Topic: Ask a Legendary Member whatever you need to know about the forum (Read 586 times)

Ok, nice, but, please, stay on topic. This thread is meant to resolve some questions about the forum, not to engage in a discussion related to ranks, there are many related on the Meta section, and you can engage in there.
 Thanks for the discussion, but, please, let's try to stay on topic. If not, it is going to be kind of messy.

"But newcomer is too lazy even read rules on pin post" I disagree that is only newbies that always are faulted on this forum. There are dozens of senior members who spam the forum , go against the rules here.

Here are some of my thoughts to maybe benefit the community
 
I believe this forum under-values the importance of this Beginners forum because overall, 99%+ of the people in this world belong in the beginners forum. Actually, it would be fair to say that a lot of our "newbies" are years ahead of what the real definition of a newbie really is, which is even more clueless than the newbies who signed-up here because we at least engage other users and keep making mistakes.
 
Just to bring more into focus, sure I am a total newb and struggling. But I originally bought bitcoin near the start of when it was available, this was likely before some of the staff at your board even knew about it. It's possible, because I was first buying bitcoin at $50. Then you read this and that about how elite members act like they are above everyone else. Actually the moderator of the Beginners forum does not even accept personal messages from newbies, whatever that is all about.
 
Thus far I have had a surprising amount of helpful people here spending time to help me figure things out. Amazing really.

Yes, it is, be careful, and never enter to the site. They want you to put your bitcointalk account name and password, and I suspect they have already hacked many.

1. There is in developing a whole new forum, this one is supposed to move to it eventually. You can check all this in Bitcoin Forum > Other > Meta > New forum software.
Regarding the rules, you will need to be active on the Meta board. In there, all the new implementations are posted by Theymos, and the discussion regarding the probable ones are always happening on this board. So be sure of take a look at it as much as you can  

2. The accounts that have been in inactive from the last year are automatically blocked in order to avoid hacking, I think. The only cleaning tool we have is the report to moderator button in case of fraudulent activities, as well as the Scam accusations board; well, on the Meta board you can also find some good threads regarding farming, plagiarism, etc. If you think someone is breaking the rules you can search for some related posts in meta or in scam accusations or reputation (Now I'm replying to you I realize how many boards we have to report bad ones!!  )

3. Ummm I don't think so, this is a free place and you can discuss/think as you wish. Do not take too personal when a thread of yours doesn't have any reply's, it happens to me too, maybe there was nobody interested in that very moment, or maybe there were just too many threads at the time, so the one from yours just disappeared fast. I get it is kind of annoying, but happens to everyone!

I think the merit system is a necessary evil, since the last December's hype. Try to picture it as a city: many people living in there, from all over the world, some good, some bad, but in quite a balance. Suddenly, a massive number of people is willing to enter the city, and want to have the same privileges than the others, even if the others have been in there for years, building that city, step by step. New rules were necessary since the December's bitcoin hype happened, because, suddenly, the number of persons joining the forum was enormous. Besides, most of the people coming have as an only goal to make money, for they heard about bitcoin first and how many people become rich, and then about the forum, a place in "where you can earn bitcoin". Most of the newcomers don't know anything about Bitcoin, about the forum history, about the Blockchain technology, they are just in here because they want to earn instead of learn.
So there was necessary to change the rules, due to the behavior of mostly all the newcomers. Of course, there are exceptions, there are bad legendaries, and really good newbies, but these exceptions are few, and you can't determine what an old member deserves based on a new rule. All the ones that entered in here before the merit system didn't have in their minds the merit system, so, how can judge them with this mindset. Also, some older members have changed their mindset since the merit system was introduced (included me), and, since there, they are trying their best.
So, is that fair? Yes, it is. Many people built the forum since the very beginning and yes, many deserve a recognition for it, because they didn't come in here for the money, they collaborate for years to the forum develop, to the discussion, they engaged amazing debates even when bitcoin was a huge mystery to society.
Of course, a new system always brings a collateral damage: to the forum, that there are some bad ones with a high-rank account, but, even so, we still have the trust system, if you see red numbers under a name, just be careful.
To newcomers, well, you can say that it is nor fair, but to me the merit system absolutely is. If you are a newcomer with the will of learning, with something in your mind beyond making some bucks, you will be rewarded, you will be able to rank and you will be respected by the community. But, even if you don't have any interest in the forum, you can work, make your bucks in here and, as well as you don't break the rules, you will be in here as long as you want.
So, is that unfair? No, it is not, from  my point of view it is a neccessary response due the newcomers we have (an average superior to 450 per day, 70% spamming all over the forum).

Your are all allowed to make the difference by hard work, as we have done from the last years.

