KingsDen's Newbie Guide Compilation.

[KingsDen]

Preamble:

I decided to make this compilation of my important threads which were created to teach, educate, warn or guide newbies in the forum. The guides are also important for established members, but the tone and language of the threads were chosen with newbies and lower-ranked members in mind.
I therefore decided to make this thread to enable easy bumping and update when necessary.
All the threads and information therein are my personal observations and opinions which were gathered right in this forum. Wherever people's opinions were used, they were rightly cited or acknowledged.

Learning is continuous and this forum is an embodiment of knowledge, that is my great conviction to continue producing threads of this nature.
Thank you all.

	Thread Tittle	Date Created	Motivation
____	_____________________________________________________________________	______________________________	__________________
1.	What is a Quality Post.	10th Nov, 2022	Newbies who wants to succeed in the forum knows that the best way to do so is producing quality posts, but they don't know what a quality post is.
2.	Why some promising newbies fail in the forum.	21st April, 2022	When I could no longer see some newbies that started with me brilliantly.
3.	Identity Security: A Newbies' Priority.	6th February, 2022	After the forum taught me the disadvantages of KYC, but then I had already given my data to scammers
4.	Some avoidable forum mistakes of Newbies.	4th January, 2022	If Members are banned, they will return to appeal claiming ignorance of the Rules and Newbie Mistakes
5.	Why people plagiarise in the forum and how to avoid plagiarism.	1st August, 2021	During this period there was much cases of plagiarism which made so many accounts to be banned
6.	How to announce yourself as a Newbie!	14th July, 2021	After I was given a nasty welcome to the forum as a newbie. I had to create a thread to advice other newbies on how to approach the forum.

Note To Self:If possible, make one guide every month

[BitcoinBarrel]

Some important considerations for anyone new to the forum. Once you ruin your reputation or get banned, it's hard to come back.

[Sandra_hakeem]

Great job kingsDen.
I have found alot of those threads very useful for NEWBIES and alot more useful to some caliber of users that needs to be morally oriented on the etiquettes of the forum and it's VALUE.
It is -- infact, without any further hesitation -- very imperative to know that these great, structural software development was built on a certain VALUE ; which has been edified over the years to -- rather waiting for us to fit in -- have fit-in massively in our lives, the second generation and rest to follow suit.

I expect everyone to atleast, understand that this value is possibly the reason why our great forum stand up to this day. Therefore, anyone who'd determine to make some progressions -- cognitively or otherwise -- Should bare in mind that the value to which the system was built needs to be MAINTAINED. Furthermore, I'd also encourage users to also try supporting the forum to grow, not just earning from it.

Theymos is trying his best; I understand that this site ain't 100% safe as we are being attacked from time to time so I'm not minusing totally, it percentage of vulnerability. Some peeps don't even care --so long as they can log on to their account, they're justified. But ,is that JUSTIFIABLE??

These days,I understand that we don't even have alot of Noble thinkers, ones that could recreate things in favour of our little world let alone brainstormers that can take upon themselves to educate, introduce, advertise or atleast creat a new sense of perception from their daily Post for all I care. That's why I'm happy for the op cus he just realized there's alot more to be done.

Cheers,
Sandra 👩‍🦱

[nakamura12]

There are other threads which will help newbies but this one have comments or explaination why it is important like what is/are the disadvantage of completing KYC. I do see that many of the newbies are banned because of plagiarism and not because of not reading the forum rules. I was once like that where I thought that I must post a very high quality post before I get merited by someone or even from merit sources but I was wrong and I think that's the reason why many newbies started to plagiarized content that isn't theirs.

[lovesmayfamilis]

I remember all your steps. How noisily you tried to talk about yourself, and the fifth topic, made me smile. But I understood one thing: people are different, everyone has different views, someone appears very carefully, and someone wants to tell the whole world about himself, and this is normal. 
What matters is where it all leads. You have proven this by reaching your rank. Beginners can really learn from the examples of those who somehow achieved their goals. Unfortunately, in our time, many of those who are initially actively involved in the life of the forum add up their enthusiasm at the slightest failure or criticism

[1miau]

Great compilation and important advice for all Newbies.

