All you need to know about this forum.
by on 11/06/2024, 23:15:34 UTC
As a newbie I was told to do my own research in other to know more about this forum and I should take the process of learning bit by bit and that I should search for rules and regulations about this forum and read it very well and that is what I have done for some days now.
I would love to share this to my fellow newbies which I believe will answer all there questions.
Forum rules
1. No zero or low value, pointless or uninteresting posts or threads.
2. No off-topic posts.
3. No trolling.
4. No referral code (ref link) spam.
5. No link shorteners that require users to view an ad.
6. No linking to phishing or malware, without a warning and a valid reason.
7. No begging.
8. No threats to inflict bodily harm, death threats.
9. Discussions in the main boards must be in english. All other language discussions should be posted in the appropriate Local board.
10. No embedded NSFW images anywhere. NSFW content must be marked accordingly.
11. No linking to illegal trading sites.
12. No duplicate posting in multiple boards (except for re-posting topics in the local language boards if they're translated and re-posting marketplace topics in the altcoin boards if altcoins are accepted).
13. Bumps, "updates" are limited to once per 24 hours per thread. Bumping multiple threads at the same time is allowed if it's not annoying.
14. All altcoin related discussion belong in the Alternate cryptocurrencies and its child boards.
15. No on-forum altcoin giveaways.
16. Do not have more than one active sales topic in the Currency exchange board.
17. Trading of goods that are illegal in the seller's or buyer's country is forbidden.
18. Having multiple accounts and account sales are allowed, but account sales are discouraged.
19. Possible (or real) scams and Trust ratings are not moderated (to prevent moderation abuse).
20. There are restrictions when selling accounts and invites for invite-only sites. See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=134779.0
21. Old bumps should be deleted.
22. Advertising (this includes mining pools, gambling services, exchanges, shops, etc.) in others' threads is no longer allowed, including, but not limited to, in altcoin announcement threads.
23. When deciding if a user has broken the rules, the staff have the right to follow their interpretation of the rules.
24. Advertisements (including signatures within the post area) in posts aren't allowed unless the post is in a thread you started and is really substantial and useful.
25. Ban evasion (using or creating accounts while one of your accounts is banned) is not allowed.
26. Local thread rules, if stated properly when the thread was started, specific enough and don't conflict with the forum rules, have to be followed.
27. Using automated translation tools to post translated content in Local boards is not allowed.
28. Exploiting bugs or flaws (even if the result is harmless) in the forum's software is not allowed.
29. Sending unsolicited PMs, including but not limited to advertising and flood, is not allowed.
30. Similar marketplace items must be listed together.
31. User avatars must not contain NSFL or NSFW content, infringe on copyright or attempt to impersonate a user.
32. Posting multiple posts in a row (excluding bumps and reserved posts by the thread starter) is not allowed.
33. Posting plagiarized content is not allowed.
34. Promoting or linking to mixer services is prohibited.
35. Promoting or linking to DDoS services is prohibited.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Q: Why haven't you banned <insert scammer username here> who is an obvious scammer?
A: Possible (or real, not for me to decide) scams are not moderated to prevent moderator abuse. If we start picking out which ones we call "scammers" and ban, we would make a lot of decisions based on biased opinions.
Q: Do you moderate/delete (possible) FUD, accusations and untrue information?
A: No. We don't have enough time to check every single piece of information and verify the validity of the sources. Also, just like scams - too much room for bias and abuse.
However, trolling isn't allowed. If a user is habitually posting obviously false nonsense ("obviously false nonsense" to an outsider, NOT to someone who follows or is involved in the discussion) just to stir up trouble, then it's considered trolling, which is prohibited. Such cases should be thoroughly documented in the report though (There are tons of reports that just say "trolling", but moderators don't have time to look through each user's post).
When it comes to accusations of commercial misconduct, if a user is accusing you / someone else of scamming or defrauding them in your / someone else's sales thread without providing evidence (either in the post itself or by linking to evidence elsewhere), that's considered low value and thus should be reported as such.
Q: Someone insulted me. Why aren't you deleting his post/thread?
A: Possible (since we don't have the time or resources to check) insults are also allowed as long as they contain any kind of constructive opinion, info or something else substantial and aren't off-topic. For example, posting something like "you are dumb" will be deleted as it contains no meaningful content. However, if the post is somewhere along the lines of "You are dumb. This is wrong because this website/thread/etc. has explained it's not right", it's in most cases accepted.
Q: What about deleting DOXes?
