Bitcoin Forum

We need to bring back the newbie jail. Now we've tried to let everyone post everywhere, and honestly, it was way better before (even though it was kinda annoying.)
Since it was removed the forum has been flooded with useless one line comments on threads that has already been answered. More old threads than ever are being necro'd and lots of new thread are created spreading FUD.
So please admins, restore the newbie jail.

I am against newbie jail. I don't think any open forum should have a restriction like that.

I think the "signature spammers" are a bigger problem. (those people who have been here 2 months with 3000 posts) But obviously this is another discussion.

I am all for the newbie jail and I don't give two shits that the forum has to be open. I hate all those newbies coming in here, spreading FUD, creating bullshit topics and just spamming the place. The newbie jail was a good way to prevent that from happening.

I think newbie jail is necessary although I was newbie!

I just doubt it will work anyway. Bitcoin is growing and so is this forum. In January 2013 there were 66.163 new posts and in January 2014 there were 620.113 new posts. I am not sure if the more spam/FUD are a direct effect from disabling the newbie jail or just this forum growing a lot (and attract more idiots/trolls/spammers/annoying kids/etc - who will be the same after 5 posts and 4h waiting.)

There could be several forums in which Newbies (those with less than 30 activity level) cannot create new topics, like the Speculation forum. I think that could potentially be good against FUD newbie topics? Obviously in some forums they should be able to make new topics to ask for help or something.


And like I said, I think signature programs paying users per post are a more serious spam problem/cause. But there is another topic for that.

Newbie jail is required. The bitcoin discussion is flooded with baseless topics.

 You can turn off viewing signatures in your user preferences. It's what I ultimately did to mitigate the problem.

That won´t stop the main problem.
They get money, the more they post.
Some user have started to comment everything with a one liner.
It´s really annoying.

Please, stop allowing paid signatures ( or only them which pay for posting).

Or or, hear me out on this one. Only allowed it for Full members and higher. Much easier.

While I agree that in theory this forum should be like that, in practice it is a different story. There are now way too many shills and scammers just creating a new account and going off to post random useless crap again. I've seen a large upswing in 'Good, +1' etc since the newbie restrictions were removed (maybe I'm just looking for these kinds of posts more).

Well most deals are now limited to Members and higher because of the signature changes. Newbs can't have links in their signatures and thus are excluded.

But I think the Newbie Jail should be brought back.

Yes, please bring it back... The quality of this forum has been going down.

It might put off some new users, but the ones really interested in bitcoin/highbrow new members will stick around.

While admittedly correlation is not causation, and there is significant increase in attention to Bitcoin, there is no denying that this forum has become far lower quality in terms of signal-to-noise since April 2013, and especially beginning September or so.

I don't like newbies being relegated to some socialist-like same-punishment-for-all Newbie Jail as it used to be. It would be far preferable to the current situation. However, I'm a firm believer in the notion that there are always more options than the ones given. (Given options are: Keep it as is, which we all know sucks, even the newbies; or, return to the prior jail system.)

I note that we also seem to have lost the ability to paint awful users yellow by clicking their *ignore*. If you're newer around here, the way it worked not long ago at all (before the last hack and downtime, actually) was you'd click the IGNORE link, and there were two side effects. One was, you didn't see the posts: You just saw that they posted, and could selectively expand the post (for example to figure out the context in the even that someone *else* replied to them). The other was, the more members clicked it, the brighter yellow it would become, eventually looking like this:

Ignore


I'd like to see this re-instated. Moreover, I'd like to see it include the Lurker ratio to modify the hue of yellow. As in: The newer you are, the less Ignores it takes to paint you yellow; and, with a bias for quality over quantity (the lower your Lurker ratio, the quicker you become yellow as well).

...I guess I should define the Lurker ratio for those who don't know how it works. This is the two figures beneath an avatar (well, where the avatars used to go; now only older folks have 'em. So, where the nickname/handle goes), entitled Activity and Posts. Activity represents the amount of time you spend actively logged-in and browsing the forum. Posts is as it says on the tin: Number of posts. A high Lurker ratio means you spend a lot of time logged-in and reading, but little time talking. It doesn't guarantee high post quality, but it is a strong indicator of a user who is *likely* to produce higher-quality content.

I don't know I think there is a good reason for the newbie jail simply to help sort out the scams and spam from those that want to add to the discussion in a positive manner.  That being said I'd hate to subject a newb with good intentions to that kind of environment but maybe that is the best way for them to learn what Bitcoin is really all about meaning the good, bad and ugly in a sense and they will appreciate getting out of newbie jail that much more.

I've barely escaped the newbie prison but I think it's a good idea to enhance quality in the main sections.

