The new rule (1 Merit for Jr. Member) is already reducing spam

[LoyceV]

OP updated:

• In the first week after the announcement, 286408 posts were made (-19.05%).
• In the second week after the announcement, 280503 posts were made (-20.72%).
• In the third week after the announcement, 259694 posts were made (-26.60%).
• In the fourth week after the announcement, 263685 posts were made (-25.47%).
• In the fifth week after the announcement, 240339 posts were made (-32.07%).
• In the sixth week after the announcement, 240045 posts were made (-32.15%).
• In the seventh week after the announcement, 219689 posts were made (-37.91%).
• In the eighth week after the announcement, 217774 posts were made (-38.45%).

~it is obviously that there are so many guys who can not abuse the system and have still got stucked at Newbie.
Most of them stopped showing their shits around the forum.

If I look at patrol, I'll be the "glass half full" guy who says many are still spamming

One more thing, the total merits distributed within the week from 28th of October to the 4th of November fell dramatically.

I see nothing out of the ordinary. Look at coinlocket$'s graph:

Merit distribution is back to the long term "bottom", after a sharp peak 8 weeks ago (largely because of abuse) when the new Jr. Member restrictions were implemented.
There was however a large Merit source removed in the past weeks.

[1714902399]

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[1714902399]

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[1714902399]

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[1714902399]

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[S_Therapist]

If I look at patrol, I'll be the "glass half full" guy who says many are still spamming

The only spamming is now being happened by the ANN thread bumper which can only be controlled by people who says many are still spamming. There is nothing more to do without reporting those in a constructive way.

One more thing, the total merits distributed within the week from 28th of October to the 4th of November fell dramatically.

I see nothing out of the ordinary. Look at coinlocket$'s graph:

Although we can't say it fell drastically, it was quite big amount. Anyway, it may be because of inactivity of merit sources in last week (not sure though) or may be because of merit deserving posts or removing one of the large merit source as you mentioned below.

[tranthidung]

By saying drop dramatically, I meant the fall since the all time high of weekly distributed merit, above 9.6k, LOL.

Merit distribution is back to the long term "bottom", after a sharp peak 8 weeks ago (largely because of abuse) when the new Jr. Member restrictions were implemented.
There was however a large Merit source removed in the past weeks.

In the attached image, the percentage drop of the last week compared to median (of weekly distributed merit since 5th of March) is nearly 24% [3320 compared to 4405].

Weekly update on merit distributions since the 5th of March.

As I posted previously, the normal range of merit distribution is from 2.5k to 6.2k.

< ... >
In a nutshell, weeks that have total distributed merits above 6.2k or below 2.5k should be taken into consideration because they are highly potential outliers. It is probably that the sorts of outlier-weeks occur due to significant changes in the forum rules/ systems, etc.
Of course, the exact value of outlier thresholds, both above and below, will change over time, but it will be somewhere around those points (2.5k and 6.2k).
< ... >

In my opinion, the median, which fluctuated around 4.4k, should be use as a gold figure to measure changes of weekly distributed merits. Medians are recognised as nearly true means, more closely to true means, and should be used to have more exact overview.

[tranthidung]

< ... >

By the way, would you mind spending your precious time to give me statistics (weekly figures) of distributed merits for weeks before the 5th of March.
The data given by @coinlocket$ only started from the 5th of March.
Highly appreciate your time if you can help me to have full data observations since the start day of merit system and new rank requirements in 24th of January this year.

[stompix]

So I was wrong again, this feels like bitcoin trading I always fail at this  

@Loycev or the AI residing in that hat, whoever reads this first, would it be possible for you to scrape the first page of the forum each week so we can have a picture where the posts are actually made?
Having this data might show us what sections are getting hit by the merit requirement and what boards were filled with newbies till it.

I did this for the https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=stats for the last week but I 've just realized that it contains only the top 10 boards not all of them. Besides I get two errors out of seven so....the programs I'm using are not too reliable.

Anyhow my incomplete data put the altcoins section well above half of the total posts with bounties getting the largest share of the pie.
We're still closer to altcointalk than bitcointalk

[LoyceV]

By the way, would you mind spending your precious time to give me statistics (weekly figures) of distributed merits for weeks before the 5th of March.

