Topic: My suggestion on how to reduce the spam problem in gambling board, what's yours? (Read 401 times)

I must say, I'm really impressed with your responses, especially those of you who've taken the time to provide some figures to illustrate why creating a dedicated thread for every game might not be the best idea. A special shoutout to @LoyceV, @philipma1957, @Halab, and @yahoo62278 for sharing their insights.

I didn't realize just how many games are out there in different leagues. I can't even imagine the chaos it would bring if every poster decided to create a topic, whether for spamming or genuine purposes. It's evident that it would lead to an increase in spam posts. You've all educated me on this topic, and I appreciate it. I was only focused on one league I love to follow, without realizing there's a whole world of other leagues out there.

So, it seems there's not much we can do to change the current situation, but we can all be responsible and report any posters we suspect of spamming to the moderators and campaign managers.

Thank you for your time, and I think it's time to lock this thread since it has already gathered enough information to satisfy my curiosity.

That is what most people do not actually understand. Before now I was among those clamouring for changes in the gambling discussion board but as time progresses I understood that the system is fair, if I cannot confidently say it's fine. Those gambling discussion mega threads like the "English Premier League" has cool ranking in search engines and whenever cryptocurrency gambling key words are used, it leads to these mega threads. As PP recommended, simply ignore or report.


This will only spread the spam across the whole board and encourage multiple opening of spam topics to encourage more spamming. Having one dedicated thread will only organise the spam in one thread.

Some replies there are redundant these are the questions that are asked and should be locked or reported to get locks when a simple question is asked and answered. Those threads or questions that are opinionated or experience-based questions are the one who blow up in replies of pages.

As for the OP, you heard it, that will make the board worst. Just let all the huge games like that like NBA in one thread, another for betting results and one for discussions/opinions, the same for other sports.

Like I said the very nature of gambling involves constant repetition. Which is very much the same as spam.

If I make an Amazon Thursday night football prediction  for all 18 games

and I compare my straight up  pick with my point pick and invite others to do the same on the thread it will be repetitive. Same as spam but its betting or gambling. Others may follow my win picks as I am godlike picking them.

I have been one of the active users reporting spam and low quality posts on several gambling board megathread in the past - but due to the increasing number of my reports not being unhandled by moderators, I have stopped them. The reason is very simple - the moderators don't seem to think the post is bad and worth deleting as the discussion is still ongoing and covers ongoing events as well as post-match analysis and speculation as well.

Spam has always existed and it's not just on gambling discussion board - that means there are several other board too that have a lot of spammers for repetitive and low-quality posts. However, gambling posters are not all spammers and these board have actually been an important part of the crypto industry so far. But I don't quite agree with the OP's idea - it would just make the gambling board worse by the large number of thread per event.

There is no need for this but thanks for the time and suggestion made.

For me, I don't believe there is anything different done elsewhere that is not being done at the gambling section, only that merit sources choose to abandon it simply because if not all, almost all of them are in mixers' campaigns and other campaigns that are not gambling.

This is why some of them even see the gambling section as an abomination and also preach against it which is supposed not to be so. It would have been different if it was only the casinos and sportsbooks we advertised here. That's human beings though.

Nonetheless, there are quality writers in the gambling section but they are only disenfranchised for that. Just like moderation, I think it's time that some merit sources are assigned to some specific places like the gambling section. It needs it so that good efforts are not wasted in the most active section of the forum.

That's what I wanted to say, but you've done it before me. I think that OP's suggestion would make sitaution on gambling board even worse. Let's say there is 6 EPL game in one day, 4 La Liga games, similar numbers in other top football leagues, 10 games in NBA and plenty games in other sports that get discussed here. And same thing all week long. Imagine how gambling board would look then. I'm trying to imagine how much time I would need to find topic about specific game.
Also, it's not right to compare Bitcointalk with gambling only forums. And one of reasons is signature campaigns offcourse.
And megathreads isn't always bad thing. There is some good example like various prediction pool topics or self-moderated topics. People don't just discuss about one particular game and move one, we have productive continuous discussion all season long.

If you find a SPAM member wearing a signature, report it to the campaign manager.
If a spam member is found without a signature, click Report to mod.
repeat

If all campaigns do not follow the same standard/protocol then you will end up with hiring lesser quality posters. All your decent posters are not going to apply for a campaign just because they have less posts to make weekly unless the pay is the same and that's probably not going to be the case. Half the posts = half the pay and we all know that everyone chases the dollar here.

I may sound like a Care Bear, but why not just blow up the minimum limit for posts per week ?

