Altcoins Talks - Cryptocurrency Forum
Crypto Discussion Forum => Forum related => Decentralized Team => Topic started by: Lucius on June 02, 2024, 03:50:34 PM
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I come across more and more members who shill BG and projects related to that platform, and I wonder if it might be justified to filter every link and name of that platform in some way? I know that there are certain words that are "forbidden" and instead of which the forum automatically places a certain link, so I hope that the admin and the forum administration will consider this situation and remove such things from the forum.
I have already reported some members because of that and as far as I can see, some of them have become inactive (perhaps they have been banned), but there are obviously too many of them.
What I would especially warn the admin is to pay attention to the fact that these members are getting +karma from someone, and I doubt that that alt farm has at least one or more Senior rank accounts for that.
Let's look at just one example of how they operate:
User @Joseph Lee opened the topic - and if we look at his post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=96539), we can see that he is BG shill, while another member (@MCcabe Rory) joins the conversation who is also a BG shill. His post history link (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98326).
Evidence was published on BTT that BG as a company hires and pays people to promote them in this way -> Innovative Shilling (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5498457.msg64159505#msg64159505)
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Yeah, I noticed the influx as well and also tried to call out one of them as low key shill account. A lot of their posts were already moved to the incentivized posting, maybe admin could also hide that sub-board from guests? I think doing it further limits engagements but I could be wrong.
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I try to catch them when I see and give the registered warnings for shilling and delete obviously spammy posts, but right you are, there are many of them. Sometimes I move their topics to the Incentivised Posting / Shill section, sometimes just trash these topics, especially when there are no replies and/or it is AI written. All beyond that is in admin's will.
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The two users mentioned in the OP (@MCcabe Rory and @Joseph Lee) have just joined the shillers group and have earned the group badge, and both have also received a warning. In the case of MCcabe Rory it is the fourth warning, so he also has a first strike, Joseph Lee accumulates three warnings in total. If both users continue with the same behavior, the penalties will continue to increase.
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I try to catch them when I see and give the registered warnings for shilling and delete obviously spammy posts, but right you are, there are many of them. Sometimes I move their topics to the Incentivised Posting / Shill section, sometimes just trash these topics, especially when there are no replies and/or it is AI written. All beyond that is in admin's will.
I would just draw the attention of all members not to enter into discussions with such members, because that way you are only helping them to achieve their goal. Instead, we should all use the "report to moderator" button more - although it seems to me that "they" have dozens of accounts they use on this forum.
The two users mentioned in the OP (@MCcabe Rory and @Joseph Lee) have just joined the shillers group and have earned the group badge, and both have also received a warning. In the case of MCcabe Rory it is the fourth warning, so he also has a first strike, Joseph Lee accumulates three warnings in total. If both users continue with the same behavior, the penalties will continue to increase.
I wish I was wrong, but those accounts were created with one goal in mind, and regardless of the fines, they will continue to use them for that goal. It would also be good (if possible) to investigate where their +karmas come from, because it seems to me that they cannot get them from someone naturally, but that they have a karma source that rewards them all.
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I wish I was wrong, but those accounts were created with one goal in mind, and regardless of the fines, they will continue to use them for that goal. It would also be good (if possible) to investigate where their +karmas come from, because it seems to me that they cannot get them from someone naturally, but that they have a karma source that rewards them all.
No, you are not wrong, those accounts are what they are, reviewing the post history we can see it clearly, maybe it should be called soft shilling.
If both users continue with the same behavior, the penalties will also increase, until they reach the point where they cannot post. I hope that doesn't happen though.
As for the karma of those two users, I don't think the amount of karma they have is unusual, Joseph Lee have +6 and MCcabe Rory +1. Taking this post as a reference, if the amount of positive karma of both users grows unusually, I will ask the administrator to review the logs.
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Bitget shilling is growing day by day, today I saw many of them invaded reddit boards too. Thanks OP for mentioning my thread of BTT. :D
Anyway mods took swift actions that might hold them for now but I am sure they will come back with more new accounts to do the SEO spam no matter what so I assume the best solution to stop them is to put word filter as suggested by @hugeblack on the word Bitget, BGB or anything related to Bitget which for a week or two and see if it stops them invading again.
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they are not sponsoring sports team anymore but just shilling the exchange everywhere. i can see this to be the FTX2.0 after the bull run. it has all the signs of low budgeted scam.
as i don't think there is the need for a new international exchange, the crypto space has a lot of it already and then Bitget all of a sudden appear in the scene like it has an army of shillers.
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they are not sponsoring sports team anymore but just shilling the exchange everywhere. i can see this to be the FTX2.0 after the bull run. it has all the signs of low budgeted scam.
as i don't think there is the need for a new international exchange, the crypto space has a lot of it already and then Bitget all of a sudden appear in the scene like it has an army of shillers.
Too early to judge TBH, but I hate the way they are promoting their exchange.
I mean the exchange has some kind of this campaign where they will promote the, in exchange for some rewards. They don't really care if they are shilling the exchange as long as they get paid.
I'm not supporting the exchange (even though I've seen them being promoted by numerous YouTube crypto influencers), but as long as they are operating and works fine, I don't see them as an FTX 2.0 until we are seeing signs of it to happen. We might see in the future. They might be one of the most popular exchanges, or they might follow what FTX did. As for me, I just don't want their way of advertising their exchange, and like others, I will start to report it as well. Here and in BTT.
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Shilling is dealt with appropriately on this forum TBH, where all such posts are moved to a special board for that (Incentivized Posting / Shill). But may I ask if there is anything shady that Bitget has been doing recently, or is it just advertisement spam that people are concerned about here.
I just want to make sure that we don't have sort of a 1xbit situation in our hands.
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I come across more and more members who shill BG and projects related to that platform, and I wonder if it might be justified to filter every link and name of that platform in some way? I know that there are certain words that are "forbidden" and instead of which the forum automatically places a certain link, so I hope that the admin and the forum administration will consider this situation and remove such things from the forum.
I have already reported some members because of that and as far as I can see, some of them have become inactive (perhaps they have been banned), but there are obviously too many of them.
What I would especially warn the admin is to pay attention to the fact that these members are getting +karma from someone, and I doubt that that alt farm has at least one or more Senior rank accounts for that.
Let's look at just one example of how they operate:
User @Joseph Lee opened the topic - and if we look at his post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=96539), we can see that he is BG shill, while another member (@MCcabe Rory) joins the conversation who is also a BG shill. His post history link (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98326).
Evidence was published on BTT that BG as a company hires and pays people to promote them in this way -> Innovative Shilling (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5498457.msg64159505#msg64159505)
they are definitely very aggressive campaigns, but it depends on who posts what and when in my opinion
it is definitely necessary to filter when you overdo it
I also shilled some coins in a specific thread that I created, without being a nuisance and without spamming excessively (a separate thread that tells about the new promising coins launched by BG)
it always depends on who does what and how they do it
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I would just draw the attention of all members not to enter into discussions with such members, because that way you are only helping them to achieve their goal. Instead, we should all use the "report to moderator" button more - although it seems to me that "they" have dozens of accounts they use on this forum.
That's right, if there are no discussions with them, it's much easier to moderate this shilling spam, it will more likely go to trash. And right, there are many shills, lust time I made a list several months ago there definitely were more that a dozen in it. And the number is growing with time.
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~snip~
As for the karma of those two users, I don't think the amount of karma they have is unusual, Joseph Lee have +6 and MCcabe Rory +1. Taking this post as a reference, if the amount of positive karma of both users grows unusually, I will ask the administrator to review the logs.
It's just strange to me that someone gives +karma for such posts, even if it's only 6 karma or something similar - and I've noticed that even when I give them negative karma, they get + from someone again the very next day. If it were determined that all these accounts receive +karma from the same user, then we would have clear evidence of karma abuse.
