Shitposting for real: a look into bitcointalk's past.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

Fat Tay Choon went to the Mining Academy in Brazil, east of Satoshi's yurt, where Gavin was kidnapped by the CIA's goons and forced to pretend fucking an anonymous decentralized biscuit—better than all the fish in the Pacific Ocean—but also to defray leeches intelligently with ECDSA fighting qubits for 16.8 dree12, or Phinnaeus must fling toilets towards psy‐ops, without potato smoothies mixed with fried chicken wings from BitMunchies.com, urbanchickennj.com, and Popeye's Bitcoin wallet, which deleted Satoshi's premine ability to cheer very victoriously, none like Butterfly Labs better enabled, but also Pirate crashing AIR applications without the express use of interest-free scams, conspiring with fraudulent sockpuppets and PPTs and..., you troll-herding piece of Shiitake mushroom, go lick Goat's horns until Theymos admits to having a quite erotic fetish involving honey badgers wearing thongs composed of soggy burlap waffles dangling from cosmic linoleum-based iphones running quantum chips explodes spewing deadly acid! b!z screamed out "Light is bright like...like... stars." When Markjamrobin opens the isolated window, he sees three pigs together in bed. Kouye and myself laugh when chinese food falls the impact kills Obama Bin ladin whoever thinks he may be terrorist, is correct but hates the bitcoin logo. Earth has snakes. Currently, the other species have decimated to tiny groups called "marko solo" whatever time it all comes and ends? However, Bitcoin's acidity level dipped causing catastrophic double-spends!

Meanwhile, AntiOps was confused by the awkward change to his penis melting uncontrollably. Vanilla Ice perfume spritzed onto cheese and greasy slime covered with babies boiled in a smelly old heatsink. But it tasted like shit therefore it poisoned his blood although he did survive. Reproductive organisms attacked the internal testicle which caused terrible congestion somehow. Evolution then terminated the smelly old business thank the inability of AntiOps to lock Satoshi's thread. In a transactional forum there was a debate about hacking unprotected accounts, however the debate shortly ended.

Phinnaeus Gage, king pluto, duke of the people. Returned one of his loans that he fraudulently claimed without declaring intentionally. Although this was bullshit. Earth was hit by a meteor which cause catastrophic events which cause people to cause mass destruction by proxy voting it was documented recently on the news that oranges are disguised anti-gravity pockets which have giant bears attacked Zeus because bitcoin accidentally crashed to Mars which created spaceships and aliens who pretended being humans wearing hats on their toes.

Altcoin suck on apples and oranges too. Megacoin is the most shit sucker of apples and  melons ever. Most people love to troll others. Evolution is a slow process which created forks. It is beneficial to wash your feet because it distributes bacteria and oil, notwithstanding the beneficial attributes which are how chocolate arouses some of the miners brains. Today was an abysmal event which caused many abnormal but not smart bitcoiners because many of them are cute animals who were insane because of excessive oreo consumption. One watermelon is not love how people try me explotation Maybe Heisenberg Breaking bad control guy director or masturbation my time vampire drinks urine not lemon tek and water supernatural.

LEALANA is fat looking because pizza is sour with pickles which are sexy and never rot. So many people eat pizza it's unbelievable. The news said that pizza is bought mainly with anchovies which results in big wet weather which had massive gusts of wind with pouring milk down on everyones throat because it feels great! Although honey is very sweet taste it makes when it is served hot it melts softly but slowly.
The universe is populated with many planets which were destroyed by Taras. Cyborgs then warped to the zoo and ate mushroom with a aerospace technician. Bitcoin has used a lot resources from peoples although people smell like melons.

Ipods suck. Androids rule. Altcoins also suck peanuts. Bitcoin is the greatest idea that has ever been created by man although litecoin sucks? Once upon a time Gandalf went to wal-mart to dry her hair. Minecraft is the best game in universe because chickens cluck. 231134421 is one crazy big ass monkey. What is with people posting replies still. Terraria is a crazy game which requires extreme concentration. This can result in health cubes; Parentheses are a pain in the brain. This noodle is disgusting. Although spaceships cry waterfalls they are magical little elves. Golden towns is very annoying and smell like bacon. Celebrities are awesome and smart. But, evolution taught us that butterflys are ugly.

