The new (maybe not so new) spammy trend.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Probably everyone have seen such threads but people don't talk about it. Mostly they are created by new fresh accounts with only 2-3 posts, sometimes with 9-10 posts.This apply for all the sections, except the technical boards.

The thread's subject is mostly some general question or observation which leaves room for random discussions... and of course at the end they become, guess what... Megathreads with 100s to 1000s of comments

And guess what... The OP never comes back to lock it... Why? There is a simple answer.

The OP is an alt account of one of the first 10 poster in the thread. The only idea is to create as many comments as possible to reach their sig. campaign required posts and this is the perfect technique, making HQ spam.

So, what can we do?

P.S. I'll come with examples when I get back to my PC.

[Joel_Jantsen]

So, what can we do?

Selectively enforce strict rules. One of such might be, target the boards that have scope for such threads. Gambling section would be a nice place to start with. Maybe a script that checks the last active date of the topic creator and if it's more than 3 months, the topic is automatically locked. Mainboards like Mining or Technical Discussion can be free from such restrictions since newbies don't really spam there. This is just an example but a more conditional auto-locking algo will do the job.

[jackg]

I try not to post on threads where to u know your post will be lost. If there's about 4 pages and the op hasn't posted past the first page then they've given up on those threads or didn't want them anyway...

I'd suggest we change forum rules slightly or get an agreement between mods that they'll start to lock threads that have 20 responses that have turned spammy...

[nakamura12]

Probably everyone have seen such threads but people don't talk about it. Mostly they are created by new fresh accounts with only 2-3 posts, sometimes with 9-10 posts.This apply for all the sections, except the technical boards.

I did notice that newbie accounts are popping out of nowhere just like the scam projects also popping out of nowhere. After replying to a thread many times where the op is a newbie with 12 post count are highest activity and post  count I've seen but mostly newbie have 1 or 2 post count. I tried changing the topic and I end up hanging in the air as they only start talking back to posting

[mikeywith]

The "Wall Observer" is a great example , I do post there once  a while, it's nearly impossible to find 3 consecutive quality posts there, and every time you hit F5 you see new post/s coming in,also notice that signature is disabled there, so nobody does get paid for posting there - it makes me think that people don't shitpost just to get paid, they either do it for fun or simply do it because it's all they know !

I also think that many people find it hard to blend in topics that require some sort of knowledge, so the only place for them to post would be those mega thread where they can literally post anything they want and nobody will bother telling them hey "stop spamming".

we discussed a similar issue on our local board and one of the members suggested that we should focus a bit more on "General Topics" to encourage the average members to participate , and he does make a lot of sense, because come to think about it, most people don't care/know about the Technical behind BTC, wallets , mining etc.. all they want to talk about is BTC price, how to make money , what ICO is going to the moon, and despite their shitty posts, I do think they deserve a place here, so why not help them blend in by actually creating "simple" content which would allow them to actually participate in something they know?

[sandra_x]

The "Wall Observer" is a great example , I do post there once  a while, it's nearly impossible to find 3 consecutive quality posts there, and every time you hit F5 you see new post/s coming in,also notice that signature is disabled there, so nobody does get paid for posting there - it makes me think that people don't shitpost just to get paid, they either do it for fun or simply do it because it's all they know !

I also think that many people find it hard to blend in topics that require some sort of knowledge, so the only place for them to post would be those mega thread where they can literally post anything they want and nobody will bother telling them hey "stop spamming".

we discussed a similar issue on our local board and one of the members suggested that we should focus a bit more on "General Topics" to encourage the average members to participate , and he does make a lot of sense, because come to think about it, most people don't care/know about the Technical behind BTC, wallets , mining etc.. all they want to talk about is BTC price, how to make money , what ICO is going to the moon, and despite their shitty posts, I do think they deserve a place here, so why not help them blend in by actually creating "simple" content which would allow them to actually participate in something they know?

Not many persons know that sigs.are disabled for "Wall Observer" or they really can't help but post whatever comes to mind.
The suggestion that focus should be more "General Topics" will damp the learning of important concepts of bitcoins. A lot of the tech stuff I learnt about bitcoin were picked from this forum. 

