Bitcoin Forum

Not sure I've ever ran into another forum which operated in such a manner ... why would it be necessary here ???

Just to follow up concerning the "newbie restrictions" ... I certainly understand the desire to keep a "clean" forum and see the desired "balance" they are attempting to achieve. However, they attempt to cut down on "useless spam" and yet at the same token, FORCE new members to post some "meaningful chat" consisting of a few sentences (which, is, of course, limited to THIS forum...). Quite frankly this post is probably something which constitutes both 'meaningful chat' (intellectually pointing out that they are contradicting themselves, forcing new members to attempt to come up with something meaningful, and yet separate from their desired conversations), AND is completely unnecessary in the larger scope of the forums (i.e., this really adds nothing to the bitcointalk community). Thus, they have forced me to SPAM the forums with a 'meaningful chat' which I would NOT have otherwise posted.

So stick that in your catch-22 self-referential pipe, and smoke it. (and grant me more than provisional member status  ;D )

 8)

Self-referential pipe smokes itself.  :P

And I'm the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland (seem to recall they were smoking something there on the mushroom ;) )
Hope this counts as your "meaningful post"  :D

Long ago there was a magical time where there was no Newbie section, and no user limitations for new members. No one needed X Posts and X time logged to post elsewhere, and all was wonderful. Except the literal thousands and thousands of spam bots and advertisers who would make 10,000 accounts and 100,000 posts in 10 minutes and advertise paypal and such all over the place, where it was hard to track and repair.

After that, the newbie system was added, so that before someone or some bot could cause havok to the rest of the boards, they would have to post in the newbie section, where the Newbie section moderators are ever vigilant looking for the likes of them. It is unpleasant for like 4 hours until you have full rights, and then after that the newbie restrictions are gone, and you are free to enjoy a less spammy forum.

Salty - I said I totally understood the intention and understand this didn't simply come about arbitrarily! However, I would have rather seen alternative methods of implementing your anti-botting (even including some return-authentication mechanism via email; if that wasn't already tried!?). ((In addition, I TOTALLY appreciate the active role you and other moderators take in maintaining this site --- about the only thing worse than what I'm addressing is the situation when there is a total lack of moderation, with no one addressing the current happenings on the site!))

I believe many bitcoin advocates have gravitated this way due to the fact that this crypto-currency cannot be as easily manipulated as, say, the Federal Reserve (which has about as much "Federal" as Federal Express or Federal ammunition!) ... And yet, at first glance, it seems BitCoinTalk is attempting at least as much 'manipulation' in things as the Federal Reserve (forcing initial member activity including posts, "view time", type of activity, etc.). This is why I've been making such a "stink" in this thread and why I've attempted to bring it to the greater attention of this community.

While I've only recently signed up here, I've previously browsed these forums and found helpful information on more than one occasion! (and not necessarily through your search page - which can only be accessed every, how-many, seconds?...) I've also previously taken my time to input on bitcoin-related matters including (but not limited to) a technical discussion on the fairness/provability of Peerbet's raffles (http://[Suspicious link removed]/index.php?title=Fairness) ... I think their only requirement for contribution was filling out a "captcha" of either "nospam" or "no" (depending on the question ;) though I choose to register there such that anyone could tell it was me who contributed, for whatever that was worth!) Quite frankly, coming here and experiencing your excessively preventative mechanisms is a turnoff to participating in your site/forum.

I'm not trying to give you a magic bullet which will eliminate your monitoring efforts along with the posting requirements. However, I am hoping you'll continually reevaluate the bitcointalk membership/participation paradigm and consider how you can best serve the community -- both for existing, as well as new, members!

Meanwhile, thanks for all the efforts you've put in to help keep this forum up and running as efficiently/effectively as possible! Being in and around a couple forums over the years, I know how much of a time sink moderation can become!  :o

- Gozzy

I agree with the Newbie jail concept, but the wait times could be shortened a little. Whitelisting helps a bit though.

I am a newb and I approve of the restrictions.

Carry on.

Without this limit(or jail if you want), scammers can easily create false account :(

Finally a newbie who does not complain about the Newbie section :-)

there should be more restrictions IMO. but it's fine the way it is at the moment

True.  BUT my first post was

 KnCMiner Jupiters - Boards received 08/26/2013 - Awaiting ASICs
Today at 04:39:23 AM

That was waaaaaay more than 4 hours ago.  I have not logged out since and I have 1 hour to go.  You might want to look at how that timer thingy works...

It's just lazy admins. And it's a retarded idea, people like me send meaningless posts just to be able to post where they really want to.

Good point, SaltySpitoon!  :)

You must "click around" and do things such as that so it counts for the timer!

Very necessery for newbies

It doesn't matter how experienced you are. It doesn't matter if you didn't make a account before now. It's too reduce spammers. If you want to get whitelisted you will have to comment in the whitelist thread stating so. A staff member will whitelist you if they think it's a good idea.

If someone wants to spam he will anyway. It is not a problem to post once and wait for 4 hrs or am I missing something? There is also activity limitation which only slows down spammers, but not eliminate them.

What do you reproach exactly to the Newbie forum?


You can read, and you said that you did, every other forum and find any information you might want about btc or altcoins.
Yes, you can't post everywhere, but you only need 1 post and to wait 4 hours, which is almost nothing.


I think that it is fine like it is. Yes, maybe you can find some better ideas, like confirmation emails, but it's working great.

I voted yes.

Confirmation emails would not prevent spammers. I think this system is good and prevents most spammers. Then the moderators deal with the rest of the spammers. This system has been questioned many times, but it does benefit the forum.

Yeah, no problem.


Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=15911.0

I think it is fine. Even though i would like to become a full member. Just be patient :)

I understand and accept the need for a newbie post forum. It is a good way of controlling the huge amount of post that just do not add anything of value to the community and just take up space. At least if you make people wait a while and come back, you think they might have some time to reflect on the community and want to actively participate. Well, at least we can all hope that is the case.

Thanks

If there was no Newbie forum, there would be a huge amount of spammers and scammers. So yes, it is entirely necessary.

I agree, good point

It's probably ok as it is now... i'll just have to wait i guess  ???

i've seen other forums run a similar way like this. personally i'd rather see more efford gone into stopping scammers on here. things like being able to openly buy and sell accounts on here still amazes me :'(

If you go to the members tab, you will find that there are 145,235 members registered on BTCTalk right now. With that amount of accounts, it is very difficult for the 38 forum staff members to catch alt accounts and scammers. So rather than give people a false sense of security by saying, "No alt accounts or scammers are allowed here" we make it openly known that alt accounts and account selling is present, so people can use due vigilance to avoid scams.

If we told people that they were safe here, and one, or one thousand of those 145,235 members got around whatever protection methods we put up, people would be off guard, and there would be far more scams, than if we told people to just watch out for scammers.

I voted yes. We need some sort of way to reduce spammers & scammers.

Most scammers don't have the patience to go through newbie jail, IMO.

LOL, if there's no Newbie Forum, where can newbies post?

If you feel understaffed then take on more moderators. If you see people openly selling accounts then ban them. At least it'll make it that bit harder to do it. I'm not saying to tell everyone its safe and There would not be far more scams if more afford was made into stopping them. Its just crazy how easy it is to do and how little it seems the mods care about it happening.