Bitget shilling is growing day by day, today I saw many of them invaded reddit boards too. Thanks OP for mentioning my thread of BTT. :D
~snip~
You put their activity back on the agenda, but I started hunting them even before that on BTT, and when their posts start to be deleted and they start getting temporary bans, only then do they calm down a bit.
they are definitely very aggressive campaigns, but it depends on who posts what and when in my opinion
it is definitely necessary to filter when you overdo it
I also shilled some coins in a specific thread that I created, without being a nuisance and without spamming excessively (a separate thread that tells about the new promising coins launched by BG)
it always depends on who does what and how they do it
That's your position, but I don't agree that it's a normal way for someone to advertise. At BTT, we have a clear rule that advertising in posts is not allowed, and if someone mentions one and the same company in 15 out of 20 posts, then it is quite clear what they are doing. Those who advertise in this way are trying to be smart, but in fact they are only creating a bad image of themselves - I put such companies on the black list and would never use any services from them.
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Bitget shilling is growing day by day, today I saw many of them invaded reddit boards too. Thanks OP for mentioning my thread of BTT. :D
Anyway mods took swift actions that might hold them for now but I am sure they will come back with more new accounts to do the SEO spam no matter what so I assume the best solution to stop them is to put word filter as suggested by @hugeblack on the word Bitget, BGB or anything related to Bitget which for a week or two and see if it stops them invading again.
I am ignoring each account that I found Shilling for Bitget and yeah thats from BTT now here in ATT because I believe that those are the account that will keep popping each time to try luring people to be their victims.
isn't better for admin to instantly banning those accounts as its obviously shill for BG?
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Bitget shilling is growing day by day, today I saw many of them invaded reddit boards too. Thanks OP for mentioning my thread of BTT. :D
Anyway mods took swift actions that might hold them for now but I am sure they will come back with more new accounts to do the SEO spam no matter what so I assume the best solution to stop them is to put word filter as suggested by @hugeblack on the word Bitget, BGB or anything related to Bitget which for a week or two and see if it stops them invading again.
Well, there are many ways to look at it. I think that the sent warnings and shillers badges are "enough" for those users to see what they are doing, and if they look for a little information on the forum about what has happened to the accounts, they will read this thread and as I said, if they continue doing the same the penalties will also increase. I don't think filtering out the word "Bitget" is the solution right now since there are mainly only two users, but it's something I'll leave a note about.
I mean the exchange has some kind of this campaign where they will promote the, in exchange for some rewards. They don't really care if they are shilling the exchange as long as they get paid.
I think it is very clear that the exchange practices we are talking about are not the best and that they could do things much better and in a professional manner.
It's just strange to me that someone gives +karma for such posts, even if it's only 6 karma or something similar - and I've noticed that even when I give them negative karma, they get + from someone again the very next day. If it were determined that all these accounts receive +karma from the same user, then we would have clear evidence of karma abuse.
You may be right, but I think it is early to make such statements. Anyway, I don't think those users will have positive karma for a long time. If you look at their profiles you will see that they do not have the same positive karma as they did 24 hours ago. In case the karma of both users increases, the administrator will be able to check who is sending that karma. I think that since the amount are so small, it will not be the same user who sends it, but at the moment I don't think it is worrying.
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That's your position, but I don't agree that it's a normal way for someone to advertise. At BTT, we have a clear rule that advertising in posts is not allowed, and if someone mentions one and the same company in 15 out of 20 posts, then it is quite clear what they are doing. Those who advertise in this way are trying to be smart, but in fact they are only creating a bad image of themselves - I put such companies on the black list and would never use any services from them.
surely when it is continuously shilled in that way it can create annoyance
I understand what you say
but you can't prohibit doing it, it would be a very dangerous precedent
what would then prohibit talking about dogecoin, which as far as I'm concerned is worth as much as shilling these things
and yet I have to tolerate those who love dogecoin because the world is free and that's right: we can't prohibit by law not to talk about dogecoin
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Bitget shilling is growing day by day, today I saw many of them invaded reddit boards too. Thanks OP for mentioning my thread of BTT. :D
Anyway mods took swift actions that might hold them for now but I am sure they will come back with more new accounts to do the SEO spam no matter what so I assume the best solution to stop them is to put word filter as suggested by @hugeblack on the word Bitget, BGB or anything related to Bitget which for a week or two and see if it stops them invading again.
Well, there are many ways to look at it. I think that the sent warnings and shillers badges are "enough" for those users to see what they are doing, and if they look for a little information on the forum about what has happened to the accounts, they will read this thread and as I said, if they continue doing the same the penalties will also increase.
But if their main goal is only to spam this "bitget", the warning only means they know they can continue to spam for some time.
I don't think filtering out the word "Bitget" is the solution right now since there are mainly only two users, but it's something I'll leave a note about.
How about filter or detect word "bitget" for new account? Is it tehnically possible?
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I don't think filtering out the word "Bitget" is the solution right now since there are mainly only two users, but it's something I'll leave a note about.
How about filter or detect word "bitget" for new account? Is it tehnically possible?
GREAT IDEA
this is a very good idea, making sure that there are filters for brand new accounts
it makes a lot of sense, it's smart, it doesn't limit the freedom of users and above all you go and punish those who register only to spam
not punish sorry, but filtering so registering new accounts is practically useless
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How about filter or detect word "bitget" for new account? Is it tehnically possible?
Although I'm not entirely sure, I suppose it would be possible. But that could cause other problems, like when a new user wants to say something about bitget or ask a question, without shilling, since we would be blaming users who have not done anything against the forum rules. In situations like this I think the only thing we can do is remain alert and notify the moderators so they can take the necessary action. As long as users identified as shillers have a demonstrable post history. That is why I don't think filtering a word for certain account ranks is the solution.
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It's just strange to me that someone gives +karma for such posts, even if it's only 6 karma or something similar - and I've noticed that even when I give them negative karma, they get + from someone again the very next day. If it were determined that all these accounts receive +karma from the same user, then we would have clear evidence of karma abuse.
You may be right, but I think it is early to make such statements. Anyway, I don't think those users will have positive karma for a long time. If you look at their profiles you will see that they do not have the same positive karma as they did 24 hours ago. In case the karma of both users increases, the administrator will be able to check who is sending that karma. I think that since the amount are so small, it will not be the same user who sends it, but at the moment I don't think it is worrying.
I think you're right, I follow a few old BG shills who are inactive for 2+ weeks after being detected - and the two in question also became inactive after they realized they were being targeted for what they were doing. Their tactic is obviously to wait a bit until the situation calms down, and then try again - although it would be best if they understood the message and stopped doing what they were doing.
How about filter or detect word "bitget" for new account? Is it tehnically possible?
It is technically possible because I came across exactly one such word that is blacklisted on the forum -> #moderation link in post? (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=320201.0)
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It's good that Altcoinstalk is very specific in this case it will set a warning to those who want to do this here, BG is not a small exchange founded in 2018 but I wonder why they opted for this kind of marketing when they can launch a signature campaign or buy ads here and it will have a good results than doing this type of marketing.
When it comes to platforms like exchange they should do their marketing in proper and effective ways.
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How about filter or detect word "bitget" for new account? Is it tehnically possible?
GREAT IDEA
this is a very good idea, making sure that there are filters for brand new accounts
it makes a lot of sense, it's smart, it doesn't limit the freedom of users and above all you go and punish those who register only to spam
not punish sorry, but filtering so registering new accounts is practically useless
That would just make people create random-sounding usernames in order to promote Bitget.
It's more of a band-aid solution, that doesn't really address the problem at the source. Like I said, it would be better to just move said posts to incentivized posting/shill section or even just delete them entirely.
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How about filter or detect word "bitget" for new account? Is it tehnically possible?
Although I'm not entirely sure, I suppose it would be possible. But that could cause other problems, like when a new user wants to say something about bitget or ask a question, without shilling, since we would be blaming users who have not done anything against the forum rules. In situations like this I think the only thing we can do is remain alert and notify the moderators so they can take the necessary action. As long as users identified as shillers have a demonstrable post history. That is why I don't think filtering a word for certain account ranks is the solution.
Good point. With massive spam/shilling, it wouldn't be unusual someone got curious and ask legit question about it.
How about filter or detect word "bitget" for new account? Is it tehnically possible?
It is technically possible because I came across exactly one such word that is blacklisted on the forum -> #moderation link in post? (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=320201.0)
I see. I also encountered it once, but at that time i thought it's because website link i choose to include in my post (rather than specific word).
