Enhanced newbie restrictions & requirements

[Hesoyam20]

Enjoying your work and and word spoken by the Bitcointalk Boss to give the people a good respect and not spamming and also the jr. member promoting a spam bounties :0.

[LoyceV]

I didn't spot the fake Bitcoin address (to bad) but I don't think the "megathreads" should be a factor. That's my personal opinion of course. Not everyone is fluent in English and/or educated enough to write quality pieces.

It's not only the English level, as long as it's not total garbage, and as long as the user makes a good point, I am willing to merit him.
However, Spam Megathreads serve only one purpose: spamming for post count. It doesn't matter what they post, nobody is going to read it, and the only other users opening those threads do the same.

We might view this differently, but I am trying to keep new people from being discouraged if they do post on-topic responses in several threads. The large threads are just easier to get started with, because they often have more generic subjects.

Answering the same question in the same thread many times makes the post useless, no matter how good it is.

See Before you give merit to a newly-demoted newbie..., where your meriting is used as an example of how not to do it.

Nope sir as you know in my bounty the manager wants to put that address in my account and that is the rules in our bounty and that is mandatory to be eligible in bounty but I will remove that when the bounty is finished.

That just means that bounty manager is bad at his job. But I'm not surprised, you're wearing the PRiVCY signature, which causes the worst forum spam since DeepOnion.

[Delphinus]

This is certainly an excellent solution for fighting with spammers and bots, but it also hit users who do not deal with spam and do not have merits. Those like me. In this regard, I had to buy a copper member in order to wear a signature. I do not deal with spam (except bounty reports  ), I write meaningful posts, but I did not get merit for it, apparently my posts are useless.

I skimmed through the last 10 pages of your post history.  I didn't spot any posts in a language I can understand that were discussing Bitcoin.  Everything was altcoins, airdrops, bounties and ways to make money.  Contrary to popular belief, that's not what this forum is for.  If some of your posts in the local boards were discussion Bitcoin, then you need to complain to the people in your local boards.  In all 10 pages I read, I couldn't find a single thing I could award a merit for.  Clearly you can speak English well, so perhaps try getting involved in more discussions where the topic is about Bitcoin and then you might be able to contribute something people deem valuable.

For my own understanding, is this the official opinion of Bitcointalk? Although it might be obvious from the name, I always assumed it was because the forum was a first-mover in this space. The discussions about Ethereum, Litecoin, and other alt coins are specifically why I comment here (Bitcoin is a solid hold, not trading with that).

Based on your post, I suddenly feel like a "second-rate" member for discussing mainly altcoins.

[mahdie88]

Some people here are bounty hunters, that doesn't care of Merit, they are focusing on their weekly reports only. And some here, are not really speaking in English. I don't know which is good or bad posting here, but deleting a post to help people is bad i think. We're not engaging in the other forums because we are just bounty hunters, so sad for being demoted. Everything ruined for some projects that accepting only a Jr. Member, I stop engaging, to other forum since they you need to post valuable post. Do we have rights, helping people and after almost a month to be finish as pro-audit that post will be deleted? Even its on off-topic to off-topic thread just to help them update their twitter audit? bounty hunters need to update them, but that post was deleted so as all you can see my post history is all weekly reports.

How about those focus on bounty hunting. Is that a trash posts? You should make a other way of promoting people here. I'm really sad actually I can't deny it. I am not a good in talking but I do respect your rules and regulations here. I'm demoted and I will sure suffer don't know how to get it back.

[LiluSG]

I think 3 or 5 merrit is too much for beginnings on bitcointalk. At the beginning, I think you are easily obtained Merrit Or Active. And now, with us are Newbies or JR. It's not easily obtained to get Merrit. So. 1 merrit for JR, that's enough to remove scammer and cheater out of our community. Thanks

The main source of meaningless spam are two categories of forum participants:

- This is a farm owned by 1 person of many accounts. Purely physically, no one will be asked by the quality and content of posts, when you have to go to 100 accounts per day
- The second category is the newly registered ones who came here because of the bounty and signatures. They also will not think about the content of their posts.

