What do you think of the Bitcoin Discussion section? Does he need to change?

[kxwhalexk]

Recently I found that many posts in the Discussion section are locked.And I saw some comments on this section a few days ago, so I want to post a topic to discuss this matter.

1）As of 10:11 am UTC time, a total of 21 posts have been locked in the bitcoin discussion section, accounting for 26.25% of the posts on the first two [archive page1][archive page2]

2）A few days ago, I saw somebody made such an evaluation of bitcoin discussion.

As I said, I don't like ignoring Bitcoin Discussion.  It should be kept clean as far as low-quality posts, but it isn't and we all know it.  It ought to be a section that no one would even want to ignore, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who has it on ignore.  I think it's probably improved since the inception of the merit system, but it's still got a cockroach problem if you know what I mean.

I remember when I joined, I mainly post on two boards, 'Bitcoin discussion' and 'Beginners and help'. It was kind of psychologically taken by me which I believed same to most newbies. If I did not go deeper to study and know more about bitcoin, I might not have started posting on other boards. Also the newbies that later become stale members but bounty hunters will like the old way, they will like to post where they were posting before. If you check many of the threads on those two boards, maybe the first page discouraged you, but the third and so on pages will more discouraged you as it will be full of bounty hunters posts which are of low quality. What I usually do is to read only good poster's contents there and also correcting some OP posts. I have noticed checking every boards on this forum is not easy, this can lead to some good active posters to ignor some boards full of low quality posts of the newbies and bounty hunters to focus on boards full of quality posters.

I don’t know what others say about bitcoin discussion.But at least, for me. I checked this section almost every day when I was a novice.

But gradually I found that the quality of the content in this section is too mixed, and gradually I tend to read posts in other sub-sections, such as Beginners & Help, Development & Technical Discussion.

For those who come to the forum for the first time, bitcoin discussion is definitely one of the most important sections.（It's still like this for me now）.I still shared my first Bitcoin shopping in this section a few days ago,Of course, sometimes there will be posts that I am particularly interested in, as I mentioned in the previous topic.

But as I gradually deepened my understanding of the forum, my enthusiasm for bitcoin discussion diminished.

Do we need to make any changes?In other words, I have observed that the moderator has locked a large number of posts. Is the moderator cleaning up and rectifying this section?

[1713263787]

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[1713263787]

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[Rainbow-queen]

In the beginning, I would only be active in the  Bitcoin Discussion section. At first I only read, and then I tried to reply to the post, and now I can publish my own post.

I have a habit of not searching for old posts, but only looking at the latest replies that are displayed.
Recently, I found that the topic of the new forum posts is similar, but the title is different. Will they be locked? Decide by quality or by the order of publication?

[mk4]

I think mods/admins just need to be a bit more strict when deleting off low-quality posts; and also those posts that are obviously just rehashed versions of earlier replies(for some reason I get annoyed a bit too much when this happens to my posts).

But yea, spammers suck, but you can still see some good conversations from time to time.

[UserU]

I think mods/admins just need to be a bit more strict when deleting off low-quality posts; and also those posts that are obviously just rehashed versions of earlier replies(for some reason I get annoyed a bit too much when this happens to my posts).

But yea, spammers suck, but you can still see some good conversations from time to time.

Trust me, we all do.

But I think reporting those posts won't get them removed right, as long as they abide by the rules?

[Welsh]

I think mods/admins just need to be a bit more strict when deleting off low-quality posts; and also those posts that are obviously just rehashed versions of earlier replies(for some reason I get annoyed a bit too much when this happens to my posts).

They will get deleted if reported. Unfortunately, its quite clear to me that signature campaign participants are much likely to engage in this behaviour, which is something that should have more exposure, since the campaign manager has to review their replies to get them paid, and obviously there's the chance that they'll even report them to the moderators.

But I think reporting those posts won't get them removed right, as long as they abide by the rules?

They will, depending on the context. I'm not going to blanket statement it, and say they all will. It depends, but I've reported many especially in the Altcoin Discussion section, and they do get deleted. In fact, 100% of them have been deleted of the ones I've reported which was probably over 100 of them.

Rehashing another post isn't exactly abiding by the rules. It's spam. You don't need to keep saying the things that have already been said. Realistically, it should be a discussion, and therefore there should always be a contribution, otherwise your just talking in circles, which isn't exactly a good discussion.

Obviously, there's different angles users can take, and expand on things that have already been discussed, but if its not contributed to better the discussion, then it probably isn't abiding by the rules.

If you want to help with the efficiency of handling those reports; then just state they're rehashing another reply, and link to that reply if possible. It'll likely speed up the process of deleting it, otherwise the moderator has to read the entire thread, but if it can be streamlined from the community, even better. 