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That would just make people create random-sounding usernames in order to promote Bitget.
It's more of a band-aid solution, that doesn't really address the problem at the source. Like I said, it would be better to just move said posts to incentivized posting/shill section or even just delete them entirely.
no matter how you do it, there is always a problem unfortunately, we need to find a solution that allows us to save both goats and cabbages
because strict, hard and vulgar censorship never works, I tell you from experience
we just need to discourage wild shilling, that's
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It's good that Altcoinstalk is very specific in this case it will set a warning to those who want to do this here, BG is not a small exchange founded in 2018 but I wonder why they opted for this kind of marketing when they can launch a signature campaign or buy ads here and it will have a good results than doing this type of marketing.
When it comes to platforms like exchange they should do their marketing in proper and effective ways.
If you ask me what the reason is, then it seems to me that the only logical thing is that the company either does not know how to promote itself (which is unlikely), or they think that they can save a lot of money by paying obscenely low pay rates for those who shill them in every possible way on forums and social networks.
Maybe such promotion really works, but I have always found such things repulsive and in the zone of suspicious business.
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It's good that Altcoinstalk is very specific in this case it will set a warning to those who want to do this here, BG is not a small exchange founded in 2018 but I wonder why they opted for this kind of marketing when they can launch a signature campaign or buy ads here and it will have a good results than doing this type of marketing.
When it comes to platforms like exchange they should do their marketing in proper and effective ways.
That's the problem. That these practices were carried out by a small exchange, with very few resources, I could understand, although personally I would act in the same way that I have said in my previous posts. But Bitget has the resources and money to run a marketing campaign without any problems. I don't know how much money they make daily thanks to fees (and the exchange's official token) but they have a fairly high volume.
(https://i.ibb.co/7y1s8DB/BG.png) (https://ibb.co/2KkGmrR)
Bitget apparently has no problem paying for campaigns, ads, signatures, or anything else to promote the exchange. That's why I don't understand why they act that way...
It's more of a band-aid solution, that doesn't really address the problem at the source. Like I said, it would be better to just move said posts to incentivized posting/shill section or even just delete them entirely.
I think the best thing is to delete the posts directly, move them to the board incentivised posting/shill doesn't solve anything. That might make the shillers think there is no problem with what they are doing.
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It's good that Altcoinstalk is very specific in this case it will set a warning to those who want to do this here, BG is not a small exchange founded in 2018 but I wonder why they opted for this kind of marketing when they can launch a signature campaign or buy ads here and it will have a good results than doing this type of marketing.
When it comes to platforms like exchange they should do their marketing in proper and effective ways.
That's the problem. That these practices were carried out by a small exchange, with very few resources, I could understand, although personally I would act in the same way that I have said in my previous posts. But Bitget has the resources and money to run a marketing campaign without any problems. I don't know how much money they make daily thanks to fees (and the exchange's official token) but they have a fairly high volume.
(https://i.ibb.co/7y1s8DB/BG.png) (https://ibb.co/2KkGmrR)
Bitget apparently has no problem paying for campaigns, ads, signatures, or anything else to promote the exchange. That's why I don't understand why they act that way...
It's more of a band-aid solution, that doesn't really address the problem at the source. Like I said, it would be better to just move said posts to incentivized posting/shill section or even just delete them entirely.
I think the best thing is to delete the posts directly, move them to the board incentivised posting/shill doesn't solve anything. That might make the shillers think there is no problem with what they are doing.
I think they think that this system, with the same amount of money, is much more efficient than the classic advertising system
I honestly don't know, I'm not an expert in the sector, but I think they have made this system their distinctive feature
Only they do it this way in practice
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~snip~
Bitget apparently has no problem paying for campaigns, ads, signatures, or anything else to promote the exchange. That's why I don't understand why they act that way...
I've already written two possible reasons, but I think it's just about the clearly incompetent leadership of that company - whose CEO their shills praise even on this forum (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=321584.0) (of course this is another one of their shills). In the specific case, the woman at the head of the company did not bring anything positive.
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I think they think that this system, with the same amount of money, is much more efficient than the classic advertising system
I honestly don't know, I'm not an expert in the sector, but I think they have made this system their distinctive feature
Only they do it this way in practice
I'm also not an expert in marketing or brand advertising, but I believe there are better (and more effective) ways to do things. In reality, this way of promoting an exchange is not only not beneficial, but it can give the brand a completely opposite result than expected. I don't think that with the benefits they get from the fees they would have a problem spending a few thousand dollars on a signature campaign or paying for some banners, for example. Doing things the way they are done now is a sign of lack of professionalism when working and presenting a product to potential clients.
I've already written two possible reasons, but I think it's just about the clearly incompetent leadership of that company - whose CEO their shills praise even on this forum (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=321584.0) (of course this is another one of their shills). In the specific case, the woman at the head of the company did not bring anything positive.
I don't know to what extent it could be incompetence considering the success of the exchange and the volume it has, unless the "advertising and promotion" business is outsourced to another company.
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BG shills in action again - as far as I can see, user @BitHunter (post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98624)) is already marked as "watched", but we have a new one @Jomisa (post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98794)).
+1 -> Smcchamp (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98616)
Topic Link (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=321866)
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BG shills in action again - as far as I can see, user @BitHunter (post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98624)) is already marked as "watched", but we have a new one @Jomisa (post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98794)).
+1 -> Smcchamp (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98616)
Topic Link (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=321866)
Thanks for notifying us. @Jokers already sent two warnings to BitHunter. If there is a third warning, the user will have his first strike and a PM to remind him of the forum rules, and the possible consequences if that user's behavior remains the same.
+1.
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BG shills in action again - as far as I can see, user @BitHunter (post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98624)) is already marked as "watched", but we have a new one @Jomisa (post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98794)).
+1 -> Smcchamp (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98616)
Topic Link (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=321866)
Thanks for notifying us. @Jokers already sent two warnings to BitHunter. If there is a third warning, the user will have his first strike and a PM to remind him of the forum rules, and the possible consequences if that user's behavior remains the same.
+1.
You're welcome :)
It seems to me that the warnings have no effect since they behave in the same way, it is enough to look at the latest achievements in this topic -> @BitHunter (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=322223.msg1574280#msg1574280) & @Smcchamp (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=322223.msg1574419#msg1574419)
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You're welcome :)
It seems to me that the warnings have no effect since they behave in the same way, it is enough to look at the latest achievements in this topic -> @BitHunter (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=322223.msg1574280#msg1574280) & @Smcchamp (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=322223.msg1574419#msg1574419)
Well, they got additional warnings and at least that will make their posts premoderated for a while. I'm sure they'll hardly stop so later there will be stricter measures. Bitget makes the very bad reputation for itself, promoting via spam is a very bad idea. ???
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You're welcome :)
It seems to me that the warnings have no effect since they behave in the same way, it is enough to look at the latest achievements in this topic -> @BitHunter (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=322223.msg1574280#msg1574280) & @Smcchamp (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=322223.msg1574419#msg1574419)
Both users have received another warning, so @BitHunter will not be able to post for a few days and @Smcchamp for a few hours. Anyway, it's the third warning they've received, so the next step, if their behavior remains the same, will be to send strikes. If after receiving the strikes they continue the same, they will be added to a group until they want to talk to a moderator or with the admin, in case they want to recover their accounts.
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Well, they got additional warnings and at least that will make their posts premoderated for a while. I'm sure they'll hardly stop so later there will be stricter measures. Bitget makes the very bad reputation for itself, promoting via spam is a very bad idea. ???
It is not clear to me why they choose such a bad tactic, but it is obvious that there are a lot of forums and social networks where no one moderates them and that such tactics obviously produce results. I saw the pay rates for their shills somewhere and it is not at all clear to me that they are motivated to work for so little. It is possible that most of their accounts here on the forum are controlled by one or two people.
Both users have received another warning, so @BitHunter will not be able to post for a few days and @Smcchamp for a few hours. Anyway, it's the third warning they've received, so the next step, if their behavior remains the same, will be to send strikes. If after receiving the strikes they continue the same, they will be added to a group until they want to talk to a moderator or with the admin, in case they want to recover their accounts.
