Reconsidering the newbie policy | Bitcointalksearch.org

eldentyrell

donator

Activity: 980

Merit: 1004

felonious vagrancy, personified

Quote from: Vandroiy on October 24, 2011, 10:42:19 AM

Yesterday, I heard the sentence "That forum is locking itself down from serious users, instead encouraging kiddies with too much time on their hands to join." Generally, I agree. Someone who simply wants to comment on a discussion will not want to play strange (and largely useless) games to be able to do so.

+1

It's pretty embarrassing what we put the Xilinx_guy through; this does not lend credibility to bitcoin in the eyes of established businesses. I can't help but wonder how many other people have been driven away by this policy.

theymos

administrator

Activity: 5222

Merit: 13032

Quote from: Brian DeLoach on October 26, 2011, 07:58:46 PM

Are you switching to a whole new software suite?

See:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/rfc-new-forum-software-specifications-45372

Brian DeLoach

vip

Activity: 166

Merit: 100

Quote from: theymos on October 24, 2011, 09:33:18 PM

The next software will fix this.

Are you switching to a whole new software suite?

theymos

administrator

Activity: 5222

Merit: 13032

The next software will fix this. Until that software is finished, I think it's better to keep the restrictions.

Maged

legendary

Activity: 1204

Merit: 1015

In many ways, I agree. We just don't have as much conversation in the Newbie forum that newbies can take part in anymore ever since the rate that new users joined dropped. In fact, I've found that I've been approving about 80% of the whitelist requests, compared to more like 10% back then, pretty much for that reason.

That being said, it's done wonders in keeping the community stable. Whether that's a good or a bad thing could be up to personal interpretation...

Vandroiy

legendary

Activity: 1036

Merit: 1002

I am fully aware that a lock-down against new users was required in June and July, when the forums massively degenerated to a flamewar between madmen, trolls, channers and superpositions of the three. But this was a short event that has largely calmed down now.

Yesterday, I heard the sentence "That forum is locking itself down from serious users, instead encouraging kiddies with too much time on their hands to join." Generally, I agree. Someone who simply wants to comment on a discussion will not want to play strange (and largely useless) games to be able to do so.

This forum is a central point for the Bitcoin community. Warding off newcomers is a serious problem, since it might decide whether they stay with Bitcoin in general or not.

My suggestion would be to try revert to a quick join policy. Maybe get a few more moderators equipped with banhammers, adding temporary IP bans. Quick bans are entirely unproblematic, they only go against people who can't behave.

Topic: Reconsidering the newbie policy (Read 1091 times)