1. Lots of threads on bitcoin discussion are being moved to unrelated boards that no one reads
Hopefully this will get people to read those sections.
2. Having a newbie section is derogatory, people should be able to post where they like. Registering an account is inconvenient enough without having to satisfy some random admin.
I've always really disliked the newbie restrictions. It significantly reduces the quality of the entire community IMO because there are no "drive-by contributors" who would otherwise make up a large percentage of the community. However, the moderation tools currently available aren't good enough to protect the community if there were no newbie restrictions. In particular, at least these features are needed:
- A much better report system. (Currently, moderators just receive reports via email, which is terrible.)
- Better CAPTCHAs for newbies. Many bots are able to defeat the current CAPTCHAs.
- A way to require that newbies from certain IPs must have their posts approved by moderators. (Spam and proxy IPs would be given this treatment.)
- A page like
this that shows only posts by newbies, so moderators and other helpful people can patrol newbie posts.