Some avoidable forum mistakes of Newbies

[KingsDen]

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:

• Neglecting The Forum Rules
• Posting in Inappropriate Boards
• Wrong Quoting
• Plagiarism
• Little/No Knowledge of Wallets, Private keys and addresses
• Newbies Suggesting Forum Changes in Meta
• Careless Distribution of Merits among fellow Newbies
• Not Touring or Studying different boards
• Shit Posting
• Paying Little/No attention to the Forum Trust System
• Clicking random links and downloading random software - Lafu
• Inability to use forum search option - Lovesmayfamilis
• Not studying forum BBCodes -Fillippone
• Conclusion

1. Neglecting The Forum Rules
Every 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. Plagiarism
Though 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:

• Neglecting The Forum Rules
• Lack of Cryptocurrencies knowledge: So, in the quest for ranking up, the user commits plagiarism

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 addresses
Some 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 Meta
No 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:

• An Alternative to Merit
• Is The Purpose of The Merit System Defeated?
• My Dream Bitcointalk Forum

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 Newbies
Yes, 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 boards
As 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 System
We 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 effectively

13. 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 BBCodes

14. Conclusion
I 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]

[fillippone]

@Fillippone cannot be the researcher for ever.

I saw many young account growing in knowledge, reputation and posting quality over my brief stay here on the forum, and I think that many more are out there, ready to give their contribution to this forum.
Hopefully someone will challenge my “research” so we can both improve.

We can discuss other mistakes of newbies. If there is need to update the thread, I will not fail to.[/list]

• Learn to master the almost impossibile [BB Code] syntax.
This is like the 2020-2021-2022-2023 task…

[sheenshane]

1. Neglecting The Forum Rules

Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ.

This will speak everything and guide newbies on the right path upon reading this, it should be important for newbies to read about the forum rules before starting the journey here in the forum.  It's quite hard to ask for a second chance if you have violence the forum rules most especially the copy-pasting/plagiarism which is a heavy offense that could be banned from your account without further notice as a warning.

2. Posting in Inappropriate Boards

Additionally, you can move your topic into an inappropriate 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.

4. Plagiarism

A mortal sin here in the forum, there's no second chance, it should automatically be permanently banned.

5. Little/No Knowledge of Wallets, Private keys and addresses

Just add this golden rule, "Not your key, Not your coin".

[KingsDen]

I saw many young account growing in knowledge, reputation and posting quality over my brief stay here on the forum, and I think that many more are out there, ready to give their contribution to this forum.
Hopefully someone will challenge my “research” so we can both improve.

Hopefully such a talent will emerge. But many things hinders the willingness to contribute positively in the forum. Most times some offline things influences someone. And some harsh forum attacks discourages many too. I have seen atleast two promising new generation newbies who decided to stop an excellent work they were doing because of forum harshness. One is a good bitcoin article writer while the other is a good scam burster.

• Learn to master the almost impossibile [BB Code] syntax.
This is like the 2020-2021-2022-2023 task…

Yes, many newbies pay little or no attention to this. Will update this.

Just add this golden rule, "Not your key, Not your coin"

Cool. Thanks.

[lovesmayfamilis]

7. Careless Distribution of Merits among fellow Newbies
Yes, 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.

Complete nonsense. Nobody forbids sharing the merits; this is the right of the owner. Sometimes you can get merit for a good joke, a picture, and even for plagiarism. Those who decide to reward the post with merit may not understand how to detect and understand that the post is copied. (recent example) There are many examples of plagiarism being rewarded with a source of merit.

But another thing is true; the distribution of merits should not be between alternative accounts. But also, to link accounts, there must be clear evidence.

Without explicit connections that consist of the same social networks or wallets, all other evidence will be inconclusive. 

[Pmalek]

I have a suggestion and something that you can add to the Wrong Quoting segment of your OP.
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.

Some newbies enter the forum to earn some bitcoins and altcoins hastily without paying attention to the primary of bitcoin.

Primary what? You probably missed a word here. Maybe "use case" or "purpose".

[KingsDen]

Additionally, you can move your topic into an inappropriate 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.

Added, it's cool to most times move your topic to the appropriate boards before moderators could discover.

Just add this golden rule, "Not your key, Not your coin".

Added.

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.

Included.

Some newbies enter the forum to earn some bitcoins and altcoins hastily without paying attention to the primary of bitcoin.

Though it was a phrase that took its meaning from the reading lane. But for the sake of clarity I augmented it.
Thanks all.

