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

[hilariousandco]

Yeah, I've always thought that wasn't really true. It's more of a neutral thing in my opinion ie they're neither discouraged or encouraged.

[mprep]

18. Having multiple accounts and account sales are allowed,[/b] but account sales are discouraged.[/b]

Is there any kind of reference to support the fact that account sales are discouraged? If so could that quote be referenced? and if not could that statement be removed from this rule?

theymos or BadBear mentioned it in the staff board a while ago. As the list isn't exactly official, they also focus on the general opinion of the forum and staff. The "discouraged" might hint that if you farm accounts with not so great posts, you are at a quite big risk of getting banned as well. In other words, it stays.

[tspacepilot]

18. Having multiple accounts and account sales are allowed,[/b] but account sales are discouraged.[/b]

Is there any kind of reference to support the fact that account sales are discouraged? If so could that quote be referenced? and if not could that statement be removed from this rule?

theymos or BadBear mentioned it in the staff board a while ago. As the list isn't exactly official, they also focus on the general opinion of the forum and staff. The "discouraged" might hint that if you farm accounts with not so great posts, you are at a quite big risk of getting banned as well. In other words, it stays.

What if you farm accounts and spend a lot of time neg-repping other accounts?  Is there any conflict-of-interest inherent in pairing those activities?  (To be clear, if you neg-rep many accounts, then you drive up the demand for sold accounts without any neg-reps; also you're in-the-know about which accounts are bought (by your customers) and you can avoid neg-repping them as a favor).

[mprep]

18. Having multiple accounts and account sales are allowed,[/b] but account sales are discouraged.[/b]

Is there any kind of reference to support the fact that account sales are discouraged? If so could that quote be referenced? and if not could that statement be removed from this rule?

theymos or BadBear mentioned it in the staff board a while ago. As the list isn't exactly official, they also focus on the general opinion of the forum and staff. The "discouraged" might hint that if you farm accounts with not so great posts, you are at a quite big risk of getting banned as well. In other words, it stays.

What if you farm accounts and spend a lot of time neg-repping other accounts?  Is there any conflict-of-interest inherent in pairing those activities?  (To be clear, if you neg-rep many accounts, then you drive up the demand for sold accounts without any neg-reps; also you're in-the-know about which accounts are bought (by your customers) and you can avoid neg-repping them as a favor).

It really depends on the neg-repping. If it's spammy feedback, you are in trouble, if it's not, you're not. We can't get into someone's mind to find out why they neg-repped someone. I'm not sure how the forum handles rep from banned users though.

In the community feedback scene, if someone found out, it would be a massive shitstorm and effectively his valuable accounts would get flooded with less than desirable feedback. A lot of what we don't police, we expect the community to pursue if they feel like it's important to them. Hence why I mentioned that selling accounts is discouraged as the community tends to police that and mark said accounts.

EDIT: In other news, I've posted sticky threads in Altcoin Discussion, Announcements (Altcoins), Mining (Altcoins) and Marketplace (Altcoins) linking to this one as after more than a few cases, I can safely say that a lot of members tend to miss this thread in Meta and end up breaking rules on accident.

EDIT 2: Also, changed the question regarding FUD:

Q: Do you moderate/delete (possible) FUD, accusations and untrue information?
A: No. We don't have enough time to check every single piece of information and verify the validity of the sources. Also, just like scams - too much room for bias and abuse.

by adding some info to the end of it:

However, trolling isn't allowed. If a user is habitually posting obviously false nonsense just to stir up trouble, then it's considered trolling, which is prohibited. Such cases should be thoroughly documented in the report though (There are tons of reports that just say "trolling", but moderators don't have time to look through each user's post).

Also added another question after it:

Q: Someone insulted me. Why aren't you deleting his post/thread?
A: Possible (since we don't have the time or resources to check) insults are also allowed as long as they contain any kind of constructive opinion, info or something else substantial and aren't off-topic. For example, posting something like "you are dumb" will be deleted as it contains no meaningful content. However, if the post is somehwere along the lines of "You are dumb. This is wrong because this website/thread/etc. has explained it's not right", it's in most cases accepted.

[shorena]

Possible addition for the FAQ regard Staff ranks?

Heh, you could add founder to the list of staff ranks. I have no idea what powers Satoshi's account has, I'd say probably adminstrator priviledges, but I'd imagine that has been changed years ago, since administrator accounts aren't left unattended for long. So I suppose it would be more apt to say Satoshi would have admin powers if they come back.