Sure! I've used the same "time convention" as I used for my full merit transaction history: "Days" start the second the first Merit was transfered, and count exactly 3600*24 seconds after that. It has nothing to do with calendar days in any time zone. "Weeks" use the same, but count 7*3600*24 seconds after the first Merit transaction.

Per day:
Day 1: 13018 Merit
Day 2: 6761 Merit
Day 3: 4493 Merit
Day 4: 3489 Merit
Day 5: 3188 Merit
Day 6: 3799 Merit
Day 7: 4192 Merit
Day 8: 2820 Merit
Day 9: 2545 Merit
Day 10: 2568 Merit
Day 11: 1867 Merit
Day 12: 2167 Merit
Day 13: 2077 Merit
Day 14: 2308 Merit
Day 15: 2141 Merit
Day 16: 2141 Merit
Day 17: 1448 Merit
Day 18: 1747 Merit
Day 19: 1442 Merit
Day 20: 1331 Merit
Day 21: 1579 Merit
Day 22: 2513 Merit
Day 23: 1991 Merit
Day 24: 1411 Merit
Day 25: 1608 Merit
Day 26: 1289 Merit
Day 27: 1403 Merit
Day 28: 1169 Merit
Day 29: 1266 Merit
Day 30: 1279 Merit
Day 31: 1046 Merit
Day 32: 1409 Merit
Day 33: 1186 Merit
Day 34: 1382 Merit
Day 35: 1326 Merit
Day 36: 991 Merit
Day 37: 1333 Merit
Day 38: 1696 Merit
Day 39: 1089 Merit
Day 40: 989 Merit
Day 41: 1245 Merit
Day 42: 1074 Merit
Day 43: 1109 Merit
Day 44: 922 Merit
Day 45: 789 Merit
Day 46: 1023 Merit
Day 47: 1091 Merit
Day 48: 1354 Merit
Day 49: 994 Merit
Day 50: 1159 Merit
Day 51: 1130 Merit
Day 52: 840 Merit
Day 53: 797 Merit
Day 54: 1035 Merit
Day 55: 992 Merit
Day 56: 1322 Merit
Day 57: 1227 Merit
Day 58: 764 Merit
Day 59: 733 Merit
Day 60: 1045 Merit
Day 61: 858 Merit
Day 62: 808 Merit
Day 63: 879 Merit
Day 64: 848 Merit
Day 65: 1043 Merit
Day 66: 928 Merit
Day 67: 968 Merit
Day 68: 1233 Merit
Day 69: 1146 Merit
Day 70: 1080 Merit
Day 71: 1061 Merit
Day 72: 838 Merit
Day 73: 620 Merit
Day 74: 614 Merit
Day 75: 1056 Merit
Day 76: 884 Merit
Day 77: 768 Merit
Day 78: 963 Merit
Day 79: 917 Merit
Day 80: 682 Merit
Day 81: 681 Merit
Day 82: 592 Merit
Day 83: 609 Merit
Day 84: 628 Merit
Day 85: 681 Merit
Day 86: 848 Merit
Day 87: 563 Merit
Day 88: 522 Merit
Day 89: 880 Merit
Day 90: 709 Merit
Day 91: 626 Merit
Day 92: 687 Merit
Day 93: 675 Merit
Day 94: 583 Merit
Day 95: 623 Merit
Day 96: 682 Merit
Day 97: 822 Merit
Day 98: 741 Merit
Day 99: 759 Merit
Day 100: 747 Merit
Day 101: 597 Merit
Day 102: 688 Merit
Day 103: 599 Merit
Day 104: 898 Merit
Day 105: 618 Merit
Day 106: 761 Merit
Day 107: 475 Merit
Day 108: 867 Merit
Day 109: 415 Merit
Day 110: 719 Merit
Day 111: 674 Merit
Day 112: 700 Merit
Day 113: 652 Merit
Day 114: 574 Merit
Day 115: 542 Merit
Day 116: 587 Merit
Day 117: 617 Merit
Day 118: 626 Merit
Day 119: 639 Merit
Day 120: 531 Merit
Day 121: 554 Merit
Day 122: 370 Merit
Day 123: 575 Merit
Day 124: 559 Merit
Day 125: 589 Merit
Day 126: 638 Merit
Day 127: 599 Merit
Day 128: 687 Merit
Day 129: 698 Merit
Day 130: 461 Merit
Day 131: 511 Merit
Day 132: 773 Merit
Day 133: 731 Merit
Day 134: 504 Merit
Day 135: 506 Merit
Day 136: 766 Merit
Day 137: 672 Merit