Thank you for your involvement in these cases, and also @Jokers - I hope they will get the message and stop what they are doing.
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New BG shills ->
Smilez (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98688) - post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98688)
Nothabeast (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98855) - post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98855)
Crypto_Potato (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98765) - post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98765)
Topic in which the discussion takes place -> Link (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=322108.0)
GeneralEth (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=96132) - post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=96132)
Topic -> Link (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=322237.0)
BattleAxe1 (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98329) - post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98329)
akeemqaz (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=74800) - post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=74800)
Topic -> Link (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=322165.0)
This is only a part of those that I am completely sure about, but there are at least as many that I suspect are part of the BG team, but they do not mention them directly but shill various tokens/projects that are part of that platform. I don't know if it makes sense to apply a warning strategy here, because the deeper I dig, it seems to me that there are dozens of active users who are involved in this.
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I scratch my head while typing this... BTT is meant for BTC shills, and ALTT is meant for altcoin shills, as far as I understand. If the post isn't spammy or filled with links, Bitget (yes, I said it) shouldn't be censored. There's still merit in discussing even crappy Shiba tokens.
Anyway, do what you like, but remember this forum is still small, so the mentality should be much more lenient than BTT.
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I don't see the big deal myself honestly. How is it any different than someone saying mixtum a billion times or stake.com a billion times? What if they opened a signature campaign? Then it's ok? Someone really needs to explain to me what the issue is here cause I sincerely do not understand it.
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snip
All of the users you listed have received warnings, some have already received more than one warning before, so the next step, if their attitude persists, will be to apply strikes.
Thank you for your effort and support of the forum.
+2.
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I scratch my head while typing this... BTT is meant for BTC shills, and ALTT is meant for altcoin shills, as far as I understand. If the post isn't spammy or filled with links, Bitget (yes, I said it) shouldn't be censored. There's still merit in discussing even crappy Shiba tokens.
Anyway, do what you like, but remember this forum is still small, so the mentality should be much more lenient than BTT.
I don't see the big deal myself honestly. How is it any different than someone saying mixtum a billion times or stake.com a billion times? What if they opened a signature campaign? Then it's ok? Someone really needs to explain to me what the issue is here cause I sincerely do not understand it.
Sincerely agree with the both of you, I came here through the link in the chat box on the first page, and after going through a few comments here, I was completely lost, had to go to the first page to read the op so as to understand what this thread is really about, and in the op, I was still confused what "BG" mean or meant, I had to go through the posts histories of the reported users to learn that it means "Bitget".
I honestly see no reason why a user should receive warnings, strikes or worst of all; a ban for just mentioning a word multiple times in different comments, not minding if the comment is in line with the topic being discussed on the said thread, Bitget is a cryptocurrency exchange, and this forum is a place to discuss all that relates to crypto which obviously; Bitget is part of, I don't understand what this censorship is all about, are the supposed shillers spamming(posting stuffs that is not related to the topic being discussed)? Using too many links in their comments? Or perhaps, they are posting their Bitget referral links in boards where referral links are banned? Which of this crime are they commiting?
I am just trying to understand @Lucius
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I scratch my head while typing this... BTT is meant for BTC shills, and ALTT is meant for altcoin shills, as far as I understand. If the post isn't spammy or filled with links, Bitget (yes, I said it) shouldn't be censored. There's still merit in discussing even crappy Shiba tokens.
Anyway, do what you like, but remember this forum is still small, so the mentality should be much more lenient than BTT.
I don't see the big deal myself honestly. How is it any different than someone saying mixtum a billion times or stake.com a billion times? What if they opened a signature campaign? Then it's ok? Someone really needs to explain to me what the issue is here cause I sincerely do not understand it.
Sincerely agree with the both of you, I came here through the link in the chat box on the first page, and after going through a few comments here, I was completely lost, had to go to the first page to read the op so as to understand what this thread is really about, and in the op, I was still confused what "BG" mean or meant, I had to go through the posts histories of the reported users to learn that it means "Bitget".
I honestly see no reason why a user should receive warnings, strikes or worst of all; a ban for just mentioning a word multiple times in different comments, not minding if the comment is in line with the topic being discussed on the said thread, Bitget is a cryptocurrency exchange, and this forum is a place to discuss all that relates to crypto which obviously; Bitget is part of, I don't understand what this censorship is all about, are the supposed shillers spamming(posting stuffs that is not related to the topic being discussed)? Using too many links in their comments? Or perhaps, they are posting their Bitget referral links in boards where referral links are banned? Which of this crime are they commiting?
I am just trying to understand @Lucius
I'm also confused what Im reading here. Is it a crime to share my experience in a platform I'm using? I see forum members mention other exchanges or platforms in their post and they're not branded. This is unfair really. Looks personal to me.. I'll like it to be pointed out exclusively while this is a problem cos I thought this is a free space to share views about altcoins and crypto related issues.
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It's really unfortunate to see members I've known for a long time with BTT actually support shilling of this scale - but they all obviously think that ATT is a forum where such things should be tolerated because it's quite normal for one company to employ dozens of members (some of whom are obviously alts) and pay them to create fake discussions with only one intention.
All these members are paid every time they mention that company, post a link or even when they promote tokens issued by that company. Luckily, there are a few important people on the forum who know what it's about, so I know I'm not doing anything wrong.
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It's really unfortunate to see members I've known for a long time with BTT actually support shilling of this scale - but they all obviously think that ATT is a forum where such things should be tolerated because it's quite normal for one company to employ dozens of members (some of whom are obviously alts) and pay them to create fake discussions with only one intention.
All these members are paid every time they mention that company, post a link or even when they promote tokens issued by that company. Luckily, there are a few important people on the forum who know what it's about, so I know I'm not doing anything wrong.
Side note is - even the head of states In my country, being an important and number 1 person in the entire country, has done alot of things wrong which the entire people of my country is suffering from today, so in essence, being backed by important people does not always mean that what you are doing is right, and don't misquote me, I am just emphasizing on what you said.
And now to my opinion, forgive me if I am being insensitive, or ignorant, creating fake discussions seeking engagements is something I believe we are all guilty of, every one of us do this from time to time, if not for anything, for the signature ad we are wearing - let's tell ourselves the truth.
Every one on the internet are looking for one way or the other to make money, and for some of us, we are privileged to wear signatures, what about those who do not have this privilege yet? If signature is banned on this forum, will you still be here? And or as active as you currently are? I believe that for more than one, two, three or more times, you have forced yourself to post (when you don't feel like it) because you wanna meet your quota for the week - isnt that fake too? Doing something to get paid, not because you naturally want to or feel like doing it - once again, let's be truthful to ourselves.
I am not trying to challenge you, or challenge the important people backing you on this quest of yours, but I personally dont see anything wrong if a user or some users decide to get paid for discussing crypto exchange(s), or creating discussions centered around a particular crypto exchange, as long as they are..
1. Not spamming other people's thread (posting comments that are off topic)
2. Not posting referral links in the wrong board, or fake links
3. Posts relating to the exchange is in the right board
4. Exchange being talked about is not a scam.
This is my candid opinion, and no intensions of offending anyone.
And for reference, I don't have any Alt on this forum yet, though I have plans of creating an account for my wife, which I know I may end up being the one to manage it, as my wife is still yet to get serious with crypto stuffs.
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I honestly see no reason why a user should receive warnings, strikes or worst of all; a ban for just mentioning a word multiple times in different comments
When you trash the discussions with an incentivized posting, you are disturbing other users who are interested to discuss some topic. Big number of incentivized posts makes communication very hard and users start leaving. We don't want that, so shilling is not tolerated.
If the wanted fairly to represent the exchange and tokens promoted by it, they'd opened the corresponding topics in the appropriate sections, one per project, with all the official information. But the prefer to litter on the uniform... :(
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I honestly see no reason why a user should receive warnings, strikes or worst of all; a ban for just mentioning a word multiple times in different comments
When you trash the discussions with an incentivized posting, you are disturbing other users who are interested to discuss some topic. Big number of incentivized posts makes communication very hard and users start leaving. We don't want that, so shilling is not tolerated.