Admins: can do everything imaginable on the site. They however can't delete their accounts.

Global Moderators: can perma ban, nuke newbies, see and handle reports from all sections, and see reported PMs.

Moderators: can see and handle reports from their sections and nuke newbies

Patrollers: Are essentially Moderators but can only do moderator tasks for newbie members.

None of the links in OP is hidden with that logic. The only hidden page to normal members is Staff Forum.

And the Donator/VIP section and Trashcan.

[mprep]

Possible addition for the FAQ regard Staff ranks?

Heh, you could add founder to the list of staff ranks. I have no idea what powers Satoshi's account has, I'd say probably adminstrator priviledges, but I'd imagine that has been changed years ago, since administrator accounts aren't left unattended for long. So I suppose it would be more apt to say Satoshi would have admin powers if they come back.

Admins: can do everything imaginable on the site. They however can't delete their accounts.

Global Moderators: can perma ban, nuke newbies, see and handle reports from all sections, and see reported PMs.

Moderators: can see and handle reports from their sections and nuke newbies

Patrollers: Are essentially Moderators but can only do moderator tasks for newbie members.

None of the links in OP is hidden with that logic. The only hidden page to normal members is Staff Forum.

And the Donator/VIP section and Trashcan.

Done, thanks:

Q:What can <insert staff member name or rank here> do?
A: Different ranks have different access to moderation tools. A quote from Salty Spitoon explains it pretty well:

<...>

Admins: can do everything imaginable on the site. They however can't delete their accounts.

Global Moderators: can perma ban, nuke newbies, see and handle reports from all sections, and see reported PMs.

Moderators: can see and handle reports from their sections and nuke newbies

Patrollers: Are essentially Moderators but can only do moderator tasks for newbie members.

<...>

[Muhammed Zakir]

Any rule about plain lending site links in thread? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1009469.0

[shorena]

Any rule about plain lending site links in thread? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1009469.0

A low quality post that only includes a link or little more? -> spam!

[Muhammed Zakir]

Any rule about plain lending site links in thread? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1009469.0

A low quality post that only includes a link or little more? -> spam!

That's what I am thinking. But there is no action by mods, so I think it might be allowed?

[shorena]

Any rule about plain lending site links in thread? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1009469.0

A low quality post that only includes a link or little more? -> spam!

That's what I am thinking. But there is no action by mods, so I think it might be allowed?

I would consider this -> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1039675.msg11210840#msg11210840
spam. Not sure why its still there.

[-ck]

9. Discussions in the main boards must be in english. All other language discussions should be posted in the appropriate Local board.

Please expand on this with a note to the effect that "Automated machine translation, such as using google translate, does not reach the standard required to post in English." or similar. The same can be added for posting in local language boards.

[pc888]

9. Discussions in the main boards must be in english. All other language discussions should be posted in the appropriate Local board.

Please expand on this with a note to the effect that "Automated machine translation, such as using google translate, does not reach the standard required to post in English." or similar. The same can be added for posting in local language boards.

This rule discriminates against those who do not speak english as they are unable to participate in a launch.


My post was deleted - [ANN] [BTA] [BATA] SCRYPT-5 MILIONI di POW-ZERO PREMINE - WWW.BATA.MONEY in the italian section.

It took time that I could otherwise spend on doing something else to create an Announcement only to have it deleted.

Online translation is not the best, but it is better than no translation.

The rule would be fair enough if the Forum had the ability to translate.

[Grand_Voyageur]

9. Discussions in the main boards must be in english. All other language discussions should be posted in the appropriate Local board.

Please expand on this with a note to the effect that "Automated machine translation, such as using google translate, does not reach the standard required to post in English." or similar. The same can be added for posting in local language boards.

This rule discriminates against those who do not speak english as they are unable to participate in a launch.


My post was deleted - [ANN] [BTA] [BATA] SCRYPT-5 MILIONI di POW-ZERO PREMINE - WWW.BATA.MONEY in the italian section.

It took time that I could otherwise spend on doing something else to create an Announcement only to have it deleted.

Online translation is not the best, but it is better than no translation.

The rule would be fair enough if the Forum had the ability to translate.

I disagree with you, since you are engaging in a business you should consider offering a translation job to users and pay for it. I know here into the forum are some people fluent in both Italian & English that can do the task for an amount of BTC to be determined. Using a free translator to do a business related task just make you & your altcoin look poorly at best, and scammy at worst.
Also in Italian local board only Italian language post are allowed! 

