you can report five of their comments and they will be banned too.

Quote from: rosezionjohn on July 04, 2019, 05:49:38 PM

So I saw this thread and noticed something strange on page 9.
All posters on that page are newbie accounts and it seems to me that they've been hired to bump or shill the project every now and then.

Check out their post history:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2354418;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2354426;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2401955;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2559496;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2508609;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2284504;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2354029;sa=showPosts

Is this practice allowed?

I kept seeing a lot of this in dubious projects and this should not be allowed, most of these are one-liner just trying to hype the thread into landing the top of the section, I do not drop a line on this kind of project but they should be reported posts should be unbias and fair

Quote from: AdolfinWolf on July 25, 2019, 07:03:19 PM

Shillers and thread bumpers are unfortunately a service that's being sold outside Bitcointalk, on some sites that provides services or "gigs". I won't name the websites for obvious reasons.

While some users are obviously thread shillers/bumpers based on their post history, I'm afraid there's no way to know for sure. We definitely wouldn't want false accusations.

They are using a newbie accounts so they can just throw it away when negged and make a new one when the accounts are ban.
I guess this will add up to the burden of job of the moderators but if we keep reporting help, we could help ease that burden.

I just saw this user bumping almost every thread on the Services section with mostly "UP". I don't think he is hired but still the activity is still not normal. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2091220;sa=showPosts;start=0

Quote from: rosezionjohn on August 10, 2019, 07:11:59 AM

He's shitposting to increase his Activity. I reported 6 of his posts earlier, I expect him to be banned when a Mod sees the reports.

Quote from: rosezionjohn on August 10, 2019, 07:11:59 AM

When you see Mol Log
You can fund member #2091220
he was baned

Quote from: LoyceV on August 10, 2019, 09:12:54 AM

Quote from: rosezionjohn on August 10, 2019, 07:11:59 AM

He's shitposting to increase his Activity. I reported 6 of his posts earlier, I expect him to be banned when a Mod sees the reports.

Pretty clear because the activity and the posts are the same.

I guess this is an old account farmer who have no idea about the implementation of the merit system.

The best way to get them to stop is to pick out the ones wearing signatures. Report their most recent spam messages so they do not reach their number of weekly posts, and contact the bounty manager of the campaign they are participating in.

Get them where it hurts most.

If the bounty manager doesn't act, then you should report the bounty manager, too. They've got to respect their own campaign rules ("no spamming or low quality posts").

As I've already mentioned in an earlier post, bounty managers should be made reliable for spam caused by their own bounty.

bumping to ask something.

Has anyone notice some projects posting in different boards and bringing their hired accounts as a work around to the bumping rule?

StormGainOfficial for example has been creating topics in Beginners & Help, Services, Service Announcement, Exchanges, Bounties (Altcoins), Currency Exchange, Trading, and even Bitcoin (Legal) to promote their platform (post history)

Here are the accounts that I suspect as StormGainOfficial's hired thread bumpers:

The first 3 on the list are the most active, they comment on almost all of StormGainOfficial's topics.