Bitcoin Forum

After reading again the short but good NEWBIE README (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=177133.0), I would kindly suggest all the older fellow bitcoiners to be a little bit more harsh with newbies that ask always the same questions. Just a little bit.
I think that responses like RTFM or RTFFAQ have never harmed anybody...  ;)
What do you think about that? Could it be a good idea or wouldn't it change anything?

I wonder if the frequency of posts like "How activity works", "I can't upload avatars" or "Why I cannot post every 0.10ms" will surpass the average block generation time.  ;D

PS: Mods are already harsh enough!  :P

The real problem IMO is that most newbies don't read the "NEWBIE README" after their sign-ups, even back when there was a newbie jail.
I have been wondering what can be done to change that, but have no idea myself. :(

I've suggested this before but maybe an automatic warning for all newbs that pops up before they post with a link asking them to read a FAQ thread where most of these common questions will be answerd before opening a new thread would be beneficial. Something along the lines of "If you're about to ask a common question please check here* first as there's a good chance it's already been answered" or whatever.

*Link to a FAQ thread.

That will be just clicked away. Thats like "forcing" people to read the data privacy statement or the terms of us.

I agree with OP that this needs to be dealt with by those answering the questions. These threads should basically look like this:


NewbOP: I wonder how does XY work?
OlderMember: *posts link to sticky with answer*
/thread.

1 reply linking to the thread with the answer and nothing else. But thats not going to happen, because its an easy "constructive" post for people with a paid signature. And while its nice to get someone answering my question in detail it encourages dependent behaviour. I am probably guilty of this myself. For some of these threads I notice answers coming in weeks after the OP has allready gotten an answer.

On the other hand it might not be wise to be harsh to newbies. After all we (or at least I think so) want more people to get involved with bitcoin and this board is the place to go for that.

But maybe there is a middleground like: give a short answer and link to the sticky that explains it in more detail.

The way I know the newbie section though, this will not work. Threads get necro'd there all the time. People write short useless replys on threads that allready have several answers.

I also think that unfortunately they would be never read but immediately skipped.
Maybe a solution could be to force the new users, when they register, to answer to 2-3 simple questions that demonstrate they've somehow read the README/FAQ.

I suspect that probably we would see a lot of 1 post threads (just the OP) if there weren't the signature campaigns.

Yes, it could have a light impact on the abandon rate of new users. But is that really a problem?
I mean that if someone is really interested in BTC, I think he can go over that.

Yes, that's annoying when the new answers don't add anything to what already posted if there is no need of multiple confirmations.