Is there any point in reporting spam megathreads? - page 2.

jackg

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Quote from: Don Pedro Dinero on September 28, 2018, 11:47:35 AM

Following the recent discussion, if when I see a spam thread I start checking all those one-liners’ posting history and I see it all looks the same, can I report him for that? Even if the posts have some sense? Something like: “one-liner shitposter, look at the post history". I mean, I know that I can report anything I want, but would that be useful?

You can spot many of those in the last pages of the thread, they write a one-liner and they have earned no or little merit.

I do that quite a lot especially on bounty threads in the altcoin section.
If there's a lot of them, I like to leave a note in my comment to say "last page full of shitposts, could do with a bit of clensing" something like that.

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Following the recent discussion, if when I see a spam thread I start checking all those one-liners’ posting history and I see it all looks the same, can I report him for that? Even if the posts have some sense? Something like: “one-liner shitposter, look at the post history". I mean, I know that I can report anything I want, but would that be useful?

You can spot many of those in the last pages of the thread, they write a one-liner and they have earned no or little merit.

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Quote from: MagicSmoker on September 28, 2018, 10:57:21 AM

The thread I provided as an example above didn't start off as a spam megathread, but it certainly became one at some point in its 58+ pages, hence I don't think preemptively nuking threads is the right approach.

Almost any thread in Bitcoin or Altcoin Discusion could develop in to a spam mega thread, regardless of the topic. The spammers are just there to churn out a line or two. They don't read and don't care about anything that came beforehand.

In the example you gave, even by page 3-4 there is no discussion going on, and the spammers have turned up with their usual great insights:

Quote from: kok jujung on July 01, 2018, 07:50:10 PM

I think to block bitcoin sites need to be revisited in terms of governance because not a few people are dependent on bitcoin

Quote from: Master Carnegie on July 01, 2018, 07:53:30 PM

no government, however rich and authoritarian, can totally ban the use of coin. Bitcoin is unstoppable.

Quote from: kyle999 on July 01, 2018, 11:11:03 PM

There are so many people missing out here in the forumand all investors will lose their funds in bitcoin of course and will also lose bitcoin in banks I think it's great to suffer and lose work like a bounty hunter.

Quote from: Raiwenkai on July 02, 2018, 12:09:37 AM

Bitcoin is such a big help for us it gives an extra income so i can pay some of our monthly bills. I can't imagine if our government will ban bitcoin.

This is the kind of thread that could have been nipped in the bud by a dedicated board mod looking out for these kind of things. This thread could have been locked on page 5 without losing any quality content. Instead, it remained open for another 1000+ shitposts.

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Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on September 28, 2018, 09:42:22 AM

...
I think if they don't get paid a couple of times most of them will just spam harder or in different boards.

Maybe, but that's why I said there would be some short term pain. Besides, any other solution than us reporting entire threads for deletion will require changes made to the staff and/or forum (e.g. - hiring more mods).

Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on September 28, 2018, 09:42:22 AM

I regularly report spam mega threads and they always get locked or trashed. I don't think the issue here is the mods not trusting us. I think simply having a dedicated board mod who would monitor threads and regularly lock or trash then before they become spam mega threads would be a big step forward.

The thread I provided as an example above didn't start off as a spam megathread, but it certainly became one at some point in its 58+ pages, hence I don't think preemptively nuking threads is the right approach. Also, there won't be any pain suffered by the sig campaign spammers unless you let them spam for a bit first.

What clearly isn't going to work is what @Lafu did - reporting hundreds of posts in one thread. That's way too much work for all involved and, besides, this is a fail in principle: we should not be spending as much or more time fighting spam as it would cost to simply read it.

Lafu

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I have reported some spam megathreads in the past , and i have reported all spam posts and at the end reported the ANN .
One Spamthread i remember has got 400-500 reports and after i was finished the ANN got deleted.
Sure its a lot of work if you doing it this way but i guess it is effective!
Just keep reporting this threads .

o_e_l_e_o

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Quote from: Vod on September 28, 2018, 07:48:43 AM

We post proof, they call us liars.

