Just remove signatures already. As in delete, disable, gone.

[deepceleron]

The forum is nearing the lowest point content-wise I have seen. Click on just about any thread and it is mindless replies and bumps from people with big signature ads pushing something. There is nothing here, no content, no dialog. It is certainly not the place for cryptographers and programmers and entrepreneurs to exchange information about Bitcoin. If you are lucky, you will find someone completely out of their depth asking a stupid question answered a hundred times, someone that then cannot understand the answer.

There is no reason or need for a signature. Limiting the BBcode to higher-activity members helped the look of the forum, but just creates a market for old accounts to do the spamming.

What is needed is to deincentivize this crap posting by completely removing the signature. End the signature campaigns and the pay for obnoxious scam sites. People are profiting from posting nonsense and making this forum useless, and this is seemingly the only way to make it stop.

Then we have the activity/post count chasers, which you can see from dozens of "why isn't my activity going up" posts. There's another number that can just be removed from posts. Take away that incentive to post junk also.

[TheButterZone]

http://we.lovebitco.in/how-bitcoin-works/
1DCeLERonUTsTERdpUNqxKTVMmnwU6reu5
"Certified Schmertified"

There can be legit sigs like yours and mine (where there's either public service stuff or personal projects), but no matter how much we beg for the sig ad spamming to be stopped, it never happens.

[tspacepilot]

I think I'm going to get ripped a new one for expressing this opinion but I actually think that the sig-ads have served a purpose---although I agree with you that there's be a lot of abuse as well.  Here are the purposes which I think sig ads have served:

1) Promotion of the bitcoin economy
  --- many new sites from related to bitcoin services have been advertized on here in the past year and a half and many of these services are reputable and doing good.  bitmixer.io might be a good example of this.  with less ads, people know less about hot new bitcoin businesses that they might want to check out.

2) Getting some bitcoins into the hands of semi-newbies
  --- even as late as 2.5 years ago you could get an mBTC or two from the main bitcoin faucet.  However, nowadays the faucets give out just dust.  You'd have to hit them hundreds of times to get a spendable amount into your wallet.  I know I wanted to get a small amount of btc into my wallet so that I could check out the software, the protocol, everything I was learning about in a hands-on way.  I think that nowadays, a sig-ad is a good way for someone to get a little btc so that they can see how things work.

[TheButterZone]

Make BTC from gambling sig ads, immediately lose BTC from gambling. Yeah, that's a great contribution to bitcoindom!

[tspacepilot]

Make BTC from gambling sig ads, immediately lose BTC from gambling. Yeah, that's a great contribution to bitcoindom!

Not all sig ads are about gambling.  I think you're deflecting rather than addressing my point.

[dogie]

And what about mine? I'm already at character cap and it doesn't even fit on smaller resolutions. Having no sig at all would hamper what you're also trying to advocate.

[Dare]

Signatures are useful for conveying useful information, not just advertising. Take mine, for example: half of it is an ad for a mining company (which I get paid for), and the other half is my bitcoin address and some links to useful information about the forum. It even degrades nicely on lower resolutions, by simply dropping the last line.

A lack of signatures would make it more difficult to distinguish between users and posts as well, as with avatars disabled they all look identical except for the username and signature.

[justusranvier]

The forum is nearing the lowest point content-wise I have seen. Click on just about any thread and it is mindless replies and bumps from people with big signature ads pushing something. There is nothing here, no content, no dialog. It is certainly not the place for cryptographers and programmers and entrepreneurs to exchange information about Bitcoin. If you are lucky, you will find someone completely out of their depth asking a stupid question answered a hundred times, someone that then cannot understand the answer.

I agree.

Signatures can be useful, but right now they are being used to destroy the SnR of the forum.

More would be gained by disabling them than would be lost.

[BurtW]

Just perm ban anyone with a paid signature, that would clean things up.

[Lauda]

Just perm ban anyone with a paid signature, that would clean things up.

This includes a few staff members too; they would have to be banned as well.
I don't think that the solution or problem lies in signatures.

[justusranvier]

Just perm ban anyone with a paid signature, that would clean things up.

Right now I just ignore them, leading to a rather large ignore list.

I wonder if Theymos would tell me if I have the longest ignore list?

[BurtW]

Just perm ban anyone with a paid signature, that would clean things up.

This includes a few staff members too; they would have to be banned as well.
I don't think that the solution or problem lies in signatures.

Sorry, of course they would get 5 days to delete it and one warning then perm ban.

[counter]

Many people who use the sig campaigns add a lot to the conversations here and many do not also.  If you come across someone who is not adding to the conversation why don't you just ignore them by clicking the ignore button?  I've ignored people by mistake and I wasn't aware they've been ignored until I realize I can't read their post..  A simple click would solve the problem of you having to read their posts.

Why should people who don't lessen the quality of the forum have to suffer because you don't ignore people?  Why don't you complain about the people making multiple accounts for scams or just spreading bull all day.  Also the people who don't bother to read anything before asking a question and cluttering up threads?  By the way sig campaigners answer those peoples questions quite often which is very helpful...

This forum is not just for Cryptographers and programmers and the fact that you don't understand that is very telling of your mindset.  It's also for people who want to learn more about cryptography and the only way for that to happen is to have a discussion with those that no more then them on the topic.  The campaigns have attracted many new people to the forum, I have no doubt, and I'm sure they've read many quality posts from people involved in a campaign.  I've gotten more positive replies on the forum then negative so I think you're drastically overstating the damage to the forum.

 It's sad you can't appreciate that a unique job was created for the forum users.   It sets an example for all to see how beneficial Bitcoin can be for people all over the planet hoping to acquire some Bitcoins for doing a service.  I've honestly given serious consideration to removing my sig and posting more then I ever.  Just to prove the point that sigs  aren't the problem, it's a tool like a gun and in the wrong hands it can be dangerous.  But you don't see guns being banned across the bored now do you?  No because not everyone misuses them and they have a valuable purpose!  

[dserrano5]

If I had the choice I'd restrict everyone to the limitations imposed to regular members: no big letters, no colors, links allowed. That's more than enough for a signature.

[justusranvier]

If I had the choice I'd restrict everyone to the limitations imposed to regular members: no big letters, no colors, links allowed. That's more than enough for a signature.

Making signatures less visually annoying won't do much to get rid of the flood of low-content posts.

Paid posters will still get paid per-post.

[justusranvier]

I know that some people instantly press ignore on people with e.g. Prime dice signatures, I like that approach

This approach worked better when ignored posters got feedback by having their post count change colors. That had to be removed because it was bogging down the response of the forum.

Now there is no feedback, either to the posters themselves or the people paying them.

[railzand]

..., leading to a rather large ignore list.

643 for me

[Puppet]

What is needed is to deincentivize this crap posting by completely removing the signature

Couldnt agree more.

[Rubber Ducky]

I suggest a) remove all signatures b) reduce the interval between posts for newbies because waiting sucks. 6 minutes is too long. Make it 1 minute instead.

In the meantime you can disable signatures in your profile under 'look and layout preferences' > 'Don't show users' signatures.' BTW this option is probably going to be used to justify keeping signatures around. "Why you can disable it if you don't like it" they will say.

[Rubber Ducky]

http://we.lovebitco.in/how-bitcoin-works/
1DCeLERonUTsTERdpUNqxKTVMmnwU6reu5
"Certified Schmertified"

There can be legit sigs like yours and mine (where there's either public service stuff or personal projects), but no matter how much we beg for the sig ad spamming to be stopped, it never happens.

And who will determine what is a legit sig and what is not? Sounds like socialism to me.