If the wanted fairly to represent the exchange and tokens promoted by it, they'd opened the corresponding topics in the appropriate sections, one per project, with all the official information. But the prefer to litter on the uniform... :(
I think his point was mostly geared signatures and the fact that some people feel forced to post in topics they are really clueless about.
It's really unfortunate to see members I've known for a long time with BTT actually support shilling of this scale - but they all obviously think that ATT is a forum where such things should be tolerated because it's quite normal for one company to employ dozens of members (some of whom are obviously alts) and pay them to create fake discussions with only one intention.
All these members are paid every time they mention that company, post a link or even when they promote tokens issued by that company. Luckily, there are a few important people on the forum who know what it's about, so I know I'm not doing anything wrong.
I haven't really looked into the bitget crap, I've seen the thread here and on bitcointalk though. I am not necessarily supporting their shilling but rather have questions about what they are doing wrong.
Reading Jokers post helps a little by saying if they open a topic in the appropriate area and have a discussion it's fine, but where do we draw the line on shilling? Everyone wearing a sig could be guilty of shilling in some form or another. Do we know for a fact that people saying Bitget are getting paid everytime they say it? I have said it twice in this post, do they owe me money?
Yea I know i'm being a smartass kind of, but forums puzzle me at times with their rules and such. Then this person gets mad and that person gets mad and now I don't like you or you don't like me or whatever. Just feels like a high school atmosphere at times.
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Reading Jokers post helps a little by saying if they open a topic in the appropriate area and have a discussion it's fine, but where do we draw the line on shilling? Everyone wearing a sig could be guilty of shilling in some form or another. Do we know for a fact that people saying Bitget are getting paid everytime they say it? I have said it twice in this post, do they owe me money?
Bitget is not a little-known exchange, so many people say something about it, but natural posters usually don't promote some single exchange and its projects only, and they usually don't say that they are beginners and know nothing about the projects they try to shill again and again. And don't use AI... and don't plagiarize... and, and, and...
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~
I more or less agree with some of the things you've said, but it's not necessary to think too hard about the issue to try to find a much simpler solution than people think. There are behaviors that can be seen from very far away.
Is it difficult to put the name of the exchange in the signatures?.
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Is it difficult to put the name of the exchange in the signatures?.
If they'd wanted to fairly promote... they want to imitate a natural interest. It doesn't work and many know that Bitget uses spam to promote itself, but they still think it may work. >:(
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If they'd wanted to fairly promote... they want to imitate a natural interest. It doesn't work and many know that Bitget uses spam to promote itself, but they still think it may work. >:(
Bitget makes a lot of money, I don't know why they want to do things like that when they would get better results with normal ad campaigns or a simple signature campaign. This way they would also have an impeccable brand image, but…
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@Jokers & @Freemind, I think that this company is run by extremely greedy people who take advantage of the fact that in the online world there are thousands of people who will spam for less than $1 a day - and what is known is that they are paid in some kind of tokens that can be completely worthless in the end.
If you asked me, I would very simply prevent them from promoting themselves in this way by putting the word they use most often on the black list - because for every detected account they create at least two new ones.
When you add to that that most of the forum members have nothing against what they are doing (they literally support what is against the rules of the forum), then it is difficult for us to come out as winners.
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@Jokers & @Freemind, I think that this company is run by extremely greedy people who take advantage of the fact that in the online world there are thousands of people who will spam for less than $1 a day - and what is known is that they are paid in some kind of tokens that can be completely worthless in the end.
If you asked me, I would very simply prevent them from promoting themselves in this way by putting the word they use most often on the black list - because for every detected account they create at least two new ones.
When you add to that that most of the forum members have nothing against what they are doing (they literally support what is against the rules of the forum), then it is difficult for us to come out as winners.
I think that for the moment it will not be necessary to put any words on the blacklist, since as you have seen, we have caught the attention of users who carried out these practices. I don't know how they will pay these users, but what I do know is that the way of doing things is not the most appropriate for a brand with international projection.
We can wait a few days (or weeks) to see how things develop and try to prevent them from happening again in a more peaceful way and without having to ban words.
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After some time, I checked what was happening with the BG shills that were already mentioned in this topic and the results are as follows :
Smcchamp (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98616) + post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98616)
Jomisa (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98794) + post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98794)
Crypto_Potato (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98765) + post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98765)
BattleAxe1 (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98329) + post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98329)
These are currently the profiles that literally mention BG in almost every post, whether it's just name mentions or hyperlinks.
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After some time, I checked what was happening with the BG shills that were already mentioned in this topic and the results are as follows :
Smcchamp (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98616) + post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98616)
Jomisa (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98794) + post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98794)
Crypto_Potato (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98765) + post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98765)
BattleAxe1 (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98329) + post history (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=98329)
These are currently the profiles that literally mention BG in almost every post, whether it's just name mentions or hyperlinks.
Thanks for mentioning those profiles in your posts. I have discovered several interesting things that will be taken into account for future sanctions towards some users who do not want to comply with the forum rules, and I say that they do not want to, because they know and understand them well.
Thanks for your help.
+2.
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I'll add another one active shill to look at with time https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=98916
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Thanks for mentioning those profiles in your posts. I have discovered several interesting things that will be taken into account for future sanctions towards some users who do not want to comply with the forum rules, and I say that they do not want to, because they know and understand them well.
Thanks for your help.
+2.
I was honestly interested in what was happening with all the profiles I detected before, and the ones I mentioned are still the most obvious in what they do, some have become cautious and mention BG in every fifth post or just mention tokens/coins that are traded on that platform. Some of the accounts are inactive, but I'm sure there are many more that no one has detected.
I hope that interesting things will help us fight against such things even more successfully in the future.
@Jokers, sometimes it seems to me that all these accounts are created by some kind of magic, considering how many there are. It's a bit OT, but is there something similar to "evil points" on ATT, as is the case on BTT? It's about the fact that some IP addresses from which the abuse comes are simply blocked and the user has to pay a fee to be able to register.
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~snip~
I hope that interesting things will help us fight against such things even more successfully in the future.
Correct. That information has helped me keep track of other things. At the moment I'm still connecting the dots since I don't have much time during the week due to my job, but on the weekend I will have something interesting for the administrator.
Thanks again ;)
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@Jokers, sometimes it seems to me that all these accounts are created by some kind of magic, considering how many there are. It's a bit OT, but is there something similar to "evil points" on ATT, as is the case on BTT? It's about the fact that some IP addresses from which the abuse comes are simply blocked and the user has to pay a fee to be able to register.
As far as I know, there's no anything similar to "evil points". As for now, there's no decision on banning BG shills, so there's no point in additional actions on preventing their new registrations. Hope Freemind's idea will give us more tools to fight with this bot farmer/s. ::)
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~snip~
I hope that interesting things will help us fight against such things even more successfully in the future.
Correct. That information has helped me keep track of other things. At the moment I'm still connecting the dots since I don't have much time during the week due to my job, but on the weekend I will have something interesting for the administrator.
Thanks again ;)
It's good that there are people who want to solve the "problem", because if you've noticed through this topic, most of the members don't mind such things at all. I also did a little research on my theory that there is at least one or more Senior + members who give +karma to all these accounts, but I concluded that it is difficult to accuse someone of abusing karma if you don't have concrete evidence.
@Jokers, somehow it doesn't seem to me that they are too intelligent to know how to mask their IP address, and if we were to check if there is a connection between them in that way, it might be revealed that they are connected to each other, that is, that they are alt accounts. Anyway, that was just a thought I now have an answer to.
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Wait, there's no ignore button to hide the posts of users? It's specifically designed to hide spam from users like these. I guess it's disabled or something, otherwise we wouldn't still be having this conversation about BitGet shills.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no mention of the ignore list anywhere in the user settings anywhere, at least from what I've seen.
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Wait, there's no ignore button to hide the posts of users? It's specifically designed to hide spam from users like these. I guess it's disabled or something, otherwise we wouldn't still be having this conversation about BitGet shills.
