Any solution for over-crowded and useless posts?

[Fazlurkhan.kz]

So there are countless topics in this forum that are answered in like the third or fourth post but are continued to be filled by shitposters with the answers just repeated in different styles.
One way that I think to stop that is the user who starts a new topic waits for his answer and when he does receive the most satisfactory reply to his topic he awards the reply a merit and then locks the topic so that no further waste gets accumulated in the topic and anyone who wishes to gain knowledge can just read the topic and get only what he exactly wants. What this would also do is make the merit system functional and no one would have to wait for light years to get promoted to a new rank.

So please suggest any of your ideas.
I'll start implementing my idea from now by choosing the best 2 ideas and award each 1 merit!

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[Zackgeno96]

One way that I think to stop that is the user who starts a new topic waits for his answer and when he does receive the most satisfactory reply to his topic he awards the reply a merit and then locks the topic so that no further waste gets accumulated in the topic and anyone who wishes to gain knowledge can just read the topic and get only what he exactly wants.

This practice is common among the responsible forum members. Spammers will ignore this as it is the simple way for them to increase the post counts and activities without taking any efforts. You can just report these useless post to the moderator; which is the only simple and quick action in our hand.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

OP, that's  exactly what a responsible bitcointalk member ought to do--but there's no way to enforce it, is there? 

What I'd like to see happen is a lot of threads get locked by mods when it becomes apparent that the same answers are being given repeatedly--or when a topic is so bad that it could only conceivably be a spam topic, like "How I can earn bitcoin?".  And mods have stepped it up recently, but there are still way too many threads alive that deserve very public, painful executions.  I'm not criticizing mods here.  There aren't enough of them and there are way too many spammers and shit threads.

[lukyanli]

So there are countless topics in this forum that are answered in like the third or fourth post but are continued to be filled by shitposters with the answers just repeated in different styles.
One way that I think to stop that is the user who starts a new topic waits for his answer and when he does receive the most satisfactory reply to his topic he awards the reply a merit and then locks the topic so that no further waste gets accumulated in the topic and anyone who wishes to gain knowledge can just read the topic and get only what he exactly wants. What this would also do is make the merit system functional and no one would have to wait for light years to get promoted to a new rank.

So please suggest any of your ideas.
I'll start implementing my idea from now by choosing the best 2 ideas and award each 1 merit!

Here are some solutions to this:

1) There should be a default option enabled that a thread will be automatically locked after it gets a certain number of responses. The member opening the thread will have the option to reopen the thread if he thinks he has still not got  correct reply to his query. Currently the new members ask a question and they disappear from the forum. Members keep giving suggestions and replies and the OP never comes back to lock the thread.

2) Another thing you can do to see recent posts is sort them by replies and views. Those with less replies and views are new ones.

[mtmonte]

This might be a little counter intuitive for a forum, but the way other websites (reddit, quora, stackoverflow) solve this is by ranking replies.  Replies with the highest ranking are shown first which directs people to the most significant answers or comments.

[godzillarekt007]

noooo ^^ person above me sniped me idea while I was afk.....fudge me what a cruel world  

Idea #1: Reddit like system. Up voted posts the most hit the top (ie likely the one you want to merit most) and so forth.

Idea #2: You are not allowed creating threads until you reach the Member. I believe this will slow down the spamming although it may not get rid of it outright.

[kevoh]

I would suggest that the already existing megathreads containing repeated topics and replies be closed first especially those ones at the Bitcoin discussion board even if the solutions mentioned here are not implemented.
Here's an example of a thread that needs to be shut down immediately.

[pixie85]

I would suggest that the already existing megathreads containing repeated topics and replies be closed first especially those ones at the Bitcoin discussion board even if the solutions mentioned here are not implemented.
Here's an example of a thread that needs to be shut down immediately.

Shutting down megathreads won't help much if posters are allowed to recreate them. You close 1 megathread and another with a similar name will pop out hours later and start getting filled with generic answers.

Also, it's not like our OP hasn't posted in a megathread before. For instance he did in Have you ever borrowed fiat to get btc? on 19th page, right below dozens of generic yes I did, no I didn't. Or on page 69 of Bitcoin in College???

[Jet Cash]

I tried an experiment on the beginners board. My merit give away thread was self-moderated, and I closed it when I had finished my thread scanning. It slipped to page 3 because no new posts were added to it. Just as an experiment, I found another post to award with a merit, and I reopened the thread. I posted a comment with a link to the awarded post, and closed the thread.

This shows that is is possible to manage a thread/topic, and to avoid the thread becoming a spam fest. This is the thread -

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3136930.0

[Bardman]

I would suggest that the already existing megathreads containing repeated topics and replies be closed first especially those ones at the Bitcoin discussion board even if the solutions mentioned here are not implemented.
Here's an example of a thread that needs to be shut down immediately.

Shutting down megathreads won't help much if posters are allowed to recreate them. You close 1 megathread and another with a similar name will pop out hours later and start getting filled with generic answers.

