Newbie restrictions (Please discuss forum policy here.)

[Maged]

man, if they want to keep playing this game come morning they will have to turn everybody with 50+ into mods, not just free men. no joke, it still wouldn't be possible.. 90% of accounts are noobs. they need to start executing accounts like crazy so people are terrified that if their goddam joke isn't funny enough they lose their account. that outa learn 'em!

There's a reason that sticky is there. Besides, we don't have that much power, unlike the global mods and above.

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[nathanrees19]

This 50 post limit is pretty clear attempt at curbing the discussion about "Bitcoin bubble" in Economics and Bitcoin Discussion boards.

Very classy move to label people who think the current USD value of Bitcoin is a bubble as trolls...

No. Please take your conspiracy theories elsewhere.

In other news, if you try to make two posts in one minute, it won't let you. If you try to post again a minute later, it won't let you due to double posting despite the fact that the first post failed.

[nemo]

This is my 49th post, so I'd say it's very fair.

[Valalvax]

*shrug* I dunno, could be that what we saw were just the ones that hadn't been deleted before we saw them.. but either way it was pretty bad... like 1/10 posts in some forums

[Mike 71]

Thats a bit hard! I cant post in any intresting Post until i made 50 Posts? So i have to made 49 BS Posts now?

I think over my posts before i do them and i read much, so i am pretty sure i can contribute more then some of those >50 Posters.

Greetings
Mike

[swusc2]

I find the current system works well.

A) They are getting more moderators into this section.

B) If you don't have 50 post, but start constructive topics you can have and respond to those topics in the other forums, and potential be white listed early, so it doesn't really affect constructive newbie posters (works if moderation is up to the task)

C) It makes trolls have to post 50 useful posts before they can troll which effectively makes them post 50 constructive posts, and it deters them from having to work hard to post (works if moderation is up to the task)

D) It is only temporary from what I believe. the recent giant increases of trolls had to be taken care of some how

[Jessy Kang]

The current "newbie" policy is poorly conceived at best, and a potential disaster for the currency at worst. Even the use of the disparaging term "newbie" is hardly better than calling them "marks" and simply reenforces peoples impression of Bitcoin as a sort of Ponzi scheme.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency. Unlike Paypal and other systems there is no higher body to appeal to in case of dispute or technical difficulties. The "higher body" is the community. Support and arbitration- all provided by the community. This move restricts access to that same community.

Speculators- those simply buying Bitcoin to sit on them and do currency exchange, require little support or arbitration. Bitcoin merchants and consumers, those who actually give Bitcoin tangible value do require support and arbitration which under the new rules they are unlikely to receive from experienced users- as those same users will have "Newbie" posts effectively filtered from their online experience. Newbies, for the most part cannot answer Newbie questions- and they are the only ones likely to read them under the current system. Even the moderators of the Newbie section, have on average just four months of experience with Bitcoin.

While I understand there is a great deal of enthusiasm due to the sheer volume of traffic and trading, now is not the time for overconfidence- Bitcoins place is far from assured. Buying and trading do not equal adoption- purchases and sales of real world goods and services offer far more stability than do online trading mechanisms.

The rate on a Bitcoin purchase at my facility is locked in for a full week. Unlike the second to second trades made by speculators, buying any good or service requires agreeing on a stable rate for hours, days or even a week. These are the people we need to attract if Bitcoin is to be a less volatile, more practical means of conducting commerce.

The "Newbie" forum just raised barriers to entry substantially for exactly the kind of non-technical, Average-Joe adopters we want to attract. Certainly I am seriously reevaluating my decision to accept Bitcoin at my facility now that I know my customers are unlikely to receive credible support in their move to the currency.

By insisting on a 50 post minimum, you create an incentive for members to write posts with no substantive content- and so increase the signal to noise ratio in the forum to the point where it is near useless to newbies, and extremely unattractive to experienced posters. Threads scroll off the page as soon as they are made- because there is no incentive to search for answers already given- and every incentive to post the question again, even if it won't be answered.

Promoting an elitist "members only" mentality, restricting the free exchange of ideas and information for a socially focused peer-to-peer currency, and creating even higher barriers of entry to an already technically demanding piece of software poses a far great risk to the future of Bitcoin than any other threat to date.