Vitamin D is important to scam Taras and raise taxes which would cause the world to go crazy but not insane. Obama is the president now. Alot of gamers will illustrate sony that nintendo is leading the infiltration of Iran. Microsoft Windows was salivating pedophiles of the coastal farts. Yet the banana shrank. What was doge poo doing under the bridge with bridge cleaner?

He was just he's aren't because something something different like seems incorrect, because we fucked. Yet prunes prunes are very bad lad's yet unknown to fuckers SWEARING. Banana monkey is not virgin-horse. Corn.

This disappoints satan more than satoshi because he ate hydrochloric pools and he fucked whores who are sick shemales shemales shemales BANGCOCK! God smited non-believers with dicks on a stick. They shat together sitting upside-down flicking birdies. Baezl'bub slept with Hitler inside a bomb ticking furiously and hodling. That was awesome. Bitmit made belt so that walruses can shit on his dick and eat mushroom full of wonderful shit, he HODL'd BTCs and

Sometimes we complain about shitposting but we tend not to remember what it was like in the past, before the introduction of the merit system, and some didn't even live through it.

When we see posts from very early in the Satoshi era we see very technical posts that hark back to the golden age of bitcointalk. A few years later, when it became possible to make money with signature campaigns, if I am not mistaken in 2013, started a growing interest in having bitcointalk accounts, and especially high-end accounts that would pay the most. It was a time when you ranked up only through activity, which consisted of having been registered on the forum for a certain period of time and having written something in that period. So, it began a growing shitposting activity to achieve the goal.

I myself the first post I wrote was in a similar thread in the local board in 2017. These were threads where you simply had to add a word to the rubbish that had previously been written. It's not that all the threads were like that, but you could see things that you can't see today. Imagine high-rank accounts with no much knowledge of English, in a time when automatic translators were barely used and nowhere near as good as they are today, and when campaigns didn't pay for a single post written on local boards, spamming all over the forum to meet the post quota. That produced a massive reporting backlash as well but there was more shitposting than the moderators could handle, and in the end the solution devised by theymos was the introduction of the merit system. Although it can be argued that it was not perfect, it did solve the problem greatly.

I stumbled upon the thread I quoted (a quote from page 40 of the 120 pages of the thread) when I was looking through the post history of a fellow local board member who has returned to the forum, and it brought back memories that I wanted to share with you and invite you to add anything you wish.

[Odusko]

Although I was not in the forum during the era of no merits requirements to rank up through the various ranks on this forum, the fact that the merits system has helped blend us through the various times since ranking up with the current forum merits system requires a lot of efforts, that will force out the best in any member who is actively involved with daily activities and contributing to discussions, ranking up right now is a product intense dedication and commitment to keep changing for the better, although we can't say that the introduction of the merits system has eliminated the chances to Spam, then it helps reduce the spam level to it bearest minimum which makes the forum cleaner for visitors and members to gain the right information needed on any discussion unlike in the past when most pages could have been covered with low quality and Spam replies.

[stadus]

I can relate as I was also part of the era when ranking up was super easy. You just had to wait for your activity to increase, and you’d rank up automatically as long as you are active. I’ve been around since before the merit system was introduced, and I have to say, the implementation of the merit system has been a huge help to fight spams. It’s really helped the forum become a better space now, and although there’s still some spam, but it’s way less now, and the mods don’t have to carry as much of the burden.

It’s what we call progress, you know,  as the forum matures, so do its users, which is a great sign. Who knows? Maybe more rules will come in the future to make things even better. It’s a welcome change for everyone here. And we owe it all to a supportive community that genuinely wants to see this forum lead the way in the crypto space.

[Sandra_hakeem]

Man, ain't gonna lie, I was so confused at first; I read almost half of the crap and it felt for a second like my cerebral cortex disappeared and my head became like a void. What in the DUCK was that crap thread?