Also, it's not like our OP hasn't posted in a megathread before. For instance he did in Have you ever borrowed fiat to get btc? on 19th page, right below dozens of generic yes I did, no I didn't. Or on page 69 of Bitcoin in College???

Because most people that post in the meta section are usually fishing for merits. In the gambling section you can find probably 10-20 different threads with the same topic of gambling strategies. It definitely wont help, the only real solution is to be able to report people more freely. In general, people wont report other people in those megathreads, probably because some posts might look somewhat constructive even though they are saying the same shit after 100 pages.

Also campaign managers should be more strict with the quality of posts.

[BTCforJoe]

Ah, the double-edged sword... I have posted in mega threads before, but usually as a legitimate response to someone where the question wasn’t previously addressed. 9 times out of 10, however, my posts in these threads have gone unnoticed, especially by the individual I was addressing.

I have since stopped posting in these useless threads. My best advice? Report the top post to a moderator and include that the topic is no longer relevant, as it is being flooded with shitposts now.

[DdmrDdmr]

These ideas probably go in the right direction:

- Allow a max. Number of posts per user depending on his rank, per period (activity is measured every two weeks, so that could be the period).

- Limit the number of subjects a user can open per period in much the same way as above. Note that lowest ranks may have a 0 limit.

- Place a Max Number of topics per thread lower than current. Only moderators could extend this limit.

- Let thread number of allowed posts be also related to merit. For example, a thread with less than 3% of posts
with assigned merit is locked unless more posts within thread are merited and the 3% threshold is surpassed. A certain amount of initial thread posts need to be allowed nevertheless regardless of this rule to get it started, say 50 posts max. before applying the 3% merited post rule. Note that the percentage should be set based on a study of available raw data.

Some threads should be spared from strict rules such as bounty threads since contents is different by nature.

[Tyrantt]

Yes, report mods to lock them and don't visit them because there's nothin in there of interest or worth reading. You can just scroll through the pages and you'll see nothing but one liners. Maybe it should be mandatory, for the ones who opened the thread, to lock the after they've received the answer they're satisfied with.

[aoluain]

Bitcointalk is a public forum, a place for people to learn about crypto and to voice
their opinions. I have been on many forums over the years and they all have their
fair share of shitposts and minimal posts.

There are threads of hundreds of pages and lets face it at this stage noone is going
to read them all but the threads are alive because people are making it so.

There are also threads with a couple of pages that are not worth reading but thats
subjective and not what 100% of people would think.

So what im saying is no i wouldnt agree with the proposition, we have to take the
rough with the smooth so to speak.

[XinXan]

Bitcointalk is a public forum, a place for people to learn about crypto and to voice
their opinions. I have been on many forums over the years and they all have their
fair share of shitposts and minimal posts.

There are threads of hundreds of pages and lets face it at this stage noone is going
to read them all but the threads are alive because people are making it so.

There are also threads with a couple of pages that are not worth reading but thats
subjective and not what 100% of people would think.

So what im saying is no i wouldnt agree with the proposition, we have to take the
rough with the smooth so to speak.

People that cut their sentences like you always seem very suspicious, like are you trying to make it seem like you are writing more or what's the point? Your post is also quite useless, you didn't even propose a solution.

These ideas probably go in the right direction:

- Allow a max. Number of posts per user depending on his rank, per period (activity is measured every two weeks, so that could be the period).

- Limit the number of subjects a user can open per period in much the same way as above. Note that lowest ranks may have a 0 limit.

- Place a Max Number of topics per thread lower than current. Only moderators could extend this limit.

- Let thread number of allowed posts be also related to merit. For example, a thread with less than 3% of posts
with assigned merit is locked unless more posts within thread are merited and the 3% threshold is surpassed. A certain amount of initial thread posts need to be allowed nevertheless regardless of this rule to get it started, say 50 posts max. before applying the 3% merited post rule. Note that the percentage should be set based on a study of available raw data.

Some threads should be spared from strict rules such as bounty threads since contents is different by nature.

Allowing a max number of posts wouldn't really be a good idea, there are useful threads with plenty of posts from the same people. Limiting the threads an user can open would be good, however the best and most efficient solution is to report them not only to mods but to people that would red tag them.

[LeGaulois]

So there are countless topics in this forum that are answered in like the third or fourth post but are continued to be filled by shitposters with the answers just repeated in different styles.
One way that I think to stop that is the user who starts a new topic waits for his answer and when he does receive the most satisfactory reply to his topic he awards the reply a merit and then locks the topic so that no further waste gets accumulated in the topic and anyone who wishes to gain knowledge can just read the topic and get only what he exactly wants. What this would also do is make the merit system functional and no one would have to wait for light years to get promoted to a new rank.

So please suggest any of your ideas.
I'll start implementing my idea from now by choosing the best 2 ideas and award each 1 merit!

Fazlurkhan.kz why do you want the user who starts a new topic locks it once he got what he was looking for? They are not interested in the replies, they don't really have a question either. They open a topic, then wait some minutes and use their alt accounts to reply to themselves or their buddies come to participate in the discussion the rank race.

