Additional ideas to tackle spam on BTT

[lovesmayfamilis]

Maybe it's because both the administrator and the forum moderators have a different view of what a forum is. So they don't see spam and more spam in posts that aren't the pages of a doctoral dissertation, but rather a place where people talk about things just as ordinary people might talk in a plaza or a bar.

That's right, these kinds of discussions, which would seem to look like a company sitting at the same table, are always fascinating and interesting. We need to admit that we have already heard a lot of repetitive "important" information (which users feel compelled to post) many times, and reading dry, scientific formulations is not only boring, but it also makes us sleepy.. Therefore, you are right: dissertations are not interesting, but people's approach to expressing their opinions is interesting. Some users can be recognized without even reading their nicknames. That's how I've always imagined live communication on the forum, even if it's not always friendly, since we're all people with our own characters and emotions. But sitting for hours deciding to publish a post that should be paid for will come across as insincere, even considering that we are always responsible for our words.

[Rikafip]

Maybe it's because both the administrator and the forum moderators have a different view of what a forum is. So they don't see spam and more spam in posts that aren't the pages of a doctoral dissertation, but rather a place where people talk about things just as ordinary people might talk in a plaza or a bar.

That's the thing, a lot of people here don't talk like they do in a plaza or a bar. Or on any other (non) paying forum.

You will seldom see any of those sig banned members writing 1 short sentence post or generally variety in post length, but instead you will most likely see generic 4-5 lines posts over and over and over again, trying to hide meaningless in character count. You peg me as someone (like me) who had a lot of experience on other forums before coming here, and I'm sure you will agree that this isn't how people post elsewhere.

In the end, if forum staff don't think that spam/low quality posts are a problem, why sig ban initiative in the first place?

No, I specifically mean posts like these that I found in 5 minutes:
If we reported these, the forum would be a better place - while still fully respecting the freedom of speech.

Its funny really. If you reported those kind of posts, they won't be deleted (I know because I tried, and even worse than those you shared). But if someone's post history consists mainly of those kind of posts, he will get 1 year sig ban as an attempt to make him wrote fewer of those kind of posts.

edit: I also wonder how many managers would refuse to pay for those 2 posts.

[libert19]

Just like igebotz, I wouldn't also say paid pools are spam-free, because spam could somehow be relative. Someone who do no thoroughly understand what is discussed would mistake many posts to be spam. But paid pools are the most decent threads in the gambling board.

I say, all paid pools should be self-mod, I am sure op would know what's spam and what's not; outsiders view is irrelevant.

The problem with self-moderation is that it's not always well-regarded by most people.

Yes, it will help keep spammers away, but it may also drive away those who think that self-moderation is a way of stifling opinion or criticism.

This doesn't mean that everyone who uses self-moderation has this objective; what I'm saying is that it's often perceived that way.

Well, all responses are archived on loyce.club and on bitlist, so not really, is it? One who feels he has been wronged can always tag with ref to archived link, so user can refer to tag and understand what's up and judge the op.

But I think if we look closely at a very specific sector, which is paid pools, that sector is perhaps the one that, by nature, suffers the least from spam. Does it get lost among all the other topics? I don't think so, because if a pool is active, it will always be on the list of the first topics.

It's true that there are a good number of pool topics, but I also don't think they deserve a child board. Unless the idea is to stop having mega-topics pools.

Pool topics are niche topics, therefore it's easy for 'em to get lost due to other newly created topics and bumps (which are far too many). Is it right for one of better threads in board (as in main board — Gambling board) to get lost in myriad of garbage?

^ Solution, divorce from the garbage.

[MarryWithBTC]

On the other hand, we should all be more proactive in reporting posts that are spam. Whether the moderator then does something about it or not is another matter.

Perhaps the biggest culprits behind so much spam are ourselves, as users of this platform. Not because we do it, but because we don't report it. We've become so accustomed to seeing posts without value that we unconsciously end up ignoring them instead of clicking the "report" button.

This is the first hand solution designed to curb spamming imo. The second solution is likely the merit system.

I think post deletion can work well in reducing spam if taken seriously, this is because I have seen some people rant in the meta board with full blown anger because their posts were deleted. So, if post deletion could be so painful, a spammer will be forced to improve when almost all their posts are deleted.

Because think about it: if those users who post 95% spam see their posts deleted, all their work will have been in vain. If posts are deleted, they don't count towards the campaign, so they don't get paid for them.

I'm speaking against myself here, I need to improve, but I think we should all report posts we consider spam or of low value more often.