Day 138: 575 Merit
Day 139: 519 Merit
Day 140: 422 Merit
Day 141: 786 Merit
Day 142: 528 Merit
Day 143: 445 Merit
Day 144: 654 Merit
Day 145: 464 Merit
Day 146: 601 Merit
Day 147: 662 Merit
Day 148: 707 Merit
Day 149: 705 Merit
Day 150: 774 Merit
Day 151: 643 Merit
Day 152: 829 Merit
Day 153: 1138 Merit
Day 154: 435 Merit
Day 155: 516 Merit
Day 156: 470 Merit
Day 157: 479 Merit
Day 158: 778 Merit
Day 159: 641 Merit
Day 160: 711 Merit
Day 161: 902 Merit
Day 162: 557 Merit
Day 163: 577 Merit
Day 164: 475 Merit
Day 165: 506 Merit
Day 166: 525 Merit
Day 167: 455 Merit
Day 168: 620 Merit
Day 169: 555 Merit
Day 170: 644 Merit
Day 171: 542 Merit
Day 172: 627 Merit
Day 173: 796 Merit
Day 174: 636 Merit
Day 175: 641 Merit
Day 176: 608 Merit
Day 177: 554 Merit
Day 178: 606 Merit
Day 179: 567 Merit
Day 180: 547 Merit
Day 181: 684 Merit
Day 182: 444 Merit
Day 183: 492 Merit
Day 184: 673 Merit
Day 185: 521 Merit
Day 186: 418 Merit
Day 187: 420 Merit
Day 188: 471 Merit
Day 189: 632 Merit
Day 190: 435 Merit
Day 191: 376 Merit
Day 192: 421 Merit
Day 193: 695 Merit
Day 194: 768 Merit
Day 195: 595 Merit
Day 196: 610 Merit
Day 197: 647 Merit
Day 198: 471 Merit
Day 199: 567 Merit
Day 200: 517 Merit
Day 201: 587 Merit
Day 202: 513 Merit
Day 203: 565 Merit
Day 204: 626 Merit
Day 205: 470 Merit
Day 206: 451 Merit
Day 207: 561 Merit
Day 208: 432 Merit
Day 209: 658 Merit
Day 210: 600 Merit
Day 211: 612 Merit
Day 212: 530 Merit
Day 213: 528 Merit
Day 214: 385 Merit
Day 215: 476 Merit
Day 216: 457 Merit
Day 217: 383 Merit
Day 218: 488 Merit
Day 219: 514 Merit
Day 220: 379 Merit
Day 221: 432 Merit
Day 222: 412 Merit
Day 223: 536 Merit
Day 224: 567 Merit
Day 225: 654 Merit
Day 226: 509 Merit
Day 227: 458 Merit
Day 228: 395 Merit
Day 229: 455 Merit
Day 230: 472 Merit
Day 231: 580 Merit
Day 232: 595 Merit
Day 233: 540 Merit
Day 234: 517 Merit
Day 235: 463 Merit
Day 236: 2463 Merit
Day 237: 1862 Merit
Day 238: 1294 Merit
Day 239: 1268 Merit
Day 240: 846 Merit
Day 241: 807 Merit
Day 242: 944 Merit
Day 243: 804 Merit
Day 244: 749 Merit
Day 245: 596 Merit
Day 246: 562 Merit
Day 247: 675 Merit
Day 248: 518 Merit
Day 249: 669 Merit
Day 250: 619 Merit
Day 251: 509 Merit
Day 252: 760 Merit
Day 253: 705 Merit
Day 254: 521 Merit
Day 255: 513 Merit
Day 256: 660 Merit
Day 257: 603 Merit
Day 258: 678 Merit
Day 259: 578 Merit
Day 260: 639 Merit
Day 261: 616 Merit
Day 262: 399 Merit
Day 263: 460 Merit
Day 264: 430 Merit
Day 265: 655 Merit
Day 266: 626 Merit
Day 267: 732 Merit
Day 268: 774 Merit
Day 269: 643 Merit
Day 270: 538 Merit
Day 271: 853 Merit
Day 272: 694 Merit
Day 273: 674 Merit
Day 274: 759 Merit
Day 275: 553 Merit
Day 276: 424 Merit
Day 277: 426 Merit
Day 278: 415 Merit
Day 279: 534 Merit
Day 280: 529 Merit
Day 281: 495 Merit
Day 282: 433 Merit
Day 283: 454 Merit
Day 284: 430 Merit
Day 285: 464 Merit
Day 286: 562 Merit
Day 287: 405 Merit
Day 288: 691 Merit
Day 289: 104 Merit (incomplete day)

