Bitcoin talk could fix the spam in one move....REMOVE SIGNATURE...Right??

[hilariousandco]

Yeah, it would certainly stop 100% of the signature spam. I think this forum would be pretty dead without them though. I just wish we would implement the Signature Campaign guidelines. I've long said signature campaigns could actually help improve the forum but only if campaigns are run properly and bad ones are banned and even banished from the forum. There's a lot of greedy and lazy campaigns that come here and only want to promote themselves as much as they can and when there's no repercussions for those campaigns they do what they want and that's very destructive to the forum. If they started getting bans then they'd so something about their campaigns but when there's no motive to do that they're not going to waste time and money policing themselves when as much spam as possible baring their signature is beneficial to them.

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[Upgrade00]

when there's no motive to do that they're not going to waste time and money policing themselves when as much spam as possible baring their signature is beneficial to them.

This is where most campaigns get it wrong. Quantity over quality means your signature would likely appear under posts of users spamming the forum who may be ignored by other members, or it would be made in spam mega threads and boards only visited by other spammers, so no promotion is actually being done, as the target audience does not get to see the ad.
Spam wound not help any genuine project build engagement, it can only be useful to scammers looking to attract unsuspecting newbies to their HYIP projects like we saw with Cryptotalk/Yobit.

Overall, removing signatures would only dissuade genuine projects from advertising on the forum, actual spammers would always find a way to jump through hoops to cheat the system. Although, there would be far less engagement to attract them without signatures.

[Yaunfitda]

It will be a big loss not just in revenue but in total traffic. We all know that the forum have "satoshi" stamp on it and he used this forum in the beginning, however it has evolved, then signature campaign introduce, gain a lot of traffic and then we have project adverts being paid. But with the expansion comes the shit posting and campaigns that really lower the quality of posts. So it's really on the hands of campaign managers. One thing to note though that merit system was introduce, it somewhat put a breaks on bounty campaigns that generally accepts everyone without checking their posting habits and qualities. But if Theymos removed the signature campaigns, this forum will be a complete dead to be honest.

[ABCbits]

Imagine how GREAT this forum would be if you couldn't get PAID to post!!!

I can't imagine how "great" it is when the forum still filled with
1. People who shill certain project
2. Bot which spam website url to increase their SEO
3. People who bump thread with multiple account
4. All kinds of troll

[Lucius]

Remove the signature....PROBLEM SOLVED
am I wrong?

Instead of going in the direction of a total ban, each spam should be dealt with individually - and the responsibility for that lies with each of us who have the ability to report every post we consider spam, just as every campaign manager has the option not to pay for such posts or hire such user/s.

Since you mostly participate in the discussion in Alternate cryptocurrencies maybe the problem in that part of the forum is much bigger as far as spam is concerned than in some other boards? I personally do not visit that part of the forum, and many members ignore it - and as far as I know most of the signature campaigns that pay in BTC exclude that part of the forum in their rules.

I don’t know where were you with your proposal during 2015 or in the years after until some order was introduced? Today's situation regarding signature spam is incomparably better than then, so anyone who has been active on the forum in the past 5 years can see it.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

No, removing signature campaigns from the forum would be a horrible idea--I suspect bitcointalk would be dead, at least relative to the amount of traffic and threads it generates now, and I'd hate to see that happen.

Also, not all members who wear advertising in their signature are shitposters.  In fact, some of the best are in the Chipmixer campaign.  And yes, if Theymos decided to remove advertising in signatures right now, the shitposting/spam issue would probably be solved instantly--but at too high a cost IMO, and I'm pretty sure that's why he hasn't considered doing it.

The problem isn't even as bad as it used to be before the merit system kicked off, so I'm not even sure why OP is resurrecting this old idea that's been proposed before.  Not only spam, but traffic in general has dropped dramatically this year, so I don't think removing signature advertising would be a great idea.