I suggest two things here;
1. There should be an incentive for making an x number of good reports. It could be award of merits or smerits. It could be rewarding the person with 14 days of moderation power etc
2. There should be increased moderation, by introducing assistant/jnr moderators whose duty will just be to delete reported spam

[Rikafip]

1. There should be an incentive for making an x number of good reports. It could be award of merits or smerits. It could be rewarding the person with 14 days of moderation power etc

Rest assured, this would be abused. People would use alt accounts to spam and then use their main accounts to report the spam and gain whatever incentive there is. Even if it's something trivial.

After all, lack of reports is not the problem, but mods imo being too lenient which makes members reluctant to bother with it.

[Supreme Donvic]

Signature campaign contributes but it's not the absolute cause of spam in the forum. Spamming to be is like a behavior that cannot be changed easily. A spammer might not even know that he's a spammer and a good poster in some certain conditions could spam.

but I think we should all report posts we consider spam or of low value more often.

I believe people in this forum are already doing that constantly, the issue is that some post you will report to mod won't be deleted, maybe because they feel those posts are not spam, I believe mods in this forum wants people to actually post freely or maybe what some of us see as spam is not a spam to them.
I'm not saying the mods are not trying, but if we most have an effective report and delete case in this forum, we need to agree on standard of posts that are spam or not and then stand by it. It will be a consensus.


~Supreme

[MarryWithBTC]

1. There should be an incentive for making an x number of good reports. It could be award of merits or smerits. It could be rewarding the person with 14 days of moderation power etc

Rest assured, this would be abused. People would use alt accounts to spam and then use their main accounts to report the spam and gain whatever incentive there is. Even if it's something trivial.

I didn't think it this way.

I agree with you that it will be abused, almost everything is just abusable in the forum.

After all, lack of reports is not the problem, but mods imo being too lenient which makes members reluctant to bother with it.

I believe mods are reading, they will have to step up unless the process of deleting posts is rigorous

[libert19]

1. There should be an incentive for making an x number of good reports. It could be award of merits or smerits. It could be rewarding the person with 14 days of moderation power etc

Rest assured, this would be abused. People would use alt accounts to spam and then use their main accounts to report the spam and gain whatever incentive there is. Even if it's something trivial.

Precisely. Every new mechanism added will come with their own weaknesses that will surely be exploited. It's far more important to see through the mechanics intricacies and how they can be abused than quickly implement 'em seeing at the benefits.

I don't think any mechanism can be completely abuse free, but make those chances as less as possible.

[joker_josue]

Signature campaign contributes but it's not the absolute cause of spam in the forum. Spamming to be is like a behavior that cannot be changed easily. A spammer might not even know that he's a spammer and a good poster in some certain conditions could spam.

but I think we should all report posts we consider spam or of low value more often.

I believe people in this forum are already doing that constantly, the issue is that some post you will report to mod won't be deleted, maybe because they feel those posts are not spam, I believe mods in this forum wants people to actually post freely or maybe what some of us see as spam is not a spam to them.
I'm not saying the mods are not trying, but if we most have an effective report and delete case in this forum, we need to agree on standard of posts that are spam or not and then stand by it. It will be a consensus.


~Supreme

In a way, that's the point.

It reminds me of when I studied fine arts. We had a motto that served as a question: "Art is whatever the artist says it is. Now, what is an artist?"

In that case, the question remains: what constitutes spam here on the forum?
I think we can all point to different things that we consider to be spam. Therefore, it will be necessary to create a basic standard to help this entire process. But I recognize that achieving this kind of standard, even a basic one, is difficult to attain.

[Ultegra134]

I believe people in this forum are already doing that constantly, the issue is that some post you will report to mod won't be deleted, maybe because they feel those posts are not spam, I believe mods in this forum wants people to actually post freely or maybe what some of us see as spam is not a spam to them.
I'm not saying the mods are not trying, but if we most have an effective report and delete case in this forum, we need to agree on standard of posts that are spam or not and then stand by it. It will be a consensus.

~Supreme

I've personally reported hundreds of posts, with quite a few of them being in the gambling board, in which I was also quite active but not anymore, and one reason being the amount of spam there is (along with me not being as active in the forum in general). The main issue is that there are signature campaigns that are practically promoting spamming in such sections; see minimum requirement of 10 posts, or/and petty bonuses for posting in the gambling board. Especially the latter, there's a certain group of people who're actively abusing it, creating as many posts they can for the bonus; if that's 20 posts, 20, 30, 30, doesn't matter the amount, they'll do it, even if it is 60 posts.