End of newbie restrictions; ban changes

[tysat]

If it gets too extreme, I'll just begin deleting the more unoriginal/generic/short threads by default. Until now, I only really deleted absolutely useless threads which are certainly spam and serve no purpose.

In general though, if something particular annoys you, just report it.

So far, my report rate has been 100%, but i worry about it dropping. I'm afraid that i'll become too persnickity.

I stopped reporting because my percentage would drop inexplicably, with no indication of what the problem was. There's no reason to show somebody a metric and not give them feedback about why it's changing - that's just an exercise in frustration.

Your "score" going down is a terrible reason to not report, it's not like anyone else can see it.

[1715542581]

1715542581

[BawsyBoss]

If it gets too extreme, I'll just begin deleting the more unoriginal/generic/short threads by default. Until now, I only really deleted absolutely useless threads which are certainly spam and serve no purpose.

In general though, if something particular annoys you, just report it.

So far, my report rate has been 100%, but i worry about it dropping. I'm afraid that i'll become too persnickity.

I stopped reporting because my percentage would drop inexplicably, with no indication of what the problem was. There's no reason to show somebody a metric and not give them feedback about why it's changing - that's just an exercise in frustration.

Your "score" going down is a terrible reason to not report, it's not like anyone else can see it.

Why should it matter? Moderators look at reports anyway, don't they? Also, I hope that with this change, moderation of spam posts becomes better. I have seen many 2-3 word posts around the forums and am unsure of whether I should report them or not. They are usually responses to people who have gone off on tangents.

[justusranvier]

Your "score" going down is a terrible reason to not report, it's not like anyone else can see it.

It's extremely demotivating. If you aren't going to show reporters which of their reports were marked as invalid, then it would be better not to show that number at all.

[tysat]

Your "score" going down is a terrible reason to not report, it's not like anyone else can see it.

It's extremely demotivating. If you aren't going to show reporters which of their reports were marked as invalid, then it would be better not to show that number at all.

I'm not saying it's a perfect system... but that you shouldn't worry about your "score"

[Maged]

If it gets too extreme, I'll just begin deleting the more unoriginal/generic/short threads by default. Until now, I only really deleted absolutely useless threads which are certainly spam and serve no purpose.

In general though, if something particular annoys you, just report it.

So far, my report rate has been 100%, but i worry about it dropping. I'm afraid that i'll become too persnickity.

I stopped reporting because my percentage would drop inexplicably, with no indication of what the problem was. There's no reason to show somebody a metric and not give them feedback about why it's changing - that's just an exercise in frustration.

I know that the current system isn't perfect, but for now, if you want feedback on any reports you've made, any global moderator or above can provide you with that as long as you request that information within 14 days of the report. We try to tell people about why we marked their reports as bad if we notice that bad reports are a recurring pattern for them, but otherwise we really can't take the time to do that for every bad report.

[Warren]

Can I ask why Date Registered is not shown next to the username?

I have been involved in Bitcoin and a member of this forum since mid-2011 and just because I'm not very talkative I'm still considered a "newbie". It doesn't really bother me that much personally, but when I read certain threads I often have to click the username to see when a poster first registered on the forum.

With time and experience comes perspective, at least in some discussions that keep coming back again and again, more so than with post count IMO...

[malevolent]

Can I ask why Date Registered is not shown next to the username?

I have been involved in Bitcoin and a member of this forum since mid-2011 and just because I'm not very talkative I'm still considered a "newbie". It doesn't really bother me that much personally, but when I read certain threads I often have to click the username to see when a poster first registered on the forum.

With time and experience comes perspective, at least in some discussions that keep coming back again and again, more so than with post count IMO...

By default, only Activity is shown because it is more important than the registration date; you can easily buy a scarcely used account that was registered in 2011.

I'm not sure you know how the Activity is calculated so take a read:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=237597

BTW. You are not only not very talkative, but you also don't seem to read much:

Total Time Spent Online:   1 days, 10 hours and 13 minutes.

[Rampion]

Can I ask why Date Registered is not shown next to the username?

I have been involved in Bitcoin and a member of this forum since mid-2011 and just because I'm not very talkative I'm still considered a "newbie". It doesn't really bother me that much personally, but when I read certain threads I often have to click the username to see when a poster first registered on the forum.

With time and experience comes perspective, at least in some discussions that keep coming back again and again, more so than with post count IMO...

No offense, but yours could be the perfect example of bought account (not saying it is). I think the activity parameters is working pretty well and mitigated the spam problem.

[oda.krell]

Coming back one more time to this topic...

I've made use of the 'report' function a few times now, and it works well enough for new, spammy threads.

But it basically completely fails for the (low level) noise that is unhelpful comments, in my opinion.

A semi-smart troll will simply avoid the most outrageous forms of trolling (like being racist, etc), and so will usually avoid his comment being removed. More specifically: it's not the trolling itself that's the problem (a good community can "support" a number of troll posters), but the overall signal-to-noise ratio. Which dropped sharply lately, and in my opinion, that's at least partially related to the lifting of the "newbie restrictions".