One problem with locking a topic as you suggest, it prevents users to have a discussion, debate... which is the reason we're here basically
For example, you open a discussion and then 1-2 members reply to you. While you got your "best" answer, someone may be interested to add something, to give his/her opinion, correct this or that, whatever...

With time you know what topic to avoid just by reading the title

[aoluain]

Bitcointalk is a public forum, a place for people to learn about crypto and to voice
their opinions. I have been on many forums over the years and they all have their
fair share of shitposts and minimal posts.

There are threads of hundreds of pages and lets face it at this stage noone is going
to read them all but the threads are alive because people are making it so.

There are also threads with a couple of pages that are not worth reading but thats
subjective and not what 100% of people would think.

So what im saying is no i wouldnt agree with the proposition, we have to take the
rough with the smooth so to speak.

People that cut their sentences like you always seem very suspicious, like are you trying to make it seem like you are writing more or what's the point? Your post is also quite useless, you didn't even propose a solution.

This thread is not about the sentence layout of each post! and I didnt propose a
solution because there is a perfectly good one in place to minimise useless posts,
its called "MERIT" and if you read my post you would have noticed I dont agree
with the ideas put forward.

Now back to my sentence cutting, what is suspicious about it?
Would you like me to write my posts in the same fashion as "Solar Bones" by mike McCormack where the whole book is written in one sentence or maybe make my posts without paragraphs and punctuation perhaps similar sort of style to what many use here just keep texting and use the full width of the screen

[DdmrDdmr]

These ideas probably go in the right direction:

- Allow a max. Number of posts per user depending on his rank, per period (activity is measured every two weeks, so that could be the period).

- Limit the number of subjects a user can open per period in much the same way as above. Note that lowest ranks may have a 0 limit.

- Place a Max Number of topics per thread lower than current. Only moderators could extend this limit.

- Let thread number of allowed posts be also related to merit. For example, a thread with less than 3% of posts
with assigned merit is locked unless more posts within thread are merited and the 3% threshold is surpassed. A certain amount of initial thread posts need to be allowed nevertheless regardless of this rule to get it started, say 50 posts max. before applying the 3% merited post rule. Note that the percentage should be set based on a study of available raw data.

Some threads should be spared from strict rules such as bounty threads since contents is different by nature.

Allowing a max number of posts wouldn't really be a good idea, there are useful threads with plenty of posts from the same people. Limiting the threads an user can open would be good, however the best and most efficient solution is to report them not only to mods but to people that would red tag them.

Agreed that self-awareness to close down one’s opened threads and moderator supervision is the best way to go. But it's also the current way to go and this subject was created because there is still an overkill of non-meaningful posts.

That is why I suggested the lower than current max limit of posts per thread that moderator could extend. In addition, If thread does not bare enough merited number of posts, the thread would come to an end unless it were extended by additional existing thread posts being merited (being able thus to surpass thread default limit).

The idea behind is that if thread is interesting, posts within should receive merit thus extending its lifetime.

[Fazlurkhan.kz]

Here are some solutions to this:

1) There should be a default option enabled that a thread will be automatically locked after it gets a certain number of responses. The member opening the thread will have the option to reopen the thread if he thinks he has still not got  correct reply to his query. Currently the new members ask a question and they disappear from the forum. Members keep giving suggestions and replies and the OP never comes back to lock the thread.

2) Another thing you can do to see recent posts is sort them by replies and views. Those with less replies and views are new ones.

The first one sounds like a good idea and the second one just needs support from the users of this forum to make it better!

This might be a little counter intuitive for a forum, but the way other websites (reddit, quora, stackoverflow) solve this is by ranking replies.  Replies with the highest ranking are shown first which directs people to the most significant answers or comments.

noooo ^^ person above me sniped me idea while I was afk.....fudge me what a cruel world  

Idea #1: Reddit like system. Up voted posts the most hit the top (ie likely the one you want to merit most) and so forth.

Idea #2: You are not allowed creating threads until you reach the Member. I believe this will slow down the spamming although it may not get rid of it outright.

That can create this forum better but MERIT system kind of already doing what you're suggesting. It's just that the merited post don't flash to the top and one has to search for the proper merited post on a particular topic!

I would suggest that the already existing megathreads containing repeated topics and replies be closed first especially those ones at the Bitcoin discussion board even if the solutions mentioned here are not implemented.
Here's an example of a thread that needs to be shut down immediately.

Maybe someone could create a new thread which has all the general questions a newbie on this forum has to answer and maintains that topic and keeps it updated daily or weekly.

Also, it's not like our OP hasn't posted in a megathread before.

I too was a newbie once here and I'm not saying I've gained all the experience that has to be gained but I still am learning!

One problem with locking a topic as you suggest, it prevents users to have a discussion, debate...

With time you know what topic to avoid just by reading the title

There's nothing wrong with topics that need a debate. Here I'm just pointing out useless topics which clearly are of no use and are still getting loads of unnecesary replies.



Thank you
I'll now lock this topic. If anyone wants to add anything more valuable just pm me I'll unlock it.
Thanks for your ideas - lukyanli, mtmonte and DdmrDdmr.