Fake volume in ANN threads. What's the policy against them?

[hosseinimr93]

A few days ago sujonali1819 made a post in Reputation board regarding accounts hired for bumping Crybet ANN thread. (Visit the link below)
15 accounts hired for bumping the Crybet announcement thread?

I also made a similar topic about another bumping group making fake volume in ILCOIN ANN thread (Visit the link below)
Fake volume in ILCOIN ANN thread

There are probably more topics and more bumping groups.

Both of these bumping groups have also been active in bumping other threads before making posts for their current projects. (Check their post history)
Some accounts have been active for more than two years without any problem.

I know with implementing new bumping system, those posts cannot bump the topic. But even the topic is in 10th page of the board, there will be some newbies think that the project is popular and trustworthy.
Some people might visit the ANN thread through the link in the website of project and doesn't matter whether the topic is in first page or 10th page.

I reported both topics and asked moderators to lock the topic.
My reports are still unhandled and I feel they will remain unhandled forever.

I think those topics haven't been locked because there is no strong proof that the volume is fake.
This is exactly why those spammers continue to spam. They know that no one can prove that they are linked together or they are paid to posts.
Even if they are banned, they can create new accounts and continue to post.

Don't we need a strict policy against them?

Shouldn't moderators trash Crybet ANN thread and ILCOIN ANN thread or lock them at least?

I made a google search
I searched for "Bitcointalk bumping service" and excluded bitcointalk.org results.

There are many services offering bumping bitcointalk ANN threads. They claim that they have several bitcointalk accounts. Shouldn't we stop them? (Edit: I mean stopping them by locking topics)

[tranthidung]

It mostly causes temp babe on participants who spam and bump. If there is no clear evidence of bump service, there will be no nuke  punishment. I also remember nuke is only for newbies (someone mentioned it but I am not sure because I have never read a rule about nuke.).

Related threads will be locked (like what happened with Bitdice's thread)

Report those spam participants or bump service farms and related threads. Moderators will handle them.

[TheUltraElite]

The moderators of these sections is "Moderators: mprep, Welsh" - so if your reports are being left unhandled you can message them once. Dont overdo it because they are already busy with a lot of work here. If they still remain unhandled then rest assured you have done your responsibility.

If a thread need to be trashed moderators will decide. It is not your decision even if you think it should be done.

ANN spammers have been here since a long time so just keep reporting the posts, eventually the thread may get nuked when enough reports have lined up.

There are many services offering bumping bitcointalk ANN threads. They claim that they have several bitcointalk accounts. Shouldn't we stop them?

About this, if you can find such service providers in the forum then posts about it in the "Reputation" section for DT members to red tag.
Deals being done outside the forum are beyond the jurisdiction of the forum because it might be a clickbait to smear some innocent member's reputation.
Dont become too passionate about what needs to be done and what not. You will end up wasting too much time. Just report posts that you feel are low quality. Dont overthink.

[The Cryptovator]

Report main thread wouldn't work I there is no enough evidence against OP that they hired bumping service. I have remember similar case and I had reported one by one users who are bumping thread with spammy reply. Their post had deleted without any punishments. I think moderators have some strategy to nuke or ban bumping spammer. They wouldn't ban just for single spam reply. So only solution is report one by one if you don't have sufficient evidence about bought bumping services.

[Upgrade00]

Don't we need a strict policy against them?

I do not have think a stricter policy is necessary. Theymos when discussing the rules of the forum left a but if wriggling room for the moderators, especially when they are handling borderline cases were there is no clear rule regarding. So I do not think the mods are restricted by the stringency of the rules as they can take actions as they can take actions based on their own objective assessment of the situation.

As has been mentioned, don't beat the matter too hard, such services can not be curbed entirely, just do your bit by reporting and messaging where you think more explanations may be necessary.

[Rikafip]

A few days ago sujonali1819 made a post in Reputation board regarding accounts hired for bumping Crybet ANN thread. (Visit the link below)
15 accounts hired for bumping the Crybet announcement thread?
I also made a similar topic about another bumping group making fake volume in ILCOIN ANN thread (Visit the link below)
Fake volume in ILCOIN ANN thread
There are probably more topics and more bumping groups.

Most likely  dozens of Ann thread as we speak are bumping threads by either their own accounts, or by hiring some service. Biggest one  is probably  Vitor Services. At least of those that we know of.

I reported both topics and asked moderators to lock the topic.
My reports are still unhandled and I feel they will remain unhandled forever.

Yeah, from what I know, topics are not locked or nuked for that. In order for topics to get deleted, you would need some hard proof, like screenshot or link  of  giveaway that is offering reward for posting in threads, or something similar to that.
What you can do though is to report  posts made by shiller accounts. In most cases moderators will delete those, and usually really fast. I know that is not permanent solution, but at least their  work will be in vain, and after some time they might even stop when they see that their posts are constantly being deleted and thread contained on a few pages max.

[hosseinimr93]

It mostly causes temp babe on participants who spam and bump. If there is no clear evidence of bump service, there will be no nuke  punishment. I also remember nuke is only for newbies (someone mentioned it but I am not sure because I have never read a rule about nuke.).

According to a post by Halab, only newbies who have low activity can be nuked.
Below is the post made by Halab.

Global mods and mods can nuke a newbie, but this newbie has to have a low activity (25-35, I don't have the exact number in mind).

Report main thread wouldn't work I there is no enough evidence against OP that they hired bumping service. I have remember similar case and I had reported one by one users who are bumping thread with spammy reply. Their post had deleted without any punishments. I think moderators have some strategy to nuke or ban bumping spammer. They wouldn't ban just for single spam reply. So only solution is report one by one if you don't have sufficient evidence about bought bumping services.

That won't solve the problem even if I report all posts one by one. Even if they are banned, they will create a new one. If they ban for ban evasion, they will create another one again and again.
Generally you are right. As long as there is no strong proof, there is no solution. Moderators cannot lock a topic based on something that is not proven.  

Yeah, from what I know, topics are not locked or nuked for that. In order for topics to get deleted, you would need some hard proof, like screenshot or link  of  giveaway that is offering reward for posting in threads, or something similar to that.

That's usually impossible.
Everyone check those ANN threads understand that there are being bumped by a third party or their own accounts. But they always do this off-forum and they know that no one can prove they have hired a bumping service.
As you said, the only solution is to report and report.

So, my conclusion is that we can do nothing against them. We can only report their posts so they get deleted. They will continue to post until they find it useless.

[btcltcdigger]

Since I was the one who opened the ANN almost a year ago, I'm locking it. It's the least I can do to stop this spam

[hosseinimr93]

Since I was the one who opened the ANN almost a year ago, I'm locking it. It's the least I can do to stop this spam

Thank you.
So one of best solutions (which I didn't do that) was to send a personal message to you.
But unfortunately that's doesn't always work. ANN threads are usually created by newbies who become inactive after a while.