The majority of newbs moaned at having to make one post and wait four hours, so I reckon they'll make a lot of threads or emails to the admins about this newb test.
The real point of the test is to remove plausible deniability for concern trolls so they can be summarily banned.
It takes away one technique from the forum disruption toolkit.
I think an exam is maybe a stretch, but I think we should revert to locking newbs to the newbie area or maybe the alt coin section since that's where most of them seem to want to go. Perhaps there could be a warning system in place or something for people who continually post in the wrong section or post crap or questions that have been asked hundreds of times. Maybe a three strikes and you're out rule or confine people to the newbie area as a punishment until they've learnt their lesson
![Grin](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/grin.gif)
. Hopefully that should cut down on all the needless crap as the newb situation is only gonna get worse as Bitcoin grows.
I also suggested this in another thread:
Newbie section was pretty useful, but I think that it was full of the same "Hi, I'm just writing my obligatory first post. Here is another sentence." type posts with the occasional "Why can't I reply on the other boards?" posts haha.
I guess we will see what the effects of removing that and newbie jail will do for the boards. If the moderators are sharp (with the help of the community) then any crap can be dealt with before it becomes a problem.
If think there would've been an easier solution to that. As soon as you clicked to write a new post/ start a thread a few bulletpoint reminders come up before you're allowed to post:
- You only need to make one post and browse for four hours
- You do not need to start a new thread
- Do not start a new thread just to say hi
- Do not spam your referral links anywhere, put them in your signature
- Don't post about alt coins here
- blah blah blah etc etc etc.
Or just a friendly reminder for you to read the newbie readme where all this info could be found. I think that would've cut down half the threads in there.