Therefore, the third party should be someone like d5000 or The Cryptovator.
I also think the initial ban should be for 120 days, not a year. The forum averages about 25,000 posts per week, and long-term bans would significantly reduce overall activity, while a three-month ban would provide just enough time for a re-examination (a second ban would double the ban, for example).
They would be a tad soft, but they are excellent choices. As long as it is nobody directly related or indirectly related to the local boards from where the majority of these users are being banned, furthermore there are different other kinds of biases that must be avoided in addition to people who would be way too soft which is not a "neutral" party. I have suspected for a long time that there is an organized boosting and farming clique with the involvement of both merit sources and staff members, violations on the level of Sapta but this place is way too lenient without "proof" even when it is staring them in the face. In the case of Fivestar4everMVP,
three independent people who don't even like each other have already confirmed in different ways that the ban is deserved. stompix, myself, and this guy below. All three are "neutral" parties, unless you consider bias against shitposting to be bias in which case they are "not neutral". That tells you enough about this ban.
@d5000 take a look at this whole thread since you may have not done so yet.
If having a post pattern is now a criteria to get sigbanned
This "pattern" is exactly what hilariousandco described in 2016:
What counts as an unsubstantial or unconstructive post? There is obviously no set definition to what constitutes unconstructive posting as it is entirely subjective and is ultimately down to Staff opinion on what posts are constructive or not, but generally it is quite easy to spot a spammer posting only for payment. Spam can come in many forms, but a typical spammer's posts will often follow some sort of pattern which will be immediately obvious upon inspection and will usually consist of one or two sentences of rehashed opinion posted as fast as possible with the minimal amount of effort being put in. A quality/constructive poster will generally have no pattern to their posting history and will have posts ranging from one word to one sentence to several paragraphs and everything in between and this is what you should be aiming for. If you find yourself in a position where you are forcing yourself to reply to a thread due to your signature campaign then that's a pretty good indication that you're likely making unsubstantial posts.
The fact that various alts and account-farming enablers have come to defend the account also adds more credibility that the ban is well placed. There has not been a single ban that was incorrect so far -- actually nutildah is being way too slow, careful and generous given that the backlog is several hundred or several thousands of accounts. @nutildah get to it, we are not getting any younger here.
I also think the initial ban should be for 120 days, not a year. The forum averages about 25,000 posts per week, and long-term bans would significantly reduce overall activity, while a three-month ban would provide just enough time for a re-examination (a second ban would double the ban, for example).
That is way too soft given that some of these accounts have been doing this for many years. You must also consider the cost/benefit analysis, and short bans provide a much stronger reason to pretend and fake it until you make it. Very few people would actually pretend to write good posts over 1 year in order to come back to spamming after their signatures have been restored. It is too much effort.
An analysis of the entire active, English-section forum population has been done. I'm working on a way to provide more transparency for those curious about the reasons for their sigban, and for anyone who wants to know if I think their posting quality and behavior could use improvement. It should be done in about 24-48 hours.
Are we truly going to witness the revival of this forum into something that is sensible and actually useful for Bitcoin and its mission? This place has been a net negative for very long time for Bitcoin, some softies delude themselves that something is beneficial as long as it has any kind of benefit even if 99% of the content is useless junk.