[Lafu]

@KingsDen
Dont know if you want to add this topic also ?
But maybe it helps newbies and prevent them for getting there Account hacked and banned as we have seen that a few times in the last 6 Month.
Lots of new Users only coming here for getting a Miningsoftware and download them from the Forum without know from where they download it.
If they get the wrong one , the end of the story they will end up on a ban when they posting the Fake links.
Guide and advice for new Users before you Download anything from the Forum !

Dont know who you think about it , but i thought i will write it here.

[Smartvirus]

Nobody forbids sharing the merits; this is the right of the owner. Sometimes you can get merit for a good joke, a picture, and even for plagiarism.

That's a good one. You know one thing about a crime, it stays true or legit until its eventually discovered and in the forum, it eventually gets discovered. There's no infringement on how you choose to send merits but, certain number of merits on or between an account at times raises questions as merits should be post based and not account based. A one line post been credited 50merits could raise questions too but, it doesn't make it wrong, its just to ensure there isn't anything fishy about it like merit says and just a deliberate merit boosting on an account to rank up as in, account farming.

One mistake that I've noticed amongst beginners is the zeal to post more than you try tend to read. It's not exactly a bad thing if you've got the experience but as a newbie or beginner in the forum, it's believed you've got no experience at all and so, you build it. You build by being more involved in reading to be aware of what goes on in here and how it's done. Posting and less reading only means you missing lots of information that could help in the long run. As a beginner, try to read more.

[Gasty4]

What are shit post please ? Having seen this several times, I require a quick response to this question please.
I think once or twice,I have seen @ Mr Pharmacist.....I see he dislikes shit post.
Thanks for this, I'll keep them at me finger tips.....I think this should be updated on a regular,that is once or twice in a month so more newbie's can come across this.

[mk4]

What are shit post please ? Having seen this several times, I require a quick response to this question please.

To put it simply — posts that are utter shit.

And while there really isn't an "official" description, mostly it's those "what is Bitcoin?", "wen bitcoin go up?", "bitcoin is scam because etc etc" types of questions.

[Maus0728]

What are shit post please ?

Those are posts that, in general, make no sense with little to no effort being exerted and are written in very poor English that no one else can understand. Sometimes they are shallow content posts that are too funny to read^[1] – the best example are compiled below.

[1] Wall of fame / shame. Shit posts so bad that they are actually funny

[lovesmayfamilis]

Probably the topic of the inability to use the search and the creation of questions that are discussed thousands of times on the forum is suitable.
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.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5276341.0

[ShowOff]

Neglecting the forum rules is a serious  offence which means looking down on the forum rules . The forum rule is what every new member must hold very well. Obeying forum rules pays a lot and in the process of being obedient to forum, that's what will keep every member last longer in the forum with good reputation.  Consequences of neglecting the forum rules may be a bad experience and  by then it will be too late to amend mistakes.

The best practice for starting this forum is to know the rules and follow them. Every user should know what rules they shouldn't break if they don't want to face the consequences. Ignoring the rules means they don't care about the consequences. One of the most frequently ignored rules many users on this forum are "no low quality posts/threads". This is the reason why there are a lot of posts deleted by mods.

Probably the topic of the inability to use the search and the creation of questions that are discussed thousands of times on the forum is suitable.
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.

I don't know how newbie can find the search button when confused what to do on this forum at first. Usually the first post will lead him better because the forum members start telling him a lot about the rules and guide. The lazy habit of reading may also be one of the reasons why this continues to happen today.

[lovesmayfamilis]

I don't know how newbie can find the search button when confused what to do on this forum at first. Usually the first post will lead him better because the forum members start telling him a lot about the rules and guide. The lazy habit of reading may also be one of the reasons why this continues to happen today.

OK, when you came to the forum, you started with questions, or did you try to navigate through the sections of the forum on your own? Are there many old-timers here who, just like today's newcomers, have all the rules stuck under their noses? Or did the majority master the forum on their own?
Agree, all these new topics with requests for help in orientation on the forum only show how lazy and flawed a person is. And, as a rule, all his interest stops as soon as he gets a lot of rules.
Therefore, gradually looking around and settling around, we prove to ourselves that we can do something ourselves, without a pointer.
And this is a sign of adulthood.

[GeorgeJohn]

Neglecting the forum rules is a serious  offence which means looking down on the forum rules .

let us be sincere here, nobody can really know the protocols of any institute and violates the rules and regulations, because I have noticed this from my observation that almost fifty percent (50%) of people who fall a victims of breaking forum rules and regulations did not did it intensionally, because you can not look an existing law and break it, so in nutshell we can't neglect the terms and conditions of the community except it's a process whereby particular user want to verify if the community rules is active or functionable and purposely break the law or neglect the law.