Per week:
Week 1: 38953 Merit
Week 2: 16373 Merit
Week 3: 11836 Merit
Week 4: 11406 Merit
Week 5: 8910 Merit
Week 6: 8434 Merit
Week 7: 7288 Merit
Week 8: 7283 Merit
Week 9: 6324 Merit
Week 10: 7276 Merit
Week 11: 5848 Merit
Week 12: 5082 Merit
Week 13: 4855 Merit
Week 14: 4821 Merit
Week 15: 4919 Merit
Week 16: 4619 Merit
Week 17: 4243 Merit
Week 18: 3825 Merit
Week 19: 4466 Merit
Week 20: 3978 Merit
Week 21: 4156 Merit
Week 22: 5237 Merit
Week 23: 4511 Merit
Week 24: 3733 Merit
Week 25: 4447 Merit
Week 26: 4018 Merit
Week 27: 3682 Merit
Week 28: 3918 Merit
Week 29: 3883 Merit
Week 30: 3811 Merit
Week 31: 3377 Merit
Week 32: 3336 Merit
Week 33: 3536 Merit
Week 34: 7743 Merit
Week 35: 6023 Merit
Week 36: 4318 Merit
Week 37: 4305 Merit
Week 38: 3831 Merit
Week 39: 4916 Merit
Week 40: 3646 Merit
Week 41: 3249 Merit
Week 42: 798 Merit (incomplete week)

would it be possible for you to scrape the first page of the forum each week so we can have a picture where the posts are actually made?
Having this data might show us what sections are getting hit by the merit requirement and what boards were filled with newbies till it.

You mean just https://bitcointalk.org/ ? I could, but I don't really want more scraping tasks This should be quite easy to do manually: save the page today, and do it again next week.

[tranthidung]

Sure! I've used the same "time convention" as I used for my full merit transaction history: "Days" start the second the first Merit was transfered, and count exactly 3600*24 seconds after that. It has nothing to do with calendar days in any time zone. "Weeks" use the same, but count 7*3600*24 seconds after the first Merit transaction.

Per day:
~

Perfect!
It's always better to 'play' with daily datasets, because it will disclose effects of forum rules/ changes on daily merit distribution. Weekly or monthly datasets might blur effects in some cases.
I will make data entry and make some analysis on full daily merit dataset.
Thanks for your help.

[Manhenro]

Spamming is this forum has being a problem that we have been battling with. The new policy really reduced the spamming rate because all those junior members that join various bounty campaigns and spam the forum won't be able to do so again.

[tranthidung]

< ... >

Hi,
I made it.
Time Series Analysis on Distributed Merits in the forum (daily, weekly, monthly)
More things to come later when I have spare time to make it.

By the way, I can do same things for new users registered, total daily postcounts, etc. if I can have data.  

[LoyceV]

Update:

• In the first week after the announcement, 286408 posts were made (-19.05%).
• In the second week after the announcement, 280503 posts were made (-20.72%).
• In the third week after the announcement, 259694 posts were made (-26.60%).
• In the fourth week after the announcement, 263685 posts were made (-25.47%).
• In the fifth week after the announcement, 240339 posts were made (-32.07%).
• In the sixth week after the announcement, 240045 posts were made (-32.15%).
• In the seventh week after the announcement, 219689 posts were made (-37.91%).
• In the eighth week after the announcement, 217774 posts were made (-38.45%).
• In the nineth week after the announcement, 215135 posts were made (-39.20%).

