Topic: The signature campaign “syndrome” (Read 1204 times)

Thanks for this offer Welsh, I will do it soon. Because I wanted to increase the intensity of the report, I should have learned some good tips and tricks based on the experiences of many other users here. Actually I'm almost 1/3 out of 1000 if all reports are handled. Still a very small amount, but better than nothing. LOL

96% is very good. Also, remember that percentage isn't a great indicator. If you've reported 1000s of posts then 96% is fantastic. If you've only reported <100 posts then the percentage is rather meaningless. What I'm trying to say is the percentage can be influenced more when you haven't reported a lot of posts. By the time that you've got into the habit of reporting a lot of posts then you would have already likely learned what is suitable, and not suitable to report.

If you ever have any questions regarding improving reporting you can always message me, and I'll try to explain to the best of my ability. You can also check out my guide where I went into reporting in a little more depth. Though, I've been meaning to add a few things to that, and generally clean it up a bit. 

My reporting accuracy rate so far doesn't seem very good at only 96% but that's not a big deal as I've gone to great lengths to report spam for removal based on my observation and ratings. Maybe we have some users whose reporting accuracy is up to 100% here and it seems they can report hundreds to thousands of posts for deletion every month. I'd like to get some tips on how to improve report accuracy for the better. Anyone willing to help, I really appreciate it.

I found a good reason from your post, it save moderators time to follow up on reports which is why accuracy is needed. I don't want to report posts that I shouldn't report blindly without regard for accuracy even though in fact in the same thread I can find a lot of spammers.

I've observed that there's two sides of the argument here. Either, users here preemptively assume signature campaigners are posting just because they earn, when that isn't true for all cases. Besides, I've said this numerous times, I don't personally care their motive for posting, as long as it's of decent quality.

Unless, you're abusing the report feature your accuracy should never be the difference of you reporting the post or not. We appreciate all reports, it gives us something to do, and in the majority of the cases the report is handled good. Honestly, the majority of users are pretty accurate at reporting, however it's not a big deal if you get a few bad reports. I have over 200 bad reports for instance.

I partly wish the percentage was removed, and only good, and bad reports were displayed. Sure, users could still work out their percentage manually, but if it's not right there in front of them they'll likely not care as much.

As it's explained in that report window, "Do not worry about your accuracy too much; one accurate report is worth many inaccurate reports." It's only natural though to want to have report accuracy as high as possible (preferably 100%) but you have to be really unreasonable when reporting to get that percentage low as mods will delete low value/redundant posts and topic more often than not. So feel free to report what you think is shitpost and it will probably be deleted. Few percentage lower accuracy is worth removing the crap. And if you really want to build up %, head over to altcoin section and pick one of the threads that are using shilling services.

I had 100% for a very long time, and then once I went into bad streak (combination of bad admin judgment and series of multiple reports during one reporting session which can count as bad) and it went down couple of %.

edit:Upgrade00 beat me to it.

On the report page, you will see the message: Do not worry about your accuracy too much; one accurate report is worth many inaccurate reports..
There's no benefit in having a high accuracy, what matters is making the effort to keep the community clean. However, a good knowledge of the forum rules woukd help, as it allows one report more accurately (saving their time and the mods'), but when in doubt even after reading the rules, report and let the mods decide.

Alright, I will then do that when I come across very bad occurences of this issue. Wasn't sure since it's usually not an abusive or wrongly posted message - they 'attempt' to reply something that vaguely fits the topic and in 'benefit of the doubt' scenario, they could argue they legitimately wanted to help (even though they lack the knowledge etc).

I was also a little worried since I once already reported a scam spammer and it now says '100% report accuracy', but I'm not sure if it's bad to have a low accuracy or not.

By all means you can report posts you deem to be low quality and low effort, they contribute to spam which makes may boards on the form virtually unreadable.
Do not however be bothered much if no action is taken as the mods would not always agree with your reply, this shouldn't bother you much though.

That's correct. You have the power to remove anything you please

Funny indeed, seems I experienced the exact same thing as you did, right now I'm actually honestly wondering how those people even know about the signature campaigns and just sign up for those and not for the forum itself. Since I knew nothing about those so far until after becoming member (like you).

I'll keep this feature in mind! If I understood correctly, in a self-moderated thread I can delete any reply, correct?