[Welsh]

let us be sincere here, nobody can really know the protocols of any institute and violates the rules and regulations, because I have noticed this from my observation that almost fifty percent (50%) of people who fall a victims of breaking forum rules and regulations did not did it intensionally, because you can not look an existing law and break it, so in nutshell we can't neglect the terms and conditions of the community except it's a process whereby particular user want to verify if the community rules is active or functionable and purposely break the law or neglect the law.

Most users have infringed the rules at some point unintentionally. For example, going off topic is something that kind of naturally happens at times, and I would say the majority of users that post here have done this at least once, at least if they've been here for a few years. I've done it, and I've also caught myself doing it before.

Then, there's the rule of not posting your thread in the right place, which to be honest isn't a massive deal the majority of the time. It only ever becomes a problem if someone clearly doesn't care, and just continues to post where ever they want, but this happens rarely.

Neglecting the rules is something, but accidentally infringing some of the less serious rules is somewhat expected. No one's perfect, and not everyone needs to know the rules absolutely 100%, its not like its possible anyway, because we don't have a official rule set, with examples etc.

If you're not a serial spammer, plagiarist or troll then your infringements are likely not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and while its definitely appreciated that you read the unofficial rules, and try to avoid breaking them, its not a massive deal that's why you have moderators help organise, and clean up.

[KingsDen]

Probably the topic of the inability to use the search and the creation of questions that are discussed thousands of times on the forum is suitable.

Yes, the topic is very suitable. Thanks for the suggestion and provision of link to a thread where searching was taught. I will include it in my next edit.

One mistake that I've noticed amongst beginners is the zeal to post more than you try tend to read. It's not exactly a bad thing if you've got the experience but as a newbie or beginner in the forum, it's believed you've got no experience at all and so, you build it. You build by being more involved in reading to be aware of what goes on in here and how it's done. Posting and less reading only means you missing lots of information that could help in the long run. As a beginner, try to read more.

Yes, this is a mistake of some newbies. I already made a post about this, I think it is worthy to be included. See a quote from the thread.

Learn Before You Post:
In this method, a newbie is expected to only read in the forum without creating a topic or replying a thread for some days. Read the rules and regulations of the forum, read posts majorly from Beginners and Help Board, open the profile of established members you admire and view last posts started by these people, read the posts of your fellow newbies with higher merit. With these, coupled with some information given you by someone who introduced you to the forum, you are good to go.
This was actually the method I used, however, it is not the best method to use. In this method, you will suffer because, some established members might mistakenly think that you are someone's "Alt Account". If this happens, no matter how good your post would be as a newbie, those people will not merit it, they will think that it is one Hero or Legendary member that is behind the account.

How to announce yourself as a Newbie!

Most users have infringed the rules at some point unintentionally. For example, going off topic is something that kind of naturally happens at times, and I would say the majority of users that post here have done this at least once, at least if they've been here for a few years. I've done it, and I've also caught myself doing it before.

I have gone off topic sometimes, the moderator had to delete everything there. Most times we do not intentionally go off topic. It will be as a result of arguments, trolling or other kind of conversations. But the best practice is always to realise whenever digression comes and return to track in order to lessen the works of the mods.

[bhooscream]

• Neglecting The Forum Rules
• Shit Posting

This is the most often mistake made by newbies. I was also a newbie and I made a similar mistake, the way is because I didn't even read the forum rules at first before posting. That is why I even didn't know whether it is a mistake or not. And this must be avoided by newbies here, there is a search button in this forum that can be used to help us find much more information that we need exactly.
Besides, shit-postings are very common to happen. Actually, this is also done not only by newbies but also by many members here who don't care about the posting quality. I know and am aware that I sometimes also still make mistakes, but at least, we can try, better than only posting shit posts every time, moreover only making such kind of plagiarism or bounty reports. We have similar chances to change our bad habits here.

[KingsDen]

• Neglecting The Forum Rules
• Shit Posting

This is the most often mistake made by newbies.

Neglecting the forum rules is the most repeating mistake of newbies. Majority don't do it on purpose, it is a matter of ignorance. Also, it can be because the countries they come from, maybe there are no laws or rules there.
See what this newbie has to say after being  caught avading ban.

I didn't just start doing bounty because I love doing bounty I started so that I can save money for my schooling. I am a first year PHARMACY student and you can't just imagine me asking my parents money everytime. And me doing bounties doesn't affect my studies that's why I choose to do it, not because there's fun in it .
And also concerning my  first account it got ban the first few weeks it was created because I had no idea how the system works in BITCOINTALK.so you can't blame me for trying to help myself make little money.