Some annoying things that beginners do (but also some old members)

[Lucius]

Given that there are a lot of beginners who have obviously never used the forum, or used it in the wrong way - I would like to warn them of some things that are not strictly against the rules of the forum, but are quite irritating and definitely reduce your contribution to the forum, regardless of your good intentions. Some members will ignore you for this, others may report you to moderator - but you can change all that if you apply the tips below.


Posting images to the forum

There's nothing wrong with that, sometimes a picture speaks more than a thousand words and we all love to see an interesting photo - but the thing is that some really overdo it with sizes that are inappropriate for the forum. It should be taken into account that some users of this forum have limited data internet traffic or very slow internet, which in combination with browsing the forum on smartphones can be quite frustrating. As an example, look at what the post history of one of our artists looks like. (archived)

The solution is very simple and consists of simply placing a link of your image in this code, and adjusting the width + check by clicking on the preview how the image looks.

Code:

[img width=200]your link here[/img]

Using the quote option

Another thing that we all use more or less and that makes it easier for us to communicate on the forum. The problem is that some members abuse this option to make their posts look longer and more meaningful, when in fact they make them completely uninteresting. Quote exists for a reason, and if you want to refer to someone's post or part of a post, simply click on "quote" when you are in the menu for writing a post and then edit the post (delete the part you don't need). You can also use more than one quote in your post by simply scrolling and selecting the post you want to respond to.

Examples of how this should not look : 1 2

Posting multiple posts in a row

This is actually something that is against the rules of the forum, and I noticed that some older members are still making that beginner's mistake. As I explained above, you can reply to multiple posts in one post by adding multiple quote posts, or simply address each member by their name.

If you see posts that have a moderator note printed in red font then it means that the moderator has merged the posts. If we use the forum correctly, there will be less work for moderators.

[hatshepsut93]

Not using punctuation

One of the most annoying offenses to me personally, is when someone posts a huge chunk of text without breaking it into paragraphs. I usually just skip such posts, because they tire my eyes, and pretty much all decent posters know how to break up their posts to have basic readability.

[mk4]

When I saw the title I thought I would see something about necroposts. It probably happened to me like 3 times already, whereas some post farmer replies to a topic that has been inactive for a couple of years already — hence bumping the topic to the top of the list, hence me responding without noticing the date of the original post.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

whereas some post farmer replies to a topic that has been inactive for a couple of years already — hence bumping the topic to the top of the list, hence me responding without noticing the date of the original post.

Haha, this also happens to me.

And another thing I wish to add is when a user create a new thread about something that's been discussed in the forum a long time ago, and decided to discuss that same topic in a new perspective or way, some members begin to tell the op that the topic has been discuss before  and even go ahead to post the links to the previous discussion where the last post on the thread is dated 7 or 8 months ago, assuming am the op, I always ask myself, "was this guy expecting me to make my post, as a comment in an already dead thread that has its last post dated far 8 months back?

[Upgrade00]

Can I add "not using the search option before posting" to the mix?"

Reading through the same update on trending issues twice or having to read through a similar kind of post about merits, how to get them or some other generic stuff can be off puting to most.

There has been tons of posts and threads made in the forum, and there's a high probability that what you want to discuss has been takes about before, it does not hurt to do a quick search and maybe use that as a reference for your post, so it's not just a repetition.

[BIT-BENDER]

Allow me to add giving merit advice when they haven’t gotten any

Many newbies especially those with zero merit are found if this, you can’t teach how to get what you don’t have that doesn’t add up, as a newbie don’t expect to get your merit this way, if you honestly feel you have solved the problem on how to earn merit, it’s better if you put it into practice and then become successful at it then you can share you experience but hoping to get your first merit just by posting ways on how to earn merit sounds like a cheap easy way out.

[Rikafip]

As an example, look at what the post history of one of our artists looks like. (archived)

An interesting post history combo, bounty section and wall observer thread. That guy is probably sharing images there as a way to fish the merit but seems like he is not particulary successful so far.

The problem is that some members abuse this option to make their posts look longer and more meaningful, when in fact they make them completely uninteresting. Quote exists for a reason, and if you want to refer to someone's post or part of a post, simply click on "quote" when you are in the menu for writing a post and then edit the post (delete the part you don't need). You can also use more than one quote in your post by simply scrolling and selecting the post you want to respond to.

