Bitcoin Forum

Wow, I posted on the forums. I must be a genius on bitcoins like all the others on here.

It's to stop spambots from auto-reg'ing/link dumping.

That's not the only reason we have this system. Part of it is that we want you to read and research stuff on your own before you post in the main forum. On other forums, if you were to not read anything and a post a thread that has been discussed thousands of times, they would lock the thread and ban you. We don't do that here, because we believe in personal responsibly and free-speech. Because of this interesting dynamic between the light-moderation and the difficulty of making a new account that can post, this forum mostly moderates itself. In the cases where it doesn't, people will at least regret getting their account banned, because they have to put a few hours into a new account to bypass the ban (note: that is a bannable offense*, but I'll admit that we don't catch everyone who does it).

*It's only bannable if you bypass a ban. You are otherwise allowed as many accounts as you want as long as you don't scam people or get banned.

There needs to be separate restrictions on the Marketplace (especially Goods, Currency Exchange, and Lending sub-sections).  Seems like every godamn newbie heads straight for one or more of those sections as soon as getting out of the sandbox.

Well, got to build a rep somehow.

Seems to me that is (too) easily done by just leaving the site open in a tab, whilst doing other stuff.

I think most e-currency forums are going to have this action happening. Money does make the world go round ;)

I'd certainly agree to that.  A lot of people aren't in Bitcoin for buying big lots of coins and speculating, but just want to barter some goods for coins, to play around with the protocol.  Why not Marketplace?

Exactly. I wouldn't have touched bitcoin if it didn't fit well into my online business.
Suits people of all types.

I've been lurking on the forum for quite some time now and "discovered" the Child Boards only after two months or so. For some reason I always scrolled past them, not expecting to find anything of value there. Maybe I'm a childophobe.  ;D

And notice those that do get hammered for it.  Might be a harsh "self regulation" but the trolls are waiting for the newbies in lending and other places - that's why doing homework helps.

Some of them are a little overzealous, but yes self regulation works pretty well there for the most part.