[mikeywith]

The suggestion that focus should be more "General Topics" will damp the learning of important concepts of bitcoins.

I thought it would be obvious that "General Topics" means General Topics which are crypto related, not topics about Cars or Basketball.

The "concepts of bitcoin" are different for everyone, it does not make sense to expect that everyone should understand what blockchain is or how does it work, the majority of people don't understand how most things around them work, and they don't care, i could care less how my car works as long as it starts and stops when I want it to, if I find an article talking about "how an auto-transmission functions," I would probably ignore it, but if it's about "how to take care of your car" i would probably read it.

same thing applies to BTC and crypto in general, people are more interested in how to buy/make/earn/spend BTC than how it works, the forum is full of technical and educational topics, but they get little to no attention, so why not give the crowd what they want ?    

[mk4]

Not only that, but there are a decent number of people who likes gravedigging, posting on topics that has been inactive for more than a year(there are exceptions though, but most new replies to old posts are irrelevant). Probably a "suggest lock" option would do the trick.

[tranthidung]

nobody does get paid for posting there - it makes me think that people don't shitpost just to get paid, they either do it for fun or simply do it because it's all they know !

Nobody get paid by posting in WO, but I observe the thread sometimes, and saw people get merits for funny posts there. Maybe it is one of reasons why they keep posting non-sense, and funny posts in that thread.

[Krsps]

The suggestion that focus should be more "General Topics" will damp the learning of important concepts of bitcoins.

I thought it would be obvious that "General Topics" means General Topics which are crypto related, not topics about Cars or Basketball.

The "concepts of bitcoin" are different for everyone, it does not make sense to expect that everyone should understand what blockchain is or how does it work, the majority of people don't understand how most things around them work, and they don't care, i could care less how my car works as long as it starts and stops when I want it to, if I find an article talking about "how an auto-transmission functions," I would probably ignore it, but if it's about "how to take care of your car" i would probably read it.

same thing applies to BTC and crypto in general, people are more interested in how to buy/make/earn/spend BTC than how it works, the forum is full of technical and educational topics, but they get little to no attention, so why not give the crowd what they want ?    

Please do this. Education in steps is always appreciated.
"How to buy/sell/make/earn, spend, " threads would be well attended and we could learn much faster and become better members.

I think a lot a spam is unintentional. I know mine was, just out of inexperience. And I got soundly reprimanded for it!  And as for locking a thread? I didn't know about that either. I thought the higher ups locked the threads. It's kind of overwhelming here.
Also, I hope I didn't intrude here either. I don't see any other newbie, or new members here, so excuse me if I am not supposed to post here.  I know I did that once too .

But, for what it's worth, I think giving the " General Topic" idea is an excellent idea,  and I hope you do that.

[Pmalek]

Not only that, but there are a decent number of people who likes gravedigging, posting on topics that has been inactive for more than a year(there are exceptions though, but most new replies to old posts are irrelevant). Probably a "suggest lock" option would do the trick.

I think that those gravediggers who find and comment on threads that are a couple of years old simply didn't check the date when the thread was created or the date of the last made post. I assume they find them using the forums search option in connection with a question or problem they might have and just make their post in the first thread that resembles their issue.
There are many examples of that in the Bitcoin boards, people are simply not looking at the creation dates when asking for help.

[Harlot]

I like the option when the OP doesn't reply for a certain amount of time lets say 24 hours or the first two pages of the thread then the members have an option to report it to a moderator to lock the thread, I think this will be a sinple yet an effective way of avoiding to creat pne more megethread in the forum. Only downside I see to this is members who are interested in the discussion won't get the chance to participate in the board due to the OP's lack of interest.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Sometimes I report those threads when they are obvious nonsense, but not every time the reports are handled the way I think they should be.
Sometimes I get a Good report, but the threads is still there, sometimes they get locked, sometimes totally removed, and sometimes i get bad reports as well. So everything is based on the Mods judgment.
I think reporting should be enough but we need some guidelines. Not all the threads started by newbies are bad but 85% is just sig spam generators.
Sometimes the OP doesn't have the intention to generate spam but it turns out that the herd of spammers takes over and the thread is killed.