Oh, don't get me wrong - these threads are still spam fests and probably should be locked. But if you look at some of the most recent posts in those threads (Examples: #1, #2, #3), people are at least reading what is written and are responding to each other.

Now if you look at a page from a spam mega thread in Bitcoin Discussion such as this one, every post is a one or two line, meaningless, sometimes barely even English, shitpost. There is no back-and-forth between users, and you can absolutely guarantee nobody is reading the posts that are made.

Quote from: The Sceptical Chymist on September 28, 2018, 08:21:16 AM

I'm talking like 2-3 additional mods for Bitcoin Discussion alone. I'm sure that's not going to happen, but that's the scope of the problem.

Totally, but even a single dedicated mod for Bitcoin Discussion and Altcoin Discussion (which is where I assume most of the reports come from, although I don't know this), would free up a lot of time for hilarious and other higher mods.

Quote from: MagicSmoker on September 28, 2018, 08:34:11 AM

-snip-

I think if they don't get paid a couple of times most of them will just spam harder or in different boards.

I regularly report spam mega threads and they always get locked or trashed. I don't think the issue here is the mods not trusting us. I think simply having a dedicated board mod who would monitor threads and regularly lock or trash then before they become spam mega threads would be a big step forward.

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Might I propose a not-so-radical solution that can actually be accomplished without the intervention of staff?

We need to report the OP of spam megathreads in bitcoin discussion while hilariousandco needs to trust our assessment and nuke the thread.

Once enough threads are nuked the shitposters will miss their sig campaign quotas and not get paid.

And once they don't get paid enough times they will quit joining campaigns.

There will inevitably be some butthurt from legitimate posters, especially those who participated in the first few pages of a thread, but think of this as short-term pain for long-term gain.

EDIT - I've reported one thread in bitcoin discussion as a test case - "What if Government bans Bitcoins?" [sic] - which I've quoted the OP in case the thread is, indeed, nuked:

Quote from: rolls89 on March 08, 2018, 01:07:53 PM

Looking at the decentralized nature of crypto-currencies,Wonder if govt bans Bitcoins in future??Is it possible let's say by blocking all sites which relate to Bitcoin wallets/payments etc over the internet.In that case what would happen to our existing coins held in those wallets??

YOSHIE

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Quote from: Don Pedro Dinero on September 27, 2018, 01:37:16 PM

What do you think about it?

If you find spam or report, and do so, you play an important role in helping the Bitcointalk Forum protect others from fraud.

Spam can be said is: clicking on something that is spam or the account in question makes unwanted posts, events, or conversations, including sending mass messages, sometimes spam is spread through clicking malicious links or installing malicious software. On other occasions, fraudsters get access to people's accounts, which are then used to send spam, gmail etc.

As Mister said.(iasenko)".

Quote from: TheBeardedBaby on September 27, 2018, 01:42:34 PM

The more people report them the less they gonna be, now the sig. spam is reduced and the new threads should not be so many as before. Btw those megatheads are perfect for plagiarism hunting.

Hopefully soon Piggy and LoyceV can use their bots/scripts to scan through for copy/pasting.

Note:
"Of course it's useful, reporting megatread, spam to help people out of fraud".

The Sceptical Chymist

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Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on September 27, 2018, 01:42:55 PM

Some of the boards almost needs a fresh start, kind of like what Flying Hellfish did when he became mod of P&S.

I agree, and Flying Hellfish has done a great job from what I've heard (I don't visit P&S ever so I can't say firsthand).

I think hilariousandco is burned out as a mod, and I don't say that disparagingly. There's only so much he can do, and he needs help--and I'm not even talking about an assistant, I'm talking like 2-3 additional mods for Bitcoin Discussion alone. I'm sure that's not going to happen, but that's the scope of the problem.

