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

[MakeBelieve]

Finally got sticky! Thanks theymos!

[1714112137]

1714112137

[mprep]

Finally got sticky! Thanks theymos!

It wasn't theymos. One of the global mods, that is SaltySpitoon, stickied it but I guess theymos doesn't object.

[criptix]

hi guys i have a question regarding multipools.

in this case its about an official pool of an altcoin.
why is there a problem with pool updates every two days in the corresponding altcoin ann?
especially if nobody of the coin community is complaining about it?

@mprep

i just saw you posting here too, to be precise its about the BTCD ann and crackfoo's pool

(actually just realize you are the OP )

[mprep]

hi guys i have a question regarding multipools.

in this case its about an official pool of an altcoin.
why is there a problem with pool updates every two days in the corresponding altcoin ann?
especially if nobody of the coin community is complaining about it?

@mprep

i just saw you posting here too, to be precise its about the BTCD ann and crackfoo's pool

(actually just realize you are the OP )

Yes, there is a problem. As per the old BadBear's rule, posting any kind of service (pool, exchanges, etc.) in a coin thread would be prohibited, but after discussing with PMing with him some time ago, I managed to allow one post per thread (only for pools, exchanges, block explorers though) about their service (more so a "we're up" message). Unless you have explicit permission from one of the admins, you are not allowed to post more than one of such post per thread.

EDIT: Changed the OP FAQ by creating a new section at the bottom called "Legacy questions (no longer relevant)" and moved the question about the avatars there. Kind of keeping it in case I need it for whatever reason.

[criptix]

hi guys i have a question regarding multipools.

in this case its about an official pool of an altcoin.
why is there a problem with pool updates every two days in the corresponding altcoin ann?
especially if nobody of the coin community is complaining about it?

@mprep

i just saw you posting here too, to be precise its about the BTCD ann and crackfoo's pool

(actually just realize you are the OP )

Yes, there is a problem. As per the old BadBear's rule, posting any kind of service (pool, exchanges, etc.) in a coin thread would be prohibited, but after discussing with PMing with him some time ago, I managed to allow one post per thread (only for pools, exchanges, block explorers though) about their service (more so a "we're up" message). Unless you have explicit permission from one of the admins, you are not allowed to post more than one of such post per thread.

Thanks for the answer.
Do you mean with one post really only one post in the thread?
( or would be a update every x days ok too?)

[mprep]

hi guys i have a question regarding multipools.

in this case its about an official pool of an altcoin.
why is there a problem with pool updates every two days in the corresponding altcoin ann?
especially if nobody of the coin community is complaining about it?

@mprep

i just saw you posting here too, to be precise its about the BTCD ann and crackfoo's pool

(actually just realize you are the OP )

Yes, there is a problem. As per the old BadBear's rule, posting any kind of service (pool, exchanges, etc.) in a coin thread would be prohibited, but after discussing with PMing with him some time ago, I managed to allow one post per thread (only for pools, exchanges, block explorers though) about their service (more so a "we're up" message). Unless you have explicit permission from one of the admins, you are not allowed to post more than one of such post per thread.

Thanks for the answer.
Do you mean with one post really only one post in the thread?
( or would be a update every x days ok too?)

One post in total unless explicit permission has been received from the admin(s) to do otherwise. And no, updates of said post every X days is not allowed.

[criptix]

Thanks for the clarification!

[MadZ]

Hey, I was wondering if there could be some discussion of the bump rule in the marketplace section.

I think that in addition to the 24 hour per thread limit, there should be some sort of limit on how often a user can bump multiple threads. This is a problem because some users have 5+ active threads that they will bump at once, leading to a lot of clutter. At times the first 10 topics are only from 2 or 3 different people. I think a 2 thread per 1 hour limit on bumping would be reasonable, since it would solve the problem while still allowing people to have multiple active threads. This rule wouldn't even apply to most people, since it is rare to have more than 2 marketplace threads at once.

Another small thing I would like to point out is that the "examples" section under the rule list seems to be misnumbered, but this isn't really a big deal, just thought mprep might want to correct it.

[hilariousandco]

Hey, I was wondering if there could be some discussion of the bump rule in the marketplace section.

I think that in addition to the 24 hour per thread limit, there should be some sort of limit on how often a user can bump multiple threads. This is a problem because some users have 5+ active threads that they will bump at once, leading to a lot of clutter. At times the first 10 topics are only from 2 or 3 different people. I think a 2 thread per 1 hour limit on bumping would be reasonable, since it would solve the problem while still allowing people to have multiple active threads. This rule wouldn't even apply to most people, since it is rare to have more than 2 marketplace threads at once.

Yeah, this can be silly when people bump their threads daily for months with clearly very little likelihood of making a sale. I think a better option for those with multiple listings would be to create one thread with links to all their listings and bump that instead of all the others individually (and/or stick the link to your thread in your signature). I made a couple of suggestions in the staff forum recently for changes to the bump rule such as banning manual bumping and adding a bump button which will push your thread to the top without having to post and it will only let you use it once per 24 hours. Also possibly limiting the total amount of bumps you can make could be a good idea (maybe something like 30 before you can no longer make any more bumps).