Especially plagiarism is very easy to avoid.
In addition, I'm sometimes of the impression that some shameless Merit grab "presentations" of interesting topics are done intentionally, where the original content is just copy pasted from a source or a few parts modified and the content therefore "appears" to be unique but the source links are obfuscated by hiding them below.
When a Merit source isn't reading that content entirely or sending a Merit in advance but the fact that it's not original content, it's some sort shameless Merit fishing in my opinion.
That's not plagiarism of course but an attempt to obfuscate the fact that the content is mostly copied from somewhere else.

Therefore: when presenting content which is very close to an existing source, always add a statement in advance about its origin.

Personally, I skip such mislabled "unique presentations" (which aren't unique because it's just copy paste) and distribute my Merit elsewhere.  
Presenting unique content is king.  

[KingsDen]

Great compilation and important advice for all Newbies.

Thank you very much.

In addition, I'm sometimes of the impression that some shameless Merit grab "presentations" of interesting topics are done intentionally, where the original content is just copy pasted from a source or a few parts modified and the content therefore "appears" to be unique but the source links are obfuscated by hiding them below.

I have seen countless times such articles where the OP will copy verbatim something from the internet, and maybe managed to paraphrase some parts of the articles and at the end of the thread dump some related and unrelated links to avoid plagiarism. While it is not a good practice, the only good thing is that they tried to show that the work isn't their original ideas. Unlike some who will present  or try to claim ownership, that will eventually lead to their ban.

When a Merit source isn't reading that content entirely or sending a Merit in advance but the fact that it's not original content, it's some sort shameless Merit fishing in my opinion.
That's not plagiarism of course but an attempt to obfuscate the fact that the content is mostly copied from somewhere else.

Do  some persons send merits in advance before reading a post? If yes, it's not a good habit. Unless it's someone I know that has been producing quality topics, even at that, I'll still be able to read through to determine the amount of merits to hand out.

Presenting unique content is king.  

No doubt sir. The content will remain unique and as well stand the test of time. But the reality is, only a few will be willing to invest the type of effort that brings uniqueness when there are simpler was to produce a look-alike.

[1miau]

Do  some persons send merits in advance before reading a post? If yes, it's not a good habit. Unless it's someone I know that has been producing quality topics, even at that, I'll still be able to read through to determine the amount of merits to hand out.

As a Merit source, I'm always grateful if someone is writing good comments because I want to distribute as much as possible of my sMerit for quality content.
Some of the good posts are very long and when my time is running out, I'm sometimes leaving a tab open to read the rest later, while already distributing some Merit after reading like 50% of it. Sometimes I'm also forgetting that I've left a tab open and therefore the rest goes unread sometimes... 
For the issue above, it doesn't require much time to check but it's still a trap for unexperienced Merit senders, which can fall for this.

And yes, for example some topics from fillippone are very long, sometimes it's too much work for me to read them entirely. 
But his topics are of amazing quality of course. 

[Z-tight]

Therefore: when presenting content which is very close to an existing source, always add a statement in advance about its origin.

If they probably do not want to add a statement in advance about the origin of the existing source of the information they want to post, they can copy the entire existing source and put it in a quote box in the forum, then the orginal poster can now include their own notion or opinion about the source, in addition to what discussion they want to bring up, that is even a better way to motivate and induce conversations from other members of the forum, and it won't look anything like a "merit grab presentation" because the copied text is clearly in a quote box, and easily means it isn't the Op's.

[lovesmayfamilis]

No doubt sir. The content will remain unique and as well stand the test of time. But the reality is, only a few will be willing to invest the type of effort that brings uniqueness when there are simpler was to produce a look-alike.

Most often, this comes from the fact that the one who uses the look-alike does not have a complete understanding of the topic that he would like to highlight and explain. I'm always surprised that duplicated or paraphrased topics and guides get merits, as it's clear at first glance that the information isn't new. 
I would like to say to such retellers that the ability to use the Internet and search for information is not only theirs but also that of many other people. Therefore, the transmission of non-original content here is seen as a very crude attempt at the hunt for merits and an attempt to deceive users.