[Mbitr]

I usually check Bitcoin Discussion first thing in the morning with my first cup of tea. I report 2 or 3 spam topics or replies and have a scan through the first page. Sometimes there’s something worth reading and replying to , but generally I can flick through the section in less than 2 mins.
Yes it is full of repetitive and spammy nonsense , but if you change this drastically , this repetitive and spammy nonsense will only appear in other sections. It’s worth trying to keep it contained to this section. My 2 sats anyway  

[Welsh]

Yes it is full of repetitive and spammy nonsense , but if you change this drastically , this repetitive and spammy nonsense will only appear in other sections. It’s worth trying to keep it contained to this section. My 2 sats anyway  

Nah, definitely not. If you see a spam post, and you don't mind reporting it, don't hesitate because you think it might start leaking elsewhere. It'll leak elsewhere anyway, and the more spam we remove the better for the community. Plus, you keep us mods busy; I've been getting fat because of the doughnuts I'm eating instead of handling reports.

[mk4]

Plus, you keep us mods busy; I've been getting fat because of the doughnuts I'm eating instead of handling reports.

You gotta prepare yourself for the next huge run up in price then; because you're going to starve.

Jokes aside, wouldn't a temporary mute feature work nicely? e.g. if a certain user has like 10 of his/her posts deleted in a day, he/she is muted and unable to post for like 24 hours or so. Haven't thought of this deeply, but yea.

[LeGaulois]

Very hard to get a decent discussion in the 'Bitcoin discussions' board. There are a lot of shits there.

Some topics are interesting per se, but people turn it out to trash in a matter of a dozen of posts. They don't stop reformulating what has already been said earlier. You need to ignore 75% of the users to get proper content.
Seriously, imagine the same discussion IRL, in which all your friends repeat each others. I'm not interested in parots and don't plan to open a zoo.

When such posts are reported, it's usually moderated efficiently, but it becomes so boring to report them all. You spend more time reporting posts than reading a discussion

[The Cryptovator]

Jokes aside, wouldn't a temporary mute feature work nicely? e.g. if a certain user has like 10 of his/her posts deleted in a day, he/she is muted and unable to post for like 24 hours or so. Haven't thought of this deeply, but yea.

Not a joke at all. It's a reasonable idea IMO. Not only on the Bitcoin Discussion board, a lot of boards full of spam replies. Sometimes reporters report from the user's profile, in this case, spammers should be muted or temporarily ban for a short time. So that person will think twice before spam again.

[Welsh]

Jokes aside, wouldn't a temporary mute feature work nicely? e.g. if a certain user has like 10 of his/her posts deleted in a day, he/she is muted and unable to post for like 24 hours or so. Haven't thought of this deeply, but yea.

Potentially, something like a shadow ban which is then reviewed by a staff user before their posts going public again could also work. I think at the very least it would be beneficial to have an intuitive way to see when a user has had several deleted posts recently. Maybe even including posts that they've deleted themselves.

[stompix]

The most annoying thing in the section is that I constantly run into topics with clickbait titles, where the news are proved to be either fake or the title misleading, like the news about Amazon, Aramco, Xiaomi, yet, despite users pointing out that in the first 2-3 pages nobody reads, everyone is shouting good news, so great, wow, such, moon, paraphrasing the same two liners. The nice thing about the section lately is that I see moderators acting more on locking topics, either these ones that start with a fake story or rumors or the ones that go nowhere, don't know if it's just somebody reporting them or the mods acting on their own but good call.

I'm trying as hard as possible to stay away from it and it's a real pain to see some subjects that are interesting, to see some posts that you simply feel the urge to reply to point the things you think are wrong there or to voice your opinion and then realize that probably the user will never come back to reply since he has done his quota, just reading your posts makes him spend twice as much time and ten times the effort 

Jokes aside, wouldn't a temporary mute feature work nicely? e.g. if a certain user has like 10 of his/her posts deleted in a day, he/she is muted and unable to post for like 24 hours or so. Haven't thought of this deeply, but yea.

Sounds good but it could lead to some abuse, people reporting tons of posts just to get somebody banned, or at the same time some escaping this as they only get n-1 posts deleted every day. Maybe a little tweak to (deleted posts/total number of posts over x days) ? If they try to bypass this by screening with the percentages and posting more crap they will be banned by the mods for sure.

Some topics are interesting per se, but people turn it out to trash in a matter of a dozen of posts.

That's why I don't revisit topics once they get past page 4 unless somebody quotes me or it's a topic I care about a lot, not that I've seen too many like that lately.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

But yea, spammers suck, but you can still see some good conversations from time to time.

