Hey suboz, don't get discouraged... There are a bunch of cool mofos here, but unfortunately, it'll take some time to learn which boards/subs to watch out for and which to ignore. Unfortunately "Bitcoin Discussion" is just a breeding ground for spammers with the sole intent to rank up their activity and member ranks. My favorite feature (regarding these shitposters) is the "Ignore" link, found under every user's information in each post. Just clicking on the "Ignore" will now add that user to your ignore list. While it will still show that the specific user has posted, it won't display their content.
Take a look at the challenge that I'm offering (copy and paste the link in my personal text, under my avatar). I'm trying to hold the hands of (mainly) newbies and shitposters to help them learn how not to shitpost, but you'll find some great lower-ranked members there who actually try very hard to be contributive.
Unfortunately, as others have stated, this forum (which just rolled over it's 2-millionth registered user) is filled with members whose sole purposes are to earn money from bounties and campaigns.
If you learn how to start ignoring those users and staying away from their playgrounds (Bitcoin Discussion, Speculation, etc), you'll actually enjoy your experience here. My second biggest tip of advice? Don't be afraid to view each board/sub-board; just because you're not that technical doesn't mean that you won't find some amazing posts in the Development and Technical Discussion board...
Have fun, and PM me if you have any questions!
Cheers BTCforJoe! I'll go take a look at the challenge link you've provided me and help contribute.
Yeah, I'm not that knowledgeable with BTC, know what segwit is and the basics of bitcoin, fees, etc, but I had a look at the technical session and I swear everyone there is a bitcoin dev!
Some other boards that look cool are scam accusations - a lot of smart people and detective there preventing scams. Can't really find any spammers in those 2 sections so I'll probably stick there.
Welcome to the forum, there are a lot of shit posts to wade through, you might feel like you’re in danger of drowning in them at times but this forum is invaluable as a newbie picking up tips & bits of info to maximise your crypto potential & to keep your coins safe.
Yeah, some sections are great for knowledge.
The merit system was introduced to try to reduce spam. It has been a great help, but it has introduced a whole new begging structure, with people vying with each other to find the best way to beg without appearing to do so.
Word up. And OP, I'm totally with you. When I started lurking here around 2014 or so, right around the time of the full Mt. Gox meltdown, the first thing I noticed was all the nonsense posts--exactly what you pointed out. To me, there seemed to be no reason that anyone of sound mind would waste time posting that sort of thing.
....And then I discovered the reason. And it's the reason why probably 85% of users are registered here: Signature campaigns. They're actually getting paid to post garbage.
It's such a fantastic, novel concept, too. I'm in a campaign myself and I see the appeal it has, the ability to earn bitcoin by just writing some posts. Unfortunately, most campaigns only pay for posts in the main board, which is English. A lot of users who've come here just for the sig campaign paycheck can't write very well, and they have certain phrases they know and use over and over and over, regardless of whether it's appropriate for the context of a given thread.
Then you have a multitude of alt accounts on top of that, and you've got users enrolling >1 account in sig campaigns and thereby cheating them. And if you use just a little bit of imagination, you'll be able to grasp how chaotic it can become here.
My suggestion: Avoid the Economics and Bitcoin Discussion sections, because that's where the thread titles are these vague questions that shitposters have pre-written answers to, and they just do a little spin trick and it becomes a bullshit reassembly factory, and the finished product is nothing you'd want to read. Check out Serious Discussion, Meta, and some of the others and you'll get a feel for which sections haven't been infiltrated by the goon squad.
Ah, I had a look in services and I can see the appeal signature campaigns have. I saw one of them paying out like 300 USD a week! And this is when BTC is dipping! I can definitely see someone buying 4-5 accounts and just posting for 4 hours a day and getting 1.5k USD a week. Defi8ently seems like a possible job, but I assume signature campaigns weren't designed in that way, correct? Bounties look cool though, but a lot of spammers. Might dabble in that...
Thanks, mdayonliner!
I'll definitely get my ledger set up soon and figure out how to sign a message. But my password is pretty safe and I'm using randomly generated passwords from lastpass, so I don't think I'll get hacked.
Yes, Bitcoin Discussion section is a spam pool for signature campaigns, often posted on extra-long threads on meaningless topics about a certain bitcoin price, or what kind of lambo one wants. That is probably the reason why the Bitcoin Discussion section gets the least amount of sMerit of all the main sections.
I tend to only look at threads in that section that have recently been created and don´t have endless pages of replies as a first filter when reading posts there.
Agreed, thanks for the tips!