A: Nope, we don't delete them either as long as they comply with the following rules:
Quote from: theymos on August 05, 2016, 04:23:54 AM
<...>
1. Personal information must be confined to the new "investigations" board (under Scam Accusations), which is only visible to Members and above. Personal information is defined as anything which links a user's online identity (username, email, etc.) to their meatspace identity, excluding links that the person himself has posted. It is not allowed to post somebody's personal information in any other public place, including in signatures.
2. It is not allowed to post someone's dox if it is especially obvious that you're just using the dox as a weapon. For example, if there are no remotely-plausible trade complaints, then the person can't be a scammer, and their dox should not be posted.
3. As before, anything that the legacy insecure government/banking system requires to be secret is not allowed anywhere. This includes social security numbers, credit card numbers, and certain account numbers.
<...>
Why aren't they deleted? Because such doxing is just compiling information about a user already available publicly, often via search engines.
Q: I saw a guy selling Bitcointalk accounts. Why is that allowed?
A: Since we can't effectively prevent these sales (proxies, TOR, sales on other forums), we don't because otherwise we would be giving the users a false sense of security.
Q: My account was hacked! What do I do?
A: See this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5089777.0. If you don't know how to sign a message, see this thread made by shorena: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=990345.0
If you don't know how to sign a message and the tutorial mentioned before didn't mention your client, google for some tutorials with terms like: "signing messages with <insert your bitcoin client name here>". For example, "signing messages with bitcoin-qt".
Q: What is Trust and how does it work?
A: Trust is Bitcointalk's trade feedback system based on trust (hence the name). The Trust system is made up of 2 components: the Trust list and left feedback.
The Trust list is where you select the users whose feedback on other users you trust and how deep is this trust. You can either trust just their feedback (select the Trust depth as 0), theirs and their trusted users feedback (Trust depth 1), and so on (up to and including Trust depth 4). Trusted feedback will be counted when displayed as numbers to the left of a user's post in trade boards such as Marketplace or Goods. If a you don't set up your own trust list, a default one is used (info on how it is generated can be found here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5095156.0).
The feedback page is where you can leave feedback on other users or see a detailed view of a user's feedback. Trusted feedback will be shown first and untrusted feedback will be hidden by default. You can view it by clicking the link "Show ratings". Last of all, you can see all the feedback the user has left on others.
This covers the basics of the Trust system. If you want a more in depth description of the Trust system and details I probably missed, go here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=211858.0.
Q: What are Trust flags and how do they work?
A: While Trust feedback is meant for trade-related endorsements or accusations, which other forum members can read through to get a general idea of a user's trade history, Trust flags are meant to serve as a more serious equivalent of a negative Trust feedback. There are 3 types of flags:
1. Warning to guests / newbie users that "anyone dealing with this user has a high risk of losing money". Anyone can create this type of flag, even if they weren't impacted by the actions of the user they are flagging.
2. Violation of "a casual or implied agreement". This type of flag should only be created by a member who was directly damaged by the actions of the user they are flagging (e.g. got scammed out of goods or services).
3. Violation of "a written contract". Same as the type 2 flag, but the victim had to have had a written contract with the user they are flagging.
When a flag is created, other forum members can support or oppose it. When calculating if a flag has more supporters or opposition, it uses the same Trust list mechanics as the Trust feedback system (only counts votes of users you "trust"; see previous question for more info about how "trusting" users works). For logged out users (a.k.a. guests), a default Trust list (with the default depth) is used (see previous question for info on how it is generated). A type 1 flag is active if it has more supporters than opposition. For a type 2 or type 3 flag, the flag has to have 3 more supporters than opposition for it to be active.
Active flags are displayed on the flagged user's Trust feedback page (above the trusted feedback list), as warnings on threads they've started (shown only to guests and newbies for type 1 flags and to all users for types 2 and 3) and on their Trust score on their profile page and beside their posts (shown as # symbol for type 1 flags and as a more verbose warning for type 2 and 3 flags). Inactive flags are only shown on the flagged user's inactive flag page (the link to which can be found on the flagged user's Trust feedback page under the "Inactive flags" section).
For a more in depth and detailed explanation, see https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5153344.0.
Q: Why is there a warning displayed on my thread / topic?
A: Either you've been flagged (see previous question) or you have more negative pre-flag (before the flag system was introduced) Trust feedback than positive. The pre-flag feedback (both positive and negative) that is included in the calculation is determined by the thread viewer's Trust list and Trust list depth.
Q: Why isn't trust moderated?