As a final addition, check this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=recent;patrol  This is the "Patrol Page", and you will be able to watch in there all the posts made by newbies... check the "quality"

Hi,

1. I want to know if there any planned changes to how the forum operates, with the introduction of new rules and regulations? If such rules are introduced
where are we supposed to look for them?

2. Is there any practice in place for forum cleanups? That is to handle dead/inactive accounts, farmed accounts and such? I speak of accounts already in existence. The merit system effectively aims to do the same in future but what about accounts that have already been established without any standard before the merit system was introduced?

3. Is it going against the rule to ask a question which would discuss maybe a disadvantage( possible issue) associated with Bitcoin? I had a post as such and never received any response for the question posted! Is there any unspoken rule with regard to this in Bitcointalk?

Thank you

Thanks. got it.
No, i didn't ignore any board. I got my answer above.

I've noticed a site called bitcointalk(dot)to. Is this a phishing site?

I think, might be that board is on your Ignore list,  You need to revisit your profile and uncheck the Board in which the topic is posted.

Yea sorry I wasn't clear, I'm familiar with the implementation of the merit system.


I was basically asking if you think it's really the best system to base forum rank on post count? Then ranting about how merit comes in too late in the process. There are a lot of people with undeserved ranks from the way the old system was transferred over sure but raw post count being such an important metric is my issue.

I'm not quite sure of what are you asking, but maybe you are mistaken in one thing: when the merit system was implemented, the people receive a determined number of merits according to the status they already had. For instance, If someone was already a Full Member, he will receive 100 merits when the system comes, that's maybe the reason why you can see many users with 100 merits and tons of posts in their count: if they are shitposters they will remain with their 100 merits forever, for, as long as they don't contribute to the forum it is fairly improbable for them to gain new merits.
Maybe you can just check the date of their accounts creation: if they are from 2017 or before probably they got automatic merits when the system was implemented; if they are pretty new and have had tons of undeserving merits, probably it is a case of merit-farming (against the rules) and you can report them.

It's not really a question but doesn't it kind of seem like a problem that users are basically rewarded with higher ranks for post count even when they don't actually contribute anything? I'm probably biased because I'm basically a lurker on here but it seems like until you hit that merit requirement there's a real incentive to make as many low-quality posts as they can get away with. It's one of the things I don't really get about the forum.

Besides what Jet Cash has recommended to you, take a look at that amazing video another user made: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.40523329

In the thread, you will find a  very well explained and simple video and I think it is going to help you to understand the merit issue!!

I feel this is good because I'm still a new member and need to learn a lot .

The most possible situation is that the post google provided to you has been deleted or moved. When a post is deleted you will always have this message. There are not many boards out of limit, so that's the most probable situation, again: moved or deleted. 

I've never been very much into ICO, and also, this question seems pretty far from the original intention of the thread (remember it was about questions regarding how the forum works), but maybe you will find interesting:
- A post about that: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/airdrop-analysis-spot-a-scam-from-a-mile-away-4496331
- A website to check-out how many possibilities this ICO actually has: https://icorating.com/


Anyway, I've been some related topics circulating in here, just search for them. Sorry, since I'm not into ICO I don't have an answer.

No, is not dumb, in fact, is a headache for many.  
There is not a bookmark tool, but you can learn how to manage your watchlist. If my memory serves me correctly, there was a post On the Beginners board explaining some tricks about the watchlist and its uses, but I can't find it, sorry. Anyway, you can edit your own watchlist in here https://bitcointalk.org/watchlist.php
You will find the watchlist function aside your name, at the superior part of your ṕrofile, under "show my last posts"... etc.

To be honest, I always use my own post history to keep an eye in a post, or my merit history: if a post is amazing, I always try to merit it eventually, so I can go back to it whenever I want (by my merit history or, if it is older than 120 days, by LoyceV or DdmrDdmr tools) and also the user get his/her reward. But, of course, not always is possible, since I don't have always smerits to give.

Hope it helps.

EDIT: jeje, r1s2g3 answered you really well, our quotes crossed their paths!!!
In addition of what he said to you, any topic you visit or quoted is added to your watchlist automatically, so be sure of "unwatch" all those you are not interested in so you can have your watchlist quite clean.

I sure will.

I wrote an article for my merit source blog -

https://talkmerit.com/the-source/index.php/articles/the-bitcoin-talk-merit-system

You can bookmark a post in your browser by clicking on that post (clicking on that particular post will generate the path to that post) Now that linked can be bookmarked.

I am not sure that we get any option of bookmarking a particular post in bitcointalk. If it is for topic then you can put topic on "watch" by clicking "watch".
You can visit your "watchlist" for all the topics you put in watch. Clear this watchlist time to time because I guess all the topics that are visited by user are added to this "watchlist" by default.