Bitcoin Forum

Is there a particular reason why these things are hidden? I eventually found the rules but had some digging around to do. I wonder if other newcomers also felt lost about posting/replying.

I also had quite some trouble finding those information.

Yes me to, i think it should be easier to find.

Same here, had to google it

@DannyHamilton: Why did you advance a strawman argument (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man#Structure)?

The point was not that users aren't notified about the existence of the rules. No one questioned that this notification is very visible on registration.

However, the exact rules (How much time? How many posts? What kind of correlation betweem those two?) are somewhat hidden in the forum, and that's what was criticized.

The point of the argument was that the specific numbers associated with "some time" and "a few posts" isn't important.

"If you are registering to ask a question, please ask it in the newbies section."

"If you are commenting on Bitcoin, use your newbie wait time to read more about Bitcoin".

If you follow those two pieces of advice, then the specific number associated with the requirements are unimportant.  You'll have exceeded the requirements easily before their existence becomes a problem.

Those two statements demonstrate exactly the problem. Imagine a newly registered person ("newbie") who is well-informed and doesn't have any questions, but wants to become part of interesting discussions in the non-newbie sections. Then the second statement suggests that it's sufficient for him to read around a bit. After, say, 10 hours he's wondering why he still can't reply. After 20 hours he's giving up.

This wouldn't happen if the rules were clear from the beginning.

Of course, that newbie would almost certainly have searched for the exact rules, as we all do, and would've eventually found those. But why making it so hard for them? Why aren't the rules more clearly communicated to the "newbies"?

Besides, I find it a bit strage to have to defend the value of open and transparent rules in a Bitcoin forum.

If they're that well informed about bitcoin, they'll have plenty of opportunity during those hours to participate in discussions in the Newbie thread and assist Newbies in learning more about bitcoin.  The odds that they won't have 4 useful things to share in the Newbie thread after hours of reading are sufficiently small.  The odds that they won't stumble across the topic pinned to the top of the Newbie thread with the specific values is even smaller. The odds that they won't either have 4 posts, or stumble on the specific numbers, or stumble on the "whitelist" thread are getting ridiculously small.


Perhaps not, but the current system seems to be working well.


I could be mistaken, but as I understand it, it helps keep the troll count down.

Well, we've debated to use large flashing popups just to get their attention, but figured that there's got to be people who don't read anything anyway.

Indeed, large flashing popups are a good way to ensure that nobody will read that. This effect also has a name: banner blindness (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banner_blindness)

i also had trouble finding out about the restrictions, a link would be helpful

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=177133.0

Ok, we'll use flashing neon signs instead. Good enough?