Do you click on signatures?

[BlackHatCoiner]

This forum is active mostly from signature campaign participants who want to earn their weekly payment, including me of course. These users have an additional incentive from making high quality posts and thus, they do. This forum is consisted of users that want to help each other, whether they actually want it or they just want to get paid from doing it.

In other words, this forum converts the greed of some (if not all) campaign participants to common good. The newbies that need your help, get it, you get paid from the campaign manager and he/she gets paid from the person that runs the business that you're wearing.

If we exclude the businessman, everyone is happy. Participants and campaign managers get paid and other users get the help they want (or whatever they want to discuss). Thus, new information circulates every single day on this forum and this is what keeps it so alive. This is a factor that keeps it one of biggest forums out there, the incentive.

There are businesses that are advertised on bitcointalk in the long term. For example, for more than 1-2 years. Usually, these are the businesses that run high-paying signature campaigns. It is clear that these businesses have a huge profit, from the entire process, otherwise they wouldn't pay that much.

Each of these businesses, whether they're here for the long or the short term, want to be on users' signatures. And not just any user, but those that contribute the most. The reason may be that other users might click on the signature. Or they may want to rank up on SEO, since bitcointalk traffic is significantly big.


But I'll focus on the first one. Since these businesses keep running, then the obvious answer to the title's question is yes. I have personally clicked on some signatures, especially those that are advertised from "Legendaries"/Forum experts. But I haven't moved further, I just visited their website. I'd like to read, though, if you tend to visit these exchanges/mixers/casinos/<everything else> that are advertised and if yes, if you go further than that.

[Oshosondy]

The companies will better be the best to give more accurate information about this, there are some signature campaigns that do not last long, probably because their aim has been achivee or because no much further progress after advertising. While some will be long term because they are having much increase of users and other people that are not even users but using their platform when they bring up their campaign here. Many of us will registered on some of these companies and make use of their services. But it is the companies that will tell us what progress they achieved after bringing campaign to this forum. The ones that last long see many people that click on the signature while many out of the people that click on the signature still go further to make use of the their services.

[Upgrade00]

I sometimes click on signatures, although not as much as I used to (as I'm already familiar with some of the popular websites advertised). I only go further if their product or service proves attractive enough. I've experimented with some casinos but only a few have been able to keep me hooked for a long time.

In other words, this forum converts the greed of some (if not all) campaign participants to common good.

I would say it usually happens the other way, where good users are given the opportunity to earn from their habits. Any user who is attracted purely by the desire to earn will find it difficult to rank up

[NeuroticFish]

if you tend to visit these exchanges/mixers/casinos/<everything else> that are advertised and if yes, if you go further than that.

I think that what you are asking is somewhat misleading / not well asked.

I am here on this forum for some years now and at some point my signature even had my referral link in it. Back then I was disappointed, since my referral got only one click, I think. And I was thinking "why signature campaigns then?"
Later on, I've studied my own behavior. I do go now and then to advertised websites, especially if it's in my area of interest. But most of the time I went there directly, not by clicking on the signature.
So I'd conclude that most the businesses earn is awareness and the "leads" from signatures could be a very poor unit of measure.

I'd also add that imho if a signature is here for years, people know that the business is stable and reliable, hence there's bigger chance to choose them instead an unknown competitor.

[rhomelmabini]

To be honest, I mostly do this especially if it's new to me and there are some description written on the signature being advertised by the user whether it's just plain text or those fancy and colorful BBCodes. We don't know how long this will last in this industry or who might be the last one standing but I'm just thankful at least for some reason we earn but aside from that there are learning as well that we get here especially reading some insights of other users.

Facts are those who last here for long are those gambling kind of signatures and I guess mixers do tend to be on the second then exchanges.

[tranthidung]

Despite of shit- and spam-posts from bounty hunters that have bad contributions on the general quality of the forum's community posts. I see some good things from signatures (skip annoying factors here).