I'm starting to be curious how much of this was the result of the new Merit requirements, and how much of the post reduction is caused by the crypto price drops. But I can't easily distinguish between posts made by higher or lower ranks, so I can't really answer my curiousity.

[tranthidung]

It requires lots of skills to retrieve and/ or process from raw data.
I can't too, but I have plans to learn SQL for my interests.
I wanna sort raw data out and get my target variables for analysis.
It's better with the approach, rather than waiting for help if someone else. And worthy to spend my time to learn, for future use.

Can you me data on forum posts since 14th December of 2017, please.
I will keep find them, but it's great if you already have it.
I made a graph based on data in your OP, but I think it might be better if we can have full forum post history (weekly/monthly).

Box plot

Basic statistics on central tendency of Weekly Newposts presented below:
1) Mean +/- Standard deviation: 247253 +/- 26716
2) Median (Interquartile range): 240339 (219774 - 263685).
3) Min - max: 215135 - 286408.
Compared to the median of the previous three weeks, based from @LoyceV resutls (simply asssumed it is the median to make comparision), at 353813; we can easily see the big difference.
---> The Percentage Difference Between Medians of the two period is calculated as:
(240339 - 353813)*100/353813 ~ -32.1% (nearly 32% decrease).

Time series of Weekly Newposts, since Sep 17 06:27 (Dutch time)

In a nutshell, the median of weekly newposts over the recent 9 week since Sep 17 06:27 (Dutch time) has decreased about 32% compared to the 'assumed' median of previous period.
32% decrease in median over the 9-week period is significant impact, in my opinion.

Importanly to note about the 'assumed median' of weekly posts for the period before 17th Sep. It is assumed median because I don't have enough datapoints to get real median.

[tranthidung]

I would like to disclose one more thing, merit per post during the last 10 weeks.

My approach:
1) Total weekly merits: Calculated from real data.
2) Total weekly posts (weekposts): Calculated from real data, except the week #2018w37, which is only the assumed median/ mean from the continuous three weeks (2018w35, 2018w36, and 2018w37). I took it from the OP.
3) Merit per post (meritperpost): = round(merit/weekposts,0.001).

Real dataset is here:

Code:

. list, abb(30)

     +-------------------------------------------------+
     |    week   merit   weekposts   id   meritperpost |
     |-------------------------------------------------|
  1. | 2018w37    5630      353813   34           .016 |
  2. | 2018w38    7825      286408   35           .027 |
  3. | 2018w39    4388      280503   36           .016 |
  4. | 2018w40    4271      259694   37           .016 |
  5. | 2018w41    3800      263685   38           .014 |
     |-------------------------------------------------|
  6. | 2018w42    4821      240339   39            .02 |
  7. | 2018w43    3945      240045   40           .016 |
  8. | 2018w44    3339      219689   41           .015 |
  9. | 2018w45    4513      219774   42           .021 |
 10. | 2018w46    1740      215135   43           .008 |
     +-------------------------------------------------+

Results:
Merit per post has fluctuated during the 10-week period, from 0.015 to 0.207 merit per post.
The shocking figure found here is that there is 80-percentage difference between the highest and the lowest compared to the lowest.

Code:

. di (0.027-0.015)*100/0.015
80

The last week (#2018w46) is incomplete one, with only half of the week collected in the dataset.

Here is the plot of the ten-week-period merit per post:

Notes:
It is better if having dataset on different ranks in the forum (for merits, posts), but I unfortunately have not had them so far.

[LoyceV]

merit per post during the last 10 weeks.

If you have the time, this could be interesting to do from the start of the Merit system. It's a bit of a pain to find the number of posts in a week, but it can be done by trial and error: Just select a spam thread on the Bounty board, browse to the date you're looking for, and you're likely to find a post close to the time needed. The post number gives you the number of posts per week, if you correct for the exact time of the post you'll get an accurate number of posts per week.

