Bitcoin Forum

I was made a post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5031143.0) about demoted member's. To be honest your post history is responsible for your unmerited status. After implement 1 merit to become Jr member, lot of people's trying to make constructive and quality post. Then also they are not getting merit. Only reasone is their post history. I am proof of that. I noticed few post deserve merit, but once I visit their post history there are only bounty report and online post. So it's discourage me for send merit to them. I don't know what is problem if you delete your spam post, and participate on constructive discussion. Most of seniors are visiting post history before send merit to demoted newbie and also I think it should be. You can't expect merit just creating single constructive or quality post if your post history is spammy.

Still I will strongly suggest, delete your post history those are spam. Then try to make or perticipate on constructive discussion. Perhaps some one will merited you.

Well, as long as they don't turn back to their spammy activities after having their merit, that's not a bad idea at all, but honestly, I doubt it.
The fact is that, if you've been a spammer for months now and you delete all your spammy activity in order to get some recognition for a 10 minutes-effort, it doesn't seem legit to me, and also, looks like quite against the spirit of the new implementation.
But whatever, the point is: if you change your attitude then, please, keep the new one for good.

I've seen many new one-merited Jr Members, some of them even underserved. For instance, I received a PM yesterday begging for merits with a link to a plagiarized thread as the one the user thought to be meritable. Sadly, he has been merited now, and the plagiarized post deleted:
https://i.imgur.com/Yms4Jz1.png

That's what many are doing. Just to plagiarize a post and then, after obtaining their merit, deleting it. So, if we don' t have their previous activity to judge the natural behaviour, how are we going to suspect of the new threads they make? Do not forget that many people are committing plagiarism from translations, meaning, using an article in their own language as a source and then google to make a translation. This is hard to detect, so the context seems pretty important to me, though.

Of course, the idoneous situation is for them to forget about being spammers and to become useful people in here. But... isn't it quite utopic? I hope some will do this, but I honestly doubt it to become the general behaviour.

I think that some merit awarders are trying to keep sMerits out of the underworld. The problem with meriting a netherworld poster for a good quality post,is that the earned smerits may be used to promote an alt or a bot for bounty spamming.

Exactly what I feel. The reason why they don't delete those reports, IMO, because they're still participating in those social media bounties.

Honestly, I don't have any problems if people join social media bounties (even though I highly discourage it as it won't worth anything), but if that's what they're doing since the first time they join this forum and then suddenly trying to post something meaningful after the new rules got implemented, then you know what happens.

But how? They could be deleting their whole post history (most of the times 200–300 posts, and I have seen quite a few Jr. Members with staggering 1200+ posts, before the 1 Merit update!).

And vice versa. I have seen posts in the past few weeks on local board suggesting that the local board members should 'help' each other by giving merits as we are all 'brothers' instead of giving them to 'strangers.' Then they post a translation (from English to their mother language) of an article/guide (Google Translate evidently) and actually manage to get a merit or two. There are others who put some effort in the translation, which is welcome to help those whose English is weak.

I do agree with what Coolcryptovator has said, post history plays an important role for some people in deciding whether or not that member is worthy of a merit. Some merit sources do this technique in order to see that their precious merit is not wasted on rewarding people who only has 1 good post  in every 10 of his post, they will just give their merits on to members who are posting good consistently. Also deleting some of your posts that you deemed yourself as trash won't hurt as your are just sacrificing your time in order to look good to other members, just by doing this you yourself will see how you can improve your writing and overall sentence construction as well as grammar so it is a win-win scenario for you.

I do not agree with you. I never look at post history to determine if a "new" post is worth the merit. I honestly do not have

the time for that and I judge every post on it's own. You can post junk for weeks and then I would be reading through a

thread and stumble onto your post that adds the most value to the discussion and I would reward you with a merit point. I

will not even bother to see what you posted before that.  ;)  Do not look for excuses, if you not getting merit for your posts,

work harder and you will earn it.  ;)

I don’t favour deleting posts too much. I can only recall having personally deleting one post, and that was because I gave an answer, and then though that it might have been wrong, so I promptly deleted it and reposted it when I was sure of the answer.

I’d much rather see how someone’s post history evolves over time, than see a recap of the best posts after deleting the nonsense ones or the social reports. I already take enough time as it is to find new people to merit, after checking their post for possible plagiarism, and browsing through their posting history. I’d rather not have to add a new task to my “KYM” (know your merited-to-be), having to second guess the gaps in their posting history.

