Newbie point of view.

[btcduster]

Hello,
I came here not long ago and this is a great place full and extremely much information, but unfortunately it is quite poorly arranged.
There are a few things I want to share and also ask.

I had difficulty finding the rules of the forum, it turned out that they are not official.
The help menu is pointless, most of the features aren't even mentioned there at all, like Rules, Merit, Trust, feedback etc. You have to look for pinned posts here and there.

I encounter misunderstandings.
If I have a question, I find a topic that does not fully answer my question and I decide to publish my point.
I get a message that the topic is older than xx days and it is better to open a new topic. I open a new topic, people say that there are older topics on which I had to post my question.  In the meantime, I have to wait a few minutes between searches.

People do not read the previous comments. Several people answer the same thing simply by using different words and expressions.

I don't mind the old look of the forum, I even like it, but the text formatting tools are awful.

Don't take this as criticism, rather as wondering how things can be so confusing, this is a 10 year old forum.

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[Little Mouse]

You can find most of the necessary threads here- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5149708.0, there is another one started by LoyceV but I can not find that thread at the moment.
For your info, rules are there although they are unofficial, because theymos wants users to be independent here.

[YOSHIE]

I had difficulty finding the rules of the forum, it turned out that they are not official.

Don't Panic:
 The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the BTCitcointalk Galaxy

If so, try to open one useful information for (beginners) below:

Topic: Comprehensive guide to Bitcointalk. Newbie friendly+calculator and infographic

Who knows, it might help you find a "beginner's point of view".

Nothing too complicated to search something in this Forum, very easy if you understand.

[mk4]

I don't mind the old look of the forum, I even like it, but the text formatting tools are awful.

Don't take this as criticism, rather as wondering how things can be so confusing, this is a 10 year old forum.

Yea, it's definitely not the best especially in modern standards; but what I really like about this current version of the forum is that it's really really light weight and it works great(except on mobile phones) once you get a hold of it.

About the unofficial rules, though it's unofficial, it's mostly what's being followed.

[Rikafip]

I had difficulty finding the rules of the forum, it turned out that they are not official.
The help menu is pointless, most of the features aren't even mentioned there at all, like Rules, Merit, Trust, feedback etc. You have to look for pinned posts here and there.

Rules are pretty much official, but list is kinda unofficial, and that might be confusing. But you are right, this forum can be overwhelming for a new user, so it's a good idea to take things slowly and when in doubt, simply ask to avoid standard issues like plagiarism, trust abuse etc.

People do not read the previous comments. Several people answer the same thing simply by using different words and expressions.

That's unfortunately often the case due signature campaigns, so people are not really interested in conversations, they just wanna dump their opinion in some topic and move on. Rinse and repeat.
Despite that, you will still find quality and knowledgeable members (especially if you stay away from altcoin section) with whom you can have normal conversations, just give it some time.

Regarding the look, it is outdated if you compare it to  some newer ones, but I actually prefer it this way, as its not flashy and distracting at all, but I can understand why many will find it unattractive, but substance>style, at least for me.

[Jet Cash]

The major rule is pretty simple - don't post plagiarised content.
Bumping your own thread too much is discouraged, and you shouldn't use also to do this.

With regards to text formatting. If you do it, you risk losing many of the more serious readers. It's much the same as the misuse of quoting, and, even worse, nested quoting.

Just out of interest, why would you want to format text, and reduce the legibility for speed readers?

[Daniel91]

Hello,
I came here not long ago and this is a great place full and extremely much information, but unfortunately it is quite poorly arranged.
There are a few things I want to share and also ask.

I had difficulty finding the rules of the forum, it turned out that they are not official.
The help menu is pointless, most of the features aren't even mentioned there at all, like Rules, Merit, Trust, feedback etc. You have to look for pinned posts here and there.

I encounter misunderstandings.
If I have a question, I find a topic that does not fully answer my question and I decide to publish my point.
I get a message that the topic is older than xx days and it is better to open a new topic. I open a new topic, people say that there are older topics on which I had to post my question.  In the meantime, I have to wait a few minutes between searches.

People do not read the previous comments. Several people answer the same thing simply by using different words and expressions.

I don't mind the old look of the forum, I even like it, but the text formatting tools are awful.

Don't take this as criticism, rather as wondering how things can be so confusing, this is a 10 year old forum.

Mostly I can agree with you.
It takes time to understand and comprehend everything on this forum but I see that you are on the right track
When it comes to old and new topics, it’s almost impossible to keep track of it all (there are so many different topics) and sometimes it’s easiest to open a new topic, at least that’s my experience.
There are always people who complain about something and think that something could have been done better.
Don't worry about it and if you have really good suggestions and ideas on how to improve this forum I suggest you contact the admin directly.
Welcome to the forum!

