Improvements Needed to Bitcoin Forum Ranking System

[rockmoney]

I first started to Mine Bitcoin in early 2011, but after about 6 Months or so of mining with my 5 Processors/tiny GPU Card (at the time) I never found any Blocks & essentially gave up for nearly two years. In early 2014 and equipped with better components, I decided to start Mining again, and on 26th March 2014 I joined Slush Pool.

I am a natural problem solver and never had the need (or want) to join any Bitcoin (or other digital currency) Forums, until I was on Amazon this past May & came across a cool looking Gekko Science Compac USB Miner made by novak that was capable of hashing at speeds of 20+ Gh/s & decided to purchase two of them for fun. The Compacs from Amazon arrived a few days later, but lacked any documentation and/or instructions. So, on 26 June 2016 I joined Bitcoin Forum because that is where I found the instructions on how to use my new toys.

Anyway, I have been doing some fairly serious Bitcoin Mining for the past several years now (not to mention my start in early 2012) & yet for some reason it says "Newbie" under my name here. Since joining the Bitcoin Forum, I have recently invested in a few seemingly promising/hopeful alt coins that I've come across here, but am unable to join a simple signature campaign because of my Rank.

I researched how to move up the Ranks here, & it seems the fastest/best method (and only real way) is to make Posts. That is probably the absolute worst way to determine the Rank of an individual, & certainly leads to a TON of carefully plotted out SPAM (that other Members now have to sift through just to find something helpful when they need it). I have come across SO many clever/talented people in my short time here, & I am hopeful that this community would be able to create new guidelines to determine Member Rank (and without effecting any current Members Rank and/or Status).

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[DooMAD]

There's a dedicated subforum to discuss features and suggestions for the forums.

I honestly can't think of a way to gauge the entitlement of a particular rank that wouldn't involve some sort of manual decision making by a person.  There would also be issues around providing proof of the contributions people have made to the community, which would also involve some kind of manual moderation by a human being.  I doubt anyone's going to be prepared to volunteer their time to maintaining such a system just so that you can join a sig campaign.

[rockmoney]

There's a dedicated subforum to discuss features and suggestions for the forums.

I honestly can't think of a way to gauge the entitlement of a particular rank that wouldn't involve some sort of manual decision making by a person.  There would also be issues around providing proof of the contributions people have made to the community, which would also involve some kind of manual moderation by a human being.  I doubt anyone's going to be prepared to volunteer their time to maintaining such a system just so that you can join a sig campaign.

It's not just "me", I have seen MANY others voice their concerns regarding this issue as well. It's not just about joining a signature campaign either, the primary concern is "controlled" SPAM from Members trying to achieve the next "Rank". Something simple as providing your BTC Address or taking a look at the date you joined a Mining Pool are just two fairly simple ways one could provide some background that would confirm they are not a "Newbie" (if they choose). But there must be simpler solutions, & I'm confident this community could come up with one if asked to take a serious look into implementing some sort of automated function to determine ones level of experience with digital currency..

[minifrij]

It's not just about joining a signature campaign either, the primary concern is "controlled" SPAM from Members trying to achieve the next "Rank".

Which is perpetuated by Signature Campaigns. Other than making yourself look better, there are little to no reasons for you to rank up other than to achieve higher pay in a Signature Campaign. While this is not your reasoning, I expect it is the main reasoning for the majority of members.

Something simple as providing your BTC Address or taking a look at the date you joined a Mining Pool are just two fairly simple ways one could provide some background that would confirm they are not a "Newbie" (if they choose).

Please remember that your rank on this forum is just that, your rank on this forum. For a Legendary member my technical understanding of Bitcoin and other topics is very limited, however that is not relevant when evaluating my status on the forum. Whether this is correct is debatable, however it is how it currently works and I don't expect that to change.

Addressing your ideas, they would require unneeded intervention from Staff to be applied and would be open for significant abuse.
Staff are already busy with several other forum needs, furthering this just so that a user doesn't have the word "Newbie" on their profile seems rather vain. Does it not?
In addition, provided that the incentive for high ranked accounts (signature payments) was still there, it would be easier than ever to farm up accounts by adding a unique Bitcoin address and linking a mining account to them to rank them up. This would not be good for the forum; it would make spam - a problem you identified in the first part of your post - easier, more lucrative and harder to remove than ever before. Surely you can understand the negative implications that would have here.

I'm confident this community could come up with one if asked to take a serious look into implementing some sort of automated function to determine ones level of experience with digital currency..

Perhaps, though it doesn't seem like a good use of the communities' power or creativity considering how little it is relevant IMO. If your rank on the forum bothers you so much, you can either purchase Donator to change it manually, or post in the topics you are interested in to have it rise naturally. Personally, it seems like a waste of time and effort to try and implement anything else.

[cooldgamer]

It's not about your experience in the crypto world,  but that on the forum.   I think the system should allow for faster leveling,  but shouldn't be basex on how long you have mined or something like that.

If it was, you could get a bunch of cheap miners and user them to farm accounts.   At least the way it is now requires work to level.