I will share my experiences with signature campaigns. I have participated in 3 (4 actually) campaigns.

The first one I have to make 15 posts / week (with no section restriction). It was a real pain. As you probably noticed, I'm not the biggest poster of the forum. I try to make sure that my posts aren't a waste of time for the reader (an info from the Staff section, a small mod's point of view, a little joke, etc...).
But today that would be even worse. I'd have to make posts starting with :
- Congrats...
- As others have said...
- Ho wow, I didn't remember that...
(I know you know what I'm talking about )

4 months later I was lucky enough to join CM for my 2nd campaign. No min post required. Haaaaa no more pressure. No more parroting. No more congratulating someone that I don't give a fuck.

After CM ended, I was very sad when I looked at the prerequisites for active campaigns. Almost none of them suited me (no min post, local section, no mixers). I had to wait 4 months before Icopress descended from the sky like an angel in a halo of light with AgoraDesk and now Exch.


I know you're going to tell me that your clients need to be seen. But why not hire more users ?

Let's say your client is willing to spend 2000$ / week. Let's say it's around 400 posts per week (I'm just taking a guess here).
What is the difference for your client between :
20 users who will struggle by making shitposts : 20 (users) * 20 (posts) = 400 posts.
40 users who will relax and make useful (and read) posts : 40 (users) * 10 (posts) = 400 posts.
That's still 400 posts, but probably a lot less shitposts.

I don't know what goes on behind the scenes for a campaign manager, clients are certainly demanding on certain points, and I'm no one to tell you what to do, but wouldn't it be possible to do it this way (+ bonus for posting in the gambling section) ?
I'm not saying it's the perfect solution, there will always be shitposters.

The problem is the very nature of gambling it is very repetitive. So it is spam like.

There are no automated tools to fight off spam posts. Spammers will always keep spamming the forum until they find anything more profitable to work with. It doesn't matter how many boards are there; the less, the more. There is no filtering process for spam. All we can do to fix this problem is report it to the moderators. So they can sort this out according to the rules and policy. From my perspective, I think spam as this, but suggestions are always welcome.

Just report them and tag them if you think they are genuine spammers. Simple!! 

As a campaign manager, I would reject campaigns that pay so little. At that price, you can only get shitposters. And even if you get a decent poster, he'll be taken by a higher paying campaign soon.

Anyways there are still many true gamblers who was made a topic or replied to those topic they like. Maybe it called a spamming but still we can't blame them casue there's a time they made a good topics as well. So it better to relax and read replies when we encounter to the gambling sections cause there's a useful topics that we can gathered more knowledge about gambling. Anyways as long us there's no violations the rules and regulations then still we can't do an action for now.

This is what it is all about.

On a saturday in the usa there are 100 college football games.
in a week in football season usa there are 15 pro football games.
never mind golf.
football/soccer world wide so many fucking games
basket ball at least three leagues nba wnba and there is a european league.
horse racing there are 1000 races a day.

So if I did  “ a Phil is the god of gambling prediction thread “ I could list 1000 picks a day.

Some think it would be spam but If I was picking at 80% it would be the most watched thread in the world.

The op wants a separate thread for every pick. that means 1000 threads a day.

this is a no go.

here is the list for 1 horse race track.

https://entries.horseracingnation.com/entries-results/belmont-at-aqueduct/2023-10-20

nine races a day.

so nine threads 🧵 there are at least 30 racetracks in USA alone

your idea means 270 threads a day for usa horse racing.

and that is not as good as a mega thread.  to call it spam in either case is not true.

as gambling is repetitive by nature.

Having repeated discussion can’t be avoided since the sports is just repeating the whole cycle. There’s a chance to repeat the discussion if we discussed about Lebron James today and other specific athletes next year and so on.

Same with Bitcoin discussion whenever there’s a bullish and bearish trend. We can’t say that this repeated discussion is spam since it’s related to the current event. What I hate reading on gambling discussion thread are those huge wall post that makes it longer for the sake of characters while the main thought is can be a simplified by shorter post.

The gambling board is not the only board with that peculiar case of spammers. Spamming, spammers and the spam problem will always be in the forum. If spammers are driven away from the gambling board, they will find another board to spam. Best you can do is to continue to report any post you consider as spam to the mod for removal.

There is no duplication of thread when it has to do with creating threads based on a specific game, it’s a game fixed for a day and at a time, once the game is done, it’s is over with.