Even if it feels hopeless to report posts, I would still encourage people to keep doing it. If nothing else, it gives you a sense that you're actually doing something as opposed to throwing up your hands and declaring the problem to be insoluble.

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Quote from: Vod on September 28, 2018, 07:48:43 AM

Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on September 28, 2018, 07:45:50 AM

Threads such as "Scientific Proof of God", "Evolution is a hoax", hell even the "Flat Earth" thread - although these threads are running in to the hundreds of pages, there is still discussion going on. People are quoting and directly replying to each other's points, even if some of the points are batshit insane.

? There is no discussion going on in those threads.

We post proof, they call us liars. 600+ pages. There is no more discussion, as things have not changed in billions of years. :/

If they could post anything supporting their claims, we could discuss it. But they don't, because they can't.

I believe threads going on for hundreds of pages supported only by trolling should be reported and closed.

Well, I'm just saying that there isn't that much ''spam'' or shitposting going on there. Most signature campaigns do not allow you to post in off-topic or politics anyways.

Vod

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Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on September 28, 2018, 07:45:50 AM

Threads such as "Scientific Proof of God", "Evolution is a hoax", hell even the "Flat Earth" thread - although these threads are running in to the hundreds of pages, there is still discussion going on. People are quoting and directly replying to each other's points, even if some of the points are batshit insane.

? There is no discussion going on in those threads.

We post proof, they call us liars. 600+ pages. There is no more discussion, as things have not changed in billions of years. :/

If they could post anything supporting their claims, we could discuss it. But they don't, because they can't.

I believe threads going on for hundreds of pages supported only by trolling should be reported and closed.

o_e_l_e_o

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Quote from: Astargath on September 28, 2018, 07:21:33 AM

-snip-

I think there is a distinction to made here.

Threads such as "Scientific Proof of God", "Evolution is a hoax", hell even the "Flat Earth" thread - although these threads are running in to the hundreds of pages, there is still discussion going on. People are quoting and directly replying to each other's points, even if some of those points are batshit insane.

In the spam mega-threads in Bitcoin and Altcoin boards, there is very rarely any discussion. It's just bounty spammers churning out the same generic meaningless posts to reach their requirements. The problem is that these bounty spammers will take over a thread almost immediately and any actual discussion that was going on in the first page or two is completely drowned out and lost. By page 5 onwards, it's pretty much 99% bounty spam guaranteed.

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Quote from: Vod on September 28, 2018, 06:48:05 AM

Quote from: TheUltraElite on September 28, 2018, 05:29:03 AM

Quote from: shield132 on September 27, 2018, 02:45:15 PM

Is there any point? Of course there is, it's nice for our eyes and nervous to see less spammy threads.

It would really help if the moderation of the Bitcoin Discussion section would be a bit more strict and threads would get trashed quicker. Something like a 25 Page reply limit before auto-lock would be great. After that if the discussion needs to be continued a section seperate for these Spam MegaThreads can harbor those threads. Never suggested this before and I wonder what others would say.

Agreed - 600+ pages of something as simple as "Is the earth flat?"... the answers the OP needs have been posted a hundred times already. He is ignoring them and asking the same questions over and over.

Don Pedro Dinero - I stand with you. Let me know how I can help shut down these idiot threads. "Scientific proof of god" is another - you can't prove something that you can't test.

I do agree partially scientifically speaking, you can't, I know those 2 threads could have ended a long time ago, however I don't think the discussion was low quality even though, yes, sometimes we repeat ourselves (me and badecker since we are probably half of the replies there in the ''scientific proof of god'')

It's true it does open a window for newbies to spam, but they will find plenty of other threads to spam anyways. So personally I don't think those ones are really part of the problem, I'm guessing the gambling section is filled with those, bitcoin discussion definitely is.

Vod

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Quote from: TheUltraElite on September 28, 2018, 05:29:03 AM

Quote from: shield132 on September 27, 2018, 02:45:15 PM

Is there any point? Of course there is, it's nice for our eyes and nervous to see less spammy threads.

