Topic: Signature campaign as a creation of bitcointalk (Read 714 times)

You are correct, but many people earn a living doing those campaigns and it did spread BTC around the world.

So it is a true hit if they end the signatures entirely.

I remember in the 2000s (and probably earlier) there were online marketing forums where you could rent signatures and "forum posts" (with links to the advertised shops). I however don't remember their name, as I never participated in one of these campaigns, but rather stumbled upon these forums when searching for online marketing tips.

It was different compared to Bitcointalk in that you made the deal in the online marketing forum, or on a freelancer site, but then you would display your signature in another forums. So basically it was more similar to the "external" bounties section here at Bitcointalk (where you can earn for social media campaigns, for example). If I remember correctly, it was better if you were registered and add your signature to several forums. And only a part of these forums were amused about that phenomenon, many banned paids signatures eventually. Other forums developed "programs" like premium accounts where for example store owners could present their stores.

Don't you know that signature campaign can be abolish in this forum and bitcointalk will continue to exist, because I know quite well that what interests people much to the forum is the signature campaign advert that fetching people money, so let us not concentrate much on signature campaign because as theymos ban mixers it can happen one day that signature campaign be terminate, the aspect of if the signature campaign can be supportive to other social media except bitcointalk, yes, and it can happen only if the social media make a provision of display of signature campaign, so that's what I really want us to understand about it. And besides I have been hearing that theirs other places that support signature campaign.

I deeply appreciate your depth of expansion as there were still vague points I battles with.

In all honesty, this forum is about the people and not the staff or management. I moderated an SMF and I know how it was carved and to what purpose.
Once again, I commend your depth of research and the information shared.

Bitcointalk deserves more than our applause but rounds of it. I've been surfing the internet since 2001/2002, and till the time that signature is being embedded beneath each post here started, there was no single forum or any social media platform that was doing it. All you would see are adverts, nothing more.

This forum is creative and intuitive for people, and the reason is that they do not want to be making money but giving back to society. It got to a point that the forum included their ads and the signature for both the users and the forum itself to earn money. This later stopped and the users only earned through the signature and this is indeed a selfless service.

All I see is that it's all about the people here not the management of the forum at all, unlike what other forums are doing where the management gets all the money without paying a dime to the users in most cases.

If you read not only the first post in the topic you'd guess how ridiculous you look when you say something, which revealed untrue multiple times during the thread discussion.

Signature function was added to different forum scripts for decades and definitely before Bitcointalk even first appaered.

But you are not really interested in the topic, right? Otherwise you'd read what was discussed here.

Loads of SMF are coming up with the copied version of bitcointalk forum. They have signatures embedded into their SMF but no credits whatsoever to bitcointalk, which happens to be the originator of the idea.

I also didn't know it was invented firstly in bitcointalk forum.

It has become a major spice to the forum and rewarding people globally. It is worth our applause.

Yes, signatures were not what we are seeing here but closer to:


The cheating accusations on both sides were insane.
Checks not being sent, commissions not being paid and so on, on one side.
On the other you had people putting their links all over the place and since it WAS a way different internet 25+ years ago the crap posting was beyond bad.

-Dave

I think that in some countries around the world, since 1995 - when mass use of the Internet began, it was easy to find models in which users could be compensated. In some cases, it was enough to create a small website and make money by inviting local merchants to have a banner on the website.

Some of us live in countries that are less suited to these technologies, or we were very young, and that's why we weren't able to take advantage of this moment. (Some weren't even born yet.)

Wow, I guess sig campaigns aren't as new a concept as I thought!  I am probably far more shocked by that fact than my written words are conveying in this thread; it would seem like more forums would implement them, since they offer advertising space to manufacturers/whoever and at least a small amount of income to forum participants.  They benefit everyone as far as I can see, and the only real drawback is the one that's plagued bitcointalk, i.e., that incentivized posting leads to a lot of crappy, off-topic, low-value posts.

And that was prior to 2000, eh?  Wow.