[Jet Cash]

It's difficult to devise a forum ranking system. Early restrictions can help to cut down drive-by spamming, later ranking is based more on activity, and how much you contribute to the forum advertising revenue by bumping threads. Other forums use merit points awarded by members to create an alternative ranking system, but this leads to cross-rewarding posts between members, so it isn't really a solution.

imho - a better idea is to stop the sale of membership accounts, and cut out a lot of the sig spamming campaigns.

[hilariousandco]

You've made 20 posts here - you're hardly a prolific contributor and the ranking system takes into account both age of account and how active you have been (which in your case is not very). Most people don't need to spam to rank up their account but if you contributed more often you would naturally rank up your account over time and this is how it's meant to be. Your account is a potential Member so that's what you'll become if you put in the effort to make the required posts but people shouldn't be able to become a higher rank here just because they've been mining for quite some time.

https://www.bctalkaccountpricer.info/?token=k25b66d6

[gentlemand]

Er, is the ranking really of any importance at all? If you're selling stuff then you get trust on a totally separate basis. As for your opinions, I don't give a shit how high or low someone's rank is if what they write is worth a read.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

There's a dedicated subforum to discuss features and suggestions for the forums.

I honestly can't think of a way to gauge the entitlement of a particular rank that wouldn't involve some sort of manual decision making by a person.  There would also be issues around providing proof of the contributions people have made to the community, which would also involve some kind of manual moderation by a human being.  I doubt anyone's going to be prepared to volunteer their time to maintaining such a system just so that you can join a sig campaign.

It's not just "me", I have seen MANY others voice their concerns regarding this issue as well. It's not just about joining a signature campaign either, the primary concern is "controlled" SPAM from Members trying to achieve the next "Rank". Something simple as providing your BTC Address or taking a look at the date you joined a Mining Pool are just two fairly simple ways one could provide some background that would confirm they are not a "Newbie" (if they choose). But there must be simpler solutions, & I'm confident this community could come up with one if asked to take a serious look into implementing some sort of automated function to determine ones level of experience with digital currency..

Yes, the whole forum is quite aware of the ranking/spam issue.  And the account sales, farming, everything.  Your point about that is valid, but ranking up any other way, like based on mining isn't feasible.  There's no other forum that does that, is there?  It's your rank on this forum that you're seeing, not your "rank" in the bitcoin world, whatever that would mean.  Just keep posting like everyone else does and stop bitching.

Edit:  This is basically what cooldgamer said.  Write first, read second is generally a retarded idea.   

[snipie]

This is a forums to talk about bitcoin and to share experiences &  learn...etc and it doesn't ask whether you are mining or even possessing a single bitcoin and believe many members here don't have +1 BTC and many high ranked users don't know the basis of mining...
It is just a cute forums so post and rank up

[SaltySpitoon]

Er, is the ranking really of any importance at all? If you're selling stuff then you get trust on a totally separate basis. As for your opinions, I don't give a shit how high or low someone's rank is if what they write is worth a read.

No, no its not. The only thing rank has any effect on (besides posting limits) is whether or not a sig campaign will take you.

@OP if you have a lot of experience to share, do so and your forum rank will increase as well.

[DooMAD]

@OP if you have a lot of experience to share, do so and your forum rank will increase as well.

Precisely this.  It's a two way thing.  It's not just about the benefits that you can reap from having a high rank, it's what you can give back in terms of your knowledge and expertise.  If you've been mining for half a decade, you'll prove to be a useful resource for the less experienced here.  The more help and assistance you can provide to people, the faster you'll climb the rankings.

[Marma Kalari]

if you started mining quite early it is good for you,if you come to this forum and register a couple of months back and are you claiming you need a better rank you do not get a university degree without writing the examination

[botany]

Your tag just indicates that you are new to the forum, and not new to Bitcoin.
The only real handicap that you face as a newbie is the time you have to wait between posts.
In your case, that will also go away once you make a few posts.

[veleten]

so,what the suggestions are?
have some sort of a screening process for people to rank?
like...have a test of basic bitcoin/blockchain knowledge or a council of mods to decide whether a member can rank up or not?introduce more ranks?revamp the ranking system completely?
one has to understand that the forum is a complex eco system which basic idea was/is to have a platform for people,newbies and experts alike,to be able to talk about cryptocurrencies

this system has some parties involved:stuff/mods,business owners,general public,money makers(farmers),angry quality post nazis etc. and every party would try to defend or promote its interest
i.e. mods and post nazis would complain about the avalanche of spam shit posts,farmers would silently wish post nazis shrivel and die,general public would happily read whatever they want to read and spam where they want to,owners would want to make more money from advertising and growing the general public numbers(while keeping the quality of posts reasonably high),business owners would want to have their services promoted properly etc.
to make changes to this system one has to be 100% sure it will improve things,my opinion is don't fix what is not broken
besides the new forum is about to go live

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Nobody cares how long you've been mining or been involved in bitcoin, the forum has been run this way since it begun. If you have a problem send theymos a PM but it won't change anything. Some of the biggest HODLERS involved in bitcoin probably don't even have an account here so why should you be treated any different to anybody else just because you mine?

Also if you've started mining in 2011 why the hell do you need the pittance that sig campaigns pay?