[KingsDen]

Do  some persons send merits in advance before reading a post? If yes, it's not a good habit. Unless it's someone I know that has been producing quality topics, even at that, I'll still be able to read through to determine the amount of merits to hand out.

As a Merit source,...
Some of the good posts are very long and when my time is running out, I'm sometimes leaving a tab open to read the rest later, while already distributing some Merit after reading like 50% of it. Sometimes I'm also forgetting that I've left a tab open and therefore the rest goes unread sometimes... 

Very understandable as a merit source who is determined to spread his merits across quality posts. Some of the posts  are quality and also lengthy. The irony of it, is that you can meet such a post when your are not in the mood to spend enough time in the forum, maybe just to have a glance.

No doubt sir. The content will remain unique and as well stand the test of time. But the reality is, only a few will be willing to invest the type of effort that brings uniqueness when there are simpler ways to produce a look-alike.

Most often, this comes from the fact that the one who uses the look-alike does not have a complete understanding of the topic that he would like to highlight and explain. I'm always surprised that duplicated or paraphrased topics and guides get merits, as it's clear at first glance that the information isn't new.

It could be that you are able to spot an idea that is not new at glance because you definitely have an idea of the topic or the ability of the topic creator. You are just too good at rating people's intelligence and ability based on the kind of posts they made previously.

This is your greatest tool of catching plagerists Once you see that a post is somewhat lengthy, grammatically organised, cool worded and formatted, you will assume they copied from internet. Funny enough you are always correct.
In your words you will say the person is trying to portray his/her to be more intelligent than they actually are

[1miau]

Therefore: when presenting content which is very close to an existing source, always add a statement in advance about its origin.

If they probably do not want to add a statement in advance about the origin of the existing source of the information they want to post, they can copy the entire existing source and put it in a quote box in the forum

+1
That would be even better as it's indicating perfectly that it's quoted from somewhere else. 
But obviously, this knowledge has not spread among Merit beggars for some unknown reason... 

Very understandable as a merit source who is determined to spread his merits across quality posts. Some of the posts  are quality and also lengthy. The irony of it, is that you can meet such a post when your are not in the mood to spend enough time in the forum, maybe just to have a glance.

Exactly!
It's not the case for me but some Merit sources had some of their monthly allocation reduced when they didn't spend much because of vacations or other reasons.
That's also why theymos once made a statement to allocate rather 50 Merit for a very good post in such cases:

Well, it appears that your source merit either wasn't upped to 250 a month ago like me, or you are just letting it expire. Theymos gave me instructions to try and do my best to distribute all of it. I'm doing the best that I can; yet have already had complaints. I really despise this statistic. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=topsendban Now I am on the list that appears to point out merit abuse suspects. I was originally very honored to become a merit source. But now I feel that my reputation is at stake with every single merit that I am obligated to distribute. I know that I only have black trust at the moment. However, I keep checking my trust rating to make sure some DT member doesn't decide to red tag me because they feel that I am being "abusive" or derelict in my duty.

If they complain about amounts, tell them to complain to me. It's best if sources try to exhaust their source allocations, even if it means giving posts higher amounts than is typical. If you have 150 source merit and you only see 3 merit-worthy posts in a month, then I'd rather you over-give each of them 50 merit than let the merit expire. That way there are more people capable of sending merit, and the "merit economy" is less top-down.

If a DT member tags you for something stupid involving merit (ie. probably anything less than selling merit), then they're not going to be a DT member for much longer.

Aside from that, if people complain about whether things deserve merit at all, then that's something to perhaps think about, but if you conclude that they're wrong, then that's that. You don't need to stress about it or defend yourself constantly. It's conceivable that someday you and I will end up disagreeing too much about this stuff and I'll remove your source status, but it's really not a big deal.

The topsendban list is just a first indication of abuse, and many excellent people are on it. Your place on there acts as a sort of benchmark: eg. chandra12 has a similar score there, but whereas you are an extremely active merit-giver with a diverse selection of posts merited (most of which anyone would agree with), chandra12 only has two large merit sends. His behavior in comparison to yours while having a similar topsendban score is what creates a strong abuse impression.

