Newbie restrictions (Please discuss forum policy here.)

[RodeoX]

Suggestion, if you have a question that you want answered try looking it up. You can read all you want. The search feature eleiminates almost all of the serious questions new people have.
The problem this addresses however is not about people asking serious questions. There are plenty of places to go scribble with crayons. This is the official forums of the project, and should not be such a place. New users please be patient. You are still welcome here.
I'll even check the new section daily and answer questions.

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[freequant]

It need not be a large donation requirement - really even a small amount would deter spammers.  I have recently bought a bc related URL and am working on implementing what I hope will be a useful service.  I would have no qualms paying an access fee here.  Otherwise my startup announcement, when it comes, may have to be in the noob forum. 

I totally agree on both points: a donation requirement is better than the current system (but both can coexist if some people don't want to pay), and this policy is a hindrance to the development of the bitcoin economy as new entrepreneurs cannot anymore advertise their businesses, let alone seek for consulting with the most experienced users.
You can easily imagine the first impression of a respectable business man who comes to prospect on the forum, only to find that he is called a noob and locked in a forum full of gibberish... I doubt he will give his business to Bitcoin.

How many opportunities did bitcoin loose today because of this policy?
How many more opportunities is it going to loose before the people behind this bad move finally understand their mistake?

[gmk80]

Just want to go on the record that, as a newbie, I have no real problem with the post restriction policy. Newbies need to spend most of their time reading rather than talking anyway. And contribute something back to the community. That's all good.

[yeponlyone]

This is hazing.

But is has an advantage: being stuck here together for 50 messages is the best opportunity to create a stronger group.
This will be needed to kick the old farts in the butt when we are finally released in the wild

I really doubt this "hazing" will promote any group unity.  This is the internet after all, everyone is looking out for themselves.

See, I thought earlier that this could be good for the group as a whole, but upon further consideration i see that, just as common sense would dictate, fear tactics are unhealthy, my only hope now is that some of the key veteran members will see past their quiter forums and see this for what it is, intellectual imprisonment in an attempt to artificially sway markets to their own personal gain at the expense of the future of the project.

They are already deleting accounts AND claiming it is BECAUSE of speaking out against the forums new policy.
From Theymos in this post (http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=15735.0):

You were banned because you are a troll. Every single post of yours was complaining about the forum. You even offered to post junk posts for people.

And now you're banned on this account, too...


you can look through bitcoinewbies post and decide for yourself if he was a troll or not.

[mrx]

Just want to go on the record that, as a newbie, I have no real problem with the post restriction policy. Newbies need to spend most of their time reading rather than talking anyway. And contribute something back to the community. That's all good.

I understand this restriction.

But just an example, I've been reading on this forum for some time (0.5 mo) and just reged few days ago to ask a question. Not talked before =/= can't contribute anything.

and the logged times, I sometimes forget to log in until I want to post and can't find the link.

I know this is not enough to make an argument but this CAN happen.

[mjoz]

Well when you have a bunch of anonymous trolls deliberately trying to incite panic I think it makes sense to take measures to restrict the nonsense.

[yeponlyone]

Well when you have a bunch of anonymous trolls deliberately trying to incite panic I think it makes sense to measures to restrict the nonsense.

Agreed. We might as well lock up all the blacks while we are at it because some of them are criminals. It's always better to take the easiest route when your own personal immediate welfare is at stake.

[Valalvax]

You are right that you're the reason the forum is locked up tight... and you're also correct that they're trying to keep the value stable, but you're incorrect in assuming that they're doing it because the value is inherently unstable/poor

[smackdaddy]

It's interesting, because I feel like there are two very different segments of users on this forum. You have the miners and the speculators...two wildly different skillsets with very specific lingo and goals for their involvement in this community.

So, what you just said would go right over the head of some of the speculators, while most of the miners have no idea what forex is.

I mine (just 2 5850s on my primary machine) and speculate...would love it if somehow I got added to the whitelist also.

