Bitcoin Forum

Was mentioned elsewhere -- decided to pull some numbers out of my ass. If a prospective lendee really wanted a loan, they could still request from a stickied lender.

Thoughts?

maybe chuck in they need to be active for the last X month as well... incase someone acct gets hacked who is no longer active.

Idunno if SMF is capable of doing that without a lot of code modification... Maybe it could check if the user's posted elsewhere in the past month?

I disagree with this, it's the lenders choice who he picks to lend to. 

See the problem I have with months is, you could be a highly active user and have 70 hours logged in a week. Be a great asset to the community and not be able to post for a loan. But the the post limit and hours does sound great.

Correct, and as a lender, I'd like to see these rules implemented. Other lenders are free to disagree, but since lendees would be able to contact the stickied lenders as usual, I don't see much potential downside. Very rarely do newer members ever pay back to the sorry people who loaned out to them, so there's not much opportunity loss.

A lender could easily choose to advertise they're open to lending to new members and enjoy they flood of PMs.

Well, I've been thinking of such a proposal to theymos lately as I'm effing sick of those blatant scam attempts by the kids desperate for a couple of coins. Maybe a less stringent set of rules could be applied though (e.g. fulfil one of the restrictions : 100 post count OR 20 hours logged in OR 5 months registered)

I agree  with what you said john +1

If you do this the lending forum won't be any fun at all  :(

Joking aside, it's a nice idea to make them fulfill one of the restrictions. Would help to clear the board for the copycat, 419-alike loan requests.

I think lenders do a good job of choosing for themselves who to lend to. Implement this and expect newbie loan requests to pop up elsewhere.....

newbie loans popping up elsewhere is fine, it keeps this place clear of the clutter and we can lend to the community itself rather than to questionable outsiders, I agree with this proposal as well, where's theymos when you need him?

This is like living in a landfill and demanding the garbage be shipped to the nearby residential area.

ban them for making posts about loans, easy fix. Follow the rules, either pm a stickied lender or fulfill the requirements of posting in the subforum, it's not that hard.

Newbies are high risk, lenders can adjust interest accordingly - there's still a market.  

It detracts from other members who might have legit reps in other places (why does posts/time on a forum make them any more reputable?), or, ppl can put up collat and may not have been around long.

More important, it's also a step away from free market.

We have a "newbie" section already on the forum.  We do not need a secondary "newbie" level.  

I've lent out a few coins here and there, and i've taken a few loans myself.

Anybody can apply for a loan, it's up to the bank to weed them out - not a 3rd party.

And imho more work needs to be done in moderating this forum, stopping non-lenders trashing others threads, or simply posting in reply to a loan request if they have no intention of funds to loan. 

I personally see a need for two lending forums - a proper one that is reasonable clean for actual business, and a second one for discussion and other crap that turns up.  I can see a simple situation (two board system) where people post by default into the main board, but threads are moved to the sub board when they are so far off topic they are irrelevant, are simply discussions, obviously not real business, or unfounded (and ponzi talk is included in that irrelevant of which side you think you're on).

The main board would also hold history of previous completed deals and failed details (like John's current list).

Nothing in this stops people from sending pm's directly of lenders making offers.  Also, with the large amount of shit that has been thrown the last few weeks, the forum is at serious risk of business leaving (including my own - I do actually have a web site to shift to).

I don't know about better moderators, honestly have not been here long enough to form a opinion about it. But I agree a rule change may need to be made on loan request, maybe only respond if you have a response to the question? and Patrick is also right I think there might need to be a subsection just for loan request so it is easier for the lenders to pick through the trash.

whatever you do, don't do post count. the last thing i like to see is a bunch of people spamming threads with one liners like "cool" or "nice".

While I do like having a "clean" lenders forum, I fear that there might be discontent among users on which lenders are "clean" and which ones are not. Treating new users as second class users and grouping them with potential scammers is not a nice way to treat users new to bitcoin.

While this is certainly true, I've always found that if it looks like a scammer and quacks like a scammer, chances are it's a scammer.

Yea I got some of that new member scammer thrown on me, but if you want to have trust as a new user do something about it. If they don't then they either do not care enough or they are a scammer lol

Maybe we can have a system as follows:


In order, the boards represent:

Lending: General discussion about lending. Open to everyone.

Providers: Providers of lending and their rules

• Mods can create topics or move topics here
• All users can post, but OP can lock the thread.
• Before moving a topic, mods discuss the provider in the Discussion board. If x% of mods in the first y days of discussion agree, the topic is moved to Providers and renamed accordingly.

Discussion: Only mods can post topics and posts. Used for mod voting on entry of loans to the appropriate category or providers to the Providers section.

Requests:

• All users can post topics, with [PROVIDER] or [LOAN] in the title.
• No users can post replies in this section; they need to be moved first.
• Mods decide whether to accept the provider or loan in the Discussion board.

High-risk loans, Low-risk loans

• Only mods can create or move topics here.
• All members can post (similar to the current lending section for etiquette.)
• Before moving a topic, mods discuss the loan in the Discussion board. If z% of mods in the first w days agree that it is low-risk, it is moved to Low-risk loans. After w days, if less than z% of mods agree, it is moved to High-risk loans.

Emergency loans, governed like current Lending section.

Obviously, many more mods need to be appointed for the Lending section. I suggest trusted people without an interest (so as to be neutral) to be considered.

In my dealings I actually look at the people that turn up, and that principle can be seen in the WPW thread.  New deposit takers (who are also borrowers) get added even if they are new, but there is a warning attached highlighting that they have a limited track-record.  The credit rating system was also introduced to help visitors to this part of the forum to help them avoid some of the worst schemes and demand more transparency from the people they are trusting funds to. 

Part of this is that I hold various bits of information that will remain confidential, and that is part of the business that I run.

Seems like a good idea, if most of the lenders can come to an agreement (of course they don't have to follow it, but if it fits what most of the lenders feel as safe then it makes for a good reference).