Of those you mentioned, the only one I didn't know was parts-express
These forums have helped me a lot too
But it's amazing to think that even with so many years of participating in forums, I had never thought about the possibility of renting/selling a signature

A few years ago when forums were more popular, and if the moderators/owners of the forums allowed it, I think hardware stores could pay for the best users to promote them
But as I said, I didn't think about that possibility

I've seen you with 2 signature that I remember before, the most recent one from TalkImg, and another one that I don't remember which one, but I don't think it was a paid one

The signature campaigns here on the forum become very interesting when the payments equal or exceed a salary of the country where the user lives, for the US or most of Europe it is good but for other countries it is a very high value

---

I think it's a almost win win situation
Of course, it generates some spam or unnecessary/excessive posts, but it also brings activity to the forum, it's a reward that helps to keep good users here, help them (like you said right now)
It also generates cryptocurrency traffic, new users and a few other good things

Another very interesting thing is that cryptos are essential to this system, the campaigns capture the essence of cryptos very well, of being able to pay someone living in another country, without intermediaries, without excessive fees and with privacy/anonymity if the user wants it

Yes, there is one forum I was once about that adopted a signature campaign advertisement system but it seems to stop at some point.
Bitcointalk appear to be the only forum that is successful in the signature marketing area due to the forum being the harness for new and old crypto-related business to announce their establishment, advertisements, etc. I could remember Binance once hard their bounty campaign here.


No. I think the reputation of this forum^{which is built on community-driven} and the legacy of Satoshi is what makes it impossible for any other forum to replicate what Bitcointalk is doing.

Of a real note, this forum and its signature campaigns has done more than provide a source of earning passively or majorly where a regular job has failed and has done more to make of us the campaigners worthy ambassadors of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrencies movement which is of the present and the future. I doubt other crypto currencies have a forum like this with a signature campaign to be a means of passive income rather than upgrading the features to fit traders and investors alike.

It seems like a lot today, but at the time the forum started it was very little.
10 years ago, a donor, especially miners, could easily donate 10BTC. Imagine if only 50 people donated that amount to the forum 10 years ago.

Well, I think you understand how today the forum has a lot of money available to keep it running.

I am grateful that there is a signature campaign as it is helping me out during this tight time for mining.

Yeah BTC and bitcointalk has been quite a trip for myself.

Bitcointalk is the first forum I have seen and stated my signature campaign journey. I have not seen and heard about any other forum that use signature campaign till now. I have only advertised things on social media like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. So when I came here and the first campaign I joined wiz.io and it took me almost 2 days to wear the signature and when I became a full member, to wear the avatar was a problem to wear the personal text was another drama. All because I don't know where to go and placed them in their proper positions. So historically from end Bitcointalk is my first forum till now I don't know any other one.

Going back to pre Y2K days I had a paid signature on a motorcycle forum.
And this was before PayPal was even a thing for online payments. We actually got mailed checks every couple of months, had to fill on a W-9 (tax form) and got a 1099 (tax form) at the end of the year.

Then PayPal came and it all went nuts for a while.

-Dave

I was supposed to be surprised about signature campaigns not being a thing that's started here in the forum but then I've read that this forum owns 40 million USD, talk about surprises. I do know that there's a lot of donators in the forum and that it's around a million at least but what I didn't know was this is the amount, are they all from donators to the forum though? And what are these insane amount of money used for?

Yes, no one had any idea of the proportions this would have in the future.

But, at the time, it was undoubtedly an excellent gateway - at low cost, to advertise new services linked to this market and beyond.

I was not here years ago but thinking deeply and logically, I believe people who did this probably for two main purposes.

To help Bitcoin increases its exposure to more people, then help Bitcoin adoption.
To help their business gets access to a new potential customer population.

Who did it years ago actually did not think too much about how far Bitcoin can go and how big effects from their signature campaigns for their business.

I believe that the popularity that signature campaigns gained on the forum was due to the fact that at the time they appeared, almost no money was really spent on advertising.

Paying 0.001 per post was almost the same as what you would earn in half a dozen clicks on a faucet. In turn, obtaining Bitcoin was not extremely difficult. With a few hours/days of mining on your PC at home, you could earn enough BTC to pay for several weeks of advertising.