If you improve on explaining the reasons for this measure and offer good moderation over there it will do no harm.

I'm all for the restrictions. If people can't be bothered waiting a short while or dealing with them then they don't deserve to be here.

I agree this has just filled the forum with excess spam and some people are making 1 day accounts and spamming and abusing giveaways.

Giveaways have been banned haven’t they?

Alt coin ones have. Other giveaways usually exclude newbies as well.

Quality of posts is way down and troll/garbage topics are way up since the new forum members area was removed.

Honestly, it makes me want to come to this site less and less, because the signal-to-noise ratio is at an all time low.

I wont even go into general Bitcoin Discussion anymore. Its a shitshow now, a total mess.

I dont know the logic behind removing the new members area, but it needs to be re-examined.

I write short comments. It doesn't mean I am a spammer. I don't know what is the newbie jail you are talking about, but waiting for 6 minutes before A newbie can post another comment isn't bad enough?

I'm not saying everyone are spamming. You're a jr member btw.
Earlier people had to make 5(?)posts and have 4 hours of logged in time before you could post outside "Newbies".

Spamming completely pointless and non-constructive posts and making short posts are different from each other. The prior system meant that you required a minimum amount of activity in order to post on other boards aside from the 'Beginners and Help' subforum. Plus the 6 minute rule was also in play at the time.

What's funny is I found this thread because I was looking for newbie jail thinking I had to post in there before I could post elsewhere.  Anyway, glad to hear the restriction has been lifted on that.

They should definitely definitely bring back the newbie jail. There are way too many spam posts.

Hopefully it will be brought back with the new software!

I am gonna say it: I had to "suffer" through newbie jail so I want everyone else after me to "suffer" just the same.

Be honest: A lot of you think the same way about it  ;).

Not at all. I don't really like the idea of a newbie jail, but the overall quality on this forum has been lowered, and instant access to all forums for new users is one reason. More one word posts, the same questions being asked over and over again on other sub-forums than Newbies, and lots of old threads being necro'd. A newbie jail might be annoying for new serious users, but it makes trolls avoid bitcointalk. And all new users asking questions like "what is a wallet" will ask it in Newbies.

I think 'suffer' is a harsh word. I think 'minor annoyance' is more apt.

'suffer', 'be annoyed', 'be annoyed minorly': these are psychological states my friend---all in the mind of the experiencer IMHO

Yes, I guess you're right. Waiting a few hours to post on the rest of the board is truly a terrible torture and pure psychological horror that must not be inflicted upon anyone else. I take back all previous comments and will now campaign tirelessly to see the newb restrictions never return.

Anyone who's against the newbie jail after seeing what the removal did to the forums, should get a psychiatric evaluation, something is not right up there.

I much prefer the newbie jail, BUT I personally haven't seen any difference.

I truthfully liked it. I went through it and everything went fine. It stopped scammers and scam threads. It also stopped scammers who made fake accounts to make their service or product look legit.

You must not read the forums much  ::)

I'm usually on the services, auctions, and digital goods section, so yeah I don't really browse on the forums.

It made a huge different in other parts of the forums, altcoin section, off topic, bitcoin discussion and so on.

What exactly happened? I only heard that a lot of ponzis started up.

I think this will reduce a lot of the un needed posts and spam on the board although it does make it harder and more annoying for new people to join the community. I am tossing up if this is a good idea or not...

Well, essentially all the junk that was forcibly quarantined in the newb section was spread everywhere else: spambots, begging posts, stupid beginners questions in the Bitcoin subforum etc.

This. Before you could just avoid the newbie section and you were fine, now you need to avoid most of the forum.

Doubt anyone's gonna listen. Definitely not theysmos. When was the last time he listened to the community?

He changed the signatures pretty quickly after a suggestion, I think.

What were the reasons for removing newbie hell again starting to forget remember it had opposite arguments
Now that we have seen the grass on both sides think the whitelist system was the way to go on this one
Then again with activity would take 1.5 months to escape without whitelisting

I'm not sure if any reason was given publicly, it just went one day, but I imagine white-listing to be a bit of a pain and pretty time-consuming for the mods.

Yes, please bring it back. At least once a day I am flagging a spam comment or an alt coin post in bitcoin discussion.

And the amount of n00bs who actually do not like Bitcoin is idiotic (probably all created by Paul Krugman).

At leave provide the option of an auto-ignore on all people with less than X amount of posts.

Only one or so?  :D You're easily annoyed, but maybe an ignore all newbies setting may be beneficial to some.

Yes bring back the newbie jail. But also.... make sure that it is clear to newcommers that there is a jail.
Took me more then an hour to figure out wh i couldnt reply when i was but a young noob. that part was very annoying since there wasnt much help being offered on that subject.