• It shows you a trend in crypto market. The companies run their advertisement on the forum via signatures which have key words on what their projects are all about
• If you leave the crypto market, the forum for a while (months ?) and come back one day, you can scan around the forum and look at what are commonly advertised via signatures. You can find out quickly the trend: ICOs, IEOs, DeFi, gambling, mixers/ tumblers.
• It takes time for you to experience and notice it.
• You definitely don't need the free signal if you are always actively in the market and on the forum

[Lucius]

Users and unregistered visitors of this forum definitely click on the signatures, because if it were not so, would anyone use such a service? I initially had my own signature with a ref link that collected several hundred referrals, and after that I repeated the same thing in a paid signature campaign that allowed a ref link in the signature.

While I don’t want to go in the direction of discussing whether campaign signatures are good or bad in some sense and what would happen if the forum didn’t have them - I think in the end everyone benefits from this way of advertising. Of course, there will always be those who will abuse such things and play unfair games - but that is another story.

[UserU]

Ironically I don't click on signatures since I've disabled them shortly after joining although I have one on my profile currently

Facts are those who last here for long are those gambling kind of signatures and I guess mixers do tend to be on the second then exchanges.

Yup, those gambling sites thrive quite well. Although I've seen some that quitted shortly after like several weeks because their socmed platform has better ROI.

[Renampun]

*I never click the signature...
if so, is the signature useful? of course useful. what I found was that the signature was not to be clicked on, but was proof that the developer had a stable capital and signature is prestige for a campaign.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

In other words, this forum converts the greed of some (if not all) campaign participants to common good. The newbies that need your help, get it, you get paid from the campaign manager and he/she gets paid from the person that runs the business that you're wearing.

That's an interesting way of looking at things around here, but I'd argue that some of the most helpful members I've seen on the forum aren't in signature campaigns (though certainly a lot of them are).  Vod and Philipma1957 come to mind immediately, and I don't think the latter is in a campaign. 

But I wouldn't call participating in a signature campaign as being greedy necessarily.  A lot of members would be posting here no matter what, and it just makes sense to make a few satoshis in the process.

I don't personally click on signatures.  I have them on ignore, just like avatars, because I hate looking at them over and over--but obviously a lot of people do click on them.  If they didn't, there would be no reason to run sig campaigns at all (though I haven't seen any data as to how effective they are at generating business for the campaign owner).

[RickDeckard]

I think this is an interesting topic that can for sure create discussion regarding the main reasons that make people join the forum. From my point of view I consider that there are at least 2 types of users that decide to click the "register" button on here:

• The "narrow" field of vision ones /generate passive income "easily" spirit - Users that heard/discovered about the campaign publicity that runs in here but didn't decided to explore what it means/implies to wear a signature for such campaigns. They rush into making random threads about something that happened in the world with generic themes or spam post comments that sometimes may not match with the issue that is been discussing in thread just to see the post counter go up. They fail to see that in order to reach the requirements to integrate the campaigns they have X requirements, the main ones tied to account progression. From their point of view the amount of effort that it takes isn't worth and they quickly loose interest and end up never logging in again (they were looking for a source of income that was easy to establish).
• The ones that actually want to take in the discussion/development of BTC as a currency - The "type" basically describes the purpose. These are the type of users that do try their best to give their voice whenever they see fit, try to contribute/establish relations with members here and even try to come up with original ideas that haven't been discussed before. From within this class of user may originate two sub-classes : The ones that decide to combine their positive thinking/activity with campaign services (which is valid by itself) and the ones that decide to follow the same path that they were making without "vouching" for such service.
  Each has their own reasons ,and each of them is valid, so long as the goal of both is the same : contribute positively to the growth of the forum (I tend to overuse the word "organic" but I think it represents the way that our growth should be).

Regarding the campaigns themselves, while I don't believe we will never get any kind of numbers from the managers/whoever is running the service (from a business perspective it wouldn't be wise to share) I do believe that this forum being the "belly button" of BTC, they end up getting a lot of attention/leads.