[Quickseller]

Hey, I was wondering if there could be some discussion of the bump rule in the marketplace section.

I think that in addition to the 24 hour per thread limit, there should be some sort of limit on how often a user can bump multiple threads. This is a problem because some users have 5+ active threads that they will bump at once, leading to a lot of clutter. At times the first 10 topics are only from 2 or 3 different people. I think a 2 thread per 1 hour limit on bumping would be reasonable, since it would solve the problem while still allowing people to have multiple active threads. This rule wouldn't even apply to most people, since it is rare to have more than 2 marketplace threads at once.

Yeah, this can be silly when people bump their threads daily for months with clearly very little likelihood of making a sale. I think a better option for those with multiple listings would be to create one thread with links to all their listings and bump that instead of all the others individually (and/or stick the link to your thread in your signature). I made a couple of suggestions in the staff forum recently for changes to the bump rule such as banning manual bumping and adding a bump button which will push your thread to the top without having to post and it will only let you use it once per 24 hours. Also possibly limiting the total amount of bumps you can make could be a good idea (maybe something like 30 before you can no longer make any more bumps).

This would make it so people who offer things for sale that change often would not be able to bump long before they have sold everything. I have probably bumped by account selling thread well over 100 times, and the information contained has probably changed close to as many times. The point is that the exact item being sold could potentially change multiple times or the inventory/prices may change multiple times over several months.

Additionally it would hurt people offering various services, like escrow, as they would only be able to bump their thread once every three days over three months before not being able to bump it anymore.

I do like the idea of a bump button verses bumping a thread with a post, although it would need to be able to be customized somewhat in order to give some level of an update.

I think the rules regarding bumping auction threads should also be clarified as many people tend to bump auction threads multiple times per day giving how much time is left in the auction - it should also be noted that auction posts cannot be edited so the author of an auction is not able to edit their posts in order to give an update

[mprep]

Hey, I was wondering if there could be some discussion of the bump rule in the marketplace section.

I think that in addition to the 24 hour per thread limit, there should be some sort of limit on how often a user can bump multiple threads. This is a problem because some users have 5+ active threads that they will bump at once, leading to a lot of clutter. At times the first 10 topics are only from 2 or 3 different people. I think a 2 thread per 1 hour limit on bumping would be reasonable, since it would solve the problem while still allowing people to have multiple active threads. This rule wouldn't even apply to most people, since it is rare to have more than 2 marketplace threads at once.

Another small thing I would like to point out is that the "examples" section under the rule list seems to be misnumbered, but this isn't really a big deal, just thought mprep might want to correct it.

Fixed the example numbers, thanks. Added you to the credits as well. As hilariousandco said, it's being discussed among staff, however, many suggestions hit the ease of moderation argument as the more complex the rules, the harder it will be for us to notice them and enforce them, although the bump button did sound like something easier to manage.

[botany]

1. Such posts like "SELL SELL SELL", "I agree", "+1", "Support", "Watching", "Interesting", "LOL", "SCAM", "LEGIT", "FAKE", other one word posts, posts consisting mostly of swearing, quote pyramids,useless introduction threads, threads about a topic already recently discussed in several other threads.

Question - Are there exceptions to this rule? Are posts like this, this or this considered okay?

[Quickseller]

1. Such posts like "SELL SELL SELL", "I agree", "+1", "Support", "Watching", "Interesting", "LOL", "SCAM", "LEGIT", "FAKE", other one word posts, posts consisting mostly of swearing, quote pyramids,useless introduction threads, threads about a topic already recently discussed in several other threads.

Question - Are there exceptions to this rule? Are posts like this, this or this considered okay?

all of those posts should be reported as plus one spam. Just because something breaks the rules does not mean it will get deleted if they are not brought to the attention of a moderator.

[botany]

1. Such posts like "SELL SELL SELL", "I agree", "+1", "Support", "Watching", "Interesting", "LOL", "SCAM", "LEGIT", "FAKE", other one word posts, posts consisting mostly of swearing, quote pyramids,useless introduction threads, threads about a topic already recently discussed in several other threads.

Question - Are there exceptions to this rule? Are posts like this, this or this considered okay?

all of those posts should be reported as plus one spam. Just because something breaks the rules does not mean it will get deleted if they are not brought to the attention of a moderator.

In the past, there have been cases where they haven't been deleted after bringing it to the mods' attention.
Specifically, in this case, I did report a post (~24 hrs ago). I am not sure if action by mods in the Politics & Society board is slower, or these posts are considered ok in some circumstances.

Edit: See that all of them have now been deleted. That answers my question.  

[Quickseller]

1. Such posts like "SELL SELL SELL", "I agree", "+1", "Support", "Watching", "Interesting", "LOL", "SCAM", "LEGIT", "FAKE", other one word posts, posts consisting mostly of swearing, quote pyramids,useless introduction threads, threads about a topic already recently discussed in several other threads.

Question - Are there exceptions to this rule? Are posts like this, this or this considered okay?

all of those posts should be reported as plus one spam. Just because something breaks the rules does not mean it will get deleted if they are not brought to the attention of a moderator.

