Bitcoin Forum

Greetings all, I have been hanging around this forum for a while now and trying to find a place where I can fit in among the different topics.  I am still learning the ropes both in terms of the forum and BTC in general.  I've had a couple of my posts deleted already (I am guessing because they didn't add anything).  I'd like to avoid looking like a schmuck in the future, so for people that have been around here awhile, what is the single best piece of advice that you have for a Bitcoin Talk beginner.  Preferably something that isn't covered in the Newbie pinned thread.  I have read through that at least three times now :) 

It only took me a day or two on here to learn that I need to stay away from Self Moderated threads.  Things like that would be really helpful. 

Thanks again,

You don't necessarily need to stay away from self-moderated threads. It just means that the thread OP can delete your post if he/she finds it bad/useless, but it doesn't automatically mean that you can't have a good conversation in the thread. You really can't blame them honestly, as some just want the topic to actually be clean of spam and useless posts; which is perfectly understandable.

Great info! Thanks for the reply.  Now that I think back, I don't think my post was considered spam, I just brought up an altcoin that they weren't very fond of.  Spending some time on Steemit I have learned to stay away from spammy comments as much as possible.  Maybe I won't be so shy about self moderated posts in the future!

There are manu things that you can learn here in the forum. But, I think that it is better also to stick on which part of the forum that could benefit you in the stay like if you are good in mining coins then mining section will be a better section for you.

You can have a bright future ahead OP especially if you are a good and quality poster. Just do not forget to visit the pinned threads like the official rules and regualtions for the forum. It is better not to violate any rules to.avoid getting ban in the future.

But self moderated thread already contains the warning that OP of that thread can delete your replies.

Single piece of advice:

Read the rules (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=703657.0) and pay attention to stickies.

Take this advice from someone like myself that started his journey on the forum without any technical knowledge on bitcoin or any other altcoin. First thing you have to do is understanding what is been discussed. If you want your contributions to be considered as quality ones you fisrt need to carryout research on any discussed topics you have no knowledge on and it isn't a must to contribute to that particular discussion at that point in time (leave if for those that already have an idea of what is been discussed) because possibilities are the same topic will repeat itself in the future and by then you must have gotten the required knowledge to contribute to the discussion in your very own understanding.

Let me point out an example, when I first came across the topic double spending and 51% attack I had no idea what they were all about so I research on them and became familiar with the terms & now I can explain it to a newbie in my own little understanding and he/she will get an idea of what I'm talking about. I did the same when ever I come across a new topic and in the future I was able to contribute to similar threads without linking a website or commiting plagiarism.

What I'm trying to say is always make sure you have an idea of what is been discussed if not your replies will be considered off topic and deleted. Also note, as you research on those discussed topic do that for self benefits of learning not to commit plagiarism.

I’ts not rare to have a post or two deleted every now and then. I think I’ve has two of mine deleted this week, although they are likely not recently created ones. I received no related message, so it could be that a thread has been trashed in which I happened to have posted.

In the big picture, deleted posts are not much of a deal, and self-moderated threads should not be so either provided you stay on topic and write something decent (exceptions obviously exist, as self-moderated threads are under the subjective criteria of the OPs).

Your recent deleted posts according to the modlog (https://bitcointalk.org/modlog.php) are these:


The post content in the first case was:
It doesn’t seem to be very clear what you are stating, so perhaps a couple of minutes more on the post could have given it some depth.

The single piece of advice (not related to rules) would be, in general, to spend more time in each post in detriment of creating many posts. The more versed you are on the point you want to make, the better. By that I don’t mean that you should create a wall of text, but something substantial enough in terms of content.

Basing it from my experience at first you don't always try to fit in every topics you want to go to just so you can post what you think will be sensible, your eagerness to post is something that leads you to having your posts be deleted by them specially the ones in moderated topics. What you need to do is try to read and learn the topic first before even trying to compose what you will post in the thread, because in the long term everything will just come naturally when you have the grasp of the common knowledge with cryptocurrencies which a lot of us already have.

You mentioned you have already read the rules multiple times, perhaps the single best advise I can share is to read and comprehend a post well before making a comment or before you reply to someone else's comment. That helps you to stay on topic.

This is great stuff so far!  Thanks everyone!  It sounds like so far the consensus is to just take your time and not jump into a post without knowing as much as possible about it ahead of time.  I can see how it would be easy to just dive in looking to build Merit and Activity and end up posting something that isn't up to snuff.  I look forward to seeing what other advice I can gather here!

If your post actually wasn't spam,  then it might have just looked like one. Might have looked like a shill. Anyway, not all creators of self-moderated threads will auto delete your replies, so don't hesitate posting in them. Just make sure to doublecheck your reply to make sure that you get your point across well.

It's hard to say something what wasn't suggested before. I only can advice to focus on reading instead of posting. Avoid to post when you have nothing to add to discussion and just want to repeat things which was already said in other words. Also, try to not make generic posts because quality is more important than quantity. With 1 good post you can earn more merits than by making 10 generic posts.
And self-moderated topics aren't always bad. People just create such topics to avoid spammers or trolls. Only in marketplace section you should avoid such topics because scammers using this tool to remove bad reviews about their services.
P.S. I see that you wearing Stake signature, but as I know they only accept users starting with Member rank and you're Jr. Member only. You need to get some more merits to join this campaign ;)

Just do your usual way of having a conversation or discussion. Yes, don't force yourself to post on something you didn't know just for merit or activity purposes.

Since you quite have some knowledge about "spam" thing, I know it won't be that difficult for you to adapt the environment here.

While progressing, you will soon learn other stuffs here. Enjoy your stay.

This is the best piece of advice. I was to post the same.