Anyway, as the focus was on circulating BTC, people did not do this for the sake of money/value gained, but rather to obtain more BTC. This makes this model grow together with the community, and ends up becoming an incredible advertising model in this forum and almost unique.

I am like you.

parts-express
andantech
macrumors
macmini 123

all did not let you sell your signature.
I made thousands of posts on those forums. maybe 15000 on them.

I did a lot of mac mini sales on mac mini 123.
a few sales on andantech.

 I don’t do a lot of signature work here. maybe 2 years out of  11. But it comes in handy if you get a bit tight on cash.

There were different payment systems like e-gold , WebMoney, etc. Those times these Internet payment systems were still anonymous and people could easily send money with them not being afraid of account ban or transaction freeze. Of course unlike Bitcoin these systems all were centralized, but there was nearly no government control over them. Later when government made more control over Internet money, Bitcoin appeared.

Huh.  I never heard of that first one you mentioned, though I'm quite familiar with Yobit's monstrosity of a forum.  I remember when they created it and basically scraped the bottom of bitcointalk's barrel for its user base.

And I wasn't absolutely certain early on that this forum was where sig campaigns originated from, I discovered that fact one day when I was randomly browsing ancient threads and stumbled across that first thread where a member offered up his signature space for rent.  That was what sparked the idea, and though my opinion is that campaigns have had a negative effect here, they're also a great way for people with little money to earn some way more easily than they could if they worked a job in their country in real life.

They're also pretty good for the bitcoin economy, although I don't know the magnitude of the benefit.  But by spreading bitcoin around, that's got to help in some way.  And damned if this isn't the first thread I've seen about the origin of what remains a unique (except for those other two forums) phenomenon.

Edit:

Oh, no kidding?  My bad, I posted before reading, but I was confident that our forum here was the first to do such a thing--and I wouldn't have thought it'd have been feasible back in 2007 since there wasn't an easy way to send small amounts of money to a bunch of different people all at once (like bitcoin).  I guess I'll have to read up on that site.

The signature campaign was made possible by forums that allow advertisement on their users' profiles and it could go way back to when Bitcointalk did not yet exist I remember moneymakergroup forum, a forum dedicated to investment allowed their members to sell their signature space and projects they are promoting, this is one of the perks of users of smf phbb and vanilla-based forums they allow their users to promote or sell advertisement space on their signature.
But of course, a forum has the option to sell advertisements with better visibility than a signature campaign and there's also an option where they can disable the signature and only use the forum's advertised projects.

As far as I know the only platform I think that offers signature campaign is altcointalk I do made a little research about them but don't see any activeness in that forum rather much attention are being focused here on Bitcointalk and the look of the site aren't cool as btt here so for me to spend time there was like a hell, so I can't tell much about that forum but they basically focused on altcoin related discussions and bounty campaign has been launched over there but not a btc paying campaign rather than projects tokens as means of payment. I don't know how regular they do launch campaign over there because I don't even think of signing up there maybe those who knows about that site can throw more light to you to understand how it's mostly operated.

I haven't even thought about that before but, that's untrue.
I've learnt alot since I got engaged in the forum - one of which is the fact that there are so many forum like this... Also, running an ad internally is also paying peeps basically in other platforms too...

---

I understand the pride behind having the forum as a place to seek solace - knowledge wise, and also to earn some few bucks too... Maybe OP was too driven by that.

Sandra🧑‍🦰

That's not recent article, it was published very long time ago. This article only get updated sometimes, this is why fresh date is displayed. And i could argue about some things which is written there. Like signature campaign brings low income, but actually it's higher than some earning methods which is described there.

Oh, I completely forgot about this forum. I remember I used it a lot when I only started to try earn money online. I remember something about their ''signature campaigns'', but not very clear and I never tried to participate in it.