[NavI_027]

The OP is an alt account of one of the first 10 poster in the thread. The only idea is to create as many comments as possible to reach their sig. campaign required posts and this is the perfect technique, making HQ spam.

So, what can we do?

Oh, honestly I haven't imagine that one but it can be really a sneaky technique. I might say that this kind of spammer doing such stuff is way persistent than the rest of us here. I mean, imagine, he can put out all of the ideas in his head to create a simple converstaion. It's like having an introspection and posting it all here — you ask yourself then you also gave the answer. Wise move but still a bad one because spamming is a  spamming (beside for being brain damaging). So ridiculous!

Anyway, I guess the best thing we can do for the meantime while there's no long term solution for this is to report the original post if we find it nonsense and also for those questions that so simple which can be solve by google alone knowing the fact that it came from a brand new/newbie account.

[Jet Cash]

The Wall Observer thread is a small community chat thread, and I think it is good the have threads like these. This is why I started the Jet Cash coffee lounge thread. To a certain extent these are self moderating, and the omission of signatures helps to maintain this. It is true that this is a forum focused on Bitcoin, but most of the members have many additional interests, and it is useful to have threads to support these, and to help build the community. Very often reading posts in such threads can help to build images of members, and thus they become a useful way to  evaluate the trustworthiness of members.

[LTU_btc]

I don't think it's new trend. I remember seeing such threads maybe 2-3 years ago or even earlier. Newbie OP asks simple or sometimes stupid question and never come back. It's very likely that these accounts is alt of some sig spammers, but it's just assumption and there is no way how we can prove it. And such threads is heaven for sig spammers indeed. But I think it's not much what we can do. Reporting probably wouldn't help because these threads aren't breaking forum rules. There is just one thing - question of such threads usually has been discussed hundreds or even thousands times before, but I'm not sure that's a reason to report it.

[o_e_l_e_o]

So, what can we do?

Some form of reward or recognition to encourage reporting (reporter badges?)
More moderators and dedicated sub-board mods
Auto locking threads after x months to prevent pointless necrobumping
All threads over x pages being automatically reviewed by a moderator and locked if OP's question has been answered
Harsher punishments and escalating bans for spammers and the signature campaigns which pay them

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Not only that, but there are a decent number of people who likes gravedigging, posting on topics that has been inactive for more than a year(there are exceptions though, but most new replies to old posts are irrelevant). Probably a "suggest lock" option would do the trick.

I always report those idiots for necrobumping, but I'm not sure what the mods do with the reports.  Sometimes there's a decent reason for bumping an old thread, but usually when newbies do it, it's baffling to me how they found such an old thread and why they felt the need to post in it again.

And OP, what you observed is something I've commented on a number of times, and you're exactly right.  I'd say most of the threads started in sections like Bitcoin/Altcoin Discussion are done solely for the purpose of having something for the OP's alts to reply to.  We all know damn well that most threads in those sections are complete garbage, and it's why I have them on ignore most of the time.  I'm not sure there's anything we can do about it except report shitposts.

And by the way, it's definitely not a new trend.  It's been going on for at least a few years now.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Sometimes there's a decent reason for bumping an old thread, but usually when newbies do it, it's baffling to me how they found such an old thread and why they felt the need to post in it again.

I suspect many of them have vague, spammy replies already written, and search for threads based on a keyword or two, and fire their reply in regardless of whether it makes sense in the context of the thread.

I've also run across a few in bitcoin discussion who bumped 10+ necrothreads in a few minutes, and all of these threads had their last post (excluding the necrobump) within an hour or two of each other. In these cases, it seems the spammer picks a random page number from the board, and just works through the thread titles looking for easy one liners.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Those necrobumpers quite often are confused newbies, who were told to search the forum before open a new topic, then they see a subject that fits their needs without paying attetion to the date of the thread.
That's how some of them became a necrobumbers. Others do it intentionally so.. again it's difficult to decide what is good and what is bad at a newbie level.