Besides that, merited posts that later get deleted are a bit of a drag in various ways. Statistically, 6,72% of total overall awarded sMerit is assigned to what is now a deleted post (steeper the first few months than the latter). That is a fair share of traceability that disappears to some extent, and that I’d rather not happen either.

That's the central problem. They can just create a thread (plagiarized) and, after receiving the merit, erase the thread and continue with their personal spamming preferences (like in the example I shared).


Yes, I guess the people are doing anything to get their very first merit and be able to continue "working" in here. The example I've shared is more or less, in a resume, a Spanish-native sending PM's to other Spaniards with the goal of earning a merit by a plagiarized post, a post that, obviously, he erased after receiving his merit.
The sad part, from my perspective, is that we are seeing how any single tool is being used to continue spamming, from the erasing tool to the PM one. The worst part: thee are getting what they want, I've seen a lot of 1 merited-forever-juniors incoming, and, I bet, mostly all of them are going to continue with their spam activities.

Maybe there is some stats or something to look into and see how right I am, maybe I'm wrong (and I would be very happy if that happens, by the way).

 I wouldn't go as far as deleting hundreds of posts, actually, I would appreciate if I would see some real changes in the posting behavior.

The one thing that stops me in most cases from awarding merit is seeing that all the posts have roughly the same length, 3-4 lines,  at this point, I just close the tab. So if I see somebody who was doing just one-liners and now has starting to really put some thought in his posts and not writing down the usual generic crap I would appreciate it more.

Also, I didn't give merit these weeks, mainly because the same reason #Helana mentioned as too saw a lot of newbies making a few more elaborate posts and after receiving the merit going back to spam posting so I'll just check on the ones that are really trying even after the begging madness has stopped...

Unfortunately lately, time is a bigger problem than available smerits  :'(


Well, theymos could trash a few sections with one click...no big loss other than post count.

I gave few merits away and I never even opened someones history.
I give them the way I think it was intended, that means if I see something well writen, that can help somebody (help me, most of the time  :D) then I'm going to reward ti with merrit.
When I probably won't give a merrit, although a person deserves it? When the OP has around 1000 merits I probably won't send him my merits, I'll send them to someone who has lower rank but also writes construcitve posts and needs them to rank up.
I was never even aware of the possibility that somebody will go on and read my old posts, don't know why anybody would even do that. In these things the past is not important, only the current effort.
But now, when I see your post I know why one person sent me nice private message to thank me for a merrit, even send me his/her blessings. :)

You need to look at some posters' history to see if the post is out of character. If it is, then it could indicate a purchased or stolen accout, or possible plagiarism.

And i would like to explain why i did it because i'm done with the witch hunt.

The user exwifesu77 write me a PM asking for a merit for his publication, I take a look to his publications history and the guy isn't a spammer, is an account's seller, if you see his history he is a natural trader, and his deals doesn't take much words. And who will give you a Merit for sell a twitter account?

Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2315675;sa=showPosts

But this user is trying to grow up in the forum as any one of us, that's why he decide to make a good quality post, and maybe the biggest error he made was to ask for merits by personal messages, but damn, after read his post i decide to give him a merit, it was a nice market analysis with a comparison with Bitcoin, ETH and Ripple, and i say it was, because the post got deleted. So, the only good post from exwifesu77 get rekt.

You want to know what did i reply to that user to his PM after give him the merit?

https://i.imgur.com/NyBAuko.png

Translation:
Next morning i wake up with an interrogatory from hilariousandco O.P. Global Moderator, asking why act that way, and my reply was that i'm done with the witch hunting. And here is a copy of the conversation if have with them.


So, NadiaHel or Helana or as you want to call yourself, no one is an angel in this forum, no idea why you are growing those 2 accounts but i could bet they are to farm signature campaigns. So, if you will be on the forum pointing to people and chasing the newbies, then newbies will end hating bitcoin.

We need more people in the bitcoin world, stop burning newbies and show them the right way.

If you don't like how newbies are doing it, then guide them, that's all i want, i put the example with this spammer, the post was good, if it was a copy paste, maybe he should add the source.

So, this is bitcoin talk not merit talk. I care about bitcoin, i care about new users, i care about sharing my knowledge with this community, and let me show you how much i care now about merits.