I always thought its more of a laziness issue and lack of posting etiquette rather than an attempt for post to look more "substantial".

Can I add "not using the search option before posting" to the mix?"

Reading through the same update on trending issues twice or having to read through a similar kind of post about merits, how to get them or some other generic stuff can be off puting to most.

There has been tons of posts and threads made in the forum, and there's a high probability that what you want to discuss has been takes about before, it does not hurt to do a quick search and maybe use that as a reference for your post, so it's not just a repetition.

To be honest, forum search option is horrendous and often won't bring you a good result so there's no surprise that we have a lot of threads where people discuss the same thing (and many are unaware of ninjastic.space). This issue is a common thing for absolutely every forum I've ever been part of and the only difference is how they deal with it. The only way to really stopped people from doing that is those threads get reported and then posts moved in the already existing threads but that would mean much more work for the forum staff.

[ShowOff]

Using the quote option

Another thing that we all use more or less and that makes it easier for us to communicate on the forum. The problem is that some members abuse this option to make their posts look longer and more meaningful, when in fact they make them completely uninteresting. Quote exists for a reason, and if you want to refer to someone's post or part of a post, simply click on "quote" when you are in the menu for writing a post and then edit the post (delete the part you don't need). You can also use more than one quote in your post by simply scrolling and selecting the post you want to respond to.

Some beginners also often don't know how to trim long posts in quotes so they have to quote whole posts just to add some unimportant words. Pyramid quote, may be much rarer now but some beginners also dig into the old topic of "bumping" quite often because they are not well versed in the discussion of the newest topics.

I just wanted to give them some useful guidelines, but I have to admit sometimes they can just skip it.

Guidelines and how to post correctly.

[Findingnemo]

Use of Bolded words throughout their post and usage of text colours inappropriately are the points I want to mention.

Because its really annoying to read such posts and when we advice them to edit few people does and many never so if any newbie is watching this please don't make that mistake keep your post simple and neat.

[BitMaxz]

Take note of the image you can use height instead of width sample below but the overall size of the image will totally decrease or increase both width and height

Code:

[img height=200]sample image.jpg here[/img]

Or you can totally edit the size by adding both width and height

Code:

[img width=400 height=200]sample image.jpg here[/img]

We already have a guide about this here "[Tutorial] How to add image, resize image and make image clickable" including how to add URL inside the image.

[Despairo]

Aside of those 3 points, I would like to add:

Repeating someone answer without add any value

I think this is the most problem I've seen in this forum when someone already answered correctly, but after a hour, you will see the other 3-5 users are just repeating the correct answer without adding any value or point. They're just want to fulfill their quota campaign with a low effort, so they can earn easy money. I don't know how to solve this problem, because moderators didn't want to delete those posts even I have reported them.

[mm2543363580]

Posting images to the forum

Code:

[img width=200]your link here[/img]

Yes posting the image stretches the thread and its stretched even more when people start quoting it. You have given the right direction that if someone has to post the image then post it by limiting the size of the image. Those who reply must remove the image from quote so that nothing annoying happens.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

Bitcointalk is one forum on the internet that gets over 2 to 3 million monthly visits with an estimate of over 1 thousand daily registered users. So as long as we are getting new users on the forum every blessed day, mistakes like these are bound to occur, because there is no how you could lecture them all at the same time.
However, I just check the post history you shared and the image was way too large because I'm using a mobile phone and it covered my whole screen with absolutely no vital meaning as its caption. But that's why we have the "Rules and conditions" for each subsection of the forum, but most newbies dont use to read it before commenting. Because if all newbies could use their very first 3 to 4 months to studying how the forum works and how to do certain things in the forum (i.e how to post and resize an image, quote properly, and know the right board to post a thread), there will be no much work for moderators

[Lucius]

Not using punctuation

I agree with that, but spelling and punctuation are still another category that we can hardly influence, especially if we take into account that a good part of the members come from a non-English speaking area. It is quite easy to show someone how to reduce the image to an appropriate size or how to properly quote post, while not using punctuation is not something we can influence.

When I saw the title I thought I would see something about necroposts.

It has happened to me several times, but everyone can have their moment of inattention and overlook the date - it is important that this does not happen often

Can I add "not using the search option before posting" to the mix?"
Reading through the same update on trending issues twice or having to read through a similar kind of post about merits, how to get them or some other generic stuff can be off puting to most.