Agree about it, can't imagine signature campaigns on other forums working same like on Bitcointalk. There is so many factors which don't allow it to happen. Like too low payment rates, not that active forums, spam and etc

I'm an old forum user, I've been using forums for over 20 years, and most of them were about gaming, electronics and hardware/PC forums
Several forums have died, but there are still 3 that are active and I still participate, apart from here of course

Bitcointalk is unique in that sense, no forum I've been on has used a signature campaign system or anything close to it
The ones that are active today certainly wouldn't accept such a system, since they are more "centralized", and the forum owners wouldn't gain anything from it.
The forums are making money from advertising and also from commission links, and on these forums you can't even mention or refer stores that aren't in their commission system, they delete your post and you can be banned

It seems that this system only works well here because of the freedom we have and if you think about it, it works very well here, usually the community helps each other if there are problems, or if a scam appears, with the merits, DTs, trust etc

That's even a recent article on that website. I guess we're going to have a surge of new registrations going forward because of that. I hope they come, learn and contribute too, not completely have that belief of earning alone.

Would you mind naming them if you think there are any as OP has asked for such sites. I'm sure OP is asking for such sites paying for signature campaigns with Bitcoin, not with some random shitcoins.

I think the term "campaign" is too specific which means renting signature space collectively, basically this is an attribute rental service. Wherever a forum or site implemented the signature attribute before this forum was created, it is likely that this type of rental agreement has occurred either publicly or privately.

So I'm not sure this forum is the first, but I'm sure the rates are the most expensive.

Also old https://mmgp.ru/, that was registered in 2007 used same "pay for 1 line in signature" reward system. And I think for a long period people used their any free forum account space to advertise their services. This makes bitcointalk not being signature campaign creator.

I can give you even a link to a web archived section of one forum where there are several topics about buying ad places in signatures on different forums (you could make a deal there on selling an ad place in your signature on many other forums, if it was allowed on those forums). It is in Russian. Topics with a word пoдпиcи/пoдпиceй in the title are about that.

It was the answer to OP's question.



And you also see the reply when a member ask if he could run a signature campaign in cryptotalk forum.

https://cryptotalk.org/topic/367150-signature-campaign/
https://cryptotalk.org/topic/363807-%F0%9F%9F%A5bounty%F0%9F%9F%A5-solarblox-crypto-solar-mining-250-000-sbx-escrow-%F0%9F%A4%91-signature/ ( their bounty section I guess).

---

So, what happened at that time was that Cryptotalk ran a signature campaign on Bitcointalk to promote their website. They also had a signature campaign on their own website.

This part of your answer is irrelevant too.

Cryptotalk runs its signature campaign in Bitcointalk through Yobit team, it is correct but, a big but, it was hosted in a last bear market, in 2019. I am sure you are here long enough to know Bitcointalk had signature campaigns years before 2019.

CryptoTalk.Org Signature Campaign [Yobit Panel].

Sorry about that, I was just under the expectation that OP himself knows what he was saying below.


I might have rushed to share my opinion because I thought it was true. It seems that the OP might be spreading false information, but perhaps he/she didn't do enough research, just like I didn't when I replied. I got excited about it without reading all the comments first.

Come on, the way he started his sentence makes it sound really convincing. It wasn't even a question; it was more like a conclusion.

The signature space was available on some forums before Bitcointalk but only a few members were able to get any deals from advertisers and the pay on those forums was are very limited back then. I believe it's Bitcointalk that changed advertisers perception about the signature space and allowed users to earn good income by applying the advertisers signature on their signature space.

I think the management about signature campaigns started from this forum because back then advertisers used to directly contact the users in order to rent their signature space. But, these days thanks to the managers who have made the work easier for the advertisers as well as for the members, the advertisers don't have to find the members directly and the tiring work is done by a manager.

Freedomgo doesn't wear a signature? I think I'll edit the last sentence to make it clear amidst all the quotes. Although I think it was pretty clear from the context, if you read it carefully. First I tell Freedomgo that he hasn't read the comments, then I put the comments he hasn't read and finally I tell him that I hope his manager doesn't pay him to write without even reading the comments on the first page.

Chill dude, the guy isn't even wear a signature

I thought you were saying to all users you quoted, but yeah now I understand.