~snip~
Sweeping the problem under the carpet is not the same as solving it - what you propose would certainly be applicable to those users who bother someone because of their attitudes towards certain things, but putting users who violate the rules of the forum on ignore is actually supporting them.
No Shilling : only use the incentivised posting section for "forum advertising" bounties > failure to follow this rule > negative karma
Do not put promotional text/img under your post content > use your signature instead >otherwise you will banned
Do not try to link to your site in every other post> use your signature instead >otherwise you will banned
https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=3171.0
Unfortunately, if these rules were followed, most of those I mentioned in this topic would have already been banned.
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Unfortunately, if these rules were followed, most of those I mentioned in this topic would have already been banned.
They're sliding under the radar at the moment cause they became less agressive these days compared to earlier, even today I saw a post that's definitely made by BG shillers but it didn't have any link or nothing that breaks the laws but somewhat tries to link multiple exchange names and Bitget is the first in the list.
I don't know whether this kind of post is acceptable or not cause it's only mod can answer but let's try my luck and report them to see if they gets removed.
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~snip~
Unfortunately, if these rules were followed, most of those I mentioned in this topic would have already been banned.
Here we try to do things in other ways. You already know that we do not ban users, we try to give them the option to change their behavior so that they can continue participating in the forum. Sometimes it is difficult, since there are some users who, even after several warnings, continue doing the same thing, as was the case that happened a few days ago with a user who had to be silenced indefinitely.
Everything has a limit, but we try to be flexible and the rules are written to comply with them.
They're sliding under the radar at the moment cause they became less agressive these days compared to earlier, even today I saw a post that's definitely made by BG shillers but it didn't have any link or nothing that breaks the laws but somewhat tries to link multiple exchange names and Bitget is the first in the list.
I don't know whether this kind of post is acceptable or not cause it's only mod can answer but let's try my luck and report them to see if they gets removed.
What you say indicates that the notices have worked in a certain way, we hope this behavior decreases. After all, promoting any product is as simple as using the user's signature.
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What you say indicates that the notices have worked in a certain way, we hope this behavior decreases. After all, promoting any product is as simple as using the user's signature.
But it's not exactly the same, they are just manipulating the users by injecting something in a wrong way, they can do that in right way via their signatures but that isn't gonna get them to paid by the exchange.
I saw an image somewhere that their exchange is paying users for shilling on other platforms and they only get paid for the number of posts.
I'll try to update that image later here.
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Have skimmed through this topic, reminds me of the Veil days of shilling that was a lot easier to deal with based on reporting shill posts on bitcointalk and why the IP section exists today.
Anyway, I commend the ways Freemind and Jokers have dealt this situation so far, as it's a difficult situation to deal with compared to blatant spammers, especially when there is no "evidence" of shilling but merely a lot of shilling. (Edit: Based on above post, there is clear evidence of shilling, but still no easy links to follow as it were)
Generally I think tagging as a Shiller and moving on is the correct approach, and then adding to Misbehaving (if shillers group isn't already a moderated group), followed by strikes etc. At least from a look at the shillers group that approach appears to be working, even if it means new accounts get created. This has also been part of the ethos of the forum, allow users to post but tag appropriately, with a ban being the last resort solution. Consider this, it's very unlikely other users would consider the shillers posts to have value if they are labeled as a shill/misbehaving and by default end up with negative karma. These users no longer look like respectable members of the community, and rightfully so. It might seem disruptive, especially if an entire topic is from shillers, but otherwise I think it can be amusing or interesting for others without taking these posts too seriously or becoming a victim somehow, even if not ideal.
My only criticism would be trashing topics that shills appear in as this is completely unnecessary. Posts can be split into a single topic, then the split post moved to IP section. This is how incentivized posting has been dealt with in the past to avoid disruption to forum discussion. Obviously if the topic is started from a shiller then removing the topic is the only option though...
I think it'd otherwise be worth Jokers having access to Shillers group for when needed, seems like this is all on your at present Freemind, which is never a good thing (per SPOF).
When you read some respected members say they don't see the issue with shillers, and other saying they need to be banned, then clearly the current form moderation is the correct decision.
Sometimes sweeping the problem under the carpet with tags is the best way to deal with it in the immediate term ;)
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I saw an image somewhere that their exchange is paying users for shilling on other platforms and they only get paid for the number of posts.
Please share any sign up links. If they stupid enough to have a spreadsheet of users / posts then this would be a lot easier to deal with :)
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I saw an image somewhere that their exchange is paying users for shilling on other platforms and they only get paid for the number of posts.
Please share any sign up links. If they stupid enough to have a spreadsheet of users / posts then this would be a lot easier to deal with :)
As far as I know, there is no public list of users who are involved in this type of "advertising", but there is evidence that this company pays them to do exactly what they do on this forum.
I put the link with the proof literally in the first post, I'm surprised that @Findingnemo didn't see it (unless he means something else).
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I put the link with the proof literally in the first post, I'm surprised that @Findingnemo didn't see it (unless he means something else).
That's the image I was talking about my bad I didn't notice that you linked to the thread which I actually created for the same matter on Bitcointalk.
Their kind promotion makes an impression that they are not doing everything by the books and I never tried their services too so I didn't have chance to analyse deep about that matter after that.
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My only criticism would be trashing topics that shills appear in as this is completely unnecessary. Posts can be split into a single topic, then the split post moved to IP section. This is how incentivized posting has been dealt with in the past to avoid disruption to forum discussion. Obviously if the topic is started from a shiller then removing the topic is the only option though...
Were there such cases? Strange, I haven't come across any complaints about this. Of course it is obvious that a mote is not a reason of deleting the entire thing, just to clean off that mote. But when users start talking in the shill's topic...
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Were there such cases? Strange, I haven't come across any complaints about this. Of course it is obvious that a mote is not a reason of deleting the entire thing, just to clean off that mote. But when users start talking in the shill's topic...
The tactic used by such users often consists of someone opening a topic and asking a trivial question, such as: "which CEX is the best for something" or "where can I buy a certain altcoin", and then the same person from his alt the account answers to itself and promotes someone or something.
What helps them in creating a "legitimate discussion" are ordinary users who do not understand what it is actually about, or understand but do not care.
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My only criticism would be trashing topics that shills appear in as this is completely unnecessary. Posts can be split into a single topic, then the split post moved to IP section. This is how incentivized posting has been dealt with in the past to avoid disruption to forum discussion. Obviously if the topic is started from a shiller then removing the topic is the only option though...
Were there such cases? Strange, I haven't come across any complaints about this.
I checked IP section there were a few examples I came across, but on closer inspection it was more so that the topic had been split from the shill entrance, because of replies to the shill, and other posts not in response to the shill were caught up in that. The solution would be to use the "Select posts to split" option when splitting, or otherwise you click split topic on the OP which brings you to this option, so you can split out the shill & replies to shill, but leave the rest.
But not gonna lie I probably wouldn't bother to do this as it's simply too time consuming selecting individual posts for splitting... though used to do it in the past I think.
What helps them in creating a "legitimate discussion" are ordinary users who do not understand what it is actually about, or understand but do not care.
Very true, the smart shills know how to game the system as it were. Open topic first and shill later, as it's a much "better" shilling tactic, much less obvious too.
If ever high-ranking users find themselves receiving negative karma, after feeding blatant shills, then this could well be the reason...
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Very true, the smart shills know how to game the system as it were. Open topic first and shill later, as it's a much "better" shilling tactic, much less obvious too.
If ever high-ranking users find themselves receiving negative karma, after feeding blatant shills, then this could well be the reason...
Just out of curiosity, do you think that those who consciously (or even unconsciously) feed such members should receive negative karma? I personally have never done it because it didn't seem appropriate to me, but it is difficult for me to understand when someone "supports" what is more than obviously a fake discussion with the aim of promoting someone or something.
On BTT there is also a problem with BG shills, and it was discovered that they receive their instructions via Discord. I personally don't use it, but for those who have it and want to take a look, there might be some interesting information.
https://discord.com/channels/876747633052499999/1275760873918431314/1275767724156649503
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Very true, the smart shills know how to game the system as it were. Open topic first and shill later, as it's a much "better" shilling tactic, much less obvious too.