[Fundamentals Of]

• theymos are welcome newbies and would prefer to give people opportunities to earn money here

While newbies are always welcome, theymos does not PREFER to give people the opportunity to earn money. Of course theymos is very much comfortable and probably happy with people in the forum earning money out of their participation in discussions, but PREFER is not the right word. Theymos does not care about the users not earning money at all if that means the forum is going to become worthless and would die because of it.

[LoyceV]

Yeah, it would certainly stop 100% of the signature spam. I think this forum would be pretty dead without them though.

Even worse: the backlink spam and bounty "promotion" spam would just continue.

I've long said signature campaigns could actually help improve the forum but only if campaigns are run properly and bad ones are banned and even banished from the forum.

People need to feel the "pressure" from "watching eyes" to keep their post quality up. A good start would be to ban all campaigns that pay anything else than Bitcoin, so there's a real cost for advertising in signatures, and thus a motivation for campaign "managers" to actually manage their campaign.

That being said, I am obviously biased But I've also been fighting spam for quite a while now.

[mindrust]

Remove the signature....PROBLEM SOLVED

am I wrong?

You are wrong.

Remove the signatures and Nobody would post here. That's a bigger problem.

There isn't much to talk about anyways. Price? It goes up, it goes down. Tech? Nothing new is happening. Scams? There are plenty as always.

Sig Camps came to this forum because there used to be happening real conversions and discussions. When the tech was new and there was something to talk about.

Now there are mostly fake conversions and discussions but sig camps still stay.

[LTU_btc]

Oh shit, here we go again. It was asked multiple times to remove signatures, but there is no signs that theymos is going to do it.
Yeah, signature campaigns cause some problems, I like how @mindrust called it - fake converstations. There is a lot of such conversations where users posting only to get paid. But now situation here isn't bad, compared with things we had before merit system. Then forum was really terrible
But I don't think that forum without signature campaigns would become perfect. It would be pretty much dead, compared with what we have now. I don't want Bitcointalk with only few active geeks. Now most forum members wear paid signatures, including some staff and biggest contributors. I doubt that they would leave Bitcointalk if signatures would be removed, but I imagine that their activity would reduce significantly. I don't think that we want to loose our most valuable members.
And signature campaigns have positive effect for Bitcoin economics, just don't know how significant it's. Bitcoin business advertise here, they get customers from Bitcointalk. Users earn Bitcoin, spend it, use advertised websites. Bitcointalk get traffic and sells ad spots, revenue is used to run website and pay staff. All involved parts get benefits.

[libert19]

Don't bother going in altcoin discussion, or ignore the topic once it has reached couple pages of replies as after that there is literal spam (in most cases).

[Foxpup]

I think this forum would be pretty dead without them though.

If the forum would be dead without signatures, it deserves to die. Forums are supposed to be about discussion, not advertising.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Then we will see who are real bitcoin enthusiasts and who are here only for the ... >



Source of the image: Internet.

For me it doesn't really matter if the signatures are gone or not, maybe then I'll need to close my SpamBuster club as the spam will drop drastically I suppose. 

[hilariousandco]

This is where most campaigns get it wrong. Quantity over quality means your signature would likely appear under posts of users spamming the forum who may be ignored by other members, or it would be made in spam mega threads and boards only visited by other spammers, so no promotion is actually being done, as the target audience does not get to see the ad.

They don't get it wrong. They get it quite right actually: More spam = more ad impressions. And May be ignored. How many users do you have ignored? It would be a full time job to ignore every spammer you see here as there's thousands of them and when it's more often than not essentially free for a coin to advertise here it doesn't matter to them - throw as much shit at the wall and see how much sticks. Anything that gets seen is a plus to them. Most of these campaigns really don't care about long-term reputation; they're just pump and dump schemes that want your money and once they have it they will move on to the next thing and rinse and repeat and we're left to clean up their mess which shouldn't be tolerated.

Spam wound not help any genuine project build engagement, it can only be useful to scammers looking to attract unsuspecting newbies to their HYIP projects like we saw with Cryptotalk/Yobit.

