What to do with users like this? Advertising in posts

[Welsh]

I know there are just a few mods, and they need to handle a huge number of reported posts, but in this case, they seem rather hesitant to do something. This user is doing the same thing for months, and I think my report is not the first one.

Yeah, you're probably right. I had 4 reports against this user handled as good within a few hours. I can't remember what sections they were in now so could well have been a dedicated moderator who dealt with them. Global moderators are definitely more experienced than me, but my personal stance would be a temp ban. The user may have possibly been warned via a personal message though so the user may have already been warned.

Maybe I'm a little too strict when it comes to these sorts of posts though. I tend to favour quality discussion, and take the advertisements in a post without being substantial quite seriously which other moderators might disagree with.

[Lucius]

My report is still unhandled for that user, but as you say he is maybe warned via PM, or he is maybe get temp ban. The user in question has not been active for the past two days, but I have no doubt that he will return to old habits sooner or later.

I found another one using the same method to advertise his site, although this one has only recently woken up after hibernation. I think his intent is pretty clear, but just two posts this year may not be enough to report.

harshvasistha post history

[actmyname]

My report is still unhandled for that user, but as you say he is maybe warned via PM, or he is maybe get temp ban. The user in question has not been active for the past two days, but I have no doubt that he will return to old habits sooner or later.

I found another one using the same method to advertise his site, although this one has only recently woken up after hibernation. I think his intent is pretty clear, but just two posts this year may not be enough to report.

harshvasistha post history

Given that:

24. Advertisements (including signatures within the post area) in posts aren't allowed unless the post is in a thread you started and is really substantial and useful.[9][e]

I think it's pretty clear this crosses the rules. These "article" threads shouldn't be posted around, either. If anything all of them should be moved to the Press section.

[libert19]

I report such posts as promotional as well, what pisses me off however is that, users keep commenting there keeping the thread up.

[Upgrade00]

he is promoting the site! making backlinks to boost his site
check his post history, all of his post always linking out to coinpedia.org pages

This is obviously a marketing strategy, to boost his websites visibility on SERP. Search engines has optimized to reduce the effect of this self promoting.

what pisses me off however is that, users keep commenting there keeping the thread up.

Such low quality threads provides a good opportunity for other users to make posts without any real effort. Some newbies simply start threads and leave, return a few hours or days later and start another. I usually put such members on ignore.

[Lucius]

I think it's pretty clear this crosses the rules. These "article" threads shouldn't be posted around, either. If anything all of them should be moved to the Press section.

As Welsh says in his comment, not all moderators have the same point of view in such cases, how else to explain that someone has been doing this for months and that he was not properly punished. Although it is possible that such users first get only warning, then temp ban and maybe another one before perma ban.

Press board has much higher criteria then such posts, and personally I have not yet seen any moderators move anything there because it is also a very problematic board where in recent months, some have literally privatized that board for signature spam and as people paid to post links of certain so-called crypto news outlets.

[Pearls Before Swine]

I just came across a member I think is doing this.  This is the Op of a thread he started:

Here are 6 of my reasons, what about your thoughts

1.80% of day traders give up within the first two years;

2.Among day traders, only nearly 40% of the day's trading was within a month only;

3.Within three years, only 13% continued trading. After 5 years, only 7% were left;

4.The average individual investor is 1.5% less than the market index;

5.Active traders' performance drops by 6.5% annually;

6.Traders with up to 10 years of experience continue to trade.

If you are interested in electronic payment systems, please click on this link: https://vakaxa.net/he-thong-thanh-toan-tien-dien-tu/ otherwise you should ignore it.

The advertising is in the last sentence.  This member also started another thread which was *very* much like another one.  I reported both of them.  The trading rules thread isn't a straight plagiarism but it is very close.

[target]

There are number of them that only promotes their crypto news site. Although they spark the conversation here its not much healthy if they just keep doing it without replying back to the thread. If they are going to be posting links like they are spamming, they might as well be buying a copper membership for that privilege otherwise they are going to abuse this.  For SEO purpose, dofollow links in the forum is very much useful for them to rank.

This user had been doing it since last April of this year https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2474729;sa=showPosts

[Lucius]

target, did you report that user maybe? I just report them, let's see what happens.

Some use a different strategy without direct links, but they certainly make sure they mention what they promote as many times as possible. For example, here's a user who just woke up after several months of hibernation, and in just a 3 days he made 10 posts about his service or better to say - how to make a fortune from trading by using my site

Post History

[cabalism13]

I think I'm also guilty on this kind of feature
...

Ads:

Support:
Bitcointalk Charity Program

As far as I remembered, it is the third time I've done that. Is this still counted or should I stop it already?

[Harlot]

I think I'm also guilty on this kind of feature
...

Ads:

Support:
Bitcointalk Charity Program

As far as I remembered, it is the third time I've done that. Is this still counted or should I stop it already?

On my own opinion I couldn't count this one as some kind of direct advertising especially if this involves a good running charity that is posted here in Bitcointalk unlike other shillposters who post external links to their websites and also doesn't really want to get involve with their own topic. But with the example you have given I don't see any kind of connection on the “what if” thread you created to the link for the charity you included so I think its inappropriate in this matter.

[Lucius]

I think I'm also guilty on this kind of feature

If we look strictly at the rules, one might say that you do not strictly follow them, but I don't see that in your case it could be seen as a negative thing. You don't do it for a reason and in the way others do, it is enough to look at the posts of those who abuse the forum in such a way.

What I do not like is the way how such cases are handled, just deleting such threads/posts does not stop those who want to promote their links in this way. Yesterday I report user BitOffer, or to be exactly one of his thread which is deleted, but everything else is still there, and he continues with his work today.