A: Feedback isn't moderated (except for obvious cases such as pure advertising, hundreds of identical empty/gibberish reports on one user) for the same reason as scams - too much room for abuse.
Q: So when is the new forum software coming?
A: Well, according to theymos, some time after February 2015.
Quote from: theymos on February 11, 2014, 02:50:26 AM
<...>
Quote
When will the software be finished?
About one year from now.
<...>
Q: I want to change my forum username. What should I do?
A: You can either donate 50 BTC to become a VIP or PM theymos asking to change your username (although he rarely accepts such requests nowadays).
Q: 50/10 BTC for VIP/donator? Are you all crazy?
A: No, we aren't. Someone who is a donator or a VIP is usually an early adopter and having such a rank means you were either here from the start or you contributed a lot to the Bitcoin community. Although, there is a possibility new cheaper ranks might be added.
Q: Why is my IP banned? What are those units of evil?
A: Your IP might be banned because it was used by a user that got perma banned. Don't worry - IP bans decay over time if there's not too many of them issued during a small period of time. If you register using a banned IP, are using TOR, VPNs or well known proxies, you will have to pay a small fee. This is to prevent spammers while allowing legitimate members to post without many restrictions.
Q: Why was my account banned?
A: You probably have broken one of the rules. Try emailing a message to the specified appeal email shown in your ban message.
Q: How does activity work?
A:
Quote from: theymos on June 18, 2013, 08:44:42 PM
The activity number is determined in this way:
time = number of two-week periods in which you've posted since your registration
activity = min(time * 14, posts)
Activity is updated every hour.
For example, if in a 14 day period you post 14 posts, you gain +14 activity.
If you post 2 posts in a 14 day period, you gain +2 activity.
If you don't post at all in a 14 day period, you don't gain activity.
However, if you post 15 or more posts in a 14 day period, you still gain only +14 activity.
Some extra reading on it: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=582736.0 and https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2766177.0
Q: How do ranks/membergroups work?
A: See this link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178608.msg1861412#msg1861412. If you have the required amount of activity yet are wondering why you haven't ranked up, you might've missed the thread's brief mention of the added Merit requirements.
Q: What is Merit and how does it work?
A: See this link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0. Make sure to check out the linked infographics if you're having trouble understanding how the system (or a part of it) works.
Please all newbie should click on this link below it will take you to see everything you need to know as a newbie in this forum.
Source.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=703657.msg7955645#msg7955645
I would love to share this to my fellow newbies which I believe will answer all there questions.
Forum rules
1. No zero or low value, pointless or uninteresting posts or threads.
2. No off-topic posts.
3. No trolling.
4. No referral code (ref link) spam.
5. No link shorteners that require users to view an ad.
6. No linking to phishing or malware, without a warning and a valid reason.
7. No begging.
8. No threats to inflict bodily harm, death threats.
9. Discussions in the main boards must be in english. All other language discussions should be posted in the appropriate Local board.
10. No embedded NSFW images anywhere. NSFW content must be marked accordingly.
11. No linking to illegal trading sites.
12. No duplicate posting in multiple boards (except for re-posting topics in the local language boards if they're translated and re-posting marketplace topics in the altcoin boards if altcoins are accepted).
13. Bumps, "updates" are limited to once per 24 hours per thread. Bumping multiple threads at the same time is allowed if it's not annoying.
14. All altcoin related discussion belong in the Alternate cryptocurrencies and its child boards.
15. No on-forum altcoin giveaways.
16. Do not have more than one active sales topic in the Currency exchange board.
17. Trading of goods that are illegal in the seller's or buyer's country is forbidden.
18. Having multiple accounts and account sales are allowed, but account sales are discouraged.
19. Possible (or real) scams and Trust ratings are not moderated (to prevent moderation abuse).
20. There are restrictions when selling accounts and invites for invite-only sites. See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=134779.0
21. Old bumps should be deleted.
22. Advertising (this includes mining pools, gambling services, exchanges, shops, etc.) in others' threads is no longer allowed, including, but not limited to, in altcoin announcement threads.
23. When deciding if a user has broken the rules, the staff have the right to follow their interpretation of the rules.
24. Advertisements (including signatures within the post area) in posts aren't allowed unless the post is in a thread you started and is really substantial and useful.
25. Ban evasion (using or creating accounts while one of your accounts is banned) is not allowed.
26. Local thread rules, if stated properly when the thread was started, specific enough and don't conflict with the forum rules, have to be followed.