Simply put, if you want people to join your club- you don't create new obstacles to put in their path.

While I understand that the level of spam was overwhelming, the decision to push new Bitcoin adopters into a sort of ghetto was poorly conceived. It was an easy answer, but it is not a sustainable one.

[Maged]

Thats a bit hard! I cant post in any intresting Post until i made 50 Posts? So i have to made 49 BS Posts now?

I think over my posts before i do them and i read much, so i am pretty sure i can contribute more then some of those >50 Posters.

Greetings
Mike

If you help out other newbies with their problems successfully, we'll whitelist you pretty quickly.

[Mike 71]

What about confirming an account with a (small) donation for running the board?

Greetings
Mike

[bitcoinewbie]

Look : if I am mining with pool xyz and there is a technical issue I want to raise to the pool operator, or if I found a bug in the bitcoin client and I want to report it, or if I am wanting to do business in the market forum, how am I going to do that now?

Unless you prove to us that you know the basics, you'd just be wasting those people's time. Don't worry, we can help you here.

yeah, relevant questions getting answered won't be a problem, if it is beyond the expertise of the other noobs in here then your post will be passed on. honestly, 4 hours ago i thought this was very dumb, but think about this, after you do your time here, you will think twice about posting bs in the serious forum, b/c if your account gets clipped you have to start all over with a new account.

maybe try think of it like this, take whatever it is that you spend most of your time doing, whatever YOU are the expert at, now imagine you are having a complex dialogue on the subject and then in walks 1000s of 2 yr olds screaming like crazy about stuff that you learned your first couple weeks into the field. you would  hire some babysitters and go to another room as well, somewhere where you could hear yourself think...

i actually just made myself think that maybe a new secret invite only forum would be nice for the pros, but then again they prolly already have that and we just don't know about it..

[Crazy]

Couldn't agree more. Let's hope they just solve this with man-power instead of poor user-management policy.

[freequant]

Sure, let's start with the basics :

Basic 1: an open society does not promote censorship
Basic 2: don't quick the hive if you don't want to get stinged
Basic 3: you can't repair trust once it is broken
Basic 4: don't give to your detractors additional reasons to bash you

[itsagas]

This 50 post limit is pretty clear attempt at curbing the discussion about "Bitcoin bubble" in Economics and Bitcoin Discussion boards.

Very classy move to label people who think the current USD value of Bitcoin is a bubble as trolls...

You are wrong.  The forum needed cleaning up and it is a fine idea.  It has nothing to do with keeping up the value of bitcoin.

[bitcredit]

What effect do posts here have on the price of Bitcoin? I for one have bitcoins and I've "lost" over $1000 in this recent drop (that is to say if I sold at $30 and bought back now), but I'm not worried. It'll go up again and I bought in for much less than what it is now anyway.

[xlcus]

The current "newbie" policy is poorly conceived at best, and a potential disaster for the currency at worst.

+1

(From a now newbie)

[Maged]

We're not censoring you. Everybody can still see your posts; they're just easier to avoid.

[bitcredit]

We're not censoring you. Everybody can still see your posts; they're just easier to avoid.

I'm John Kerry and I approve this message.

[Mike 71]

Look : if I am mining with pool xyz and there is a technical issue I want to raise to the pool operator, or if I found a bug in the bitcoin client and I want to report it, or if I am wanting to do business in the market forum, how am I going to do that now?

Unless you prove to us that you know the basics, you'd just be wasting those people's time. Don't worry, we can help you here.

Ah, its possible to prove knowing the basics!

So what you want to hear?

I am totaly fine with Slush scoring-system cause it prevent me setting up a poolswitching tool - i cant let anyone cheat on me.

I localised my wallet and made my first backup.
I tried phoenix and must say, phatk bring me 219 MHash/s on my 5770 but 4K more temp, using poclbm i get 211. Each @1000 MHZ.

What want you hear?

[vikarti]

not friendly to ones who didn't post often.
also - VERY unfriendly to newbiews whose native language Russian or German - may be at least allow to post in their own language subsections?

[xlcus]

If you have really good posts, you can post a request for preemptive whitelisting here.

I'm not sure if my posts would be classed as REALLY good, but I think I've at least been helpful to a few people.  Consider this my request for whitelisting please.

Thanks!