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Posts: 915 | Thanked: 3,209 times | Joined on Jan 2011 @ Germany
#16
Originally Posted by reinob View Post
Just an idea: newcomers need to pass a "test" before they can post for the first time.

The test is interactive: you are told to read a wiki page (e.g. reflashing), and then you have to answer a question, e.g. type a command you should have found on the wiki page. Then another question, e.g. search for something specific and then answer a multiple-choice question, etc.
That doesn't work and frankly the moment such a technique will be implemented I'll be gone (even if it wouldn't affect me due to my post counter or whatever).
It handicaps ordinary users (maybe just due to their poor English skills - imagine the wiki was in Klingon and you'd have to answer questions to post here) but doesn't actually prevent someone from making stupid posts.
The same idea is behind all DRM techniques: They are designed to prevent "bad boys" from doing something nasty but in the end it's only/mostly the regular users that suffer from the restrictions.

The problem isn't newbies, the problem is ignorants (and trolls). I have no problem with taking people by the hand who don't know things, I have a problem with people who don't (want to) learn and expect me to spoon-feed them. That's two totally different things.
The problem we're facing here is not a technical but a social one and it can not be solved by technical means but only by social means. To achieve that we need a broad consensus in the community to ignore trolls, a forum team of moderators that is generous in interpreting but strict in enforcing transparent community(-made) rules and a close relationship between ordinary community members and team members (there must not be a us-vs.-them perception).
 

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