Sh*t Shills Say — Episode 1 ft. Electroneum
In this new series, I will cover some of the more unusual comments, messages, and other interactions I have with cryptocurrency shills. I will make a strong effort to redact personal information.
This post is very long, but I believe it is worth the read. There is a lot of content to unpack. If we merely talked about the usual shilling, we would have thousands of posts per day. I’m here to talk about some truly special shilling.
Earlier today, we noticed an unusual post on r/CryptoCurrency, shown below:
There are a few initial red flags for this post.
- The title clearly does not meet r/CryptoCurrency’s rule 9. It is not very descriptive, it comes across as clearly biased, and it is generally impossible to verify. It is clear from the title alone that this is a shill post.
- There is absolutely no discussed criticism of the project. To meet r/CryptoCurrency’s quality guidelines, we recommend including critical thinking.
- The post ends with a ludicrous comparison to Apple stock’s meteoric rise in value to further drive FOMO.
Do not post low-quality content: Criticism and skepticism is encouraged. All posts promoting only the positives of a certain cryptocurrency will be more thoroughly examined for shilling. To reduce the risk of your post/comment getting removed, include counterarguments, criticism, et cetera. No cryptocurrency is perfect.
Clearly the post violates three of our rules: 2) no spam, 5) do not post low-quality content, and 9) use suitable titles and correct flairs. This is enough for a removal and temporary ban. However, there are other interesting aspects about the post.
There were a substantial number of comments in suspiciously strong favor of Electroneum. Electroneum discussion is welcome on r/CryptoCurrency, but it is generally rare. Below are some of the suspicious posts:
All right, I’m sure you get the point. But these could just be very enthusiastic community members who happened to be on r/CryptoCurrency at the time and don’t know any better. Except that people kept coming and commenting even after the post had been removed:
Modmail Aftermath
It should be no surprise that we banned the OP for making this post. Clear evidence of breaking three rules and very likely breaking another gets you a ban. The modmail messages that ensued were hilarious. Grab some popcorn 🍿!
OP was not pleased with their ban, so they sent us the following message:
To which a fellow moderator replied simply:
OP responds:
The following two comments were sent independently of each other at nearly the same time:
Here’s the absolutely beautiful response we received from OP, which I recommend reading in full. Certain portions have the potential to be the next big copypasta:
Dear r/cryptocurrency Moderators,
<LOTS OF MODERATOR PINGS>
This post: <LINK TO POST>
Was meant to be a celebration of hard work that has yielded real results; reading and reviewing the facts prior to banning me and my work/article would be appreciated. Today your reply states “there is a good deal of manipulation, fictitious comments from strange accounts…” yet you did not produce a single example of this in your reply. The way I am being treated makes me feel like r/cryptocurrency moderators are using their power to dominate me, silence me, and punish me with extreme prejudice. I am inclined to take massive action, as discussed below, if this is not resolved expeditiously.
I feel undermined, targeted, and cheated from my basic human right to freedom of expression. The legal ramifications of this can be (and in most cases are) criminal; further, I have unlimited resources and will have representative counsel take action if we cannot resolve this expeditiously, as discussed below. I have seen people not banned for less, but you chose to remove my content and ban me personally. This is not the first time this has happened; I have documentation of the last time I posted in r/cryptocurrency my work was also removed for no apparent reason.
Everyone (self included) hears the stories about Reddit being toxic; I always attributed those complaints to the users, never the moderators as you were always held to a higher standard. But here you have taken down my post that is actually one of very few you can find in the entire r/cryptocurrency with actual substance, grit, and thought-out well-formed information. Not to mention a fun video for the community I spent hundreds of hours working on to produce.
The reasons for the censorship and downvoting of good material, candidly, is sickening; but I would never expect the moderators of r/cryptocurrency themselves to be part of that utter toxic and discriminatory environment. It is quite frustrating to see brilliant and meaningful posts censored or bombarded with downvote attacks. This begs the question which cryptocurrency project(s) moderators in this subreddit support. I am guessing the subpoenas I will serve you with, mentioned below, will be indeed telling.