So, enjoy the merit mafia while i keep guiding people to the knowledge way as you can see in my posts:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5038943.msg46229964#msg46229964
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5038265.msg46209587#msg46209587
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5033616.msg46190270#msg46190270
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5035299.msg46115786#msg46115786
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5035704.msg46046055#msg46046055
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5034580.msg46028680#msg46028680

I pray for the day when all you talk about bitcoin the same way that you talk about merits  ;D

You can learn so much from someone's history posts. You know where he is active the most, how many bounties he is working on and sure the posting behaviour.

When you see a newbie with only 4 posts /all in off-topic/ cursing the merit is completely clear why he is here. Those users are not likely to improve or if they do it's only for the income, only a small fraction of those will choose to learn and understand the concept behind the cryptocurrency.

I think deleting defeats the purpose of everything. rather they should strive from today to make constructive posts. They should be genuine about it too. I'm sure they will receive merit if they do 1 report post and say 20 constructive post and helping others asking legit questions. Those giving merits are humans too, they'll consider.

Aside from that looking at a member's post history tells you a lot if he/she is really deserving to receive a merit. Sometimes if I visit someone's post history just to do a little background check I will notice that he only has just one good post (the one I am considering sending a merit) and the rest of it is trash, that is when I realized the chances of it being a copy-pasted post is high. The bottomline is doing background checks won't hurt as your sMerits are really limited and you must send it to people who are really deserving.

Funniest thing ever, I don't understand how @NadiaHel or I ended in this conversation, of course, for some personal reasons. But, in order to farm any account, you need some merit-transaction, I think.
Whatever, man, if you have some bipolar disorder, please, place your controversial feelings into the right Board (EDIT, reputation).


Totally what I was trying to say. To me, the post history is just a great way of taking a look at the normal behaviour and to detect plagiarism. Of course, people can change, and that's awesome, but to have some references is always nice. Also, I don't believe that, if you make a great post after a lot of crap just because you need a merit to continue crapping, you deserve anything, because of the whole point of the new merit implementation: to reduce spam. Well, just from my perspective, I prefer to merit a common attitude.

You're shiny because you're brand new (or you might be a newbie).
Anyway, to get to Jr you need 28 activity, and 1 merit. This merit can be earnt by writing a good constructive post.

I must admit I’m lost with this story. I do not understand if we’re talking about three different people here, or Worzel Gummidge swapping his head around to seem like different people. How that has even got to do anything to do with the topic beats me ... Reputation should be the place in any case.

I owe you this explanation DdmrDdmr, Halana is my exgirlfriend, i show her how to use the forum and she used to post with my account, she found it fun, i don't think there would be a problem, but since a couple of months i take care again full of the account, and was fun to see how she get involved with lot of people here, and that's fine, i don't thing you are bad guys, but i don't really know you, and if i edit my reputation history is because i think the reputation should be modified only when there is money involved, idk why halena uses my account to give you a positive trust and since there was not money involved i decide to edit it.

I know i did wrong by share my access with my girlfriend, when we are in love we do stupid things, but now i'm back, i learned the lesson and would like to apologise with all of you, i only explained the situation to JetCash but should talk with lot of you, but i'm not the kind of person who are here for the merits, i just want to share my knowledge with the community now while i made some extra cash with a campaign, and is not a bad deal, i have lot of experience with bitcoin, more than 4 years on this world and already a backend developer for casinos.

So, just want to explain why i give the merit to that user, the user who my exgirlfriend is trying to burn just because he was a newbie, That merit had a high price for me, personal messages from mods and my ex making posts about it, so i decide to make some drama, we know how great is this place for drama  ;D

Sorry for all DdmrDdmr, i think you are a great user who gives a lot to the spanish and english sections, keep up the great work and remember, nothing is personal. Let's keep helping this great community.

Bounty isn't against forum rules. Spamming are against forum rules. Remembers it, any bounty report doesn't deserve for merit. Some case bounty report are consider spam post although its not against rules but also not consider HQ (constructive) or useful post. Merit handover is permanent, it can't be return so obviously need strict about send merit.  

But, who is saying that there is merit farming in the Spanish section? You or Hilarious? I just got lost on the quotations.

I have nor perceived any signs of merit trading, that is, trading on low quality posts. Obviously many users merit each other, its a small section.

