Topic: Can we have a true discussion without the sig tail wailing? (Read 523 times)

I couldn't agree any less with you and there are boards and thread where signature posts aren't counted and I'm sure every discussion over there should be a serious one.
And one reason people troop into the forum is the  value they get from here.
Rather than complaining over post quality, why not take some time to access these posts and report them by so doing, you're helping keeping the community clean.

Sure. we can do that.
There is board in forum called Serious discussion that doesn't allow signature advertisement, and for even more serious discussion without any kind of advertising or junk posts there is Ivory Tower sub-board.
Second option you have is to create self-moderated topic, you are moderator and you can allow only discussion without advertisement, deleting anything you consider spam.
You can also have a discussion in Off-topic section, but there are other type of problems in that board.

Let me get this straight, you are bothered by people who wear signatures and their motivations for posting on Bitcointalk? At the same time, a third of your forum posts were written in the Micro Earnings forum probably finding alternative ways to earn some sats. Not only that, but your second favorite board is the Bitcoin Discussion, notoriously known for spam. You tried to get into a signature campaign, it didn't work, so you are now taking what you can and trying to destroy that which didn't work for you for others. Nice!

I don't remember ever seeing you post in technical discussions or anywhere where real quality is shared. Think about it this way.
Tomorrow, you mess something up and can't recover your bitcoin. You create a thread in the technical subs hoping someone can help. Who do you think will have the knowledge and patience to help you, eh? Whose advice will help you regain access to your coins? Let me help you, 9/10 of the best advice will have signatures under their names. 6 /10 of those will wear a ChipMixer signature. Those are the people who will help you and teach you when you need help.

The problem is not the signature. Filter out the information you don't like. If someone is spamming, report their posts. If you don't like how someone is posting, ignore that user.   

Without signature campaign, I think this forum will actually shrink the number of active users.
If signature campaigns are disabled or banned, I really don't know how contributors will benefit from their contributions.

I know they don't expect to be paid for their contribution, but signature campaign hopefully keep them motivated in the forum. So the signature campaign has something quite positive for both the forum and the users, and the spam issue just needs to be reported and handled.

Yeah, those things appear every now but at least we see more realistic discussions there

Yes mate there is some social media platform such as reddit, twitter, telegram and etc. You could discuss there without any post incentive or annoying signature. But we cant fan out it on forum cause its always here. Probably out of 10 people maybe only 99% is only one there not wearing signature and posting his opinion.

Signature campaign is here for a reason and not to sugarcoat money related. But it is one way to make the forum be more attractive place for discussion.

This isn't in anywhere close to the solution at all. How do you ascertain those who posted when they had no signature on and then a few days or weeks later they enrol in a signature campaign. We know how users' campaign logos change to the most recent once they're activated and won't show the recent past. It's the same thing that happens when they didn't have a logo on but later have one.

Sir are you not getting the right answer from all the posters that are participants in the signature campaign? One of the most important rules and guidelines laid out by the bounty manager to all the signature participants is to provide the best possible answers in all the discussions, if you are good at something then why not get paid for doing this is a good incentive for thinking of the best possible answers.
All questions are answered here in this forum, some even go to the extent of doing research to get the right answers.

 

Believe me, this will significantly reduce traffic to this site. Many people come here to learn, but what keeps most of them active in the forum is the signature paid campaign; if it stops, not only will the site lose traffic, but the casinos that mostly advertise here will also lose customers because their advertisements here increase their visibility and patronage. Whatever the reason for people joining this forum, as long as the main goal of the forum is established, they should have no problem with what is going on here in terms of forum discussions.

I use Reddit to keep up to date with things happening in btc because a lot of members post the contents of the post without needing to click on the news site because I disagree with giving news sites which are spreading fud or click baiting money. Any way the /r/Bitcoin and /r/cryptocurrency are both the same and have less quality then this forum. A lot of meme posts and a lot of people saying that they just bought their 1st btc. No real discussion happening but people know what to post to get the karma so they will continue posting the same thing over and over. This forum at least has some good discussion.

Agreed, plus the spam has been drastically reduced after the merit system implement. Anyone with a naked eye can notice the decrease in forum activity and less spams already. (especially the OP, since his account is open since 2014). I find the technical boards very informative now with full of educated replies.

And guess why such threads are made by ppl who aren't in a signature campaign ? Or maybe never get accepted in any, due to obvious reasons (in the OP's case, its a negative trust feedback given by a DT member).