It would really help if the moderation of the Bitcoin Discussion section would be a bit more strict and threads would get trashed quicker. Something like a 25 Page reply limit before auto-lock would be great. After that if the discussion needs to be continued a section seperate for these Spam MegaThreads can harbor those threads. Never suggested this before and I wonder what others would say.

Agreed - 600+ pages of something as simple as "Is the earth flat?"... the answers the OP needs have been posted a hundred times already. He is ignoring them and asking the same questions over and over.

Don Pedro Dinero - I stand with you. Let me know how I can help shut down these idiot threads. "Scientific proof of god" is another - you can't prove something that you can't test.

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Quote from: TheUltraElite on September 28, 2018, 05:29:03 AM

Quote

And these people post here blindly, just to grow their post count and don't care how stupidity will be written by their hands, hands in best situation, otherwise google translate rises here.

I try to troll some of them who post blindly without reading but these people dont ever come back to that thread to see if someone point out something or not. Angry

Not to mention that they probably didn't write it themselves and merely copied and pasted something 10 pages before...

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So anyway, I applied as a merit source :)

Quote from: shield132 on September 27, 2018, 02:45:15 PM

Is there any point? Of course there is, it's nice for our eyes and nervous to see less spammy threads.

It would really help if the moderation of the Bitcoin Discussion section would be a bit more strict and threads would get trashed quicker. Something like a 25 Page reply limit before auto-lock would be great. After that if the discussion needs to be continued a section seperate for these Spam MegaThreads can harbor those threads. Never suggested this before and I wonder what others would say.

Quote

In Bitcoin Discussion section there are sometimes so shit threads like bitcoin can cure cancer and etc lol.

Only weed-hungry brain dead bottomfeeders would say that. Grin

Quote

And these people post here blindly, just to grow their post count and don't care how stupidity will be written by their hands, hands in best situation, otherwise google translate rises here.

I try to troll some of them who post blindly without reading but these people dont ever come back to that thread to see if someone point out something or not. Angry

Vod

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Quote from: LTU_btc on September 28, 2018, 05:16:38 AM

I would add Beginners and Help. Few years ago it was full of spam megathreads, but then mods started to lock topics after question was answered. The problem that now this board is full of question about bounties, airdrops, merit and etc.
Also, after appointing dedicated mod in Politics and Society situation improved a lot there. But it's still not perfect.

Well, that is the kind of users this forum is attracting right now.

As long as a person can get paid a little bit for something as trivial as posting some words, this will continue.

LTU_btc

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Quote from: ?? on ??

Nah, few board/section such as Development & Technical Discussion (along with all child-boards), Bitcoin Technical Support and Serious discussion are fine without any spam megathread.

I would add Beginners and Help. Few years ago it was full of spam megathreads, but then mods started to lock topics after question was answered. The problem that now this board is full of question about bounties, airdrops, merit and etc.
Also, after appointing dedicated mod in Politics and Society situation improved a lot there. But it's still not perfect.

Jet Cash

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Quote from: ?? on ??

Nah, few board/section such as Development & Technical Discussion (along with all child-boards), Bitcoin Technical Support and Serious discussion are fine without any spam megathread.

I agree with that, and I would add Ivory Tower.

I was thinking of Beginners', Bitcon Discussion, Political, Off topic, and maybe Meta, etc. It would be nice to maintain some interesting flows into some of the threads there.

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I believe that every board should have a spam megathread. I'd rather the spambies posted in that, rather than pollute all the decent threads. I ignore most threads that have more than 40 or 50 replies, unless they are an interesting tech discussion of course.

It would be great if the mods moved the spam they don't want to delete into that thread as well. Who cares if it becomes a garbled string of non sequiturs, I won't be reading it anyway.

Topic: Is there any point in reporting spam megathreads? - page 2. (Read 632 times)