Several threads I kept reading for a long time are now littered with 'ignored' posts (and I'm not actually very trigger happy when it comes to ignores), and I'm sure others will have a similar experience (judging by how almost no one answers to the ignored posts). But that's not a solution either: it changes the atmosphere of a thread if it's an ignored comment graveyard.... I notice that I feel less interested in actually adding to the "discussion" if 2 out of 5 comments are extremely low quality.

Sorry if all of this sounds like elitist newbie bashing. It's really not meant like that. We obviously *need* new input, and I'm not around that long either. My point is simply that a *completely* open access model (as we have it now) seems not able to cope with the large amounts of newcomers who don't feel like contributing properly. A way to make at least a small effort at preselection is necessary, in my opinion, and like I said before, I would suggest to allows mods to set  a 'minium activity' level for boards, that can start rather low, if for no other reason than to see it as an experiment, and whether it helps in combating the Eternal September we see right now.

[Warren]

Can I ask why Date Registered is not shown next to the username?

I have been involved in Bitcoin and a member of this forum since mid-2011 and just because I'm not very talkative I'm still considered a "newbie". It doesn't really bother me that much personally, but when I read certain threads I often have to click the username to see when a poster first registered on the forum.

With time and experience comes perspective, at least in some discussions that keep coming back again and again, more so than with post count IMO...

By default, only Activity is shown because it is more important than the registration date; you can easily buy a scarcely used account that was registered in 2011.

I'm not sure you know how the Activity is calculated so take a read:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=237597

BTW. You are not only not very talkative, but you also don't seem to read much:

Total Time Spent Online:   1 days, 10 hours and 13 minutes.

If that is supposed to reflect total time spent on the forum since registration it can't possibly be correct? I must have spent at least 500 hours reading on here since 2011.

There was a period of about a year or so when the forum was hacked and passwords compromised when I didn't log into my account, and occasionally I don't login depending on what computer/device I am on, but it still has to be far more than 34-35 hours in total?

Where is the marketplace for these old accounts? Realistically how many of us old members that have been involved with Bitcoin for several years could there be that would be willing to sell our accounts on here for a couple of BTC?

Not very many I suspect...

[hilariousandco]

Can I ask why Date Registered is not shown next to the username?

I have been involved in Bitcoin and a member of this forum since mid-2011 and just because I'm not very talkative I'm still considered a "newbie". It doesn't really bother me that much personally, but when I read certain threads I often have to click the username to see when a poster first registered on the forum.

With time and experience comes perspective, at least in some discussions that keep coming back again and again, more so than with post count IMO...

By default, only Activity is shown because it is more important than the registration date; you can easily buy a scarcely used account that was registered in 2011.

I'm not sure you know how the Activity is calculated so take a read:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=237597

BTW. You are not only not very talkative, but you also don't seem to read much:

Total Time Spent Online:   1 days, 10 hours and 13 minutes.

If that is supposed to reflect total time spent on the forum since registration it can't possibly be correct? I must have spent at least 500 hours reading on here since 2011.

There was a period of about a year or so when the forum was hacked and passwords compromised when I didn't log into my account, and occasionally I don't login depending on what computer/device I am on, but it still has to be far more than 34-35 hours in total?

You have to make a post within the two week time period to get the 14 activity points.

[elavenil]

Thanks for removing the 360 second delay.

[Warren]

Can I ask why Date Registered is not shown next to the username?

I have been involved in Bitcoin and a member of this forum since mid-2011 and just because I'm not very talkative I'm still considered a "newbie". It doesn't really bother me that much personally, but when I read certain threads I often have to click the username to see when a poster first registered on the forum.

With time and experience comes perspective, at least in some discussions that keep coming back again and again, more so than with post count IMO...

No offense, but yours could be the perfect example of bought account (not saying it is). I think the activity parameters is working pretty well and mitigated the spam problem.

None taken, and no it's not a bought account.

I would agree that if Time on the forum is generally correctly reported it would be almost as useful as Date Registered.

Could you not then display Total Time Spent Online next to the username so you don't have to click (twice) to see how much knowledge/experience a poster is likely to have?

[malevolent]

If that is supposed to reflect total time spent on the forum since registration it can't possibly be correct? I must have spent at least 500 hours reading on here since 2011.

There was a period of about a year or so when the forum was hacked and passwords compromised when I didn't log into my account, and occasionally I don't login depending on what computer/device I am on, but it still has to be far more than 34-35 hours in total?

Not very many I suspect...

It won't count your time online if you aren't logged in.

Where is the marketplace for these old accounts? Realistically how many of us old members that have been involved with Bitcoin for several years could there be that would be willing to sell our accounts on here for a couple of BTC?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=250369.0

or off-site

though I suspect most accounts were acquired through hacked email accounts, or due to registrants' password reuse.

[Warren]

If that is supposed to reflect total time spent on the forum since registration it can't possibly be correct? I must have spent at least 500 hours reading on here since 2011.