27. Using automated translation tools to post translated content in Local boards is not allowed.
28. Exploiting bugs or flaws (even if the result is harmless) in the forum's software is not allowed.
29. Sending unsolicited PMs, including but not limited to advertising and flood, is not allowed.
30. Similar marketplace items must be listed together.
31. User avatars must not contain NSFL or NSFW content, infringe on copyright or attempt to impersonate a user.
32. Posting multiple posts in a row (excluding bumps and reserved posts by the thread starter) is not allowed.
33. Posting plagiarized content is not allowed.
34. Promoting or linking to mixer services is prohibited.
35. Promoting or linking to DDoS services is prohibited.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Q: Why haven't you banned <insert scammer username here> who is an obvious scammer?
A: Possible (or real, not for me to decide) scams are not moderated to prevent moderator abuse. If we start picking out which ones we call "scammers" and ban, we would make a lot of decisions based on biased opinions.
Q: Do you moderate/delete (possible) FUD, accusations and untrue information?
A: No. We don't have enough time to check every single piece of information and verify the validity of the sources. Also, just like scams - too much room for bias and abuse.
However, trolling isn't allowed. If a user is habitually posting obviously false nonsense ("obviously false nonsense" to an outsider, NOT to someone who follows or is involved in the discussion) just to stir up trouble, then it's considered trolling, which is prohibited. Such cases should be thoroughly documented in the report though (There are tons of reports that just say "trolling", but moderators don't have time to look through each user's post).
When it comes to accusations of commercial misconduct, if a user is accusing you / someone else of scamming or defrauding them in your / someone else's sales thread without providing evidence (either in the post itself or by linking to evidence elsewhere), that's considered low value and thus should be reported as such.
Q: Someone insulted me. Why aren't you deleting his post/thread?
A: Possible (since we don't have the time or resources to check) insults are also allowed as long as they contain any kind of constructive opinion, info or something else substantial and aren't off-topic. For example, posting something like "you are dumb" will be deleted as it contains no meaningful content. However, if the post is somewhere along the lines of "You are dumb. This is wrong because this website/thread/etc. has explained it's not right", it's in most cases accepted.
Q: What about deleting DOXes?
A: Nope, we don't delete them either as long as they comply with the following rules:
Quote from: theymos on August 05, 2016, 04:23:54 AM
<...>
1. Personal information must be confined to the new "investigations" board (under Scam Accusations), which is only visible to Members and above. Personal information is defined as anything which links a user's online identity (username, email, etc.) to their meatspace identity, excluding links that the person himself has posted. It is not allowed to post somebody's personal information in any other public place, including in signatures.
2. It is not allowed to post someone's dox if it is especially obvious that you're just using the dox as a weapon. For example, if there are no remotely-plausible trade complaints, then the person can't be a scammer, and their dox should not be posted.
3. As before, anything that the legacy insecure government/banking system requires to be secret is not allowed anywhere. This includes social security numbers, credit card numbers, and certain account numbers.
<...>
Why aren't they deleted? Because such doxing is just compiling information about a user already available publicly, often via search engines.
Q: I saw a guy selling Bitcointalk accounts. Why is that allowed?
A: Since we can't effectively prevent these sales (proxies, TOR, sales on other forums), we don't because otherwise we would be giving the users a false sense of security.
Q: My account was hacked! What do I do?
A: See this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5089777.0. If you don't know how to sign a message, see this thread made by shorena: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=990345.0
If you don't know how to sign a message and the tutorial mentioned before didn't mention your client, google for some tutorials with terms like: "signing messages with <insert your bitcoin client name here>". For example, "signing messages with bitcoin-qt".
Q: What is Trust and how does it work?
A: Trust is Bitcointalk's trade feedback system based on trust (hence the name). The Trust system is made up of 2 components: the Trust list and left feedback.
The Trust list is where you select the users whose feedback on other users you trust and how deep is this trust. You can either trust just their feedback (select the Trust depth as 0), theirs and their trusted users feedback (Trust depth 1), and so on (up to and including Trust depth 4). Trusted feedback will be counted when displayed as numbers to the left of a user's post in trade boards such as Marketplace or Goods. If a you don't set up your own trust list, a default one is used (info on how it is generated can be found here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5095156.0).
The feedback page is where you can leave feedback on other users or see a detailed view of a user's feedback. Trusted feedback will be shown first and untrusted feedback will be hidden by default. You can view it by clicking the link "Show ratings". Last of all, you can see all the feedback the user has left on others.
This covers the basics of the Trust system. If you want a more in depth description of the Trust system and details I probably missed, go here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=211858.0.