If ever high-ranking users find themselves receiving negative karma, after feeding blatant shills, then this could well be the reason...
Just out of curiosity, do you think that those who consciously (or even unconsciously) feed such members should receive negative karma? I personally have never done it because it didn't seem appropriate to me, but it is difficult for me to understand when someone "supports" what is more than obviously a fake discussion with the aim of promoting someone or something.
That's up to you to decide based on the rough guide for karma issuance (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=657.0), not me:
Negative karma is given to users who are misbehaving, breaking the rules, being aggressive or disruptive to the forum
Personally, when having to meticulously split a thread due to replies from high-ranking users who should know better, I find this very disruptive to what should be a simple a moderation process, so in the past I have issued -karma under the guise of disruptive to the forum. I don't think I've ever done this to users who unconsciously are engaging with shills, but when there is a well-documented problem, and users are seemingly aware of it and play along in order to more efficiently fulfil a signature quote, then sure I've been liberal with smite before.
However the correct thing to do would be messaging those users and ask them to stop feeding blatant shills, as more often than not they will be accepting of this request, but otherwise in times when there has been so much shilling it's almost taken over the forum then I quite frankly didn't have time for polite PMs. The exception being that if I'd already given -karma to a user for feeding shills, I would PM them in order to avoid repeatedly targeting a user, which could be considered karma abuse.
You'd probably be surprised how quickly respected members stop feeding shills once their karma drops by 1 or 2* to be honest. Because in these cases users are quite likely to go back through their posts to try and figure out why they might have received -karma. A post being moved to trash as part of a shill thread is a good indication of this, and often becomes a self-resolving issue. Obviously, I can't and shouldn't advocate that other users engage in this type of smiting, I can only speak to my own experience.
Bottom line: If you're not willing or able to defend yourself in the Forum Court or otherwise for distributing negative karma, then don't do it.
*Giving negative karma to a user you gave positive karma to in the past 10 hours will not only give -1 but will remove the +1 thus effectively resulting in -2.
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@dragononcrypto, I appreciate your opinion and I think that what you wrote will not only be useful for me but also for others. I completely agree that we can approach the problem by trying to somehow interest the members in trying to understand that they are doing something wrong in the hope that they will understand what is actually wrong.
Sending a PM is perhaps the most effective way to point something out to someone, but if you have 20 topics in which some have 3 or more pages each and which were all created with the intention of someone shilling something between the posts, then such a way becomes a very difficult mission as you wrote it yourself.
However, after everything, it seems to me that the number of BG shills is much smaller than before (maybe I'm wrong and they hide in boards that I don't visit).
+1
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However, after everything, it seems to me that the number of BG shills is much smaller than before (maybe I'm wrong and they hide in boards that I don't visit).
There are still many, they try to imitate ordinary users so it is clear not in each and every their post as it was earlier. And they also make many accounts starting with less obviously shilling and then shilling more. And they don't really care of holding accounts and their reputation. Argh!
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However, after everything, it seems to me that the number of BG shills is much smaller than before (maybe I'm wrong and they hide in boards that I don't visit).
There are still many, they try to imitate ordinary users so it is clear not in each and every their post as it was earlier. And they also make many accounts starting with less obviously shilling and then shilling more. And they don't really care of holding accounts and their reputation. Argh!
As an update have sent warnings to half a dozen users, some received the badge and strikes as had already been warned and naturally ignoring advise to use IP section, a few of them multiple times already. Was a bit disappointed to see some users warned multiple times and still not tagged or given strikes, as most of the users could have been tagged sometime ago already based on previous warnings.
It turns out that they also seem to be working together quite a bit, I assume they see the reports of shill posts in the discord, and then jump on those threads. So at least it has made it easier to track down another handful of them by making the effort to split topics and move to IP, as it helped to expose more of them within these topics in the process. Some of the topics are in relatively inactive sections, so is very unlikely they'd be finding each others posts organically. If you go to IP section, you can now see how much BG shilling as been going on in just the past week alone.
The reality is 95% of users who are discussing Bitget are shilling it. Not all, some respectable members are also discussing, but the reality is the discussion is 99% of the time is raised by shills who are posting primarily about Bitget and not much else. So if you want to help keep the forum clean, when you see a newer user casually discussing Bitget, check their recent posts and see if that what they're doing most of the time. Then report them here and let mods do the rest: https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=112178.0
It might otherwise seem that this is just one of the most popular exchanges like Binance and OKX. This is exactly the deceptive trickery of the innovative ways in which these shill have been promoting the exchange. The reality is the exchange is only as popular (https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/) as Kucoin and MEXC, which you hear much less about on this forum. I wouldn't be surprised if this exchange reached this level of popularity primarily because of shilling which is a worrying reality. As someone else put it in this thread, based on their deceptive marketing techniques, this is likely an FTX 2.0 waiting to happen.
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As an update have sent warnings to half a dozen users, some received the badge and strikes as had already been warned and naturally ignoring advise to use IP section, a few of them multiple times already. Was a bit disappointed to see some users warned multiple times and still not tagged or given strikes, as most of the users could have been tagged sometime ago already based on previous warnings.
I have already expressed before that there are simply too many "warnings" which unfortunately, as we can see, do not change anything. All those who came to this forum because of shilling will continue to do so until you permanently ban them, and then they will create a new profile and continue where they left off.
~snip~
The reality is 95% of users who are discussing Bitget are shilling it. Not all, some respectable members are also discussing, but the reality is the discussion is 99% of the time is raised by shills who are posting primarily about Bitget and not much else. So if you want to help keep the forum clean, when you see a newer user casually discussing Bitget, check their recent posts and see if that what they're doing most of the time. Then report them here and let mods do the rest: https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=112178.0
This is visible to anyone who wants to see, but as you can see for yourself, instead of reporting such behavior, a good part of forum users will engage in a discussion that was created only with the reason to shill that company. Whether someone likes it or not, in this way they participate in shilling, the only question remains whether consciously or unconsciously.
It might otherwise seem that this is just one of the most popular exchanges like Binance and OKX. This is exactly the deceptive trickery of the innovative ways in which these shill have been promoting the exchange. The reality is the exchange is only as popular (https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/) as Kucoin and MEXC, which you hear much less about on this forum. I wouldn't be surprised if this exchange reached this level of popularity primarily because of shilling which is a worrying reality.
I have no doubt that their tactics brought them very good results with literally minimal costs. Given that shilling is against the rules of the forum and given that we know that it happens in an organized manner, I would again suggest that the administration consider blacklisting the keyword (Bitget) or at least making it impossible for anyone below a certain rank to post it.
I have also already suggested to check who gives all of them +karma, because I believe that they have at least one teleported acc from BTT which is Senior+ rank. When I first started researching these accounts, I was surprised that most of them had +5 or even +10 karma, which is completely illogical to me then and now.
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As an update have sent warnings to half a dozen users, some received the badge and strikes as had already been warned and naturally ignoring advise to use IP section, a few of them multiple times already. Was a bit disappointed to see some users warned multiple times and still not tagged or given strikes, as most of the users could have been tagged sometime ago already based on previous warnings.
I have already expressed before that there are simply too many "warnings" which unfortunately, as we can see, do not change anything. All those who came to this forum because of shilling will continue to do so until you permanently ban them, and then they will create a new profile and continue where they left off.
This is not wrong, and it turns out after reviewing this topic again that most of the users that received a tag or strike because they continued shilling were your reports from before. It's also correct that they will continue shilling until punished, usually a tag or strike is enough for them to ditch the account and create a new one, rather than needing to be banned in fairness. But otherwise users will give up reporting users if all that occurs is warnings which are ignored, so there is a need for more aggressive moderation. The annoying thing is it doesn't solve the problem either, instead new accounts will spring up to shill again. Will be requesting admin support on this so that IPs can be tracked when accounts become inactive.