Reddit being the world’s 22nd most popular website, and the U.S.’s 7th, I will get to the bottom of what took place. In the United States of America we have rights and you are not going to walk all over me like I am some kind of a cockroach. I am an advocate of justice, including but not limited to freedom of speech; freedom of press; and if we want to go outside the United States and look to International Law, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights protects the freedom of opinion and expression in all of the international human rights treaties. In International Law, freedom to express opinions and ideas is considered essential at the individual level. I’m sorry to inform you, Reddit’s rules and policies do not and will not ever supersede the laws by which we are governed.
You see I am not your average user with average credentials and bona fides; and since you refused to provide me with the valid reason for my suspension and failed to reinstate my account when requested, I will seek legal action from an expert of the highest level in litigating these matters so we may get to the bottom of how I was treated today. I will subpoena all your conversations among the moderators, yes I know you made jokes and laughed at me. Reddit rules and policies do not supersede the laws governing us, and should you be found in violation of any of I will expend substantial resources in pursuing and prosecuting those responsible to the fullest extend of the law. You will learn another lesson about freedom of press when they are reporting on this, every step of the way.
Frankly I am rather shocked it appears your moderators would rather see hate and ridicule on my posts to balance out the overwhelming positivity to make it look valid. I know many people became used to Monero folks jumping on Electroneum and calling it a shitcoin and so on, and seeing these hateful comments snowball as more people jumped on that wagon. You should be proud that few stood against many and went into the Lion’s den r/cryptocurrencyand and posted something like this. Again, this article was meant to be a celebration that hard work really does pay off with stunning results. I was actually surprised how well it was received, until you decided to take it down. I do not understand how you can justify this as spam; show me a bot on any of the comments and I will agree with your decision. If everyone that makes a comment is a supporter, is that what makes them spammers because they believe in a project? You do realize that Electroneum has one of the strongest cryptocurrency communities out there. We do not hire fake bots or fake accounts. Some do. Electroneum’s community chooses not to. What has been done to me is embarrassing at best and criminal at worst. I expected better.
Before I make the call tomorrow morning I respectfully ask you reconsider my ban and the removal on my article’s post. Suspicion alone is not an act of a crime or violation of policies. Facts are necessary to take this kind of action, and the facts I have collected are more than sufficient. I look forward to your reply and proceeding accordingly. In the event I do not hear back from you, no response is still a response and accordingly you will hear from counsel.
I am not a bot or paid by the Electroneum, it is a new project but none of the accounts you called bots are bots, you were once new before as well so please do not act like everyone in here must have 2 years under their belt before thy are allowed commenting. Perhaps you should look into the mirror and ask yourself what was the real reason for my suspension from r/cryptocurrency. I do hope you understand this is not a moan and if you can look and read the reddit posts that I did without any ego or attachment to another coin/project you will see that I am nothing more than a big supporter, far from a spammer and I certainly did not deserve to be banned from here and my post removed.
Thank you, <REDACTED>
Wow. Lots of content to unpack here. Apparently I need to hire a lawyer. If only we included referral links in the sidebar or were paid by Blockstream, perhaps we could afford one. I have received lawsuit and death threats for certain actions on r/CryptoCurrency before, but they are relatively rare.
Luckily (for obvious reasons), we do not need to hire a lawyer. Reddit is a private website that does not guarantee free speech on its platform. Subreddits are semi-autonomous, self-organized groups moderated by individuals to their liking that only need to follow Reddit’s basic rules. Sure, there are some ethical guidelines to follow, but you should not have an expectation of free speech on r/CryptoCurrency or any other subreddit.
That being said, of course we value high-quality content and diverse ideas. By removing shill posts, spam, and other unwanted content, we can allow these genuine ideas to flourish. We have many initiatives, including our popular skepticism “Pro & Con-test,” to encourage constructive discourse.
Official Forum Vote Manipulation
Two moderators asking for upvotes and comments in bold? Looks like manipulation to me and everyone else. Enjoy your ban ❤.
Telegram Vote Manipulation
Unfortunately the original messages asking for upvotes were removed, but they did not do a great job covering up their tracks. Featuring — you guessed it — the same moderators from the forum.
Be careful, everyone. We do our best to keep r/CryptoCurrency clean, but some manipulation attempts may go unnoticed. We will continue monitoring suspected accounts to prevent further manipulation attempts. If you are concerned about any post in particular, use the report button and message the moderators.