Q: What are Trust flags and how do they work?
A: While Trust feedback is meant for trade-related endorsements or accusations, which other forum members can read through to get a general idea of a user's trade history, Trust flags are meant to serve as a more serious equivalent of a negative Trust feedback. There are 3 types of flags:
1. Warning to guests / newbie users that "anyone dealing with this user has a high risk of losing money". Anyone can create this type of flag, even if they weren't impacted by the actions of the user they are flagging.
2. Violation of "a casual or implied agreement". This type of flag should only be created by a member who was directly damaged by the actions of the user they are flagging (e.g. got scammed out of goods or services).
3. Violation of "a written contract". Same as the type 2 flag, but the victim had to have had a written contract with the user they are flagging.
When a flag is created, other forum members can support or oppose it. When calculating if a flag has more supporters or opposition, it uses the same Trust list mechanics as the Trust feedback system (only counts votes of users you "trust"; see previous question for more info about how "trusting" users works). For logged out users (a.k.a. guests), a default Trust list (with the default depth) is used (see previous question for info on how it is generated). A type 1 flag is active if it has more supporters than opposition. For a type 2 or type 3 flag, the flag has to have 3 more supporters than opposition for it to be active.
Active flags are displayed on the flagged user's Trust feedback page (above the trusted feedback list), as warnings on threads they've started (shown only to guests and newbies for type 1 flags and to all users for types 2 and 3) and on their Trust score on their profile page and beside their posts (shown as # symbol for type 1 flags and as a more verbose warning for type 2 and 3 flags). Inactive flags are only shown on the flagged user's inactive flag page (the link to which can be found on the flagged user's Trust feedback page under the "Inactive flags" section).
For a more in depth and detailed explanation, see https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5153344.0.
Q: Why is there a warning displayed on my thread / topic?
A: Either you've been flagged (see previous question) or you have more negative pre-flag (before the flag system was introduced) Trust feedback than positive. The pre-flag feedback (both positive and negative) that is included in the calculation is determined by the thread viewer's Trust list and Trust list depth.
Q: Why isn't trust moderated?
A: Feedback isn't moderated (except for obvious cases such as pure advertising, hundreds of identical empty/gibberish reports on one user) for the same reason as scams - too much room for abuse.
Q: So when is the new forum software coming?
A: Well, according to theymos, some time after February 2015.
Quote from: theymos on February 11, 2014, 02:50:26 AM
<...>
Quote
When will the software be finished?
About one year from now.
<...>
Q: I want to change my forum username. What should I do?
A: You can either donate 50 BTC to become a VIP or PM theymos asking to change your username (although he rarely accepts such requests nowadays).
Q: 50/10 BTC for VIP/donator? Are you all crazy?
A: No, we aren't. Someone who is a donator or a VIP is usually an early adopter and having such a rank means you were either here from the start or you contributed a lot to the Bitcoin community. Although, there is a possibility new cheaper ranks might be added.
Q: Why is my IP banned? What are those units of evil?
A: Your IP might be banned because it was used by a user that got perma banned. Don't worry - IP bans decay over time if there's not too many of them issued during a small period of time. If you register using a banned IP, are using TOR, VPNs or well known proxies, you will have to pay a small fee. This is to prevent spammers while allowing legitimate members to post without many restrictions.
Q: Why was my account banned?
A: You probably have broken one of the rules. Try emailing a message to the specified appeal email shown in your ban message.
Q: How does activity work?
A:
Quote from: theymos on June 18, 2013, 08:44:42 PM
The activity number is determined in this way:
time = number of two-week periods in which you've posted since your registration
activity = min(time * 14, posts)
Activity is updated every hour.
For example, if in a 14 day period you post 14 posts, you gain +14 activity.
If you post 2 posts in a 14 day period, you gain +2 activity.
If you don't post at all in a 14 day period, you don't gain activity.
However, if you post 15 or more posts in a 14 day period, you still gain only +14 activity.
Some extra reading on it: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=582736.0 and https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2766177.0
Q: How do ranks/membergroups work?
A: See this link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178608.msg1861412#msg1861412. If you have the required amount of activity yet are wondering why you haven't ranked up, you might've missed the thread's brief mention of the added Merit requirements.
Q: What is Merit and how does it work?
A: See this link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0. Make sure to check out the linked infographics if you're having trouble understanding how the system (or a part of it) works.
Please all newbie should click on this link below it will take you to see everything you need to know as a newbie in this forum.
Source.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=703657.msg7955645#msg7955645