Speaking of the approach though, what becomes of the case where its got to do with the sportsbook aspect of gaming… Do they get to create threads for every specific match of the match day live…? I’m surprised you didn’t bring soccer up as some of the popular threads because, I think that’s where you find the most activities and posts on the gambling board.

That aside, an issue with this approach is that, you’re going to find people creating more and more threads and having them easily dumped or bumped from time to time just to spam on an irrelevant detail. After all, the thread wouldn’t be too old to prompt a bumping of an old thread report.

I feel it would make spamming more relevant than it already is with less moderation on that board.

There are people who usually write very high quality posts, and/or frequent technical boards, and would like the gambling section to be like that, but it's not about that.

Serious discussions about gambling could be summarized as: don't gamble because you are throwing your money away in the long run. There is not much more to discuss than that. Then there are disciplines that don't necessarily mean throwing your money away, like poker or horse racing, but that don't interest the forum much, and sports betting which does interest a bit but most commenters are among the 95% of losers.

If you want traffic in that section you are not going to get quality. And the other way around.

Seeing how important this section has been in the history of the forum, and how important gambling has been in the history of Bitcoin, I say leave it as it is, which I think in this thread is a bit like preaching in the wilderness but I would say that from the highest levels of the forum think similarly.

Actually, what is spam? If it's flooded with comments and is considered spam then it's dangerous. In my opinion, as long as the post is still relevant and not off topic then it is not spam. I sometimes read posts on gambling board and see posts that seem repetitive but I check that they don't contain plagiarism, their comments are still on topic so I don't think they're spam, maybe posts with low quality are more appropriate

Just leave it like that.

If you see posts that are fucking shit, report them, as mentioned above, but that there are many threads in which people are simply dedicated to meet post quota what it does is to fulfill the function that that board has. The advertisers are happy because they generate traffic to their casinos, the posters are happy because they get paid and the forum has traffic that would go elsewhere if it made the effort to implement "quality" in that section.

I think this kind problem can't be solved, report to moderator button isn't working since high ranked account's post that contain at least 2-3 lines aren't spam by the moderator. Either open a new thread, post in mega thread, creating new section etc, it's not a solution since the spammer will play in the other thread/section.

So it's what it's.

We have another one which could compete Stake.

That won't happen unless the Signature Campaign Guidelines (read this before starting or joining a campaign) are enforced. Just take a look at a few dozen of the most active posters: 90% is paid by Stake, which has paid spammers for a very long time.

When we started asking users to make 5-10 posts per week in the gambling section(myself and Hhampuz), we were not thinking of the spam it might cause. We were thinking of casinos that were opening campaigns and where posts would be the most helpful for them. There were plenty of topics with lots of ongoing discussion, that it didn't feel like it was going to lead to the mess it has caused today.

I think because of these requirements, users feel in a rush to make posts in the gambling sections, but they pay no attention to if they are doing it correctly. Then, while posting a new topic in the wrong section, they make the post and do not participate in the discussion.

Managers need to crack down on the spam. Remove members that 1. cannot post in the correct section and 2. make a new topic and abandon it. I might also think the requirement of posting in gambling sections needs to be rethought. Maybe something like a bonus for posting in the gambling section as long as its done correctly. Something def needs to change or we are going to see more shit threads like:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/keeping-your-gambling-habit-a-secret-5462473

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/relying-on-gamble-wins-is-dangerous-to-mental-health-5469933

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/cash-out-or-keep-playing-5470658

The list goes on and on and these probably aren't the best examples but you guys can see what i'm talking about. Just random silly questions to get post quota.

Very true the gambling board is filled with mega-threads and most of the members of the forum tend to avoid such threads. The merit sources always try to find good posts which they can send some smerits and it's a quite difficult task for a human to view each post in a mega-thread. I try my best to open threads which are no more than 4 pages but in gambling board the situation is different as there are very few threads that are less than 4 pages and that's why I give sometime to read the last two page of a board before making any posts there.

It would be a really difficult to fix such issues of the gambling board and that's why most of the merit sources and a few members of the forum avoid sending any merits at those boards. I remember a manager posted his merit source application thread on Meta because he wanted to be a merit source at gambling board so that he may send a merits to some posts in gambling boards. I think that such merit source applications should be supported by the members of the forum and the admins should view those applications and accept those so that good posts at gambling boards can also get some merits.

No, I didn't say that all campaign participants are spammers, but it's true that the majority of spammers are indeed campaign participants. If you remove the incentive, I doubt there would be as much spam on the forum. There would be no reason for it.

The solution to cut down on spam is pretty simple.  Just report any messages that look like spam to the mods.  And if there's someone who keeps doing it over and over, tell their campaign manager so they can watch what that person's posting more carefully.  That's all there is to it.