I appreciate the work of you and other sources who take it seriously!

A very bold statement but it's understandable what's theymos said.

[KingsDen]

A very bold statement but it's understandable what's theymos said.

A very bold statement indeed, and his statement is in agreement to why merits tend to drive  the way of people that knows how to earn it.

What is happening here?
A newbie copying Lovesmayfamilis Lovesmayfamilis copying a newbie in a thread that is teaching newbies how to be successful and avoid plagiarism 

I remember all your steps. How noisily you tried to talk about yourself, and the fifth topic, made me smile. But I understood one thing: people are different, everyone has different views, someone appears very carefully, and someone wants to tell the whole world about himself, and this is normal.
What matters is where it all leads. You have proven this by reaching your rank. Beginners can really learn from the examples of those who somehow achieved their goals. Unfortunately, in our time, many of those who are initially actively involved in the life of the forum add up their enthusiasm at the slightest failure or criticism

I can recall each step you took. But I did realize one thing: it's normal for people to differ, hold different opinions, dress differently, and want the world to know everything about them.
The end result is what counts. Your promotion has demonstrated this. Beginners can benefit greatly from the experiences of people who have succeeded in some way. Unfortunately, many people who are initially engaged in the forum's activity build up their enthusiasm at the smallest mistake or criticism in modern society.

Wonders shall never cease!

[lovesmayfamilis]

Wonders shall never cease!

Thank you. I think miracles will run out today with this cunning paraphrase. I noticed that this wasn't the only sly post of his that he decided to change, and although he boasted that he was aware of all the rules of the forum, I think he would be unpleasantly surprised by the ban.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1926895.msg61089955#msg61089955

[1miau]

What is happening here?
A newbie copying Lovesmayfamilis Lovesmayfamilis copying a newbie in a thread that is teaching newbies how to be successful and avoid plagiarism  

...

...

Loool!  
Speak of the devil and he shall appear.  

Perfect symbolizing Newbies with bad intentions and he didn't even read your OP. Because if he had done that, he would have noticed that such a behaviour...
...will result in a ban.  
Imagine leaving such a shameful post when we are exactly talking about the problem.  

Great compilation and important advice for all Newbies.

Especially plagiarism is very easy to avoid.

...
I have no words for this...  

[CryptocurencyKing]

I just picked quickly one thread of interest form the guides you displayed there and I think one of the common window utilised by newbies has always been "How to announce themselves in the forum".
Clearly from what has been going on, most of them never got to read the post or even understand the contest to announcing themselves on the forum.
For someone, it's just a way to sell there name and so, you get to see threads like;
- Hey, I'm new here, what's the forum about
- ... is here, how do I make use of the forum
- I am ...., how do I get this in the forum...

Announcing doesn't mean an introduction or some way to formality. Being active and contributing good gives you the formality you desire. Beginners, you do some good and work on the guides and your sure to pick up.

[Oluwa-btc]

As much as I dislike most of your post prattling bout yourself, those are top class and beautifully written unique topics K-D. Big Applause on that and you journey so far.
About announcement as a newbie, you don't have to in the first place, you become a good poster and you'll be noticed real quick by other good posters ( Good posters recognize Good posters ) this are my own opinion on that. It's good to see you take your time to teach and encode the knowledge you have upstairs across Newbies.

In my newbie days, I came across some user's ( once or twice ) jumping into my PM begging for Satoshi's and forcing and telling man that they have a quick means to grow account's with merit, but I knew that was merit abuse from the rules. I reported some and ignored some. But I hope Newbie's don't fall for that in the future.

Advice: Newbies shouldn't hesitate to report accounts despite the rank , jumping/ hoping in begging and forcing them to abuse merit's.
Also, during Introduction of new user's here, reading the rule's should be the first thing inculcated into em. Thanks.

Drifted a bit off T, but I just wanted to chipping in.

[KingsDen]

Update
What is a Quality Post.
Had to bump this compilation because there are so many newbies registering in this forum and they appear totally clueless on what to do. They ask questions such as, "I am new, how do I succeed?", "As a newbie where do I start?", etc
I believe this compilation can give such newbies a push.