Okay, I seen a couple of comments from Bruno and other respected members of the forum so maybe the motive was clear and simply for fun, just as the thread title says? IDK, just thinking.
TSC would often say he misses the old times when the spam weren't this intensed. Why does it look to me like we're in an era where the strictness/aftereffect of being a dickhead has reduced greatly, thereby giving enough room for them copied, spun, and overemphasized gibberish? Quick one; go to the gambling discussion board and search for how many times a topic about the "CASH OUT" has been made.
Someone would say -- well, yunno it's a typical behavior that has been going on in the gambling section. Are you serious? Go check on Jolly's thread..... Seen any difference?

[nutildah]

Kind of a funny idea for a thread. Not sure it would make the bar now by current moderation standards.

At first I thought it was more mental illness than classic shitposting, but then I opened the thread and it all made sense.

Its a more clever way to shitpost in Off-Topic than those "What music are you listening to right now" type threads.

[DYING_S0UL]

Man, what a load of crap! Can't even read it nor understand anything, totally went over my head. Up until now, what I thought to be shitposts are nothing compared to what you just showed us. Now I feel like i'll have learn English a second time. Anyway, some of the sentences are actually quite funny though! Don't you think? I'm literally laughing like crazy, made my day, lol.  

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

I stumbled upon the thread I quoted (a quote from page 40 of the 120 pages of the thread) when I was looking through the post history of a fellow local board member who has returned to the forum, and it brought back memories that I wanted to share with you and invite you to add anything you wish.

Not fun to read. Unfortunately reporting the old post does not help too. Let them be a part of the history.

[Ambatman]

This is both Group spamming and shitposting. Or a game gone wrong.
I doubt shitposting is something that would ever end because most times some are quite subjective.
But atleast the merit system and reporting to moderator sector has really helped fighting against this.
Not excluding the works of shitposters reporters and spam Busters.

[Majestic-milf]

 It's funny how threads like that in the op were in even considered enough to make one rank up. If you aren't careful, you'd think the thread was a story about an eulogy to shit coins. And we're are here complaining about shit posters now when all the combined can't beat this guy's work.. SMH 

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Wow....that one there goes above and beyond a typical shitpost.  It was written in 2014, but had it been posted in the last year I'd have to say it was AI-generated.  Since it wasn't, it looks to be written by someone who has some serious mental problems.

Nobody ever got paid to post in Off-Topic as far as I know, or at least the vast majority of campaigns never paid for posts in that section.  Unless that thread got moved, I can't imagine Kiki112 took the time to write that Great Wall of Blibber-blabber in order to get paid.  Maybe I'm wrong.

But to those members who weren't here prior to the merit system being implemented, let me tell you:  reading through the average thread was much, much more tedious than it is today.  There were obvious alt accounts and account farmers pretending to have conversations with each other and so much other nonsense that just being here was an exercise in frustration.  If any of you are interested in some sweet forum history, just go back to the Meta section circa January 18, 2018 (I think that's the exact date).  That's the day the forum exploded into chaos, with all the shitposters' dreams of easy money crumbling before their greedy eyes, and it was good and satisfying to the rest of us who aren't here to cock things up.

The whining and merit begging didn't stop for at least a few months, and it was annoying at the time, but eventually a lot of the living forum trash got buried in the landfill--finally.  The merit system that's in place was absolutely necessary, and that's why Theymos dropped it on bitcointalk like a nuclear bomb.  You would have had to have been here prior to Jan. 2018 to know exactly why, but take me at my word on this one.

[Sandra_hakeem]

The whining and merit begging didn't stop for at least a few months, and it was annoying at the time, but eventually a lot of the living forum trash got buried in the landfill--finally.  The merit system that's in place was absolutely necessary, and that's why Theymos dropped it on bitcointalk like a nuclear bomb.  You would have had to have been here prior to Jan. 2018 to know exactly why, but take me at my word on this one.

I thought wrong.
I guess no matter how much I try, I'll never know just how tasty those bulls were. Would've also loved to have been bred from the old times, the thrill of the early adopters; the last days of Lauda, Phinnaeus Gage, TECSHARE, GP and ofcourse the realest cunt, TMAN... Lots of them from the list laying beneath our feet, life sucks! But then, I'm always happy with everything in me when I stumble on a big name that left in my era, Leo.

