This is my personal experience in this lovely forum, the challenges I faced as a newbie and how I was able to overcome. Well, as a newbie, the forum usually seems overwhelming, depending on the individual, it can take up to weeks or even months to fully adapt to this forum, the later is common especially if you found your way here by coincidence just like me. I just want to share a brief of how I tackled the challenges I encountered here so that newbies can actually learn from it and adapt in lesser duration.
One of the major challenges I faced was that my post were deleted or archived easily. At first, I felt so bad about it because I felt my contributions didn't matter here, else why will my post be deleted but I was wrong. The major problem was that I viewed bitcointalk as a regular social media network, where I could post a one line statement without adding value (e.g: Yes, you are correct, I love this thread of your keep it up, etc), meanwhile what is expected of you is to add more value to the OP, ie argue constructively for or against what is in the content of the OP or other contributions from other users.
Once I understood this, here is what I did next, I read the stickled post in each board I found my self in order to know the do's and don't of this forum (I strongly recommend this for any beginner). Also, as a beginner, I was struggling to contribute meaningfully to a topic, how did I manage to improve in my contributions to thread? Firstly, if the topic of discussion is entirely new to me, for me to contribute meaningfully, I usually make a little research about the subject matter because you can't expect to add value to something you know nothing about. Let's say the topic is about "Threat of Quantum computing to Bitcoin" and I have little to zero knowledge about quantum computing principles, all I'll do is read and research a little bit about quantum computing principles, once I understand it, I'll then use the knowledge I've gathered to contribute or add to the topic, its that simple and I also recommend that beginners should adopt this approach, you will be surprised what you've learnt in a little while. Always ensure you understand a thread before replying else you will always go off point or off topic and this will usually lead to the post being deleted once spotted by mods.
There are also scenarios where despite the research I have made, I didn't really grasp the topic enough, therefore I avoided posting in such thread. This is normal, because as an individual you are not expected to know everything, infact, if you post in every thread you come across I'll pressume you are a chatbot or a spammer. So it is very important to only post on threads that interest you and that you understand very well and also feel you can contribute constructively and meaningfully.
Initially, when I started my first thread, I never cared to reply to other users opinion, suggestion and contributions, instead, I went on to start yet another thread. The truth is, this is a forum and forums are meant for discussion/contributions, what I have learnt is that if you start a thread you should be able to follow up the thread and maintain conversation. This will help make the discussion lively and users will not feel you have ignored their contributions, I mean, how is it a discussion if the OP is no where to be found, why create the thread then? So beginners please avoid abandoning your OP especially if it is still actively getting replies from new users. For early users, I think it was more cumbersome to manage and track threads but with all the recent tools in the forum, there is no way you won't know when you are mentioned in a thread, so you see, its easier now, telegram bot like
Bitcoin Super Notifier by Tryninja can help you track your post easily.
Another mistake I made was that I usually quoted all the OP even when my contribution is just to a specific section of the OP. This made the appearance of my post unappealing and from other users end, it is usually pretty annoying. So now you know this, try as much as possible not to quote the entire OP, only quote the section you are replying to, this way your post looks more attractive to read and if someone find your post meaningful, you might as well receive merits for it (Note: Do not post with the sole intention of earning merit, it will surely discourage you when it doesn't come as expected).
Always be original and avoid any use of AI for generating your post in this forum, plagiarism is also frowned at so please avoid it.
Some senior users may sound harsh and others may sound more friendly, you should expect different characters in every forum or gathering, this is not to discourage you, ofcourse you have to develop a thick skin, do not over react negatively just because a user sounded harsh towards you, best thing you may wish to ignore such user if you think the user went too far. To say the least, this is a public space, so expect criticism of all sort.
Another thing I usually do and I'll recommend for you is to read older threads that are of high quality in the forum, it will help strengthen your foundation and with time you will only get better and better in this space.
Well, I am still growing just like you and this is the little knowledge/experience I've gathered so far, I don't know it all yet but I believe this can atleast guide a beginner who is just starting out here to improve in their post quality and style. If I'm missing something, I'll expect more experienced users to guide us more in order to keep beginners/newbies motivated and focused around the forum.
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