How do you make it clear? Think all the info was there when you sign up and also in the stickie, but people tend to not read it and just skip past it.

Maybe as a layer above the site when you log in for the first time that will not go away for 10-15 seconds, containing info about newbie permissions?

Those were signatures.
This has been discussed multiple times, nothing was ever done.

Signatures have been discussed much more and for far longer than the newbie jail has been gone.

Finally you figured out the point of this.
These suggestions take too long to get processed.

There's no point I needed to figure out, but suggestions very rarely ever get processed or implemented.

It's not like I've been trying to say this the whole time.  ::)

What the hell are you mumbling about? Especially futile when you yourself acknowledge that they don't get processed  ::).

Now you've started copying, interesting.

Copying? What are you on about? You really need to articulate your points better.

As far as I can tell hilariousandco and LaudaM are both just replying to each other to get that sweet sweet post count number to move up.

If you follow hliariousandco, that's all I see. Padding that post count


More on topic, the currency exchange board is all newbies asking to buy or sell BTC.  Suspect this is the same issue in lending and other areas of marketplace.

Why is it I'm 'padding my post' count and you aren't? Just because I contribute more posts than you?

I see you posting in marketplace all the time but have never made a trade. I see you commenting on posts that you know nothing about. Your responses are vague and empty. I have no quarrels with you but to plead ignorance to the fact that you don't trollolol these boards for a few cents from Stunna is comical  :D

Evidence of these accusations, please? Show me some examples of where I've posted something I know nothing about or my comments are vague and empty? I don't even go in sections like Mining because I know very little about it, and I also very rarely post in the Goods section too and if you check my stats this will corroborate that (goods doesn't even feature on there) so this is just vague and empty BS made up to suit your argument. It seems it's you that posts all the time in the marketplace; in fact it's almost exclusively to there, but what I find especially ironic and hypocritical is that if you go through your posts you'll see mine are not only longer and far more constructive than yours, but even more ironically half of yours are just bumps for your listings, so it's you that's literally padding your post count out and seemingly only posting here to make some bitcents through both listings and Stunna. 6 bumps here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=556227.msg6114278#msg6114278) (amongst other threads) and 5 of them in a row. You're meant to delete previous bumps as per forum rules and I hope you will be deducting them when you claim your payment from Stunna since they're not allowed either.

And I don't see how not making a trade yet forbids me from making the very few posts that I have in the goods section. I've actually listed a few things and was planning on listing much more stuff this weekend, so I hope this is ok since I've obviously encroached on your domain here.

And It's no secret that I make the extra posts for the payment and have never denied it so it's not laughable, but to say I troll or 'pad' my post count is, but what's the problem anyway? If I contribute relevantly to threads and discussions (which I do) then it shouldn't matter whether I make one post a day or a thousand, but there's always a few whingers who seem to have a problem with it and it's especially a non-issue when we've got genuine spammers and trolls tearing up the forum. Seems to be fine to do that as long as you don't have a signature.

Overreact much to someone's opinion? I'm not going to go through your post history. I don't care at all. I made a comment based on what I have seen in the marketplace. Derailing posts is considered padding post counts. Creating arguments that have no relation to the board is padding your post count. Keep living on this board to make your promo funds.



Maybe alter newbie jail to only allow posting on some boards such as alternate crypto and beginners but keep them out of marketplace and bitcoin discussion

How should I respond to people's lies against me? You obviously cared enough to make an untrue comment based off something you just made up on a whim so I'll respond when someone posts utter unbacked BS or baits me into commenting like you did and continue to do. Your claim that I always post in there is bollocks (as well as irrelevant). It shouldn't be hard to find some since I apparently always post in there and you apparently 'follow' my posts. And I didn't purposely derail anything or create an argument, but you're accusing me of something you've just done and continue to do now. You keep living on this forum to get your funds whilst getting paid to bump your threads as well. Such a hypocrite. Feel free to PM me if you wish to discuss this further or if you come across any of my many allegedly 'vague and empty' posts so neither of us can be accused of padding our counts any further.

Anyway, back on topic:


Good idea. I and others have suggested this before, but as per the previous discussion with Lauda it probably won't get implemented, although maybe one day we'll be surprised.

hilariousandco
Activity: 154
Posts: 8062

LaudaM
Activity: 364
Posts: 6098

Interesting stats, and yes, I'm rushing my post count up.  ::)

I think I'm outta jail now :)

There is no jail...

There have been changes, there are more moderators in general and also moderators who can moderate all newbies, regardless of the board they post in, as opposed to moderators only controlling a specific board.