Require a registration fee for the Bitcoin Forum?

[Astro]

The trolling and vandalism has gotten out of control.  95% of this would disappear if these were paid forums, even a very small amount like 0.1 BTC.  It's only going to get worse.

Thoughts?

[Scientician!]

+1. Can this be implemented immediately?

[Garrett Burgwardt]

Bad idea. Perhaps a subforum where you had to pay to get access to post, but not read.

[Scientician!]

This forum is turning into an idiotic twitter feed.

Post privilege price of even .01 BTC would prevent 90% of the asshattery currently occurring.

[Astro]

Bad idea. Perhaps a subforum where you had to pay to get access to post, but not read.

Without better oversight and moderation, this forum will be useless in under a week.  If you haven't noticed, we have an influx of trolls from various humor sites.

[Prze_koles]

Maybe we should start Bitcoin chan?

[ocharry]

Nah, just add more moderators.

[datguywhowanders]

Nah, just add more moderators.

+1 This

I'm sure there are several longtime members who would be honored to help patrol the Bitcoin forums.

[Scientician!]

Nah, just add more moderators.

Hey existing Moderators, can you uhh maybe, uhh, Moderate this forum?

I know the influx of newf#$s is overwhelming, but maybe a sticky with Forum Rules, and swift enforcement of said rules, would be greatly appreciated..

[oneforall]

It won't 100% fix the problem, but it would help if it were slightly more difficult to make a new account, like maybe if you had to use a valid email address, and only one address per account w/ verification before you can post. That it how it is most places so that at least it takes a little more effort to make new accounts. If a user gets known as a troll then you could just have an 'ignore user' button and it won't be worth it for them to make new accounts all the time because of the hassle.

obviously more moderators would be helpful as well.

charging to use the forum seems like a bad idea since it will greatly limit input from newbies who have serious concerns that are closest to the concerns on the minds of the majority of the future adapters.

[grue]

proof of work for account creation?

[oneforall]

I'm no programmer, but this may be a way to beat trolls for very little btc.

If somebody sets up their own site, that is the same as this forum, but they moderate it and charge very low fee per user, with enough interest it could possibly become economically viable.

[Quantumplation]

Might be interesting to see a Small btc registration fee (or subscription fee?), combined with a small return when you post something that the community sees as worthwhile, tweaked so that the "average" user makes his money back, and a strongly contributing user can actually make money off well thought out, constructive posts.

[brybot]

Dont forget, newcomers may have no bitcoins yet and would be unable to post if they needed help.

[Quantumplation]

Dont forget, newcomers may have no bitcoins yet and would be unable to post if they needed help.

"Newbie" subforum then?  Unrestricted posting, and allows other members to "vouch" for them and pay their membership fees?

[Littleshop]

I suggest posting limits for the first few days, and limited boards such as the help areas.  If your first posts are crap, FUD or spam then you could only have posted in the help section and not the entire board.    

[em3rgentOrdr]

No I do not want an elitist bitcoin club.  That type of crap just encourages closed-mindednss and group think etc.  Yea, I myself get frustrated with all the Noobs, Trolls, and all the propagandiitic FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) intended to delegitimize bitcoin, but we must embrace the fact that bitcoin has finally come of age and engage with the rest of society so that bitcoin will gain popular acceptance.

Nah, just add more moderators

Hey existing Moderators, can you uhh maybe, uhh, Moderate this forum?

I know the influx of newf#$s is overwhelming, but maybe a sticky with Forum Rules, and swift enforcement of said rules, would be greatly appreciated..

No.  Don't moderate.  We can expose the trolls.  We can help the Noobs by holding their hand when they need it most.  Yes we can.  We can mock the Fudders.  We can do this ourselves without assistance from any modulators.

Bring the trolls on.  Prepare for battle.

[oneforall]

No I do not want an elitist bitcoin club.  That type of crap just encourages closed-mindednss and group think etc.  Yea, I myself get frustrated with all the Noobs, Trolls, and all the propagandiitic FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) intended to delegitimize bitcoin, but we must embrace the fact that bitcoin has finally come of age and engage with the rest of society so that bitcoin will gain popular acceptance.

Nah, just add more moderators

Hey existing Moderators, can you uhh maybe, uhh, Moderate this forum?

I know the influx of newf#$s is overwhelming, but maybe a sticky with Forum Rules, and swift enforcement of said rules, would be greatly appreciated..

No.  Don't moderate.  We can expose the trolls.  We can help the Noobs by holding their hand when they need it most.  Yes we can.  We can mock the Fudders.  We can do this ourselves without assistance from any modulators.

Bring the trolls on.  Prepare for battle.

I agree, by being around trolls day after day we get to strengthen our artillery against them. A well planned, sweet smack-down of a troll can turn out to be a great learning method for a brand new member. For instance if they are able to detect a clever witticism(ie. lots of +1s in response to a clever troll rebutal) that exists in a realm/language they don't quite understand yet, but feel they could learn with some effort, they may be more driven to do so in attempt to not be 'outside' of that joke.

With that said, I see no problem with an independent website that exists along side forum.bitcoin which forwards all the posts, but has the very stupid ones taken out by a paid moderator, for those who wish to have this service. For me it is always easy to detect a troll by his subject like blood on a door and i just walk on by unless i feel like doing a kill...

[Gandlaf]

The trolling and vandalism has gotten out of control.  95% of this would disappear if these were paid forums, even a very small amount like 0.1 BTC.  It's only going to get worse.

Thoughts?

So essentially, what you are saying is that you would not want people like this to post anymore?

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=12598.0

Am the "Ashish Goel" in question. Not sure whether anyone is still reading this thread, but here goes some stuff.

a) I did read everything about bitcoin on its web page

b) Yes, the ripple model is the one I am more excited about. I am not the one who came up with the model (references are in http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.0515) -- I am just developing theory for it with some students and trying to understand applications. So have no vested interest in pushing one model over the other. Also, not saying that ripple will work as a company, just that it is a more interesting currency.

c) There is no need to point guns at anyone in the credit network model (our name for the ripple currency) -- the point of the model is that everyone accepts whatever currency they want, from whatever user, for whatever amount they like.

d) I understand this is a bitcoin forum, so this will be an unpopular view. But I believe that a currency can only work if there is someone backing it. In a true P2P currency, trust must be vested in peers. Bitcoin relies completely on convention, which risks going the same way as the "tulip trade".

e) Lots of nice beautiful stuff about bitcoin. Big fan of the beautiful crytographic ideas. Only disagreeing with the part about it not being clear who is being trusted.

f) Any questions about the math in the paper or comments on the credit network model or ideas regarding the open problems? Shoot me an email at ashishg AT stanford DOT edu. Or just leave a comment here and I will monitor it.

[imperi]

I just took a shower. Time to check my Bitcoin balance.