[SolarSilver]

Why not ask newbies to deposit 1 or 5 BTC in an escrow account as a deposit like MTGox or some moderators wallet.

If you get to 50 posts without beeing a troll, you get your BTC back.

If not, you get banned and loose the BTC

(oh and I'm only going to start posting now just to increase my post numbers, I've been reading silently for weeks and I think that is more important than how much you posted...)

[mrx]

Why not ask newbies to deposit 1 or 5 BTC in an escrow account as a deposit like MTGox or some moderators wallet.

If you get to 50 posts without beeing a troll, you get your BTC back.

If not, you get banned and loose the BTC

(oh and I'm only going to start posting now just to increase my post numbers, I've been reading silently for weeks and I think that is more important than how much you posted...)

Don't assume all newbies have some BTC... Maybe they're just learning about this thing and have not decided whether to getin.

[saberinde]

Just want to go on the record that, as a newbie, I have no real problem with the post restriction policy. Newbies need to spend most of their time reading rather than talking anyway. And contribute something back to the community. That's all good.

As a grown adult I resent being told that I need to spend x hours in pre-school proving that am not in fact a child (as I am evidently assumed to be by default).

As for making a payment first, I have no BTC, thats what I came here to learn about.

[yeponlyone]

You are right that you're the reason the forum is locked up tight... and you're also correct that they're trying to keep the value stable, but you're incorrect in assuming that they're doing it because the value is inherently unstable/poor

I am invested in bitcoin and hope for the best, however I can't come up with any reason why people who believed in the strength of the market would resort to fear tactics negate opposing opinions to drive the price up. It is undeniable that this is what is occuring if you look here:

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=15735.0

and you investigate theymos'(admin) claim of bitcoinewbie "Every single post of yours was complaining about the forum."  investigate that yourself by looking through bitcoinewbies posts and tell me if you think he was trolling or not, and decide whether or not lies and power are being used to squash alternate opinions.

I happen to know for a fact that bitcoinewbie has on many occasions given helpful advice to other users, and he has even created at least 4 bitcoin youtube videos(and posibly more), none of which were anything but promotions which clearly took a great deal of time. ie. creating a bitcoin mascot, and as another alias(which may or not be the same man -Bitatoes-, but looking at the referenced thread above it would seem that that is what Bitatoes is claiming). With little research on and off this forum you can see that this man IS NO TROLL.

btw - there is an 100% uncensored discussion of this slowly taking place over at bitcoinforum.net

[MindFunk]

Is it now 5 or 50 posts? 5 seem doable without posting complete nonsense.
Really bad that there is no decent authentification system that is usable for every forum.

It is 4 hours and 5 posts now
THANKS!!!

[Chris Acheson]

"I for one welcome our new Bitcoin Masters." Sorry it was meant a bit tongue in cheek

Fair enough.

TradersEdgeDice posted a good suggestion (in my opinion) over here.  I'll respond later, but for now I must sleep.  It's been a long night.

[ijuz]

It is 4 hours and 5 posts now
THANKS!!!

Excellent, thanks.

[grue]

can i has whitelist?

[emmanuel322]

LoL this is annoying but I guess necessary

[emmanuel322]

and another one for me........I think its necessary but not really evaluated....

[phillipsjk]

Why don't you eat your own dogfood and require people to pay a nominal BTC fee to prove they're not spammers?

I don't have BTC yet.

My CPU miner is not expected to process a block for about 50,000 days at the current difficulty.

I have not sent money to an exchange to buy BTC yet, but when I do, I expect the transaction fees to total $30.

I have been trying to get my computers configured in a 'secure' manner before taking the plunge. Just this past week I started signing my e-mail with GPG (PGP compatible). I have bought a USB drive so I can back up my wallet in a safety-deposit box, but don't have a computer using full drive encryption yet.

TL;DR Sometimes getting all of your ducks in a row takes time.