Examples of these empty messages are mass, just go to any topic where 100 pages and see what they write there.
1 Merit too low a threshold, in terms of stopping these two categories. There is a black market - merits, accounts. Everything is sold for a long time already. At the same time, the payback can be from 1 campaign. Under the condition of 1 merit

[CryptoRaymond]

So many demoted account holders are talking about the lesser merit sending issue that as usual. But I think from now onward, quality posts are getting merit. I have checked the link below and found some amazing information.

Recent Merits

It will show you the stat of merit sending to quality post. I hope it will help you to make quality posts by having some better idea.

[serhio_coin88]

Greetings, friends!
Although the innovation has lowered my rank, but I believe that it will become very useful for the quality of the forum content, and will also prevent multi-accounts! For me it will be one of the incentives to write better posts!
Peace for everyone!

[Crypto Girl]

Admins!!! What you have done will lead to the fact that now massively will sell merit and who will not share it! Or you are interested in it themselves( to sell merit)? What you have done I believe is illegal! Think again, while the community has not found another forum!!!

All right. This made my day. Just so you know, no one is forcing you to stay here.

What happens to those who makes good posts and yet are unable to get merit points?

Ok. Just today, you got a merit out of nothing. What a coincidence?

Created a petition!
https://www.change.org/p/amins-bitcointalk-com-bitcointalk-com-say-no-to-new-restrictions?recruiter=582167975&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition

Wow. Someone joined you. Good luck.
This is getting interesting. Seems people had awaken from their grave.

[dat.ho12492]

oh sad my account ranked down to newbie but my posts was not a newbie poster at all, newbie need now at least 1 merit to rank up to jr. member and I think my account now should have 1 merit can somebody check my posts to be a jr. member.

Here you go. I've gone through your post history. You're posts aren't perfect, but it's pretty clear you're a real account with a long post history of on-topic comments.
Definitely deserve to be a jr. member 

As I said here, very few people pay attention to the history of other people's posts as you are doing, and I think you can see that a lot of people have made great efforts and contributions but a very funny thing is that they do not get merit while they deserve it. So, I think we need more people like you, care about and pay attention to what others say, it will contribute to creating a healthy community, instead of neglecting the dedication of others, perhaps forgotten my contribution , I'm kidding!
I speak english very badly, hope people understand

Alright, you're getting the last one of my merits. Not for this post, but you have decent posts in general.

I understand, I really do not expect too much merit because I know the knowledge and what I say does not seem attractive enough and convince others, the most important thing I want to emphasize here is that I still agree with the change but at least, senior members should pay more attention to other people, especially newbie, jr.member. They still have clever and intelligent ideas, we should slow down and observe them instead of trying to get rid of them from this forum

[Beehives]

It would be better to delete the accounts that reach 6 months without a merit. Make the wall thicker to prevent spamming.

[Delphinus]

Answering the same question in the same thread many times makes the post useless, no matter how good it is.
See Before you give merit to a newly-demoted newbie..., where you're meriting is used as an example of how not to do it.

Thanks for linking to this post, very informational. I can see lots of effort being put into finding these non-value add posts.
Question: When these posts are removed for spam, do the comments also disappear from people's comment history?

Ie. if I review the comment history for someone and I can still see the comment, does that mean the posts are not deleted for spam?
In that case, I have less to think about when reviewing an account. Otherwise, I also have to analyze under which post the comment was made (which is more time intensive)

[stompix]

~
I didn't spot the fake Bitcoin address (to bad) but I don't think the "megathreads" should be a factor. That's my personal opinion of course. Not everyone is fluent in English and/or educated enough to write quality pieces. In this case it's a promotion from newbie (which should be new users) to jr. member (still new users).

Shouldn't expectations be aligned to the maturity level of the account? If newbie accounts post frequently and on-topic, I don't expect that much more from them. For legendary accounts, I do have higher standards before meriting them because my expectations are higher.

We might view this differently, but I am trying to keep new people from being discouraged if they do post on-topic responses in several threads. The large threads are just easier to get started with, because they often have more generic subjects.

Well ...congratulations!!!!  / sarcasm

You've managed to award merit to the authors of :

Just patiently waiting when market is dropped seems lots of people don't understand the market they are always a moment that market will dropped like today almost all altcoins was decreased their prices but we have to wait until they rise again just have more patience better to focus on your real job if you have.