~snip~
The reality is 95% of users who are discussing Bitget are shilling it. Not all, some respectable members are also discussing, but the reality is the discussion is 99% of the time is raised by shills who are posting primarily about Bitget and not much else. So if you want to help keep the forum clean, when you see a newer user casually discussing Bitget, check their recent posts and see if that what they're doing most of the time. Then report them here and let mods do the rest: https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=112178.0
This is visible to anyone who wants to see, but as you can see for yourself, instead of reporting such behavior, a good part of forum users will engage in a discussion that was created only with the reason to shill that company. Whether someone likes it or not, in this way they participate in shilling, the only question remains whether consciously or unconsciously.
Indeed those who feed the shills are part of the problem, whether they are aware or not. This is exactly what the shilling is intended for, to create the false impression of organic discussion around the exchange by respected members, which in itself is more effective than the shilling itself. It gives it credibility and respected members should no better.
Will recommend to admin that the IP section isn't public, and only for members of the forum. Potentially this would help to discourage shilling here.
It might otherwise seem that this is just one of the most popular exchanges like Binance and OKX. This is exactly the deceptive trickery of the innovative ways in which these shill have been promoting the exchange. The reality is the exchange is only as popular (https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/) as Kucoin and MEXC, which you hear much less about on this forum. I wouldn't be surprised if this exchange reached this level of popularity primarily because of shilling which is a worrying reality.
I have no doubt that their tactics brought them very good results with literally minimal costs. Given that shilling is against the rules of the forum and given that we know that it happens in an organized manner, I would again suggest that the administration consider blacklisting the keyword (Bitget) or at least making it impossible for anyone below a certain rank to post it.
It's not a bad idea, especially the idea of being say blacklisted for lower ranks, as the shilling is coming from lower ranks. Hopefully shills would simply be deterred by more aggressive moderation, but I realise that's being a bit too optimistic. From experience with previous shill campaigns such as Veil, as long as they are being paid, they will continue to create new accounts in order to shill.
I have also already suggested to check who gives all of them +karma, because I believe that they have at least one teleported acc from BTT which is Senior+ rank. When I first started researching these accounts, I was surprised that most of them had +5 or even +10 karma, which is completely illogical to me then and now.
I'd checked karma before as Jokers mentioned it in mod section, and generally they have been received from a variety of respectable members, presumably (hopefully) for posts that weren't shilling the exchange. The reality is after before warned for shilling BG in 100% of their posts, they will often do so in only 50%, in order to try and disguise the shilling and pretend to be respectable members of the forum. This also doesn't reduce the shilling, but instead doubles the number of posts from these shills, and shouldn't be excusable either.
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Came here because I noticed a new tag on their profile (Shillers) ;D It seems they don't mind it because I still see them logging in and posting but at least some members (who are still unaware) will know their intention. Is it possible to put some colors for better visibility?
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Came here because I noticed a new tag on their profile (Shillers) ;D It seems they don't mind it because I still see them logging in and posting but at least some members (who are still unaware) will know their intention. Is it possible to put some colors for better visibility?
What do you mean by "some colors"? It sounds like you just mean more strikes lol. Respectfully please put the crack away senator. Their titles are literally shill, or otherwise 1st strike, misbheaving, etc. If other members don't notice that, then these users have issues. Personally I'm waiting on the usual complaints of "you're being too harsh" not "you should do more" here.
Please just "toe the line: here and distribute negative karma appropriately. At this point I consider it your duty as both a senator and long-term d team members, thanks :)
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Simply changing the text into a red one or other color would be enough. Something that would quickly draw the attention of the reader of a shiller's post. If I would immediately notice that, I wouldn't bother reading the whole post because I already know what's to come.
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Simply changing the text into a red one or other color would be enough. Something that would quickly draw the attention of the reader of a shiller's post. If I would immediately notice that, I wouldn't bother reading the whole post because I already know what's to come.
I agree, it's rather lenient where another exchange decided to imitate BG action. Today i noticed user Pips Flow[1] mention exchange called BingX on almost of all his recent posts. Their shilling also spotted on different forum[2].
[1] https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=99292 (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=99292)
[2] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5507115.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5507115.0)
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Simply changing the text into a red one or other color would be enough. Something that would quickly draw the attention of the reader of a shiller's post. If I would immediately notice that, I wouldn't bother reading the whole post because I already know what's to come.
I agree, it's rather lenient where another exchange decided to imitate BG action. Today i noticed user Pips Flow[1] mention exchange called BingX on almost of all his recent posts. Their shilling also spotted on different forum[2].
[1] https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=99292 (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=99292)
[2] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5507115.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5507115.0)
Thanks for sharing +1. User has been tagged and warned, clear case of "Sign up here solely to promote a project for a forum advertising bounty (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=111857.0)".
Aside from the disruption to forum, this is the issue of letting an exchange like Bitget get away with shilling and treated with a soft touch, it encourages others to do so the same if they see that it yields good results. Only when these campaign managers acknoledge that it has the potential to do more harm than good (tarnish the reputation of an exchange) will they stop doing this.
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~snip~
Aside from the disruption to forum, this is the issue of letting an exchange like Bitget get away with shilling and treated with a soft touch, it encourages others to do so the same if they see that it yields good results. Only when these campaign managers acknoledge that it has the potential to do more harm than good (tarnish the reputation of an exchange) will they stop doing this.
I hate to repeat myself (and I don't know if it makes sense), but with the soft way of approaching the problem, we can hardly hope to turn things in our favor. For those who do this, it is not a problem to be marked as shills and to receive strikes, because when they assess that that profile is no longer usable, they simply create a new one and start all over again.
Their strength is in numbers, and until stricter measures are taken, we are spinning in a vicious circle.
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~snip~
Aside from the disruption to forum, this is the issue of letting an exchange like Bitget get away with shilling and treated with a soft touch, it encourages others to do so the same if they see that it yields good results. Only when these campaign managers acknoledge that it has the potential to do more harm than good (tarnish the reputation of an exchange) will they stop doing this.
I hate to repeat myself (and I don't know if it makes sense), but with the soft way of approaching the problem, we can hardly hope to turn things in our favor.
The "soft approach" is over, it didn't work as shills simply ignored warnings and continued shilling regardless, as they have nothing to lose apart from an account they don't care about or value. It also went against the recommended manner to deal with shills, such as giving the appropriate badge as well as the original strategy of having posts moderated (under misbhehaving group).
For those who do this, it is not a problem to be marked as shills and to receive strikes, because when they assess that that profile is no longer usable, they simply create a new one and start all over again.
This is something we can do very little about, if users ditch the account to create a new account then we just have to catch the new accounts. It's always a cat and mouse game.
Their strength is in numbers, and until stricter measures are taken, we are spinning in a vicious circle.
This is otherwise the current mod strategy I'm using and have recommended to others:
1st offence: +20% warning*
2nd offence: Add shill badge and 1st strike
3rd offence: Add to misbehaving and 2nd strike
4th offence: 3 strikes
*Unless 100% of posts are shilling (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=111857.0), then can receive shill tag immediately
To clarify:
- The shill tag is not a real punishment, it's just an accurate and appropriate label
- The strikes are the punishments (costs $5/10/25 to remove)
- Misbehaving means all posts require approval from mods
- 3 strikes means posts require approval by admin
Worth noting that the shill badge has so far led to most shills not shilling anymore, but only time will tell. Once they end up in misbehaving then they nearly always give up, as mods simply won't approve posts from shills that are still shilling, and instead more likely to give negative karma (or mods get -karma themselves if they approve shill posts).
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Simply changing the text into a red one or other color would be enough. Something that would quickly draw the attention of the reader of a shiller's post. If I would immediately notice that, I wouldn't bother reading the whole post because I already know what's to come.
I agree, it's rather lenient where another exchange decided to imitate BG action. Today i noticed user Pips Flow[1] mention exchange called BingX on almost of all his recent posts. Their shilling also spotted on different forum[2].
[1] https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=99292 (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?action=profile;u=99292)
[2] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5507115.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5507115.0)
Thanks for sharing +1. User has been tagged and warned, clear case of "Sign up here solely to promote a project for a forum advertising bounty (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=111857.0)".
As an update this user has already made it to misbheaving group with a strike after ignoring previous warning, so shouldn't see their shilling anymore unless mods slip up.
Obviously thought that shilling BingX as "B!ngx" and "Blngx" would somehow work ::)
Doesn't realise I'm a human who can read ;D