[jademaxsuy]

Well just you know that only one man managing the forum(theymos) and it is easy to scrutinize than doing stuff for betterment. Anyway, this is not like a social media that everything should look good. Most of the users here learn in their own and there is no formal education here in regards to cryptocurrency or whatever forum has to offer. No one also forces someone to join in this forum. Let us just wait if management will going to change the way that a forum should be. Cryptocurrency is not yet adapted and everything still falls from the scratch. Even if I will be the one to manage this forum I should not make it like an official forum for cryptocurrency because we still need more like adaptation to the community. It still need brilliant ideas and you are welcome to contribute to it.

[Yogee]

.....If I have a question, I find a topic that does not fully answer my question and I decide to publish my point.
I get a message that the topic is older than xx days and it is better to open a new topic. I open a new topic, people say that there are older topics on which I had to post my question.  In the meantime, I have to wait a few minutes between searches.

Just ask things you don't understand anyway. Coming from my own experience, there are many members who will help explain and point you to the right direction. After you get the answer that you wanted, you can lock your topic to prevent other members from posting the same comments.

[suchmoon]

Thank you Sir Newbie for verbalizing the major annoyances of this extremely un-user-friendly forum.

The bad news is that this is unlikely to change. The new forum software isn't much better and wouldn't solve most problems even if it was uber-brilliant and released tomorrow, since this is more about the attitude than software.

There is no good news. We'll just have to suck it up. Well, I guess that's kind of a good news. If you can survive here then the rest of the Internet is a piece of gluten-free cake.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

the text formatting tools are awful.

This is the only part of your post I don't fully agree with, but it comes down to a difference of opinion anyway, and I respect yours. 

I can't even imagine registering on bitcointalk in 2020 and trying to figure out how everything works, what's expected of you, what the overall culture is like, etc.  It must be baffling to newbies--and OP's thread here proves that it is to some of them. 

Don't take this as criticism

Lol, everything you wrote was criticism, but it was constructive and polite and IMO on point.  Bitcointalk could be far better organized, and the problem of having a real discussion with members is a genuine concern.  Don't know if you know this, but most members here are motivated to post on the forum because they're in signature campaigns or bounties.  Thus they don't usually read anything but the title of a thread and respond to that, regardless of whether the issue/question has been answered or anything else.  It's madness sometimes.

There is no good news. We'll just have to suck it up. Well, I guess that's kind of a good news. If you can survive here then the rest of the Internet is a piece of gluten-free cake.

OP, all of the above is probably true.  Theymos doesn't make many changes to the forum, and when he does things usually end up with bitcointalk functioning even more like a Rube Goldberg contraption than they already do.

[Pmalek]

I had difficulty finding the rules of the forum

This is a bit strange. When someone opens the forum for the first time, they would probably head over to Beginners & Help where they will find sticky threads about Bitcoin core and Bitcoin wallets, but no rules. But there is a thread titled Newbies - Read before posting.
When you start reading that, you will quickly discover the link to the forum rules:

Forum rules: For all forum rules checkout this thread: Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ

If I have a question, I find a topic that does not fully answer my question and I decide to publish my point.
I get a message that the topic is older than xx days and it is better to open a new topic. I open a new topic, people say that there are older topics on which I had to post my question.  In the meantime, I have to wait a few minutes between searches.

Generally, you shouldn't post in topics older than 120 days unless it brings something new to the discussion.
The forum's search function isn't always the best. But you can use Google or any other search engine you prefer.

Use this format:

Code:

site:bitcointalk.org your search term

For example

Code:

site:bitcointalk.org forum rules

You will find plenty of topics that cover your subject.

[The Cryptovator]

I had difficulty finding the rules of the forum, it turned out that they are not official.

I can't agree that finding forum rules is difficult, when you will read pin posts on any section then probably somehow you will find the forum rules link. I am not sure if it's possible from every section, but I believe most of them.

Regarding Unofficial rules, there is nothing official related to bitcoin. Because bitcoin is decentralized and this forum has created by Satoshi to spread the words and discuss about Bitcoin. So really we can't expect official rules from this forum and decentralized system. But moderators take action following these rules.

Some other comments are true, but you should learn to live with it. Nothing going to change easily.

[erikoy]

I had difficulty finding the rules of the forum, it turned out that they are not official.

I can't agree that finding forum rules is difficult, when you will read pin posts on any section then probably somehow you will find the forum rules link. I am not sure if it's possible from every section, but I believe most of them.

Regarding Unofficial rules, there is nothing official related to bitcoin. Because bitcoin is decentralized and this forum has created by Satoshi to spread the words and discuss about Bitcoin. So really we can't expect official rules from this forum and decentralized system. But moderators take action following these rules.

Some other comments are true, but you should learn to live with it. Nothing going to change easily.

I agree with you, probably OP is really a guy that is so formal and the forum is not that likely. There is no official list of forum here but the unofficial list is enough already to follow the rules and regulations in the forum. It may be unofficial but mind you that it is something effective especially those who were ban from the forum violating the unofficial forum rules and regulations.