You have an idea but gambling is not what can be combined altogether in summary to a particular thread base on category, this will only solve the incessant creation of threads but not spamming, even if the whole thread are combined altogether that doesn't solved the spamming challenges, you can take the wall observers as a good example, let's first discuss how this spammers are coming in.

They are mostly bounty hunters, trollers and users with less activeness on the forum, the moderators are there and that's their work, report any low quality post to them to take necessary action and that solve the problem, another thing is if you create a thread there, you can make it self moderated, very simple.

And why do you think that those who would be active in those boardsd would actually talk about odds and other gambling related stuff instead just sharing their usual stuff?

I suggest it to make a test: pick some popular football (or any other sport) game this weekend and make a thread about it and see what happens. Addiotionally, make it a self-moderated so you can delete all the posts not actually related to gambling and let us know how many posts were there?

Your suggestion would maybe make sense if every sport had its board (realisctially, even then it would be a problem) but with the current state on Gambling Board, it would be a total mess to have new thread for every game.

The only way to solve gambling board spam is for managers to be way more strict when counting posts there, but since there's more spots in gambling signature campaigns than gambling posters who know what they are talking about, result is what we have at the moment.

As a merit source , I barely open threads with more than 2 pages.

Gambling board is filled with megathreads,  which me and other merit sources just ignore.

The problem with the lack of merit might be related to that

Do you think posts are in new threads actually not spam, better in quality than posts in Mega threads. They can create new threads and post but it won't make their posts are better in quality.

Managers judge post quality and count it for payment, it's their works.

Not only this, but do you think posts get merit are always better than posts don't get merits. I don't this is always automatically right to judge post quality by these criteria: Mega threads, new threads, merited or not merited.

Absolutely, it was my intention, and this is just my suggestion, so I'm seeking input on its viability. As I explained, even though the topic itself isn't spam, it can sometimes turn into a mega thread, which in some people's eyes might resemble a spam thread. So my suggestion is to divide the topic. For instance, if I open a discussion about a specific match-up or game, that topic might only remain interesting for a day or even less, as after the game, it's no longer a subject of discussion unless someone is trying to make spam posts. However, as mentioned, the OP could lock the thread to prevent this from happening.

The problem with mega threads is that when you're trying to follow a particular discussion, you might lose track of it due to the sheer number of posts in one thread.

For example, in the context of the NBA, if there are 10 games on a given day, everyone will be discussing these 10 games mixed together. Some might only focus on the more popular games, so those interested in betting on every game and seeking insights from other posters might not find the information they're looking for. It's hard to get noticed or get answers in a fast-moving mega thread. Just think about how many posts are created in an hour in a mega thread; it can be challenging to find the information you need. With dedicated threads for each game or match-up, it becomes more organized and easier to access relevant information.

Moreover, in dedicated threads, it's simpler to detect and report spammers because it's easy to spot if a certain user is spamming in a thread with only a few replies.


No, not all of them are not spammers, they just looked like spammers because they tend to post on mega threads due to limited threads being created.

Solutions is suggested above.

The title implies like you wanna stop all the spam on the Gambling board.  But I don't really get how making more topics is gonna fix that. 

Plus, someone said the spammers are all part of gambling signature campaigns.  but you responded to the comment that the campaign managers know it's a problem here and they wont put up with the spammers in their campaigns. So if it ain't the signature campaign people doing it, where's all this spam coming from then? I'm just tryin to understand what's going on and what your goal is here.

Yes, I'm aware of that. But consider the facts I'm bringing up: the majority of the posts coming from signature campaigns are related to gambling boards. What makes this forum particularly active is the signature campaign. Therefore, I find it to be a major concern that needs to be addressed.

When a certain game is over, there's no reason to follow it anymore, hence that will make a thread inactive, or best if it will be locked by the OP if he is responsible enough to do that.

I believe, based on my observation, that this has been happening on the forum for a while. Not just in basketball, but in the realm of boxing sports as well. You see, there are long threads dedicated to boxing speculations. However, when a new fight is scheduled, a new thread is created specifically for that bout. This makes it easier to follow the latest developments, including the latest news, rumors, and updates on betting odds.

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Let's not only consider the forum rules but also take into account the perception of the gamblers. I believe that sports betting enthusiasts and responsible forum users would better understand the sentiment expressed in my post.

Both links you added above are of purely gambling websites, this forum is not a gambling website but a Bitcoin discussion forum with a gambling board.