I believe this prejudice cuts across. I do that too, though I get disappointed on a few occasions where participants of reputable campaigns don't live up to expectations by the standard of posts they make. It's worse for me once a poster is promoting a fraudulent enterprise, I don't bother to read them even if they were once people I read and enjoyed their posts. I don't read comments because those who wrote them have enough merits. No, that will be getting deceived because I know giving merit is subjective and doesn't in most cases reveal in truth the quality of post(s). Besides, having enough merit could even come from merit trading.

That's funny--I was in the same position back in 2014 when I was lurking and just starting to get interested in bitcoin.  I was reading all of these really crappy posts by members who obviously couldn't write English very well, and they were basically just writing garbage posts anyway.  I had no idea what a signature campaign was or what would motivate someone to write those kinds of posts.  Only after I registered and started to get a feel for the forum did I become familiar with the reasons behind the plague of shitposting.

Also, it's great that you lurked before becoming a member.  Not many people do that anymore; they just come here to participate in campaigns or bounties and their contributions are usually net negative to the forum overall.

I don't know about that, because I've started a few threads in which I was asking for help or information, and while there were inevitably crap posts made, I did usually get my answers.  One thing members can do is create self-moderated threads to eliminate nonsense replies (though some members don't like them and will choose not to post in self-modded threads).

And it gets worse. If someone actually wants to help the OP, he'll choose not to, because the thread will have filled with tons of meaningless posts and his post won't be even read by the OP. The OP will have already ignored his own thread, due to this meaninglessness that will prevail. And still, while no one wants these people, there're managers who'll pay them for doin' it.

I've proposed a solution, but it doesn't seem to be liked from both the users' and the admins' side.

Read my proposal.

Damnn, I've been registered for a short time, but long-time reader and I really noticed often times, that e.g. someone needs help and even though the question has been answered or issue resolved, people with often very low knowledge base and very low effort try to 'help', sometimes even spreading false information. I didn't understand why they'd do that - especially seeing that many have tons of posts and activity, yet no clue about Bitcoin. Now I understand, since they all have some casino signature or similar....

I'm wondering when I see these very low-effort, low-quality, clueless 'helping' replies, if it's correct to report them to clean the threads a little? Because they're technically not 'abusive or wrongly posted messages'.

In fact, it’s hard to expect newbie members to write quality posts on this forum from the very beginning.
Newbie members usually do not have enough knowledge and experience to be able to write such quality posts, which can help other members.
Therefore, I advise new members not to write much on the forum at the beginning, but to read other posts more, get informed and learn.
Over time, they will gain the necessary experience and knowledge to be able to write better and to benefit from it through signature campaigns.
Clearly many members can’t or don’t want to wait and they join in signature campaigns that are lower paid initially, and that’s ok, they have to start somewhere.
I always give such members a chance, even if they do not write well on the forum in the beginning.
I believe that everyone deserves their chance and to prove themselves as good members of this forum, those who contribute to the forum.

Bitcointalk has many members who participated in the low paying signature at the beginning of their journey and later got a chance in the high paying signature campaign. If he/she participates in a high paying signature in the future, he/she must have posted good quality posts from the beginning.

So if someone participates in a low paying signature, it does not mean that the member does not have the ability to post good quality posts. So if someone is in a low paying signature campaign and writes good quality posts, then there is no point in ignoring him/her. But everyone has their own way of thinking, so everyone can share their personal opinions. You share your opinion, but it's not always right.

I don't hide signatures. I've definitely been influenced by signatures here on the forum in the past, and I'm sure that's true for everyone that doesn't hide them. Being influenced even by a advertisement isn't always a bad thing. I've discovered some quite cool projects over time, and I'm sure there's been instances that people have found services that appeal for them, well its a given really.

Depends on the type of participants that they had as a data set. However, a referral link isn't a catch all. Advertising doesn't always work for direct links, however getting the product in the mind of a potential customer is what you want to do. I tend to be quite good at blocking out advertisements on TV etc, but I've even noticed that Sponsored videos on Youtube, while I haven't used the infulencers direct coupon code, they got the product in my mind, and when I needed something like that, it was that company I thought of.

So, there's direct advertising, and indirect. We know advertising works, because I bet the majority of this forum are aware of the companies that regularly advertise through signature campaigns. In fact, the very lure of getting paid to post, is an advertisement, because it creates brand loyalty. If x company pays you to post, and you use them, you're more likely to actually use their service over a competitors.