Apparently you can't read either, or I don't know which is worse: you didn't feel like reading the few comments in the thread where it is clearly shown that it is based on a false supposition, since they didn't originate here:




freedomgo, I don't know who your manager is, but I hope he doesn't pay you to write posts on page 1 without reading the comments.

On the other hand, I don't see much point in keeping this thread open, let alone on meta, because it's already clear that what the OP says is false.

I didn't know that the forum signature campaign originated on Bitcointalk. It's a bit conflict of interest in their business because they also have their own advertisements. In a signature campaign, advertisers don't pay Bitcointalk; instead, the campaigners and their managers are the ones paid. Yet, Bitcointalk allows it because it brings in more users, which increases site traffic. It was a smart move.

I can't compare these two things. The pizza event in the past became widely popular worldwide, while the signature campaign is known to only a few people.


I only know about Cryptotalk. It's a campaign that was run by Yobit before.

Adding a promotional ad or anything to the profile signature on the forum has always existed. That is, since forum scripts like SMF, Phpbb, ... were created. A suitable ground for making campaigns out of it is Bitcoin and the simplicity of paying many participants while keeping everything "anonymous".
Imagine how complicated it would be for a biker forum to introduce a signature promotion/campaign. Which payment method would they choose?

In my opinion, the concept of signatures is not only available on the bitcointalk site. I once joined a local community site that probably used the same CMS as bitcointalk and had a signature feature under posts. However, in my local forum there is no signature campaign so the signature space is usually filled with words of wisdom or promos about products/services

I assume the emergence of this signature campaign is because the bitcointalk site is a large forum so many companies want to advertise their products here, but because the bitcointalk forum does not provide advertising space, the trick to being able to continue advertising on this forum is to rent signature space from forum members.

I have seen such a thread in the development board but it is not close to what the bitcointalk has. It was even imitating the algorithm of Reddit where people receive Satoshis instead of upvotes. I do not think that it is a project that will make waves

Jokers10, good to know your experience that you have earned through signature about eleven years ago even when bitcoin wasn't invented. Oc Tradism said about it that bitcointalk could only be the first if it is about bitcoin earning that that has been signature campaigns which paid in USD.

Did you say the forum owns $40M? How did this money come? From forum earnings through advert or from donations. Is there any address where this fund is kept, I want to check it out on the Blockchain.


You said about this freedom in my other thread. I understand very well.

That's right, but the payment rates depend on average on the market. When is was SEO motivated people could get pass-through links on other sites for several bucks, so the most SEO attractive forums could bring you the same amount maximum. Of course, like LoyceV said, it was not on every forum, many added rel=nofollow tags on signatures, so you could earn on your signature mainly on the forums which wanted more content which would be paid this way. All those forums are dead already because that era of mega popular SEO links is over more than a decade.

Payment depends on the amount of exposure and competitions between competitors. This forum has enough monthly traffic to convince advertisers spending their money. The campaign mangers are also doing great works in making the signature campaign more demand-able.

Most forums I know don't allow to earn money from your signature. It's meant for personal things, although it could include your own website.

What makes Bitcointalk unique, is the level of freedom we get. Of course, it also helps that the forum owns $40M. Most other forums rely on advertising, and advertising in signatures would compete with the forum's own income. Bitcointalk doesn't have that problem.

I haven't seen it, and even if it existed, I'd expect it to pay much less.

From what I've seen, theymos prefers freedom instead of restrictions.

That's not entirely true, but if you are talking about earning bitcoins through signature campaigns, then yes, Bitcointalk was one of the earliest platforms to introduce them. However, signature campaigns themselves have a history dating back to the early days of online forums.

I remember that back in the days when vBulletin was a popular forum software, it also featured signature options. Of course, users weren't earning money from these signatures, but there were campaigns and promotions involving signatures.


Yes, not only these terms, but many other significant developments originated on Bitcointalk. For example, Ethereum was first announced on Bitcointalk, and MtGox, one of the earliest bitcoin exchanges, also had its beginnings here. The idea of ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) and token sales also gained popularity through discussions on Bitcointalk



Seriously? Why would theymos do that? It's important to understand that Bitcoin thrive on decentralization and openness. The beauty of signature campaigns (or it used to be ) is that it promotes community engagement, spread awareness, and provide opportunities for forum members. Introducing patents and exclusive rights would go against the very principles that Bitcoin stands for. So, no, theymos having a patent for signature campaigns is highly unlikely and would not be in the best interest of the Bitcoin community.