[mprep]

9. Discussions in the main boards must be in english. All other language discussions should be posted in the appropriate Local board.

Please expand on this with a note to the effect that "Automated machine translation, such as using google translate, does not reach the standard required to post in English." or similar. The same can be added for posting in local language boards.

Added rule 27:

27. Using automated translation tools to post translated content in Local boards is not allowed.

[pc888]

9. Discussions in the main boards must be in english. All other language discussions should be posted in the appropriate Local board.

Please expand on this with a note to the effect that "Automated machine translation, such as using google translate, does not reach the standard required to post in English." or similar. The same can be added for posting in local language boards.

This rule discriminates against those who do not speak english as they are unable to participate in a launch.


My post was deleted - [ANN] [BTA] [BATA] SCRYPT-5 MILIONI di POW-ZERO PREMINE - WWW.BATA.MONEY in the italian section.

It took time that I could otherwise spend on doing something else to create an Announcement only to have it deleted.

Online translation is not the best, but it is better than no translation.

The rule would be fair enough if the Forum had the ability to translate.

I disagree with you, since you are engaging in a business you should consider offering a translation job to users and pay for it. I know here into the forum are some people fluent in both Italian & English that can do the task for an amount of BTC to be determined. Using a free translator to do a business related task just make you & your altcoin look poorly at best, and scammy at worst.
Also in Italian local board only Italian language post are allowed!  

First a coin is not a business, if it was, then it would not be decentralised and paying someone to translate it for a forum is a bit rich in my opinion.


Is there a list which I am missing that rates and quality rating of all these translators? How do I know that they are translating correctly?


I stand by my opinion and I am entitled to do that, even if it not worth 2 cents

[mprep]

9. Discussions in the main boards must be in english. All other language discussions should be posted in the appropriate Local board.

Please expand on this with a note to the effect that "Automated machine translation, such as using google translate, does not reach the standard required to post in English." or similar. The same can be added for posting in local language boards.

This rule discriminates against those who do not speak english as they are unable to participate in a launch.


My post was deleted - [ANN] [BTA] [BATA] SCRYPT-5 MILIONI di POW-ZERO PREMINE - WWW.BATA.MONEY in the italian section.

It took time that I could otherwise spend on doing something else to create an Announcement only to have it deleted.

Online translation is not the best, but it is better than no translation.

The rule would be fair enough if the Forum had the ability to translate.

I disagree with you, since you are engaging in a business you should consider offering a translation job to users and pay for it. I know here into the forum are some people fluent in both Italian & English that can do the task for an amount of BTC to be determined. Using a free translator to do a business related task just make you & your altcoin look poorly at best, and scammy at worst.
Also in Italian local board only Italian language post are allowed!  

First a coin is not a business, if it was, then it would not be decentralised and paying someone to translate it for a forum is a bit rich in my opinion.


I stand by my opinion and I am entitled to do that.

However, automated translation is still not allowed and I highly doubt it would change.

EDIT: Added the new board to the guidelines:

Micro Earnings (child board of Service Announcements) - "Faucets, rotators, web based games, and other services that are primarily based on ads and/or micropayments." That includes a lot of websites that payout either dust or near dust amounts of Bitcoin.

[Nick Markus]

Thank you for the detailed list. 

[JarvisTechnology]

What's the rules on double posting? Doesn't seem to be any discussion on it. But I WOULD of thought there would be a policy which would mean you need to edit rather than posting twice.

[tspacepilot]

What's the rules on double posting? Doesn't seem to be any discussion on it. But I WOULD of thought there would be a policy which would mean you need to edit rather than posting twice.

Even if there's not an actual rule on this, I'm pretty sure it's considered good form to edit rather than repost.  Relatedly, I've seen that people can bump their service thread like once a day or something.  Does editing the last post also generate a bump in the forum listings?

[JarvisTechnology]

What's the rules on double posting? Doesn't seem to be any discussion on it. But I WOULD of thought there would be a policy which would mean you need to edit rather than posting twice.

Even if there's not an actual rule on this, I'm pretty sure it's considered good form to edit rather than repost.  Relatedly, I've seen that people can bump their service thread like once a day or something.  Does editing the last post also generate a bump in the forum listings?

Thanks for the reply. Editing a post doesn't bump the thread only new replies.