Therefore, even if you don't get direct referral link clicks, the advertisement itself is still working. I've even had messages asking me about the advertisement in my signature in the past. So, people are definitely noticing them even if they aren't clicking them directly. We have to remember as well, not everyone will know that the links are clickable.

This might just be because none of them interest you. We know advertisements work, since TradeFortress built their entire online wallet out of the advertisements. It become widely used, and I would assume that this was majority built on his signature campaign they were running at the time.

I've not clicked on many, but I have. Especially, more personal projects. I'm visited quite a few personal websites of users here. A few years ago, it was more common to use the signature for either personal projects or personal interests. For example, I used to have a Slackware link, because at the time I was tinkering around with it, and enjoying it.

So, for a advertisement to work it needs to hit the right audience, and the number of clicks a referral link gets doesn't necessarily indicate how good the advertisement is working. Its an indication, but because most people would likely digest that advertisement subconsciously or indirectly look it up, then it only catches a few, and isn't a catch all.

We know advertisements work. Edward Bernays taught us that the human mind is very susceptible to information, even if its completely wrong propaganda. If anyone hasn't read his book, I recommend it to get some insight on how governments control its people. However, going back to if advertisements work; they work very similarly to propaganda, and both are used to influence the population. Just think of it, anywhere you go on the internet, real life, or just anywhere you will see probably 100s of advertisements a day. You might not register all of them consciously, but you've seen them subconsciously. So, the next time you want something related to that advertisement, you'll remember it.

There isn't an argument to be found when arguing against the effectiveness of advertisements. We know advertisements work, in fact we are now more aware they work, since our platforms like TV, and even Youtube are becoming more, and more advertisement friendly. Youtubers have found out that, they can earn more money, and companies can earn more money by putting a sponsored video by the infulencer inside the actual video, instead of via Youtube ad breaks, because its more personalized, and the followers of that person are more likely to take note of the advertisement. This is the same for this forum, if you particularly like someone or someone's content on here, you are probably more likely to be interested in what they are advertising.

Take theymos talking about Grin coin, now he was very cautious about clearly defining that he doesn't necessarily recommend investing into Grin coin, but was more excited by the technology behind it, while clearly defining his opinion on the rather big short comings. However, take a look at how many people rushed to the announcement thread once Grin coin was officially accepted on Bitcointalk for Copper membership. Now, most of them would have likely never heard of it or at least it would have taken years for them to even take a whiff of the name GrinCoin. However, that announcement thread was flooded with all kinds of users, even those that probably don't even visit the altcoin section.

Just to be clear, I don't think theymos was advertising GrinCoin (at least not directly), but you can see the impact that someone who is maybe looked up too, can have on others. So, advertisements in signatures work in the same way.

Yeah, those sites have referral links which players could promote and earn commissions from their invitees.

Thanks for this example.
I’ve actually always been interested in how effective these signature campaigns really are and how much they really help those companies that advertise in such way.
Personally, I don't remember ever clicking on a link in a signature campaign and I believe that most other members on this forum also don't click directly on those links in the signature.
Since all of these companies still pay members of the signature campaign and also have some costs they obviously benefit from such advertising otherwise they would not do it.
Your explanation makes sense to me, although I'm not sure if this kind of advertising is really the best.
Wouldn't it be better to give bonuses to members who bring their friends or to advertise on social networks and in telegram groups?
I think most members on this forum understand campaign signatures as business and don’t really care at all what they advertise in their signature, or what is advertised in other signatures.  
If nothing else, thanks to the signature campaigns we have more activity on the forum, which does not necessarily mean that we got a higher quality  
I agree with the OP in that.

Either he could have used some tracking parameter with the URL or a shortlink that leads to the same URL.

Results might vary though. When I joined 777campaign, my account accrued over 30 referrals, albeit dead ones. On the flipside, this campaign (Rollbit) I joined netted me zero referrals.

I feel that most advertisers are missing potential customers by not paying their earnings to their on-site accounts (rather just the BTC to any specified address). Plus the fact that the participants might have their preferred sites/ casinos to play on makes them less feasible in the long run, I somewhat agree sig campaigns tend to have lower CTR.