(OP target period being approx 100,000 accounts)
Lets have a better look.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664793 sadyas
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664805 apriloni
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664811 virusasog
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664818 michkima
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664832 satdas
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664837 asrilani
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664839 virasisog
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664845 miakama
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664876 studas
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664883 asdalani
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664899 varusisog ***
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664909 misakama
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664919 stadus
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664926 asidamani
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664935 vasrasus
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664939 mistanama
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664958 sildyas
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664960 asriloni
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664962 vurasasog
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664965 mitkala
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664980 satmas
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664985 asradoni
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664989 vatusasid
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=664992 miayama
Same kind of pattern here.
(this list covers a two and a half hour registration time span)
All happily posting away. Another 1900 meaningless spam posts from 24 farmed accounts.
(I think there was barely 1 normal active user in in-betwen these accounts. The rest in-between accounts are inactive 0 post accounts)
If an account farmer (or anyone) makes a large number of low value posts then they will likely get banned. A well established account will need to make a decent number of low value posts before they are in danger of getting banned. An account farmer could simply make generally interesting posts to get around violating this rule. An account farmer would need to put in a generally small amount of effort to not break this rule.
Clearly the farmer knows this and does have a certain quality, albeit low. The same mundane sentences are rehashed infinitely.
You know how hard it can be to build a case against 1 spammer. There are thousands of these farmed accounts.
By the time someone campaign's to get 1 banned, there are probably 100's more.
This is why it is up to Theymos to act against, or not. Nothing we can do.
I'll just try to highlight the scale of the problem. I never realised before.
If you assume that someone can make 0.001BTC per post (which I do not think is unrealistic, and is even maybe low), and over the long run, can make one post every 2 minutes (again, not unrealistic, but the post quality would not be very good), then someone can make roughly $18 per hour just by posting while participating in a signature campaign if they can find enough threads to reply to throughout the day.
When you compare this to making $8-$9 per hour, flipping burgers at McDonalds posting large numbers of posts can be very appealing to a certain group of people.
So, hire someone at $5 per hour, and keep $10 per hour in profit. Hire 10 people, keep $1000 per day profit. It must be happening?
These accounts I am highlighting are most likely created by 1 or 2 or very few people. It is a unique and identifiable circumstance.
It could easily be solved, independently of other multi-account or spam issues, as I think I have shown how easily they can be detected.
There are certain policies in place that make it harder on a certain type of spammers, primarily those who post links to spam, and those who use automation to create accounts with the intention of creating a single post (from each account) that is an advertisement. These policies generally give a little bit of value to accounts because higher level accounts due to relaxed posting requirements. The forum also explicitly allows for people to have as many accounts as they want because of things like freedom of speech.
I agree that we have a problem with users making too much 'white noise' making it difficult to have a decent conversation about Bitcoin, however I am not sure how to fix this issue. Over the past couple of years, several solutions have been suggested, however if implemented, they would likely do much more harm then good.
There are certain vague rules that could be applied, but are not being.
Makes me wonder, but for now, i,m pretending Theymos and the mods/staff probably aren't running this farming business, until I have a response.
Someone is making big money out of this.
I don't mind people making money, but such a massive degradation of this forum I do mind.
When "real" new bitcoiners, like K~Ehlyr end up in conversation with these farmed accounts... well, read his thoughts above.
I'm guessing new members like K~Ehlyr, and any non-members looking in, must think all bitcoiners are f**king retards!
*** bbc. spammer list