Do you think all people are like faketoshi to try and slide a patent some where just to claim ownership?

---

I heard there is a site paying for posts/content, it was posted on project development board, something called stacker.news, you can spread the words and gather as many as you can to attack that site with some constructive content.😉

https://99bitcoins.com contains many articles that were written without review or background about the topic, and relying on them as a reference will lead you to wrong conclusions.
Although signature campaigns are considered a good way to advertise, for a long time they were associated with spam and many old members tried to either ignore everyone wearing these signatures or even ban some accounts from joining until the merit system came in, which helped reduce spam.
Without developing yourself and learning, you will find that making a profit from your signature will become more difficult until it becomes impossible due to the tightening of restrictions.

That's a crazy greedy idea mate. Do you really think it is possible to patent paid signature campaigns in a forum? It's like having the sole right for athletes to wear logos and other printed advertisements on their attires. So millions of athletes worldwide need to contact the person with the rights in order to ask permission or pay fees? Even the invention of medicines can be copied after a period of time to push for cheaper and affordable generic medicines, otherwise, poor people and countries will be deprived. You need to change your mindset mate.

It is not an invention of Bitcointalk.

The signature space can be disabled by theymos anytime. The signature campaign industry in Bitcointalk can be stopped anytime by theymos.

You are discussing two different things.

Signature campaigns to earn bitcoin.
Signature campaigns to earn income, not in bitcoin.

If it is to earn bitcoin, I am so sure Bitcointalk is a first place to have it because Bitcointalk is a Bitcoin forum, created by the Bitcoin creator, founder. You can not find other places to earn it, before Bitcointalk.

If it is to earn income, not in bitcoin, you can find other places, other forums.

BBCode was invented in 1998, long before Bitcoin and Bitcointalk.

A first offer to pay forum members in bitcoin is in 2011 with auctions, then became more popular in 2013.
[WTB] Buying your signature space, paying 0.1 BTC require: 50+ posts per month

History - signature campaigns and bounties on Bitcointalk
Evolutionof signature ad campaigns (beginning days to the present)

It is not so. At least about 15 years ago I already used to get a reward for placing advertisement in my signature on some forums. It was a time when SEO links were very actual, so many were very motivated in advertising via pass-through links. It was different, because the amount of already left posts mattered and it was less important how active you are at the moment. But well, I was paid for advertisement in my signature. Of course there was no BTC at that moment, so we got the reward in USD and much less than projects pay for it at the moment. But I first found it much earlier than came on bitcointalk.org and even earlier than bitcointalk.org first appeared.

Wrong, kiba was the person who start it in this forum. There are many forums that allow their user to use their own signature. Phpbb is one of the example and it exist since 2000, earlier than this forum.

It started when an user want to rent his signature space, maybe since there's a feedback when this user wear the project signature, then other project start a signature campaign.

Signature campaign is popular in Bitcointalk because this forum might be the most successful.

The only site that I have seen something like this are altcoinstalks.com, and this Russians forum, cryptotalk.org. Both sites copied it on this forum. Signature campaign started on this forum.

Do you know that Signature Campaign is an invention of bitcointalk.org?
I didn't know before now. I had thought that signature campaign is something that has been in practice even before creating the bitcointalk forum. But I was surprised to discover otherwise. I searched the internet for ways to earn bitcoin. Many blogs including binance news acknowledged that signature campaign is a means to earn bitcoin and it was started or it is exclusive for bitcointalk forum. Even 99bitcoins said a similar thing.

This is nice to know that apart from the Bitcoin - Pizza event, HODL typo error incident, there are other things that emanated from the bitcointalk forum.

So, apart from here in bitcointalk, has any other forum or website adopted the signature campaign system of advertisement?
Does theymos have a patent for signature campaign such that no other forum can replicate what is happening here without his permission.