I always read quotes I get, and people wearing signature comments aren't spammy as people make them out to be. Internet is huge place, you can look elsewhere if you don't like it here.

Yeah, all that echo chambering and karma farming is rampant. Classic Reddit. Wait until you come across r/cryptocurrency, the amount of shills for shitcoin X only to sing a different tune about it days later just for the MOON becomes the norm.

But let's say if it's just r/bitcoin then the posts are hardly incentivized. Let's forgo the karma thingy because that helps keep popular/ top comments where they belong. Tipping is a thing but not everyone does that so posting more doesn't guarantee one gets paid.

Back to the signature campaigns, I'm not against them. Knowing that everyone needs money, this place will be almost as dry as a Sahara desert if it does away with bounties as well. Let's be real.

Shitposters are the byproducts but that's the small price to pay to remain relevant in this kind of business model.

Shortly, no, we can't. Signature campaigns is significant part of Bitcointalk forum and it seems that theymos don't have intentions to remove it. I fully understand your concerns that with sig campaigns discussions often isn't real, people post just to get paid. It brings many spammers here, but at the same time it gives motivatiin for smartest people here to be more active - you probably noticed that most of best posters here wearing paid signatures. You been here for long, and you should remember that before merit system situation here was much worse, or I would say terrible. Now it's much better, though still far from perfect. And it can't be perfect when people have initiative to get paid for for posting.
If you can't stand these paid signatures, you always can look for alternative platforms, but I doubt that you will find something better.

Serious discussion is great place, but there isn't much activity. In past there was more action.
And there is no need to make local rules, better just make self-moderated topics. Spammers just fear to post there.

Nice catch.

Having a true discussion without the incentives that come from the signature is not a problem...

but the real issue that the forum will face to succeed is the lack of retention of users to the forum to keep these conversations going if sigs didn't exist!

By the way, If we compared BCT forum to other successful forums , there is always something that keeps users coming back for more ranging from freebies,

to the financial gain & list goes on... if nothing of this nature exists expect the place to be a white elephant and it's only the sad reality.

Besides, the sigs are not a bad development, the business gets the needed brand exposure, and users on the forum get their token of appreciation, win-win.

I still will but may be I will not have an urge to make a minimum of 25 posts. But when I will lose my interest then I will not even bother the make a single post, the same why applies when I am interested and having fun in a certain topic I will not remember how many post requirement I have.

There used to be a time when I was making over 100 posts a week without even having a signature but there were also time, I am in a signature I have a minimum weekly requirement but I have not made a single post for several months.

At the end for me my own terms matter.

Just about bitcoin?  Are you referring to any sections in particular?  You've been here longer me and it was so much worse prior to the merit system, and you're just now complaining about sig campaigns?

The latter point is absolutely true, but I very much disagree with the former one.  I think if campaigns and bounties were banned, and if there wasn't a monetary incentive to post here, sections like Bitcoin Discussion and a few others would have a lot higher signal:noise.  The shitposters wearing adverts in their signature space greatly outnumber those excellent contributors you referenced, I'm afraid.

Reddit does not have any better quality discussions and there is no incentive to post there except for collecting karma but collecting karma is enough for people to post things that they know will get them karma instead of real discussions so I think it is a problem of culture and not a problem limited to the forum.

Signature campaigns keep this forum alive as much as we might not like to admit to it doing that but it creates activity and we are very low on activity atm if people were not getting paid and not earning btc then btc would probably be less used to because a lot of signature campaign participants cannot offer their services for payment in btc but can offer advertising services by posting good posts.

Spot on! Op, you don't have the right to talk about spammy/serious discussions when you're one of the users who needs such advise. Op has no good intentions; he was disappointed that he wasn't accepted into the signatures campaign he applied for, therefore he's now promoting the anti-signature campaign agenda.

The earnings from signatures are minimal compared to what the forum gets from the enormous traffic we bring to the site on a regular basis. At the end of the day, it's a business. If you believe that the sig has no beneficial effect on the forum, you are mistaken.

Also you're not being specific here, are you saying one should post here without wearing a signature campaign code or thise that should post under the thread should be those not participating on a signature campaign, you need to get this right that making post here on the forum has it own advantages alot either being a signature campaign participants or not because we offer something that is appealing to read, learn and got informed about, not everyone posting were under a signature campaign, if you post and it's off topic the moderators delete the post, so there's no hidden agenda that people post because of their signature campaign and if it happens that way, it's part of their own benefit they gain by contributing heavily to the bitcointalk community, joining a campaign is a choice and not by force.