Don´t write sentences in capitals, it is like shouting. Enjoy the forum.

You are right paxmao, call it a merit mafia was a bit extreme, at end you are great guys on the community, and when i say "you" i mean DdmrDdmr, paxmao and JetCash, this isn't against you, this is about the fact of burn newbies who are searching for a chance to grow on this forum.

So, let's keep walking, already was much drama for one day, i will just get out from your merit talk way and will walk my own way helping the people who need  bitcoin support, that's why i'm here, that's what i enjoy to do, and hope some day we can make some projects together.

And this is for Helana, be free and enjoy the forum, for sure some day you will become a great member who will make great contributions.  ;)

Let's make the love and not the war guys, be nice with new members, show them the way and not blame them, we all deserve a chance and we all start from down. Peace.

Haven't you already covered this with your last post.
If you hit a dead bird with a rock it doesn't become more dead...

I for one would like to see that...


I think she's already doing that one though?
I mean she was helping to post about spain on the ftt project at least amongst other things Jet Cash has requested (and other users here)...

To me this does not make sense.
First of all, we cannot remove the bounty responses. Sometimes we have to keep them till end of the campaign since stakes are not calculated in-between.
Second, why do you care about the other posts by a user? If they are being constructive, helping other people on the forum, why should I care if she/he is participating on some bounties? Almost everyone on the forum is participating in a signature campaign of some sort, does that also look bad?
Also, please stop calling these "spammy." People can participate in bounties. These are not spams. We are reporting our work. All in all, we are advertising for crypto.

OP, sorry for going a little off-topic, but I will come back into topic again soon, for this is a great example of how important a posting history is.

Thank you for giving my freedom back?
My facepalm disorder is now chronic...

Well, I think it is better for you to say that I am already a great user, for, as you unnecessarily told to the people, I run your account from January to August, as well as joined the Ftt project and other passionate debates in here (and earned more than a hundred merits under your name).

Now, coming back on-topic, this is an example of why the posting history is so important. By every single post you make, you build an identity in here, a reputation, also. This dramatic case illustrates how different two people can be while running an account. You can check the post history of the Seoincorporation account from January to August, and you will meet me; you can check it now and you will meet him. Each one of us has different interests here in the forum: I was concerned about the forum's health and he's concerned about technical issues, and that's nice.
For me, it was great to be introduced into the forum, and yet, this is part of who I am in here, all the hundreds of posts I made in this period, all the conversations we had under the Seoincorporation name. I can't have it on my actual posting history, and I wish. So, if I could delete it, even when I committed some mistakes, of course, I just wouldn't.
Yes, your posting history can drive away the merits from you, but everyone is entitled to have some mistakes in his posting history, as well as some evolution. Everyone is entitled to change and grow-up, that's why I appreciate seeing the whole picture when looking into a profile.

I must confess, am guilty of this. My first posts on this forum were either to meet bounty requirements or to report bounty tasks. I saw them serving a purpose even though they were not constructive or useful.
Once a while I still look at my previous posts and see how evolving I have become; from a junk poster to a more constructive writer.
What I believe is history should not repeat itself. However such history should be seen as part of personal development rather than a basis for awarding merits.
As members become better users, merit will follow irrespective of any history.

Was never thinking about plagiarism. Because I wasn't thinking too much.  :-[
When I first registered I was only just lurking here, reading a bit, learning and never had any intention of writing until I joined one sig. campaign. Even after that I think I was never spamming, I was always trying to post something relevant, engaging in some discussion or so. But to be honest, although it wasn't a garbage, it was not worthy of a merit.
Only after some time I gained courage and tried to earn some merit.
Because of that, because of my situation I was always thinking that others were in similar situation so that it would be really nice to reward someone who decided to upgrade his posting. (So in my mind, there was no need to check one's history because it's ok if s/he was not such good poster before, it's ok if he's almost always posting something important.)
OK, from now on, will open one's history and even report if needed.

To be honest, I believe that we need some more time to get familiar with this feature but post history reflecting the genuine efforts shouldn't be the problem. One is expected to share his knowledge, opinion and experience in a best possible way and not everyone will be able to do it with an equal level of quality. Thus anything other than an attempt to cheat the system is fine as far as it is adding some value to the forum.