Well, I think we just apply the first two things that you say then be more careful during the visit and work, that is enough to ensure our safety, do not make the problem more complicated when using multiple passwords, that made me feel very headache. I did just that and I really got the safety, the most important thing is to raise vigilance and caution, which is the crux of the problem

For btc shortage I think it wont be possible but if there is shortage it will be at the people who sell and buy btc and not the whole btc

Well said. I think there need to be some rules about copy posts and restriction. But sometimes it can be allow for crying need but with reference.

Congrats!
If only there would be more like you / again, sarcasm avalanche

[mahdie88]

It would be better to delete the accounts that reach 6 months without a merit. Make the wall thicker to prevent spamming.

This comment will not make you a legend. People are here, because of bounty hunting's. So lots of them are posting only by their weekly reports.

[mocacinno]

How to create a list of every demoted ex-junior member that received exactly 1 merit AFTER Theymos announced the new newbie restriction rules...
So be carefull, this list WILL receive false-positives, but my gut feeling tells me that at least 50% of the resulting users have abused the system...

Step 1: wait untill the current week is done
Step 2: Download LoyceV's full merit history
Step 3: tac merit.all.txt > merit.txt
Step 4:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/python
import time
import cfscrape
import re
#the unix timestamp on which Theymos declared the new rule about 1 merit minimum
timestamp_start = 1537157940
#a list of the complete merit history, reversed (oldest timestamp on top), tac merit.all.txt > merit.txt
filepath = 'merit.txt' 
#database with the latest message received merit BEFORE the rule change... 
db_received_merit_before_newrule = {}
#potential suspect senders
db_theusualsuspects_from = {}
#potential suspect receivers
db_theusualsuspects_to = {}
print "everything intialised"
print "starting the parsing of " + filepath 
with open(filepath) as fp:  
	line = fp.readline()
	linenumber = 0
	while line:
		linenumber += 1
		line = fp.readline().strip()
		parts = line.split()
		try:
			timestamp = int(parts[0])
			amount = int(parts[1])
			msg = str(parts[2])
			from_uid = int(parts[3])
			to_uid = int(parts[4])
			#if the time of the merit exchange happened BEFORE the rule change,the user is whitelisted because he received merit BEFORE he knew he/she needed it to move past newbie
			if timestamp < timestamp_start:
				if to_uid not in db_received_merit_before_newrule:
					db_received_merit_before_newrule[to_uid] = msg
			else:
				#only if the user never received merit BEFORE the rule change, and the merit amount was exactly 1
				if to_uid not in db_received_merit_before_newrule and amount == 1:
					print str(to_uid) + " was merited with 1 merit for the first time after " + str(timestamp_start) + "...Suspicious"
					#keep the uid + latest msg for the potentially abusive sender for later analysis
					if from_uid not in db_theusualsuspects_from:
						db_theusualsuspects_from[from_uid] = msg
					#add the uid + latest message to the db to check
					if to_uid not in db_theusualsuspects_to:
						db_theusualsuspects_to[to_uid] = msg

		except:
			print "error in line " + str(linenumber) + "(" + line + ")" 
print "ending the parsing of " + filepath 
print "getting all profiles and filtering out all jr members"
for suspect in db_theusualsuspects_to:
	scraper = cfscrape.create_scraper()
	html = scraper.get("https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=" + str(suspect)).content
	m = re.search('(<td>Jr. Member</td>)', html)
	if m:
		m2 = re.search('(<td>1</td>)', html)
		if m2:
			print str(suspect) + " " + m.group(0) + " " + db_theusualsuspects_to[suspect]
	time.sleep(2)

[DooMAD]

I skimmed through the last 10 pages of your post history.  I didn't spot any posts in a language I can understand that were discussing Bitcoin.  Everything was altcoins, airdrops, bounties and ways to make money.  Contrary to popular belief, that's not what this forum is for.  

For my own understanding, is this the official opinion of Bitcointalk? Although it might be obvious from the name, I always assumed it was because the forum was a first-mover in this space. The discussions about Ethereum, Litecoin, and other alt coins are specifically why I comment here (Bitcoin is a solid hold, not trading with that).