If not, the simple fact that you see (as long as you have signatures enabled) so many times the same services advertised ( ChipMixer comes to mind) also reinforce the trust rating that these kind of services have from our members here. I guess it's a win-win scenario for both parties as it promotes organic (no no I shall not say it again!) positive growth and leads to the services themselves.

I don't personally click on signatures.  I have them on ignore, just like avatars, because I hate looking at them over and over--but obviously a lot of people do click on them.  If they didn't, there would be no reason to run sig campaigns at all (though I haven't seen any data as to how effective they are at generating business for the campaign owner).

If you have avatars on the ignore list, how will you find out if there's another cycling club being established?   There should only be one fox to rule them all!

On a more serious note, thank you for reminding me that signatures/avatars can be turned off. Will definitely consider this as an option going forward.[/list][/list]

[hilariousetc]

I don't personally click on signatures.  I have them on ignore, just like avatars, because I hate looking at them over and over--but obviously a lot of people do click on them.  If they didn't, there would be no reason to run sig campaigns at all (though I haven't seen any data as to how effective they are at generating business for the campaign owner).

Advertising obviously works, but to what extent I'm sceptical. How often do you go and check out or buy something you've seen advertised on a billboard on the street/road or on a passing bus or something? Most of them just blend into the monotony of life unless it's something either truly eye catching or relevant to your interests, though maybe the advertising works more subliminally than we think. It's the same with youtube. I skip probably 99% of ads on there but every now and again there's something that catches my eye and I'll watch the full ad and/or click the link to check out the product further, but if I do I rarely ever purchase something. Same goes for the things advertised here. 99% of the time I'm not interested, though I have become aware of several products/coins/services through them that I might not have know about otherwise. One of the first things I noticed upon joining this forum was the PrimeDice sigs everywhere and for the first month I didn't even realise people were getting paid to post by them, but it was something I definitely checked out and even used at one point. Who knows if I would have known or checked out PD or things like Chipmixer without them, but whether they're worth paying out as much as they do is debatable, but it's obviously something many companies are prepared to do. Companies like PrimeDice did stop their campaign for quite some time but at one point they were pretty much paying anyone and everyone who joined, but I think Stake is still going in some limited capacity.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Most of them just blend into the monotony of life unless it's something either truly eye catching or relevant to your interests, though maybe the advertising works more subliminally than we think.

I believe that the purpose of an advertisement may not be making you click it. I don't know about youtube, since I have adblocker and I nearly watch some of them from my smart tv, but once advertisements take place on bitcointalk, the thing changes. I'll talk about ChipMixer, which is the best example.

There are thousands of pages containing posts from ChipMixer participants. Tens of thousands of posts above the ChipMixer ad. Whether you'll click it or not, you know what mixer you'll use if you ever need one. And that's because it is advertised by the most trusted and helpful users of the forum. Every user that will make an account on bitcointalk will find out about ChipMixer sooner or later. Even if you won't click it, as long as you're discussing, you'll continuously read the ChipMixer logo until it's officially "stuck" in your head.

ChipMixer is everywhere, which means that it has achieved the main purpose of an advertisement.

[OgNasty]

The only time I've ever clicked someone's signature is when it's advertising a project they're working on and I wanted more information.  I have never clicked a 3rd party advertisement, nor would I.  I tend to think if an advertiser has the money to spend on signature ads, they must be making a whole lot of money off the people they're advertising to, and I'd rather not fall into that category.

[actmyname]

I believe that the purpose of an advertisement may not be making you click it.

It's all about creating association and prevalence. Of course you don't expect the advertisement to work with immediate effect: marketers are not hypnotists... though, perhaps over the long-term, you could make that sort of analogy.