It really depends on the person who gives the merit. It really doesn't matter if your a bounty hunter and you suddenly caught the attention of others with a really good quality post then you deserve to get the merit. That's just my opinion though since I never tried giving merits to anyone yet. I'm saving my smerits to really deserving members of the forum. Hope that I can find more time to be active in here. Been very busy with so much projects irl.

Hope that newbies and other members in here stop focusing about merits but rather focus more on acquiring knowledge about the technology and other projects.

Sometimes you don't even need to see the post history, if you click on the profile and if there is a link to the bountyplatform everything is clear.. :D

What why is that a problem?? You sell your signatures to earn BTC. People who don't have high levels in signature campaign earn altcoins by doing bounty tasks. Just because you have reached the top of the pyramid, you don't have to diss people who have not yet. And I know how hard it is to get merit. I have seen shit posts by high-level members getting merited like anything.

The hard truth is that the top members of this forum one day decide that yes we need merit system (the decision might be right for the forum's future) as a way to keep the newer entrants out of the high paying signatures. They knew that if they allow the same rules that existed before (your activity allowing you to level up) then many of them would climb up the ladder and signature supply would outstrip the demand. This would lead to very reduced payments for those members. It is very easy to preach when we have already reached the top.

This topic has made me think and wonder for hours.

My goal here is not bounties, signature campaigns etc. My country would tax me and possibly give me a penalty for doing such activity, because I have a job and you can't work full time and do "enterpreneurship" as they would call it in free time without taxation. And for me to be worth it to be taxed, I would have to make much more than I make at my job, because jobs are more secure than crypto. For me at least. I am simply not equiped to quit my job for crypto. So my only option is to invest a little.

My goal here is to learn, be part of the community, support crypto, have FUN and try make my life better with the knowledge I gain. In reality, I don't need merits for that. I really want to motivate people most of all. Not just on the forum, in real life, too and I have gently explained crypto to a few people who used to be opposed to it. I have always been a motivator. If I believe in something, I can help others not despair. Not like a preacher or anything like that. Like a friend. This is the impression I want to give.

One thing I do want, is an avatar. I have a funny one picked out. I do need merits for that. So I kind of want to achieve 100 of them in the future.

I went through my post history. Obviously some of my posts got merited. Most have not though. Most of my posts are one liners. Sometimes I don't have a whole lot to say or I state my opinion shortly and bluntly. Sometimes I joke and sometimes my jokes are not funny. Sometimes I criticise, warn. And Oh my Dog, the spelling errors, eek! A LOT of times I cheer the projects I believe in in their respective ANN threads. Like I would cheer for my football team. Just like I do cheer for my football team actually. I don't cheer my football team elaborately and deeply.

So if I look through my post history and think what my average post looks like, it is not really the impression I most want to give. I had no idea people go through post histories. I have never done it. But it is legitimate to do it in order to award merits to the most deserving. It will make this forum a better place for all of us. I tend to turn on my deep and elaborate mode the more quality posts I see, so it will make me a better poster, too. Maybe one day this forum will become an ALL quality posts forum like some academic forums. It would be wonderful actually.

Until then, I can't quite quit my one liners and cheers, but I will try to be better. :)

So thank you for this post, it has been an eye opening experience for me.

If you spend a bit more time in the forum paying attention to small details you will understand. It's been said many times, people coming here solely for the campaigns and bounties care less /or actually don't really care at all/ about the whole idea behind the Bitcoin nor Blockchain.
They are not coming here from curiosity, wanting to understand it. They are here only because the heard that try can make money easily.

So guess what, 99% of the newcomers want to start making money as soon as possible, no matter what.
They copy other people's posts, they copy info from internet pretending that they wrote it, they just post jiberish only to increase their postcounts and reach higher levels and more money and they do it often from more than one account.

All those are here to earn. Do you think they gonna invest some of the money to run a full node for example?? No! Are you gonna do it?? I doubt it.

I was a member when the merit came, now I have 500 over the initial airdrop I earned every single merit to be here. Sig. campaigns?? Yeah I'm now in one of the best you can find, and it's just an honour to be together with one of the top members of the forum. I hope I can make a change even a tiny one, to leave an imprint, to contribute to this amazing cryptocurrency world.
I don't make a living out of it. It's more like a hobby and it's addictive, and again it's not only about the money. I have supported Bitcoin by buying some, helped some friends to start mining and investing, been mining myself back in 2013, settings up soon a Full node and a Lighting node.

