Calling out noobs and having an issue with them because they're starting later then the rest of us doesn't really sound like a healthy attitude does it?
No, is not. Sometimes I've done it by myself (not calling someone a noob, but yes, some of them are so desperate to get merits that it makes me feel uncomfortable with them).
I think the forum is now in a bad shape and, also, one can have a bad day. Sometimes I got lost in between so many crappy posts that, by the moment I quote one, I'm not in the best mood. Of course this my fault only, but, well, it is a social place, so this kind of things happens.
But, yes, I do feel that encouraging is far better than insulting, but you know, sometimes it is not possible.
I agree a lot with that.
I'm up for giving people a chance, not giving them a free ride here. If they don't learn and keep talking nonsense after a while of being here, they're probably not worth keeping here.
The issue is becoming that people just pick on newbies and they leave (even if they have enthusiasm in Bitcoin), this isn't something we want to promote here.
The confrontation thing also, there are a lot of people here from many different backgrounds so there are obviously going to be clashes in how people do stuff. (like the apparent issue with people putting "sir" in their messages)
Mostly altcoins are the issue, if we got rid of the altcoin section and moved it to a sister forum (altcointalk.org) we would probably see quite a reduction in spam.
If you mean the altcoin section of bitcointalk, I would disagree with you. Those other sections I mentioned are just as bad as Altcoin Discussion. I don't include the tokens or bounties sections in my assessment,
as it's all spam there.Exactly my point.
Most of the people I see looking for merits, if you look at their post history you'll see the majority of the last 20 posts were in the altcoin boards (I say the last page because I generally fall asleep before going to the next page).
You say everyone is to blame for the shitposting situation, and I would argue that there's mostly a problem at the top. There's a tolerance of this crap because it brings traffic and some people think that people spamming for signature campaigns is healthy to the crypto economy. That's why OGNasty excluded me from his trust list--he thought I was somehow bullying noob shitposters. So that's what you get when someone tries to do something about it. If you recall in December and January, Meta was filled with people complaining about the tags actmyname and I were leaving for shitposters. It's not as though we were standing around and accepting the deterioration of the forum.
I'm probably of the same opinion. If we keep them quarenteened in the bitcoin discussion section and meanwhile have actual discussions in serious discussion then the forum gets more revenue from its ads as they get more views on the forum.
A lot of spam megathreads gets noticed and closed quite often also on those boards.
My overly cynical take on newbies like OP who make suggestions about how the ranking system should be improved is that they're either 1) alt accounts looking for merits, or 2) just looking for merits. Yes, I could be totally wrong but having seen so much of it since January, I've come to expect this sort of thing. Before then, there weren't that many low-ranked members posting in Meta, since they were all too busy shitposting for their bounties. Now that they need merits to rank up and earn more money, they've figured out where the merits are being given out (Meta is a big section if I'm not mistaken) and also which merit-source opinions to agree.
I'd say for the low level knowledge meta is the place to be to get merits. If you want merits and you have actual things to discuss with some knowledge behind them, the technical boards are more where there is merit available.
Merit sources are mostly around the meta section also as that's how they apply to be merit sources in the first place, I personally try to make attempts to avoid meta but I like to be on the forum and there doesn't seem to be as many people to help in the technical boards anymore (not sure whether that's good or bad).