In the past, there have been cases where they haven't been deleted after bringing it to the mods' attention.
Specifically, in this case, I did report a post (~24 hrs ago). I am not sure if action by mods in the Politics & Society board is slower, or these posts are considered ok in some circumstances.

Edit: See that all of them have now been deleted. That answers my question. 

the politics section doesn't have any moderators so only globals (and admins) can handle reports unless it is a newbie posting no naturally the handling of reports is going to be slow. This is similar to how matketolace reports were before we got two active mods there.

Since kluge and chief Ramsey have not been active there (or at all) I haven't really paid attention to that section although there has always been a good amount of junk there. We probably need a moderator for that section.

[Welsh]

I found something whilst reading some old topics which I do from time to time and discovered a title naming guide by theymos. Might be worth mentioning in the original post. Pretty helpful. Somethings I'm guilty of not doing some of the recommendations.

Moderators here typically don't require you to use good titles for topics, but I thought I'd post some guidelines for anyone wondering how best to write a title.

Include enough info in the title so that readers can mostly guess what your topic is about. Try to condense your topic's main idea into a few sentences. Ideally, people should be able to write useful, on-topic replies by just reading the title (though this sometimes isn't possible).

Terrible titles include:
- "A question"
- "I was wondering..."
- "Someone help me"
These titles are better, though still not great:
- "A question about Bitcoin-Qt"
- "Survey of the community"
- "I have a problem with the forum"
These titles are good:
- "Bitcoin-Qt takes too long to start. How can I speed it up?"
- "Poll: What is your gender?"
- "Whenever I try to send a PM, the forum gives me an error"

When asking a question, never use a title like "How to send BTC"; it makes the topic look like a guide on how to do something instead of a question about how to do it.

Some people like to put "tags" in the title within brackets. Like "[GLBSE] [ANNOUNCE] ASDF: Generic asset". I personally don't like this style. I prefer to include the tag info within the sentence, like "Announcing ASDF, a generic asset on GLBSE". When tags are really necessary, it may indicate that a new subforum should be created.

Use normal capitalization, not "newspaper capitalization". "Thread title style guide" instead of "Thread Title Style Guide". Capitalize the first letter of the title unless it a trademark like "eMachines".

Omit unimportant leading words. "Selling $100" instead of "I'm selling $100". Other than that, it's best to write a grammatically correct sentence if doing so does not make the title annoyingly long.

If the title is composed of only one sentence, don't include a period at the end. If it contains two or more sentences, put a period after each sentence, including the last. Questions must end with a question mark.

[Muhammed Zakir]

Isn't posts like below post considered spam? It looks similar to "+1" posts but these posts are still undeleted.

<anythinghere>

[hilariousandco]

Yes. Did you report them?

[mprep]

I found something whilst reading some old topics which I do from time to time and discovered a title naming guide by theymos. Might be worth mentioning in the original post. Pretty helpful. Somethings I'm guilty of not doing some of the recommendations.

Moderators here typically don't require you to use good titles for topics, but I thought I'd post some guidelines for anyone wondering how best to write a title.

Include enough info in the title so that readers can mostly guess what your topic is about. Try to condense your topic's main idea into a few sentences. Ideally, people should be able to write useful, on-topic replies by just reading the title (though this sometimes isn't possible).

Terrible titles include:
- "A question"
- "I was wondering..."
- "Someone help me"
These titles are better, though still not great:
- "A question about Bitcoin-Qt"
- "Survey of the community"
- "I have a problem with the forum"
These titles are good:
- "Bitcoin-Qt takes too long to start. How can I speed it up?"
- "Poll: What is your gender?"
- "Whenever I try to send a PM, the forum gives me an error"

When asking a question, never use a title like "How to send BTC"; it makes the topic look like a guide on how to do something instead of a question about how to do it.

Some people like to put "tags" in the title within brackets. Like "[GLBSE] [ANNOUNCE] ASDF: Generic asset". I personally don't like this style. I prefer to include the tag info within the sentence, like "Announcing ASDF, a generic asset on GLBSE". When tags are really necessary, it may indicate that a new subforum should be created.

Use normal capitalization, not "newspaper capitalization". "Thread title style guide" instead of "Thread Title Style Guide". Capitalize the first letter of the title unless it a trademark like "eMachines".

Omit unimportant leading words. "Selling $100" instead of "I'm selling $100". Other than that, it's best to write a grammatically correct sentence if doing so does not make the title annoyingly long.

If the title is composed of only one sentence, don't include a period at the end. If it contains two or more sentences, put a period after each sentence, including the last. Questions must end with a question mark.

Added to the FAQ, thanks:

Q: How should I name my thread? / Are there any guidelines to naming threads?
A: A post from the admin, theymos, explains it pretty well. See: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=102944.0

[Muhammed Zakir]

Yes. Did you report them?

Yes, I did before posting here.* I wanted to know whether they are spam because some of these posts are still around here(IIRC). Thank you for replying! I will try to report rest of them(if any).

* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1018906.msg11104577#msg11104577