[stompix]

Update:

• In the first week after the announcement, 286408 posts were made (-19.05%).
• In the second week after the announcement, 280503 posts were made (-20.72%).
• In the third week after the announcement, 259694 posts were made (-26.60%).
• In the fourth week after the announcement, 263685 posts were made (-25.47%).
• In the fifth week after the announcement, 240339 posts were made (-32.07%).
• In the sixth week after the announcement, 240045 posts were made (-32.15%).
• In the seventh week after the announcement, 219689 posts were made (-37.91%).
• In the eighth week after the announcement, 217774 posts were made (-38.45%).
• In the nineth week after the announcement, 215135 posts were made (-39.20%).

I'm starting to be curious how much of this was the result of the new Merit requirements, and how much of the post reduction is caused by the crypto price drops. But I can't easily distinguish between posts made by higher or lower ranks, so I can't really answer my curiousity.

Sep 10, $ 6,320.74
--------------------
Sep 17, 6,370.50
Sep 24, 6,634.65
Oct 1,   6,601.08
Oct 8,   6,639.74
Oct 15,  6,713.99
Oct 22,  6,490.82
Oct 29,  6,370.17
Nov 5,   6,451.78
Nov 12, 6,407.36
Nov 19, 5,154.91

I would probably blame it not so much on the price but on the drop in ICOs that really pay and the amount of reward claimed.
We might have hit a price where is more profitable to solve captchas than "doing bounty".

[Resurrekt]

I think what I am trying to say is that the way this forum FEELS, makes it extremely unappealing for real, NEW members to become involved. It's almost as if you have to "prove" yourself because there is such a pandemic of fake shitposters. But the shitposters are allowed to continue being shitposters. Things seem to only be modified to make it HARDER for real people to become "worthy" of being considered valid (so to speak).


The common denominator is the same though. Greed. So if you are going to fight an enemy as difficult as greed, you have to be militant about it.

Sorry if that comes across rude, I'm not trying to be. I just see that you guys seem to really care about your forum, but it has a cancer. And rather than just grabbing a scalpel and cutting it out, it's like every holistic therapy is being tried first.

Just imagine the amount of quality that may show up if people knew that it wasn't going to be washed over by a sea of bullshit.

Just my 1 cent. (I had to pay the other one in gas to send this message JK)

[Resurrekt]

Ok. I'm going to try something. I've never used this before.

TLDR;  Just institute martial law. Start executing shitposters without due process. They truly are insanely easy to identify. They approach it like a war or battle and so should you.


Damnit. I still have more to say. That's why I don't like the TLDR. Leave's too much open to ambiguity. Kinda like the merit system. Lol.

I just really think the merit system and the necessity for real people to prove their "realness"  is definitely deterring quality forum members from participating.  meanwhile, your forum is being invaded and overrun by an enemy that treats accomplishing their objective much more militantly than the forum does in deterring it. Why avoid attacking the real problem?  Because it also potentially allowing a vast number of "spies" to infect your forums, since having some merit probably gives people a shield of legitimacy and excuses them when maybe they shouldn't be.  I could write posts like this for one day, get a few merit points, and then be in like flint right? So am I excused if the quality of my posts suddenly turns to shit because I have a handful of merit points?  If merit becomes the accepted norm for legitimacy, then people will develop "merit blindness". Not to mention, if accounts with merit end up with value, it will just spawn a market around it. And then you have a whole new problem on your hands.

But if it is well known that the forum is enforced more militantly, where shitposters are executed without mercy or second thought, then People won't have a choice, and quality posts will simply become normal posts. Either post real content, or get merk'ed.

[LoyceV]

I would probably blame it not so much on the price but on the drop in ICOs that really pay and the amount of reward claimed.
We might have hit a price where is more profitable to solve captchas than "doing bounty".

You may be right. But whether it's profitability or Merit, less ICO spam is a good thing anyway.

