In my personal opinion, it's good to bring such cases to the spotlight because it's not that much of a clear cut case always.
Copy-pasting content isn't allowed and for sure when all of a user's posts are plagiarized its ban worthy.
But I think that organizations and companies that seek to promote their activities or even build backings CAN have a place in bitcointalk while also contributing positively. Other than ousting them away and being hostile from the beginning, I would recommend that we also try to propose ways for those companies to improve their marketing efforts in this forum.
I'll put my money where my mouth is and try my best to provide some guidelines:
For anyone looking to market a project/publication/website etc. in bitcointalk; DOs and DON'Ts:
NEVER:
- Create more than one topic about the same thing (article/website/campaign etc.)
- Create posts (be it topics or replies) that are 100% non-original. Whatever you post, even if your intent is to post a link to content you own, it should include some original content that will fit in the context of bitcointalk. Half-assed attempts to create filler context are also not welcome.
- Be out of context. Respond to topics of others with out of context replies for promotion is a double sin.
- Post in the wrong board.
- Create more than one topic for your organization.
- Bump your thread more than once every 24h.
- Provide incentives for others to bump your threads.
- Promote a referral campaign via bitcointalk posts.
Not strictly forbidden but considered a dick move:
- Never interacting with the community. If your organization has a marketer on the payroll and he simply re-posts content on bitcointalk without having a grasp of the community, in the worst case it can damage your reputation or in the best case your campaigns will get minimum clicks.*
- Linking to non-bitcointalk content constantly without giving anything back to the forum
- Fighting with respected community members over disputed trust ratings (oh boy).
- Promoting articles inappropriately. The press board should be used for news, and if you're a news publication it should be the only place where you create topics for your articles. Other than that, there are very few topics where the context would permit for an article being promoted as a response, so unless the subject fits 100% and you have exclusive updates, don't do it.
- Not sticking to your own thread. If you have an Announcement thread for your project/service etc., you should post your press releases and promotions only under it. Unless we're talking about a campaign that'll be running specifically on bitcointalk like signature campaign.
DOs:- Running bitcointalk-specific campaigns like Signature/avatar campaigns, raffles, giveaways, contents, bounty campaigns etc. These are guaranteed to capture the interest of bitcointalkers, which are by default experienced with cryptocurrency and a highly specialized crown worth to target with specializedmarketing.
- Use escrow. Is there money on the table for your campaign? Hire a trusted bitcointalk member to hold it.
- Familiarize yourself with the trust system and bitcointalk ranks. These are important features to get an understanding of how the forum works.
- Read the (unofficial) rules and make sure you fall within the guidelines.
- Hire experienced bitcointalk members to represent you. Using escrow, community managers, coordinators or even advisors that have an established profile in bitcointalk can help you better communicate with the community, without having to spend too much time getting familiar with the details.
* This is especially tricky. If you try to produce makeshift interaction with the community, it has a high likelihood to look forced. But get this, if you came through with some genuinely interesting information exclusive to bitcointalk, it'll also open up the way to your marketing efforts fitting better among your posts. It's ideal to keep a balance between promotion and community interaction, because having your account rifled with only marketing decreases the effectiveness of the campaign in the forum. So, make sure that if you run any campaign in the forum, you'd also be ready to respond to inquiries, address issues forum members can face, etc. What's worthy of huge props would be if high ranking members within an organization are shown to be capable of organic participation in the community. Similar to how Mark Karpelès, manager of the biggest BTC exchange at the time, was capable to browse bitcoin communities daily, interact and crack jokes with simple users whenever he saw an interesting. Before the crash he was an old school cool 'bitcoin CEO'.