OP, if you don't hesitate to share, what's the signature you wearing? You are trying to attract people joining stake.com signature campaign, aren't you?

It nice you said you have learn the rules of the forum and how to avoid making substantial Posts, the next thing you need to learn is to build your knowledge on different areas as it relate to cryptocurrency and the blockchain in other to proffer solution to others problem and help getting answer to questions. This will build your reputation in the forum.

Thanks for the advice.  I will double check that.  On their thread it looked like they had a pretty low level reward for Jr. Members.  I might have misread it though.  It kind of makes sense what you say since you can't change your avatar until you are member level...

bozzy, just a small advice from me - when you reply to posts it is much better to do that in one post then like you do it with two last posts. To multi-quote just scroll down and you will see all posts in thread, then click on "Insert Quote" for each post you want to quote. Then you can edit such quotes by removing some parts of post, or by bolding / underline some parts.

Regarding signature campaigns, it is much better for you to spend some time on forum and learn how things work. Also you are limited to join on most of signature campaigns due to your rank. Take some time to build your profile and to learn more ;)

Did you read all the rules?

Multiple posting in a row is also against the rule which might get you temp or perma ban as well,so if you want to reply to multiple posts at the same time you can edit all those into one post and type replies to  all the comments in a single posts.

It might be good to read some posts above your before you bring a conclusion that most users are hypocrites. OP is asked for advice, a some of users including me mentioned signature campaigns, but not in a way you thinking. Fact is that OP have low rank and just few merits, and that only 1 signature campaign accepts Jr.Members. He will have much better chances to get in SC if he improve his knowledge and advances in rank.

I join to my first signature campaign in time I reach Full Member rank, not because there was no way to do it before, but because I thought that first I need to learn something, and then to continue learning with the opportunity of additional earnings.

I would like to suggest you check the meta section every time check new post & new replies you will find something new that you don't know. Always read pinned rules & regulation before posting a new post/replies on any thread ;)

Its true that if you give replies on self moderated post than OP have the power to delete it but that doesn’t mean that you will not find important informations from there. Every inclusive conversation is potential for a user either its on meta, reputation or any other section of the forum.

You can place all your thinking and knowledges which looks proper to you for any existing threads. Its not a big deal which section is that but your replies should have enough value. Ignoring a section isn't a good idea and its not gonna give you best return IMO.

You didn't take things wrongly my mate, and that's what I liked about you. Liked your attitude that you didn't just come up and shout out without knowing what you're talking about, but you actually understood the fact behind, and then responded. The best part would be to be on-topic and only post in self-moderated ones if you actually know the fact OP explained (as it shows that even newbies are interested in keeping the forum clean from spam, after all we're all helping hands for each other and to keep it clean, we need to work around with each other's hands in hands). Another advice would be to not give any of your personal info to anybody (not even ICOs) as most of them would just sell your stuff for some money and your data will then be misused (sorry if that's off-topic but I guess its needed here).

always hang out to Beginners & Help section and Meta Section.

The posts in these sections will greatly help you to familiarize with blockchain technology (in the Beginners & Help Section) and the culture and features of this forum (in the Meta Section).

I like to emphasized on this rule below

You have to know that this is a big violation that will cause you a perma ban, you are a newbie now, and some of the excuses of those who got perma ban is they are not aware that they commit this violation because they are still a newbie that time, we have a system that could look around that violation, so if you want to protect your account, be smart and read the forum rules carefully.

You are building your rank here, if you are a great contributor, you'll likely rank up through a merit you will receive.

So, good luck, welcome and be an asset to this forum.

I'm also somewhat new and went through the same thing, initially.
Since you've already read up on the rules, and all that, I'll skip over the usual advice and just share a bit of my experience -- I'd suggest avoiding very short posts.
Not saying "quantity over quality", but you're less likely to have your post removed if you actually took some time & effort to properly write out your thoughts.
Likewise, try and engage in conversations rather than always replying to the first post on a thread, chances are someone's already said something similar to what you wanted to say. You might wanna add to that, or maybe present a different take.
People tend to appreciate dialogue more than just shouting at the wall, as far as I can tell anyway.

Full disclosure: I know bozzy from Steemit and I tend to give him a couple of merits here and there for good posts like this one.

The single best piece of advice I can give you is to just keep your threads and replies honest.
Like, don't post just for the sake of posting, but do it because you really want to discuss something.

If you can do that, you're already better than 70% of the other forum members, no joke.

Thanks for that!  You know over the past year+ I really thought I had come to learn a lot about blockchain/cryptocurrency.  Browsing around the forum though, I definitely have a lot more to learn!  I typically try to make sure most of my posts have a decent amount of relevance and substance to them.  I surely try to step up my game in the future!

I know you will, you're not someone who will just spam to up your post count, I'm 100% sure of that.
And hey, I'm glad you're now on Bitcointalk as well. You know how long I've tried to get more people on here via Steemit :')

Everyone kept saying that the bar of entry was too high, now you can prove them wrong :P

Uhmm, no. The meta section isn't about topics about the blockchain nor it talks about it all of the time. The Meta section is for topics about the forum and its related activities itself and it doesn't really talk about cryptocurrencies. Aside from the beginners help section if OP wants to learn more about cryptocurrencies in general he should try and read topics in the Development and technical discussion and the technical support section as he will get a wide idea on how things work.

I also am new and had similar experiences of making deleted posts, even though I also read the rules several times.

There is good advice here that I will heed too.

My advice is to read every response carefully when you ask something. It may seem like you are getting support from some, and criticism from others, but they all are valuable.

I am thankful to those who were gracious and patient with me and merited me. And also thankful and learn from those who criticized me. 

As was pointed out to me, that we are all working together, building this community.

And research, research, research....