That's the problem--the good stuff is only intermittent, and I'd estimate that there are far more crap threads/posts than there are good ones, and that's the reason I have Bitcoin Discussion on ignore most of the time.  If I have the section un-ignored, my unread threads feed tends to get overwhelmed with BD threads that just suck but are being bumped by shitposters, and finding good threads in sections like Meta and Reputation becomes harder.

But I think reporting those posts won't get them removed right, as long as they abide by the rules?

I'm not sure what the mods do if you report a post as being of zero-value (which I've done a number of times).  Most of my reports have been marked "good" but that doesn't mean a mod deleted anything.  But if a post is complete garbage, it technically is going against the rules, so reporting them is a good thing to do.  However, once you report a post you think is crap, it all comes down to whether the mod handling the report agrees with you or not, and if anything is done about it.

[BIT-BENDER]

I think it's Bitcoin talk and if any -Newbies- without any routine guidance will find Bitcoin broad the absolute pleasurable place, I think their are more -Newbies- I'm Bitcoin section posting than the rightful beginners and help, so with more -Newbies- posting what their knowledge isn't adequate about then the section Bitcoin discussion looks detestable or under-knowledgeable I still don't let it get to me, because I can search even in the midst of -Newbies- like post for some knowledgeable post.

[icopress]

But gradually I found that the quality of the content in this section is too mixed, and gradually I tend to read posts in other sub-sections, such as Beginners & Help [..]

My 2 cents .. The quality of the posts in this section has not changed, as all the key thought of each of the threads in this section are revealed in the discussions on the first page. All other messages, mostly spam and a repetition of what has already been said (few people read what was written in front of him).

Consequently:

[1] Or you began to write better, and analyze what you read, which influenced your perception.
[2] Or you yourself have become a frequenter of mega-threads, so against this background it may seem to you that the quality of messages has deteriorated.

[mk4]

Sounds good but it could lead to some abuse, people reporting tons of posts just to get somebody banned, or at the same time some escaping this as they only get n-1 posts deleted every day. Maybe a little tweak to (deleted posts/total number of posts over x days) ? If they try to bypass this by screening with the percentages and posting more crap they will be banned by the mods for sure.

My idea was sort of like 10 posts that are made in the same day; as to potentially remove the chances of a user getting temporarily muted because 10 of his/her posts that were made a year ago got deleted.

But yea, definitely lots of room for improvement.

[PrimeNumber7]

I very rarely visit bitcoin discussion, despite being very interested in bitcoin. The bitcoin discussion sub is very spammy and in my experience, is mostly made up of threads with no substantive discussion. I might propose that threads in bitcoin discussion be moderated in a way that if the thread is not resulting in substantive back and forth discussion, it should be locked (unless the lack of discussion is due to a lack of replies). Based on the OPs report, a version of this may already be implemented.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Here's what I said about Bitcoin Discussion three years ago:

This is bitcointalk, first and foremost a forum about bitcoin. Bitcoin Discussion should be the main board people are interested in. It's the first board most people will visit when they discover the forum, and it gives off a terrible first impression. As it stands, many senior members won't even venture in to it because of all the spam. The sub needs a dedicated mod that can clean up the spam and monitor any thread that reaches 5+ pages, as 99% of them are spam mega-threads which OP has long deserted.

Nothing has changed. More and more senior members either don't post in it or ignore it entirely. 90% of the replies in any thread over about 3 pages are just repeating what has already been said. Trying to have a good discussion is near impossible - you can maybe get 4 or 5 good posts in an actual discussion before the spam starts rolling in and drowns it out.

Locking spam megathreads is one thing, but as I've said elsewhere, it does nothing to address the underlying issue. Given that there are tens of thousands other threads, and anyone can open as many threads as they want, the spam will continue until we either starting actually punishing spammers and their signature campaigns, or we absolutely blitz the section and spammers learn not to post in it anymore, such as you get in Mining or Technical Discussion. The second option will just lead to the spammers spilling over in to other boards, though, since they have to hit their quotas and we don't punish campaigns which pay for such trash posts.

[anotherdayyyy]

I am a newcomer and I will check the Bitcoin discussion board every day. The quality of the posts varies, but there will still be some good posts. Even if the post itself is bad, if it can lead to some discussion, it can also inspire me to some extent.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I think the board is serving its purpose well. The board was created for discussing bitcoin and things relating to it and that's exactly what the board is doing. If you notice i don't post much there but that doesn't mean i don't visit the board often infact it's one of my most visited board but all i do is read over there.

No denying there's a huge number of low quality post but guess it's better than the alternative subboard. Mostly when i have something to post that's when I write on the board and it's usually me starting a threads.

For a change I'll suggest the spam busters over there should be a little more strick. More reporting should be encouraged and not just replies but also threads having similar contact. A glance at the board and you can identify two to three thread having similar content. In summary more attention should be given to the board as it's the most vital of all other boards.