In the context of what @Fivestar4everMVP mentioned in his post, I agree that everyone should use the search option of the forum or even some search engines outside the forum (because it can be a much faster way to search). However, I would point out that in some cases it is better to open a new thread than to bump a couple of years old - although of course it depends on whether someone got an answer to their question by reading an old thread, or still needs extra help.

Using the search option is far better applicable to current topics that are duplicated in different boards - just look at the Bitcoin discussion and Economics and you will understand what I am talking about.

Allow me to add giving merit advice when they haven’t gotten any

This is an interesting thing and I admit that it is a bit strange that someone who has just come to the forum gives advice on how to get merits - but people use all sorts of tactics in an effort to get it.

An interesting post history combo, bounty section and wall observer thread. That guy is probably sharing images there as a way to fish the merit but seems like he is not particulary successful so far.

He is the last in a series that has been annoying WO members lately, one has been permabanned (he has a thread in Meta), and some have calmed down a bit at the moment because they realized that instead of merits there are other "awards".

I always thought its more of a laziness issue and lack of posting etiquette rather than an attempt for post to look more "substantial".

Laziness and ignorance of how to properly use quote are certainly part of it, but a lot of those who participate in signature campaigns obviously think that their one or two line posts look better if they add a wall of text in front of them.


I will answer some other posts in the next post, because no matter how hard I tried to make the post readable - too long posts are not something that most people appreciate

[Daniel91]

I like it most when newbie members give advice on how to write quality forum posts or how to progress on the forum 
There seem to be a lot of newbie members who like to give advice that they themselves don’t yet know how to practice.
It also annoys me when a newbie in his first forum post asks how he can make money on this forum or start explaining his difficult financial situation.
In such cases, the option of ''ignore'' is sometimes the best choice 

[Taskford]

I like it most when newbie members give advice on how to write quality forum posts or how to progress on the forum 
There seem to be a lot of newbie members who like to give advice that they themselves don’t yet know how to practice.
It also annoys me when a newbie in his first forum post asks how he can make money on this forum or start explaining his difficult financial situation.
In such cases, the option of ''ignore'' is sometimes the best choice 

They just made those advice maybe just to get merit but in reality on what they say they didn't really apply those to theirselves since majority of newbies now want to short cut things because what's truly got in their head is to earn merit then rank up to earn money from whatever they like to join and also on signature campaigns which is popular in this forum.

[BD Crypto]

Another annoying things that beginners doing for a long time in this forum and that is they are used to sharing experiences in this forum by creating a topic.But they actually have not much experience about crypto but they need to be focused so that they can easily rank up their accounts by receiving merits. I will suggest to all the beginners, first you know properly from the senior members and learn from then how to make quality topics.

[nakamura12]

I don't mind that much to a wall of text or a wall of text without making it into paragraphs. What I don't like is seeing oversized images when we know that there's a code for that which you can change the size regarding the desired size of image. I have seen the thread about how to post constructively and more in this board but never see someone who do it right away.

[Lucius]

It also annoys me when a newbie in his first forum post asks how he can make money on this forum or start explaining his difficult financial situation.

I am not at all surprised by such posts, because in some parts of the world this forum is nothing but a platform for making money. People just hear from someone that they have made some money here, and I can say that I understand their behavior because in some parts of the world people live very hard and try to get out of poverty in all possible ways.

What I don't like is seeing oversized images when we know that there's a code for that which you can change the size regarding the desired size of image.

Some members know, but I'm sure there are a lot of those who don't, so I hope that this thread will be helpful to some. We cannot blame those who do not know, but we can blame those who know and are warned but continue to behave in the same way.

[Coyster]

Some users actually overlook posting etiquettes, they are prolly thinking it doesn't matter, and what should be important is the content of ones post, yes, the content is what is most important, but you have to make it possible for other users to read and appreciate what it is that you have written, you can't just quote in an unreadable way and cluster all of your words and expect people to read it, i am pretty sure they would rather just skip, notwithstanding how good what it is you have written is.

There are also features/icons in the forum that we can see directly above as we are typing a new post/thread, all of that can also be employed to make our post look more beautiful, for example just the way @Lucius used the underline feature/icon in this post to separate the two posts he quoted, i am not saying users should use them always or abuse them, but if employed skillfully, it would make your posts aesthetically pleasing to read.

Finally as regards how to quote properly, users can take a look at this topic: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3749076