As much as I'd like to see more restrictions for Newbies, I think theymos has a point:
The things on the forum which encourage spam are allowed mainly because it's part of the forum's mission to be as free as possible.
~snip~
Limiting newbie participation is very harmful for a community. ~ When barriers to participation are too high, then the best people often just won't go to the trouble of joining, and the people who are willing to jump through the hoops are often people who aren't good for the community: people with nothing better to do, scammers, get-rick-quickers, etc. Having a permanent newbie jail policy would improve things a lot in the short-term, but would end up being a fatal poison to the community.
I don't see limiting newbies' ability to post in the lending board as having a big affect on the forum. Certainly not in the way theymos' quoted comments suggests it might. Real users who create new accounts aren't coming here for handouts, and their ability to ask pertinent questions and learn from the community aren't going to be hampered by the inability to post in the lending board.
As much as I agree with the intent and sentiment of theymos's comment (and I do tremendously,) I don't think this comment applicable to my suggestion.
I'd say it's much better if people stop off-topic posts in response. There's no need to tell them they should try their bank because they don't have collateral, and there's no need to tell them they won't get a loan. Just ignore the topic.
The same goes for the Currency exchange board, and I'm guilty of it too. When a Newbie scammer asks to buy 500,000 Bitcoins in cash, once in a while I can't stop myself from responding.
I'm guilty also, and honestly I feel dirty every time I snap at one of these newbies with the same drivel that I've posted numerous times. I certainly don't want to give the appearance that I'm spamming my signature all over the lending board, but I'm not so sure others have the same reservation.
As long as scams aren't moderated, I'm with eddie13 on this:
Should never have put the temporary illusion of safety above personal liberty..
ie tagging and chasing away “likely scammers” and crushing the unique economic dynamic of account sales..
This forum started acting like protecting idiots is more important than letting users express their free wills..
How many countless good and intelligent users have been chased away because they “might” scam..
I absolutely 100% agree with eddie13 here, but again how applicable is this to the trends of newbies in the lending board? Most who post a loan request within their first few posts get red-tagged, and don't come back anyway. Any who come here only for the loan aren't likely to participate in other discussions regardless, so there's nothing lost. If a newbie comes here only to request a loan and finds that he's incapable of posting a loan request, one of two things are likely to happen: He'll contribute to the forum until he is capable of posting his loan request, or he'll hit the road and never come back. If it's the former, that would actually help the forum and in the process the newbie might realize there's more to this forum than a potential hand-out. If it's the latter, then end result is the same as if newbie got red-tagged then took off.
Look at it from a Newbie's perspective: he joins a forum, and sees all those people loaded with Bitcoin handing out money! "I want in on that!" is a natural reaction.
I think we should stop protecting people from taking risks: if they're dumb enough to send their money to a Newbie with no forum history, they're on their own.
My suggestion isn't about protecting lenders or preventing defaulted loans, the lenders are quite capable of taking care of themselves. My suggestion is about reducing spam and trolling, and keeping the lending board a clean and practical place to conduct business.