Maybe someday in the future, it'll get better - atleast the people won't have to dig up too many crap post to find them legacies!

[lovesmayfamilis]

I always regretted not joining the forum earlier. But after reading a bit of the post you suggested and scrolling through the entire thread, I suddenly stopped regretting not joining the forum earlier . If I had stumbled upon this pile of crap then, I would have left the forum as soon as possible, possibly leaving a very bad impression of the forum. However, what luck that I joined later, when the forum had already begun to be cleansed of the delirium of such crazy writers, and a serious fight against such streams of thoughts had begun.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

Hello to all,

First I wanted to bring a quote from our local forum user who participated in the above-mentioned thread (translated by me):

Haha, I used to laugh a lot with those threads because of the amount of nonsense we used to write, they were fun. Yeah, those threads were just for users to rank up easily, and also for laughs. I just revisited those threads and I see some users ‘older’ than me.... What a time.

Okay, I seen a couple of comments from Bruno and other respected members of the forum so maybe the motive was clear and simply for fun, just as the thread title says? IDK, just thinking.

Yes, fun and ranking up

Quick one; go to the gambling discussion board and search for how many times a topic about the "CASH OUT" has been made.

I am aware of that but imagine how bad it was back then.

Not sure it would make the bar now by current moderation standards.

I am pretty sure it would be trashed nowadays without letting the first paragraph finish.

Not fun to read. Unfortunately reporting the old post does not help too. Let them be a part of the history.

The thread is locked, so I see no point in reporting it now. I guess they locked it to keep it as part of history, as you say.

Nobody ever got paid to post in Off-Topic as far as I know, or at least the vast majority of campaigns never paid for posts in that section. 

I don't think they paid for off topic writing but people used them to rank up and for fun, as the text I quoted today at the beginning of this post says.

If I had stumbled upon this pile of crap then, I would have left the forum as soon as possible, possibly leaving a very bad impression of the forum.

Well, I have taken an example of a total rubbish nonsense rubbish thread, but as I say, not all threads were like that, although the general quality was much worse.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Nobody ever got paid to post in Off-Topic as far as I know, or at least the vast majority of campaigns never paid for posts in that section.  

I don't think they paid for off topic writing but people used them to rank up and for fun, as the text I quoted today at the beginning of this post says.

Ah yes, you are correct and my bad for not reading your post more closely.  I swear this forum has affected my ability to read entire paragraphs thoroughly like I used to do--I'm red-handedly guilty of skimming text.  It's a bad habit, but a hard one to break.

But still, if that dude was just writing nonsensical posts in order to rank up, he could have just dropped a few sentences instead of that wild and rambling tossed-thought-salad, you know?  That's what so many others did, especially the account farmers who couldn't spare an extra 30 seconds to actually make an interesting post, much less one of substance that actually contributed to whatever discussion was being had.

I always regretted not joining the forum earlier. But after reading a bit of the post you suggested and scrolling through the entire thread, I suddenly stopped regretting not joining the forum earlier .

Hey, at least you ranked up to Legendary pretty fast.  I don't know what the numbers are, but I'm guessing the majority of members who joined bitcointalk after the merit system started still haven't gotten there.  Nor should they; that's the beauty of a meritocracy.

[worldofcoins]

Sometimes we complain about shitposting but we tend not to remember what it was like in the past, before the introduction of the merit system, and some didn't even live through it.

When we see posts from very early in the Satoshi era we see very technical posts that hark back to the golden age of bitcointalk. A few years later, when it became possible to make money with signature campaigns, if I am not mistaken in 2013, started a growing interest in having bitcointalk accounts, and especially high-end accounts that would pay the most. It was a time when you ranked up only through activity, which consisted of having been registered on the forum for a certain period of time and having written something in that period. So, it began a growing shitposting activity to achieve the goal.