Spam is effective as it's all about getting your name and brand out there which signature campaigns do very well.

Overall, removing signatures would only dissuade genuine projects from advertising on the forum

It wouldn't. They would probably just buy forum ad slots instead.

actual spammers would always find a way to jump through hoops to cheat the system. Although, there would be far less engagement to attract them without signatures.

There would be no hoop to jump through as if signatures went then so would 99% of the spammers who are only here to earn from them as they would have no interest being here otherwise. The people who force themselves to post just for payment wouldn't bother and that means once a question has been answered you wouldn't get dozens of replies stating the same or countless threads about every possible permeation of how you gamble: do you gamble on the toilet, do you gamble on Christmas, do you gamble whilst you gamble etc.

I think this forum would be pretty dead without them though.

If the forum would be dead without signatures, it deserves to die. Forums are supposed to be about discussion, not advertising.

Well I don't disagree. The forum would still tick over, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least 80% of traffic goes. You could argue that may or may not be a good thing. Certainly the only people who are here to earn would leave so you would know who genuinely does have an interest in crypto.

[notblox1]

Instead of removing signatures that would kill the forum and hurt sponsors and casino companies, let's create better rules for campaigns and report or move most spam posts to trash. Maybe we need more moderators for this job or some part time community moderators.
Other thing moderators can do is to remove signatures for spammers, with signature ban.
Theymos wanted all members to earn some Bitcoins, so let's keep this idea alive.

[mindrust]

Instead of removing signatures that would kill the forum and hurt sponsors and casino companies, let's create better rules for campaigns and report or move most spam posts to trash. Maybe we need more moderators for this job or some part time community moderators.
Other thing moderators can do is to remove signatures for spammers, with signature ban.
Theymos wanted all members to earn some Bitcoins, so let's keep this idea alive.

You are forgetting one major issue.

The forum traffic is driven by the signature camps it is not the other way around.

Whatever rule you change to make the forum better won't change a thing. It is beyond the admin's and the mods' power.

How is removing the spam posts fix a thing if almost every post is being posted just to be posted? You'll just reduce the forum traffic.

At this point there is only slight difference between yobit's forum and here. (here has sig camps, yobit's place don't) When the casinos&exchanges decide that they can't extract more money than what they have invested here anymore... something will happen.

[notblox1]

At this point there is only slight difference between yobit's forum and here. (here has sig camps, yobit's place don't)

Not true.
Not every post is posted just to be posted.
Difference is huge with this two forums, and there is also incentive to write post in yobit shitforum that is tracked on their exchange.

[The Cryptovator]

The idea is good to prevent spam, but it would be like to cut the head to prevent headaches. I am soo curious to see OP's report history like below image of mine.

So we can realize how sincere OP to prevent spam from the forum. Very few people will log in on the forum for discussion if stop signature campaign. So newbies will be deprived of the constructive discussions. Its true peoples earning from here by posting and it has allowed by the forum admin. The forum will dry like a dead forum, you can simply compare this forum with another forum how they are active. There are many ways to prevent spam where you may keep your role like a report spam post. So banning the signature campaign wouldn't be a solution.

[Pmalek]

A lot of the spam here is generated by members who are not even wearing signatures. Newbies posting in the off-topic forums, paid shillers and bumpers (also mostly newbies) who are advertising the next big ICO/IEO or whatever new thing they have come up with. Then you have those posting all over the place hoping to get a merit from someone so that they can start participating in bounties. Most of them don't allow newbie accounts. Social media and bounty reports...

Users who are in good and respectable signature campaigns are trying to uphold a certain standard. They aren't just throwing posts around because in the long-run that would be counter productive to their future engagements.   

 

[Scam Exposey]

You want a real talk? This forum will die if no signature campaign available.

Sig campaign means a progressive forum if there are many advertiser comes the more the forum survives and get traffic.