Newbie restrictions

[micalith]

looks like they do count but there is still a cooling time for newbies. it's a good system when you think about it. but a pain in the ass for newbies. trolls won't come on if they have to wait 4 fours. some will but only once.

I guess it might discourage the more impatient of trolls, though I'd have thought that they wouldn't be on this sort of forum anyway... oh lovely weather isn't it

[TriplD]

Is there an age limit for newbies? I don't feel very "new". Just kidding.

[Thein2No]

Thanks for this, very sensible. I hate forums which get spammed by newbies ......like me 

[TheRonPaulKid]

same here...

[MoeJoe]

i´m hearing the jeopardy melody all the time 

[Drimacus]

I've spent way more than 4 hours in this forum, but never had an account. ...

[ccplz]

I just registered so I could post a trade offer.

[bulletproofd]

First post! PM's unlocked!

[sido]

isn't it contraproductive? that's weird restrictions

[ccplz]

Well,anything to keep the spammers out I suppose.

[deadweasel]

isn't it contraproductive? that's weird restrictions

It's a poor solution for a problem with nearly no solution.  It slows the onslaught of new accounts created by confirmed scammers.

If you're active, you'll be out of newcomer prison shortly. 

[dmj]

Long time lurker, but posting noob... so I was hoping to be able to post the following reply to https://asktom.cf/index.php?topic=77206.msg1152188#msg1152188 (I know it's old, but it has been referenced to in a number of newer posts).
-----

If we call SHA256 a pseudorandom generator G, we can test the bias of its outputs using any efficient algorithm A such that A(G(k <--R-- ??)) (the algorithm run on pseudorandom numbers) returns 0 with sufficiently higher probability (called the 'advantage') than A(r <--R-- {0, 1}n) (the algorithm run on truly random numbers).

http://www.fourmilab.ch/random/ looks promising. I'll be back.

There are a bunch of non-intuitive issues with randomness/entropy testing, which is a well-studied field, and there is no one (practical) single test that you can run that should satisfy you. The gold standard for many years was the Die Hard battery of tests by George Marsaglia (who discovered, among many other things in the field, that Linear Congruential Generators are of poor quality "randomness", which is basically why fast-but-decent PRNGs use Mersenne Twisters these days). The Die Hard battery was recently rewritten, added to and GPLed by Robert Brown, see here: http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/General/dieharder.php

That said, John Walker (Fourmilab that you linked to) is great, and I used his HotBits about 15 years ago when it first came out, and I wanted "true" randomness (and afaik, nothing else online existed - or for a long time afterwards).

[sido]

It's a poor solution for a problem with nearly no solution.  It slows the onslaught of new accounts created by confirmed scammers.

If you're active, you'll be out of newcomer prison shortly. 

yep, i got it

[crookedkr]

wait the restrictions are 4 hours online and 5 posts? i thought it was 4 hours since the membership was created + 5 posts...ug

[anpk]

wow didn't realize there was a 50 post limit once

[byergo]

Sane rule!

[spanner76]

I haven't said more than 5 things in my whole life, better get started

[frejo]

Good rule, lets keep the trolls at bay 

[willhash4food]

Why do we have to be Chatty McChattersons just to post?

[greenguy]

I think it would be better just to block posters that are trolling than make these rules.