Also, both platforms do not have the traffic that bitcointalk has, so it needs to generate more discussions to make the place active, the gambling section here is already hyper active and needs suggestions to declutter it, not make it worse. Your suggestions will make the number of new threads started and dropped after a week to increase and make discussions even more difficult to follow.

Hey, are you into sports betting? Have you joined different betting forums outside Bitcointalk?

Here are two of the forums I followed, and my recommendation was slightly influenced by how it's done there to create effective discussions. If you have time, kindly check and kindly share your thoughts.

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https://www.sportsbookreview.com/forum/nba-basketball-betting/
https://www.covers.com/forum/nba-betting-22

I think you define spam is mega thread, that's why you suggest people to create fresh new thread, I don't agree with that despite some other users think it's spam. Mega thread isn't always spam, but spam post is where the poster create generic post and you can report it to the moderator.

There's no difference between a poster create generic post in fresh new created thread and mega thread, except the brands visibility.

If you in a campaign where the manager ask to not post in mega thread, then you can choose to agree or not join the campaign, not necessary request for other people to agree with that.

Use report to moderator.

Yeah, this is what we would see in the gambling discussion section .

There's no need for that, as campaign managers know how to perform their tasks. They are also well aware of the level of spam in the forum, so they won't tolerate spammers in their campaigns.


No, not in my opinion. I believe their discussions are more specific. They are humans, and they know what they are talking about. They focus on current events, and there's no way an article or AI would be of much help for their responses.

I'm specifically referring to generic threads like "How to stop gambling addiction?"

What about talk with those campaigns managers to request them to pay only to quality post? Just Kidding, but i bet that most of those spam comes from users on signature campaigns related to sport and gambling?

Ahh this seems like a very bad idea, to be honest. Imagine In a game of football where club matches for each countries league are nothing less than 7 matches each week (some twice a week). With Almost more than 7 league games discussed on the gambling boards that’s like at least 50 threads a week just for football games. The likes of NBA, Rugby and the rest have their own games too so the number will definitely be more than 100 in a week only. This will greatly increase the scam because someone that could have just discussed more than one game he is interested in a single post will have to write them in 4 or more threads.

The suggestion only thing would have been a moderator but right now even that is not visible at all because I can’t see how a moderator will work it out there. If we also suggest thread created there should include moderation by OP it won’t still be a great idea because it is sports and most people do not agree with each other and you know why happens to post that OP who moderates it doesn’t agree with, you just sees a counter thread created from it.

Igebotz, also brought up some interesting suggestions on how to reduce the spam there but certainly it has gotten out of hand that I think you just can’t. The only way is when gambling signatures do not just exist again which is not possible. So I doubt any other proper solution

As we all know, the Gambling Board is one of the most active boards in the forum. However, some members may be wondering why they aren't receiving merits. My guess is that merit sources may struggle to review the numerous posts and topics due to the high volume, and some threads are quite generic, with answers that can easily be found through quick research. We don't discourage posting, but there should be limitations on how long a thread can stay active. This should be based on the judgment of the moderators because when a topic remains active for an extended period with redundant answers, it can turn into a spam thread.

In my opinion, the most relevant topics are related to sports betting. Updates are frequent, and members are eager to discuss matters concerning their betting decisions. Some of the active threads in this board are as follows:

2023 NBA Season 
NBA 2023-2024 betting 
NFL Sportsbet.io discussion & predications thread
Tennis League All Thread

And many more.

I have a suggestion: I'd like posters to create specific threads for individual games. For instance, today there are six NBA games happening, and if there are posters who want to share their insights, they could create a dedicated thread for each game. In these threads, they can include statistics, betting predictions, and any information that can help members who subscribe to that particular thread stay informed about how the poster's predictions are unfolding. This approach would keep the conversations organized and prevent them from becoming cluttered, unlike general discussion threads where it can be hard to follow the discussion's path.

While some might view this as creating duplicate threads, I believe it would make the discussions more relevant and keep the threads cleaner since they would be topic-specific. I'd appreciate your insights on this idea and any suggestions on how to improve the board further, given that we can't prevent posters from making posts there, especially since many of our signature campaigns are likely gambling-related, and their rules require members to make a minimum number of posts to get paid.

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For the active campaign, we can see in Overview of Bitcointalk Signature-Ad Campaigns

By my count, 17 out of the 28 total active signature campaigns are associated with casino platforms, which means that 60% of these campaigns focus their posts on the gambling section. Without taking necessary actions to address this issue, the Gambling Board may be flooded with redundant posts, or in other words, spam.