Maybe at first OP may not find what the forum is all about. I do not know if he will going to stay and will find something that will interest him in here. As we all know that the forum has to offer that it even lets some users to earn and make a living. Those talented users with skills or been establish had made some good income. I guess this is one way that could make the OP interested. Anyway, no one is forcing anyone to join in this forum.

This forum is also free for all and and no payment involve to join here except for those who registered with bad IP address and paid small amount of fee before they were able to post.
 

[mprep]

You've hit the nail on the head with pretty much every point of critcism. The software this forum runs on is indeed old, patchy and probably wasn't intended for Bitcointalk's scale. The inconveniences and annoyances that come with these qualities are more or less inevitable. Hopefully this gets remedied to a degree when the currently in-development new forum software replaces the heavily modified piece of SMF 1.x this forum runs on.

The aforementioned issues are compounded by the fact that a lot of informational / educational work is being done by the community, instead of the head administrator, theymos. This is both intentional (lack of a concrete list of rules) and unintentional (lack of newbie-friendly info on how the forum functions), in different regards. theymos has mentioned a bunch of ideas on how to ease new users into the forum though AFAIK he hasn't rolled out anything major in that regard. Maybe he's working on it right now or maybe he's saving the effort for the new forum software - don't really know.

As for how to overcome a lot of these issues, one old-school forum option is to, well, lurk. Spend a few months just browsing and reading through discussions on different boards. If you encounter something you don't understand, try to research and clear it up. Rinse and repeat till you are comfortable and feel like you know your way around the forum and its community.

Since you've started this thread, it's clear that you're not hesitant in expressing your grievances so I doubt you'll be afraid of asking questions about the forum. So if something's unclear and you can't find any info on it, just ask. There's plenty of helpful users who will happily share their knowledge if you ask in the right place (be it by starting a topic in the right board or posting in the right topic).

As for the lack of a concrete list of rules, to quote an older post of mine:

<...>
There's a reason why the stickied thread of mine still has the word "unofficial" in the title - it isn't officially recognized nor do I expect it to be in the foreseeable future. Just like it was back in the summer of 2014, the "Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ" thread is a personal project of mine, with the only sorta semi-official support being the fact that former global moderator SaltySpitoon stickied it (IIRC) and that some moderators have stickied translations or links to the thread in the boards they've been assigned to moderate (myself included). theymos has stated (on multiple occasions) that he does not believe in definitive rule lists:

<...>
But I don't believe in having a set of hard rules which is to be applied to all cases. Whenever an argument starts looking like it was written by a lawyer, or relying overmuch on precedent, you've stopped thinking about the real case and have started using rules to retreat into moral and intellectual laziness, divorcing yourself from the decision you're about to make. If you're making a decision about a case, then you're responsible for that case, and you can't say, "I don't agree with it, but I was just enforcing the rules." Every case needs to be handled individually.

- I don't believe in creating definitive rule lists.

So don't expect him to officially link to a page with a list of rules, let alone when said page is a thread maintained by a single moderator.

[Steamtyme]

Good job at least tracking things down in the end. Not going to lie I truly believed theymos was going to throw newbies a bone last year, with a newbie welcome message when he stated this.

Great video! It really makes me feel that I haven't done enough to make the newbie experience welcoming enough...

It's in a thread I created when I put together a welcome video of sorts. I got the idea from a draft message he put together that I thought eventually would roll out to new users when they register. It hasn't and late last year I pretty much lost all drive to push forward with my content creation through personal events. I am slowly though getting the itch to spend some time creating a few more videos, unfortunately the first half of this year was a very time consuming clusterfuck. So with limited time in the evenings to myself I've been more focused on enjoying my time rather than working so to speak.

If you can survive here then the rest of the Internet is a piece of gluten-free cake.

So poison.

[libert19]

Short and one the point criticism, I love it!

People do not read the previous comments. Several people answer the same thing simply by using different words and expressions.

This is side effect which comes with bounty hunting, altcoin/bitcoin/gambling/bounty subs are rampant with these posts, avoid those boards if you can.

[tranthidung]

• Writing a welcome message
• Topic title style guide
• Bitcointalk posting etiquette
• Make your topic title, posts more attractive
• Bitcointalk's historical important changes
• History of bitcointalk.org's rank system
• Hidden pages/ features on the forum
• List of the forum's admins/ global moderators/ staffs

In addition, on each board, you will see pinned threads at top. I advise you to read pinned threads on any boards you have intererests.

[btcduster]

Don't get me wrong here. I like the forum the way it is, just wandering why it is this way.
It's just that in the beginning you need to understand that the forum is geeky oriented.
To add a link, for example, you need to edit codes, tags. It's very cool for those who understand it.
The more you get to know the forum, the cooler it gets. You find really many and interesting hidden treasures of information.