Consider, also, the demographic that you are appealing to: users that actively post or read a forum that is dedicated for Bitcoin discussion (+ alts) are likely to be active participants in blockchain use as opposed to other spaces like price consolidation/portfolio websites. It's also a broad enough platform to host a variety of sites. The gambling and mixer sites function well due to whales that can cover the majority of the profits gained from the campaign, whereas places that can't handle high volume may need to rely on much greater mass appeal to gain a return.

Perhaps that's why those are the main ones you see: it's the structure of the advertising platform and ecosystem that create the ideal competitor. You could call this analogous to the concept of dominant archetypes in biological ecosystems.

I tend to think if an advertiser has the money to spend on signature ads, they must be making a whole lot of money off the people they're advertising to, and I'd rather not fall into that category.

I don't personally have qualms with the gambling industry but surely it should be difficult to say that it's not just a case of, "the rich get richer"? Casinos are capitalism maximized: create an addiction for your consumers so that their capital shifts towards the greater sum - yours. You can argue this or that about entertainment but the pedantry required is quite an abominable mess. At the end of the day, your pay comes from someone else's deposit.

[Little Mouse]

Do you purchase every time you see an ads on the television or billboard? Not at all but when you want to buy certain product, that ads play little role if you have watched that ads closely.
And in the same way, signature campaign works here too. When we see the ads, for example when I first time saw the chipmixer ads, I had no idea then. I checked what it is and later on once I had to use mixer and the first name came to my mind was Chipmixer. That's how it works.
If any campaign is here to get click and evaluate the campaign output with clicks, they will never have the best result.

[The Cryptovator]

Sometimes I click on signature links if I become curious about a platform. But do you believe the platform owners advertising the forum just for clicks? I don't believe it. It's called branding. Here all users are somehow related to cryptocurrency. So all crypto-related platforms want branding their platform among real crypto users. Advertising via a signature campaign doesn't mean the user will be registered via that link. But if they often see that advertise most likely user would join throw a direct website link or from friends/family referral links. That's how I believe projects have been generating revenue and advertising their platforms continuously.

As a campaign manager, I have worked for multiple platforms. In the beginning, I told them I driving lots of traffic from the forum is quite impossible. Slowly propels will notice your platform then they would join via your links or from the direct website, I can't guaranty any click from the forum. If you expecting too many clicks then please move into the PTC site, so that you will get lots of clicks from there. Finally, a different project runs their project with different duration. So, I believe the platforms are getting benefits from the campaign, otherwise all long time campaign wouldn't run here.

[Vod]

This forum is active mostly from signature campaign participants that want to earn their weekly payment, including me of course. These users have an additional incentive from making high quality posts and thus, they do.

Where is this incentive to make high quality posts?   There is none.

I'd say 90% of signature campaigns do not post high quality.  I've tried too many times to start intelligent conversations and within a day it's filled with non-connected random posts.  But I understand if you can make $200 for copy/pasting a link, why not?   (And I hope you are not hinting that because I don't have a signature, my content is poor lol)

[ImHash]

Well, if I need a service and if I find a good and legitimate service provider, why not? when you actually need a service related to crypto, this is the place to come and search for what you need. I have used a few services advertised in signatures, so yes, signatures are good if they provide a good and useful service, they are bad if they are advertising scam coins and shit coins.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

If we exclude the businessman, everyone is happy. Participants and campaign managers get paid and

The direct answer to your questions is yes. On several occasions I have picked interest in some certain casino and project as a result of them been advertise on the forum. Assuming I didn't encountered them on the forum, they probably won't have recieve my patronage. The observation from my view as a campaign managers is poor short term that's mostly because most project wants an immediate impact since they're spending money for the advertising but that shouldn't be the case. For a project to receive patronage from the forum they have to earn it and this comes with reputation that's earn over time.

I think majority of the users here careless about what's been advertise. They're only interested in getting paid for been active on the forum, engaging in conversation. This can been easily observed in the bounty section but that of the bitcoin paying signature is quite decent as more effort are put into the contributions.