So tell me again what you gonna do here?? With 16 posts you already started complaining how you can't get merit and how unfair is this.
Just a note, your first post is a bounty report, congratulations on being the most valuable newbie /s

Okay. Agreed.
You say with only 16 posts I start complaining. First of all, I am not asking for merit nor am I complaining. It was a thread where I read your viewpoint and thought of sharing mine. I guess that is the exact purpose why the forum was built. Exchanging ideas, right?

Secondly, you say with only 16 posts. Please make up your mind. Is it the number of posts or the quality of the post that determines one's position. I guess it is the quality. So please don't quote my low activity because it is totally irrelevant. And don't make it about who has higher merits. I can show that an established member (say with decent merit) has 10x the chances of getting merited than a newbie posting the same kind of content. I can do an analysis with the last 20 posts of some of the high-level members and good newbies and compare the merits with the number of quality posts.

You also quote my bounty reports. Tell me is it wrong to be in a Bounty?? Is it against the rules? I guess NO. I have contributed meaningfully whenever I had the knowledge and domain.

I am not saying that it is wrong. Look that is how the world functions. Everywhere, Economy, politics everywhere. People don't want the status quo to be challenged and that is fine by me. If I would have pioneered a new technology, I wouldn't want to share my powers. That is totally fine by me. What I disapprove of is the fact that don't showcase yourself as a saint and try to preach.

I know it is important to create a system that would have ensured the survival of this forum. theymos did a good job with merits system but like all things in the world, we cannot build a utopian system and there will always be drawbacks to any architecture.

But if you have this kind of attitude, it is like saying that someone always carry the mistakes of his past (judging a person in hist past).  I think being part of bounty campaigns and posting quality threads are not independent with one another.  You can joint multiple campaigns but still contribute to the improvement and growth of this community. 

Let's see what you are said before >
You are just complaining that you cannot climb the ladder to reach higher payments because of the merit system which was designed solely to stop you from the big money and "good" sig. campaigns.
Is that what you are saying here? Let me tell you something, Theymos decided by himself (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2605767.0) to implement this system and as far as I know, the only signature campaign he was interested into was the Honeymoon ICO  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3920469.0)_/s. He doesn't care if the shitposters will earn more or less as long as they don't spam the forum. That was the main idea behind the merit, to discourage the low quality/no effort posters to leave. What happened then?
They were allow to wear signatures even with a rank of newbie and Jr. Member but the situation turned into a bigger mess, as those who earned a lot from shitposting before got banned, and started again but this time with account farms to make the same income as before. The shitposting got multiplied and there you go, the other solution was to de-rank them to newbies and remove the signatures from them so they have to either earn merit or buy copper membership (or merit) to rank up again. So your point here is completely of the the reality.



It is partly true, that not the number of post but quality is important, but you start your journey here with a bounty report same as the next few posts, how do you expect the people will see you? Even if you post a "quality" content those bounty posts will ruin your reputation. Everyone will think that you quality posts are made just to earn you merit and logical higher payments, but not because you had something to share. Most of the time those "quality posts" are cases of plagiarism. We have reported hundreds of those.

I've already answered above.

As you said, this is a free forum everyone can share their point of view. I'm sharing mine her so, I don't really care if you approve or disapprove it, but if you don't like it you have the freedom of choice and put me on ignore.

If you are not a shitposter you gonna rank up one day (you already got your point for Jr.), but you need to build a reputation first, and this is not easy with the bounty reports as a start. The merit system is the best solution for the mess which was the forum before, it's not perfect but as long as the spam is reduced, it's good.

I do agree that in order to gain an 'award,' it should be by having to work hard and spend time on gaining it. I also find your former post really helpful since I'm a newbie myself and is still exploring this world that I joined a few months ago. Also, about deleting the old posts, I also agree with this. It's not about forgetting what you did in the past, it's about wanting to change it so that you will further improve yourself. Much like in applying for a new job, you would want to make a very good impression, so you would want to cover up all the flaws, but also highlighting the good qualities that you have. Also, it's like when you have a few or maybe a lot of mistakes, but you also have some good ones, the only things that others would see are the bad ones and would ignore all the goods you had, so it's better if they focus on the good/quality things you can offer instead of the bad.