It did clarify that people using those accounts use it to get into campaigns as a primary source; there's nothing wrong with it.
Most people saw signature campaigns as an opportunity to make extra money writing and managing.
However, the problem arose when account sales skyrocketed, and people started creating multiple accounts and raising the activities of those accounts; the level of spam at that time was insane. The merit system did help with it, to be honest.

Still, it also limited newbies from ranking up - Newbies who don't know much about Bitcoin, crypto as a whole, unless they gather enough knowledge to write something, meaning they won't get merits to rank.

Ranking up should be a gradual incentive, not to spam your way through it. Even post-merit people are using AI to generate content, so it's easy to rank up; these people will keep getting caught for their generated AI content unless AI evolves to a point where it's undetectable. I do believe we are very close to that point. At that point, there's a good chance you will see people ranking up and generating AI guides and articles. Or merit holders will stop meriting such posts/topics.

[KingsDen]

I clicked the link you quoted in op and I saw that everyone was just copying and pasting one nonsense long writeup. Was it as bad as that? No wonder I have read many times that some good users of the forum left the forum in those periods when spamming became so unbearable.

If merits were not in place then, how about banning users for plagerism. Because what I saw was not only spam but also plagerism. It's cool we are enjoying good forum now even if we are not at an ideal stage yet. We should all be proactive because this advent of Ai could be worse.

[Russlenat]

I clicked the link you quoted in op and I saw that everyone was just copying and pasting one nonsense long writeup. Was it as bad as that? No wonder I have read many times that some good users of the forum left the forum in those periods when spamming became so unbearable.

If merits were not in place then, how about banning users for plagerism. Because what I saw was not only spam but also plagerism. It's cool we are enjoying good forum now even if we are not at an ideal stage yet. We should all be proactive because this advent of Ai could be worse.

Plagiarism was really one of the the main issues back then, as many posters couldn’t write in English well or only understood it a little but had to post outside their local boards to meet the requirements of the campaigns they were part of. On top of that, some posters resorted to writing one-liner posts just to meet the quota, which was obviously spam. But that’s all in the past now, and thanks to the forum and the community’s efforts, those issues have been addressed.

I remember seeing DT members tagging users for spamming, which served as a wake-up call for many. Over time, I’ve noticed significant improvements in post quality, some of those users have really change and put and effort of their posting style. I’m not sure if there’s data comparing spam levels from the past to now, but it’s clear there’s been a big improvement. One factor is that bounty campaigns have fewer participants in signature campaigns these days, which is definitely a positive change.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

I’m not sure if there’s data comparing spam levels from the past to now, but it’s clear there’s been a big improvement.

A bit difficult to compare that, isn't it? The only way I can think of would be to compare the length of the posts, but a short post is not a synonym of bad quality either. Or I don't know if with AI today you could compare today's posts with those of 2017 for example in terms of correctness in the use of English.

[Russlenat]

I’m not sure if there’s data comparing spam levels from the past to now, but it’s clear there’s been a big improvement.

A bit difficult to compare that, isn't it? The only way I can think of would be to compare the length of the posts, but a short post is not a synonym of bad quality either. Or I don't know if with AI today you could compare today's posts with those of 2017 for example in terms of correctness in the use of English.

Most of the short posts back then, before AI, were spams. But now, there are also long posts that are spams, as some are generated by AI. If you don’t read the content thoroughly, you might not even notice it's spam. However, I actually prefer short posts because I believe they’re more suitable for the forum and easier to read. I’ve also noticed a few members in the forum who’ve been around for a while making short posts but still gaining a lot of merits, which clearly shows those posts are not spam.

[aioc]

Its a word game that started August 2012 and ended January of 2016

Game instructions are simple:

Type one word that fits nicely into the previous word(s) contiguously to make a sentence. Sentences can run on and on and on...no restrictions on words. feel free to use any word as long as it somewhat grammatically make sense.

Here is the first word:

FAT

It was 4 years in the making and accumulates 120 pages. Maybe because of the lack of topics back then, members back then resorted to games just to have something fun to do here in Bitcointalk. I didn't have an account back then, so I have no clearer picture of the forum back then, but I like the present setup now compared to the old forum setup.