There was a period of about a year or so when the forum was hacked and passwords compromised when I didn't log into my account, and occasionally I don't login depending on what computer/device I am on, but it still has to be far more than 34-35 hours in total?

Not very many I suspect...

It won't count your time online if you aren't logged in.

Where is the marketplace for these old accounts? Realistically how many of us old members that have been involved with Bitcoin for several years could there be that would be willing to sell our accounts on here for a couple of BTC?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=250369.0

or off-site

though I suspect most accounts were acquired through hacked email accounts, or due to registrants' password reuse.

Thanks for the clarifications.

I will just keep clicking on the usernames to see the date of registration when in doubt.

As for my own status here I suppose will just have to try to contribute a bit more than I have over the last couple of years!

[Peter R]

Theymos, I'm sorry to say the lifting of the 'newbie' restrictions has made the board noticeably worse. To the point where I am seriously considering to stop using "my" subforum (speculation).

The number of new accounts aggressively opening useless threads is through the roof. I never had to put so many people on ignore as in the last week. And all of that, despite the subforum being run by a very competent mod (Blitz).

All in all, it really backfired, and I sincerely ask you to consider adjusting your decision.

How about the following: Allow sub-forum mods to set a certain 'activity' value that a user has to have reached before he can post in this forum, and keep at least one forum unrestricted ('beginners' comes to mind), so the newbies can earn their activity points there.

I'm not proposing anything elitist here, so maybe you could rule out too high activity numbers being set for a sub-forum, but some "credence check" really seems necessary to keep signal/noise in acceptable levels.

+1

Since the removal of newbie jail, we've been overrun with new accounts starting trollish/FUD threads, especially in "Speculation" and "Bitcoin Discussion."  I think Oda's suggestion above makes a lot of sense.

[dserrano5]

+1 to confirm that the spanish forums are now suffering from an increased level of "well said!!" and "me too!" useless posts.

[Akka]

+1 to confirm that the spanish forums are now suffering from an increased level of "well said!!" and "me too!" useless posts.

But there never have been noob restrictions for local Boards. What you are experiencing is simply due to increased user base, not restriction changes.

[Rannasha]

Theymos, I'm sorry to say the lifting of the 'newbie' restrictions has made the board noticeably worse. To the point where I am seriously considering to stop using "my" subforum (speculation).

The number of new accounts aggressively opening useless threads is through the roof. I never had to put so many people on ignore as in the last week. And all of that, despite the subforum being run by a very competent mod (Blitz).

All in all, it really backfired, and I sincerely ask you to consider adjusting your decision.

How about the following: Allow sub-forum mods to set a certain 'activity' value that a user has to have reached before he can post in this forum, and keep at least one forum unrestricted ('beginners' comes to mind), so the newbies can earn their activity points there.

I'm not proposing anything elitist here, so maybe you could rule out too high activity numbers being set for a sub-forum, but some "credence check" really seems necessary to keep signal/noise in acceptable levels.

+1

Since the removal of newbie jail, we've been overrun with new accounts starting trollish/FUD threads, especially in "Speculation" and "Bitcoin Discussion."  I think Oda's suggestion above makes a lot of sense.

+2

Honestly, was Newbie Jail that bad? It's not like it took months to get out. Except for people with the attention span of a goldfish, having to wait for a few hours before being able to post in the main forums is not a big deal, especially if it means less troll/spam/fud posts.

[hilariousandco]

Theymos, I'm sorry to say the lifting of the 'newbie' restrictions has made the board noticeably worse. To the point where I am seriously considering to stop using "my" subforum (speculation).

The number of new accounts aggressively opening useless threads is through the roof. I never had to put so many people on ignore as in the last week. And all of that, despite the subforum being run by a very competent mod (Blitz).

All in all, it really backfired, and I sincerely ask you to consider adjusting your decision.

How about the following: Allow sub-forum mods to set a certain 'activity' value that a user has to have reached before he can post in this forum, and keep at least one forum unrestricted ('beginners' comes to mind), so the newbies can earn their activity points there.

I'm not proposing anything elitist here, so maybe you could rule out too high activity numbers being set for a sub-forum, but some "credence check" really seems necessary to keep signal/noise in acceptable levels.

+1

Since the removal of newbie jail, we've been overrun with new accounts starting trollish/FUD threads, especially in "Speculation" and "Bitcoin Discussion."  I think Oda's suggestion above makes a lot of sense.

+2

Honestly, was Newbie Jail that bad? It's not like it took months to get out. Except for people with the attention span of a goldfish, having to wait for a few hours before being able to post in the main forums is not a big deal, especially if it means less troll/spam/fud posts.

It really wasn't that bad unless you're really impatient. I'd say the time limits between posting were much more annoying.

The forum is getting hit daily with loads of copy and paste bots all over. At least when they were locked in the newb sub it was quicker and easier to spot.

Is there any discussion going on between the mods or admins about bringing that section back?