Preamble:Mistakes are somewhat inevitable, especially in a place, forum or group you neither found, co-found nor join as a legend. This is because you might not know the core purpose of the group or forum. These mistakes form a major part of the memory where one can journey to during the period of self appraisal.
However, one does not necessarily need to make all the mistakes himself, we are most times expected to learn from others mistakes. That is the essence of this thread. While some mistakes are actually avoidable, some are not.
Below are some avoidable mistakes newbies make in the forum, reading this topic can help curb and/or curtail these mistakes.
Easy Navigation =>Avoidable Newbie Mistakes:
1. Neglecting The Forum RulesEvery organisation, whether offline or online, spiritual or physical, religious or whatever, has norms or rules guiding it's members. Infact you cannot succeed in any organisation or forum without knowing the rules, goals or purpose of the group. This is because all your efforts no matter how enormous would be counter productive. As a newbie never neglect the rules of the forum and this is also applicable to whatever forum or organisation you find yourself.
So, to be a successful newbie or a good forum user, ensure you peruse the
Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ.
2. Posting in Inappropriate Boards This is one of the common mistakes of genuine newbies. They create more works for the moderators who end up moving the topics to the appropriate boards or thrash them.
As a newbie, will it interest you yo know that your favourite board for the first few weeks of joining the forum should be
Beginners and Help. As time goes you will know the purpose of other boards.
Hint:There is a description below everyboard that will guide you to knowing what is expected of that board. So, it is important to read the description to know the kind of discussion going on in the board or child-board.
For instance:
Meta
Discussion about the Bitcoin Forum Also, if you discovered that you posted in the wrong board, you can move your topic to the correct board by doing this;
Additionally, you can move your topic into an appropriate board if you want to move before the moderator will move it into the right board(or it will get deleted by them). Just scroll down and find the "move topic" below and choose an appropriate board that you want
3. Wrong Quoting Learning to reply to other users makes communication friendly and understandable. There are 3 major mistakes newbies make in quoting.
- Quoting a stack of replies in order to reply a single point: This is not a nice practice, there is a provision to highlight and delete unwanted replies in order to coincise your reply and make it appealing to the sight.
- Enclosing your own reply in a quote of previous replies:
This will make the reader not to know your own reply. It happens when you delete previous replies on the post, leaving the authors names, then forget to provide corresponding closing quote tags. - Consecutive replies: When this happens, it shows that the newbie does not know how to reply to multiple users in one post
Besides pyramid quotes and improper quoting, forum users should also not quote the OP when replying in a thread. I hate it when I see that somewhere on the 4th page of a discussion someone quoted the OP to reply. It's unnecessary.
Quoting images, especially big ones shouldn't be done either
I recommend this thread for you:
[TIPS] to avoid pyramid quotes (for Newbies) 4. PlagiarismThough I do not have any data to support this claim, but I feel that newbies commit more plagiarism in the forum than other ranks. This is because:
Plagiarism committed as a newbie might later hunt you down even when you become a legendary user. So, don't plagerise.
Please visit this thread to know
Why people plagiarise in the forum and how to avoid plagiarism 5. Little/No Knowledge of Wallets, Private keys and addressesSome newbies enter the forum to earn some bitcoins and altcoins hastily without paying attention to the primary knowledge of bitcoin. Yes, they might earn the coins, but majority of them end up relinquishing same to scammers because of lack of knowledge of how to secure their assets. It is therefore pertinent to learn the first things first.
Remember the golden rule, no matter how much coin you have on exchanges or Wallets "Not your key, Not your coin".
See this thread to learn about
[General] Bitcoin Wallets - Which, what, why?6. Newbies Suggesting Forum Changes in MetaNo matter how smart you are, no matter how intelligent you are and no matter the number of merits you earned within a short time in the forum. There are some forum knowledge that is hidden from you, you will only unlock them the longer you stay in the forum. This is the reason I appreciate the essence of activity count in determining ones forum rank.
I made this very mistake in my newbie days, when I created these topics:
Some users after reading the above threads concluded that I am someone's alt, maybe a Legendary or a Hero Member. For me to make such suggestions as a newbie meant to them that I have been long in the forum. Newbies, you can avoid this mistake by waiting to get to atleast Full Member or preferably Snr. Member rank before making strong Meta suggestions.