Based on your post, I suddenly feel like a "second-rate" member for discussing mainly altcoins.

Merit is entirely subjective, so my views may not be representative of the community as a whole.  Maybe there will be other members who primarily stick to the altcoin subforums because they see value in it.  And perhaps those sections will get more merit sources going forwards.  But it's incredibly rare for me to award merit in those sections.  And based on what I generally see, it appears as though people often deem posts in the Bitcoin and Meta sections of the boards more valuable in terms of the amount of merit being given there.  

No one is saying you shouldn't discuss altcoins, because there are occasions where that can be beneficial.  But it just seems a bit of a rarity for people to be imparting any real knowledge and understanding in those areas and just want to talk about pump'n'dumps.  Everything seems to boil down to "profit" instead of learning and educating, which is what I'd definitely like to see more of, personally.  But I'm certainly in no position to claim what the "official" stance is.

[Delphinus]

Congrats!
If only there would be more like you / again, sarcasm avalanche

Yes, indeed. Let's only make merit available for highly educated people who speak fluent English. That won't decimate the forum at all.

We're talking about a single merit for people who have been active on the forum for months. Although you might not agree with the quality of their posts, they are real people trying to make a contribution the best way they can. These people are not here just for bounties or spam. The posts you quoted as "their worst" actually proof that.

[Welsh]

One merit might take a while to gather, but it's not unreasonable to ask before being promoted.

For the new merit sources, perhaps they could be given the guidance to focus specifically on accounts with 0 merits (and a quick review of their post history). That way new members won't get frustrated, since they should receive a merit relatively soon if their post history is "normal".

I don't think that "buying" older accounts is a problem necessarily. If moderators ban spammers, it's a lot of money to keep buying new accounts just to spam.

1 merit is simple to get. It's hardly a restrictions for half decent members, and with the newly added merit sources there should be a lot more merit being distributed. Spammers don't change just because they have bought an account, and are usually banned or found out by the scam busters of the community.

[melch100]

Well, for me, whether it's good or not for the community we cannot do anything as this is already implemented. I agree that jr. members accounts already abused and used for multi accounts and bounty farmings. I just hope that someone will check my older posts as I admit that is not so perfect and constructive but still maybe contributing something. Anyway, honestly I feel sad because of my almost 1 year of hardship of becoming active and hoping to rank up, I got demoted and lost the ability to use even a jr. member rank  

[Delphinus]

Merit is entirely subjective, so my views may not be representative of the community as a whole.  Maybe there will be other members who primarily stick to the altcoin subforums because they see value in it.  And perhaps those sections will get more merit sources going forwards.  But it's incredibly rare for me to award merit in those sections.  And based on what I generally see, it appears as though people often deem posts in the Bitcoin and Meta sections of the boards more valuable in terms of the amount of merit being given there.  

No one is saying you shouldn't discuss altcoins, because there are occasions where that can be beneficial.  But it just seems a bit of a rarity for people to be imparting any real knowledge and understanding in those areas and just want to talk about pump'n'dumps.  Everything seems to boil down to "profit" instead of learning and educating, which is what I'd definitely like to see more of, personally.  But I'm certainly in no position to claim what the "official" stance is.

Fair point. I do agree that the quality of the posts on altcoin forums are generally lower than Bitcoin related posts. Certainly discussions on PNDs etc. should not deserve any merit. However, I did always see both parts of BCT as equals. I was just wondering whether I had missed any post on the topic, but I think it's mostly comes down to personal preference.

[stompix]

Congrats!
If only there would be more like you / again, sarcasm avalanche

Yes, indeed. Let's only make merit available for highly educated people who speak fluent English. That won't decimate the forum at all.

We're talking about a single merit for people who have been active on the forum for months. Although you might not agree with the quality of their posts, they are real people trying to make a contribution the best way they can. These people are not here just for bounties or spam. The posts you quoted as "their worst" actually proof that.

It doesn't matter if you awarded 10 or 1 or 1 million, it also doesn't matter how much time that user has spent on the forum.
The single thing that matter is the quality of the post....

While we will not be directly moderating this, I encourage people to give merit to posts that are objectively high-quality, not just posts that you agree with.

You didn't award merit to a quality post, you gave merit out of pity.