I've updated the OP:

• In the first week after the announcement, 286408 posts were made (-19.05%).
• In the second week after the announcement, 280503 posts were made (-20.72%).
• In the third week after the announcement, 259694 posts were made (-26.60%).
• In the fourth week after the announcement, 263685 posts were made (-25.47%).
• In the fifth week after the announcement, 240339 posts were made (-32.07%).
• In the sixth week after the announcement, 240045 posts were made (-32.15%).
• In the seventh week after the announcement, 219689 posts were made (-37.91%).
• In the eighth week after the announcement, 217774 posts were made (-38.45%).
• In the nineth week after the announcement, 215135 posts were made (-39.20%).
• In the tenth week after the announcement, 199486 posts were made (-43.62%).

I think what I am trying to say is that the way this forum FEELS, makes it extremely unappealing for real, NEW members to become involved. It's almost as if you have to "prove" yourself because there is such a pandemic of fake shitposters. But the shitposters are allowed to continue being shitposters. Things seem to only be modified to make it HARDER for real people to become "worthy" of being considered valid (so to speak).

Although your post is slightly off-topic, you're clearly a real user who can add value to this forum. And indeed, new users must prove themselves, but when they do, they can quickly stand out by earning Merit.
Many high ranking users love seeing real new users (and hte future of this forum depends on it).

And even though I am very very new to the internet and forums in General, it is NOT HARD to pick out a fake, shitposter. Literally, it can pretty much be done by picking even one post at random from someone. Why not just take a hardline stance against those types of accounts? This isn't a utopian democracy is it? Start lining them up and just pulling the trigger.

Many accounts get banned each day, but there's a fine line between censorship and banning shitposters. This forum offers more freedom than any other forum I've seen online, but it comes at a price.

[LoyceV]

Update:

• In the first week after the announcement, 286408 posts were made (-19.05%).
• In the second week after the announcement, 280503 posts were made (-20.72%).
• In the third week after the announcement, 259694 posts were made (-26.60%).
• In the fourth week after the announcement, 263685 posts were made (-25.47%).
• In the fifth week after the announcement, 240339 posts were made (-32.07%).
• In the sixth week after the announcement, 240045 posts were made (-32.15%).
• In the seventh week after the announcement, 219689 posts were made (-37.91%).
• In the eighth week after the announcement, 217774 posts were made (-38.45%).
• In the nineth week after the announcement, 215135 posts were made (-39.20%).
• In the tenth week after the announcement, 199486 posts were made (-43.62%).
• In the eleventh week after the announcement, 177677 posts were made (-49.78%).

That's 50% less posts within 3 months! But when I look at Show unread posts since last visit. (without any boards on ignore), it's still only [ANN], [ICO], [BOUNTY] and [PRE-ICO] (and 2 Russian threads I can't read) in the first 10 topics.

[Lauda]

Just noticed this thread now. Excellent thread and excellent results. I'm sure that we'd even have better results if the requirement further increased.

• In the eleventh week after the announcement, 177677 posts were made (-49.78%).

[LoyceV]

Update:

• In the first week after the announcement, 286408 posts were made (-19.05%).
• In the second week after the announcement, 280503 posts were made (-20.72%).
• In the third week after the announcement, 259694 posts were made (-26.60%).
• In the fourth week after the announcement, 263685 posts were made (-25.47%).
• In the fifth week after the announcement, 240339 posts were made (-32.07%).
• In the sixth week after the announcement, 240045 posts were made (-32.15%).
• In the seventh week after the announcement, 219689 posts were made (-37.91%).
• In the eighth week after the announcement, 217774 posts were made (-38.45%).
• In the nineth week after the announcement, 215135 posts were made (-39.20%).
• In the tenth week after the announcement, 199486 posts were made (-43.62%).
• In the eleventh week after the announcement, 177677 posts were made (-49.78%).
• In the twelfth week after the announcement, 159331 posts were made (-54.97%).

The number of posts keeps dropping hard.

~ when I look at Show unread posts since last visit. (without any boards on ignore), it's still only [ANN], [ICO], [BOUNTY] and [PRE-ICO] (and 2 Russian threads I can't read) in the first 10 topics.

The current (momentary) top 10: a gambling thread, [ICO], Russian, Turkish thread about Bitcoin, Turkish thread about KFC, another gambling thread, [BOUNTY], Altcoin Discussion, Beginners & Help and another [ICO].
It's a small improvement, that page used to be completely worthless.