7. Careless Distribution of Merits among fellow NewbiesYes, whatever smerits you earn as a result of merits given to you, it's your right to choose how to spend it. But your right might be infringed when you begin to share these merits among your fellow newbies, especially those that has close registration date with you. It is easy to link you up as alts and tagged for merit abuse.
This is a challenge that most lower-ranked ranking members face. I therefore urge merit sources to always watch closely and discover promising good users of the forum and help them rank up. I know some merit sources are good at this.
8. Not Touring or Studying different boardsAs a new resident in an area, for security reasons, ensure you walk around your neighbourhood to know possible routes incase of some emergencies. I made this mistake in my newbie days, even unto my present full member rank. The boards I visited are B/H, Meta and Bitcoin Discussion Boards. I never knew how large the forum is until I was mentioned in reputation board for days without my notice. Someone had to send me a link to the thread to call my attention to it. As a newbie, don't repeat this mistake. Make out time and tour the whole forum, you don't necessarily need to post in all the boards, but endure that you are aware they are existing.
9. Shit Posting Newbies are always in the habit of dropping two words sentences or at most one line sentences. Such as; thanks, hi welcome, cool etc.
This give moderators much works in deleting or merging them. You Will also understand that most of your posts are deleted as a newbie. This is because moderators put much eyes and efforts on newbies. Therefore, if you don't have something reasonable to reply, you can ignore. Though, I know the pain of wanting to show appreciate but you have no smerits. But if you insist to reply, you can quote multiple users at once and the post will appear somewhat long and decent.
10. Paying Little/No attention to the Forum Trust SystemWe know that Bitcoin and Blockchain operates a trustless system. But this forum is not a Blockchain. Here, there is a trust system, so pay attention to it in order to know users to trade with or avoid. This is very important because scam is not moderated I'm the forum. The trust system can be your friend and guide.
You can learn about the trust system here
LoyceV's Beginners guide to correct use of the Trust system 11.Clicking random links and downloading random software:If you see any project of your interest and sees the links in ANNs threads, if you are unsure of the safety of the links, do the following before downloading:
- 1 copy the Thread title and do some search on Google or use the search field here on the forum
- 2 look at the User that have created the new ANN
- 3 Use the quote button to look behind the Links that you can see on the ANNs
- 4 Check how the Links are written when you looking with Quote on it
I recommend that you visit this thread to read about how to determine if a link is safe to click or not.
Guide and advice for new Users before you Download anything from the Forum !12.Inability to use forum search option.:Almost what is being discussed today has been discussed previously. So, those questions ringing in the minds of newbies are already answered in the forum. Knowing how to use the forum search would probably answer many newbie questions.
The Forum has two search options;
The Forum search and the Google enhanced forum search. The later gives more precised results.
Notice how diligently newbies are creating new threads instead of just hitting search and getting a huge number of answers. What do we get as a result? Dozens of topics that could not have been created, being able to search and read.
Read this thread to understand how to effectively use the forum search functions.
[Guide] Searching effectively13. Not studying Forum BBCodes:It is somewhat impossible for a newbie to understand all the forum's BBCodes, however a newbie is expected to study to an extent the forum's BBCodes. This will enable the newbie to make well arranged and decent posts in the forum, including tabular posts or data. You can visit the thread below to master the forum's BBCodes.
Instructions on how to use BBCodes14. ConclusionI always mention this adage "No one knows the pregnancy that carries the king"
You are a newbie today does not mean you will remain newbie tomorrow. We need newbies who can succeed some successful users of this forum for continuity.
@LoyceV @DdmrDdmr cannot be the human bots in this forum forever.
@Fillippone cannot be the researcher for ever.
@The Pharmacist @Ratimov @Ognasty cannot be the lower rank helpers for life.
@o_e_l_e_o and other technical users cannot provide solutions forever.
@Hhampuz @CryptopreneurBrainboss @DarkStar_ @Best_Change and other reputable managers will not be here forever.
There are so many legendary users bursting scams, helping to sanitise the forum, even the moderators and staff. There will come a time they will no longer be here. So, the future is in your hands, just show inclination to succeed and you will.
Thank you for patiently reading.
We can discuss other mistakes of newbies. If there is need to update the thread, I will not fail to.[/list]
