They need to promote it actively and start few incentives so that more and more people can join which is a method even bitcointalk adopted after which more people started getting active here. I also started when someone told me about how you could earn bitcoins from faucets and use it as a currency to trade.
That's quite true. I am still not sure how much of them are really aware about IndiaBits forum! After I spoke with Gabru last week, they are totally against any sorts of trade or marketplace like stuff in the forum and they are feeling like it would certainly pave way for scams. This seems to be right from a forum's admin point of view and it totally differs from the way bitcointalk operates. Here scams aren't moderated and users should do their own diligent research before getting involved in anything which demands their money. Though I am not completely favouring the creation of forum nor endorsing the forum, but I believe the forum can we be a good way of connecting with various important personalities in Indian crypto community if they create a account there and discuss things.
The fact that there are so many active members of the group is something positive but actually there isn't much to discuss on the forum as there are barely any exchanges (except P2P) and hence not many websites in India even accept bitcoins as a payment method. Except taxes and problems, we don't even have topics to discuss. Also, telegram group is much more private than an open forum.
I agree with this. Taxation and Legality are the only important problems we are facing currently and there isn't much of them even interested in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies after the outright ban draft being circulated. Common Indian people are quite afraid to deal with bitcoin nowadays and they are no way the same as it was years back. There was an incident which happened last month to me when I started introducing bitcoin to some of my friends. Once they got to know about the legality they started blaming and was talking shit without knowing about the tech behind the coin completely. Not just me, the same incident would happen to every one of us when we start introducing bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to our friends.
@Heisenberg_Hunter, do you know the owner of this forum?
The group which handles the IndiaBits telegram group is the one who created the forum. I guess Gabru is the only admin of the forum as of now.
Do you think the admin is trustworthy enough not to share our IP address to the enforcement authority upon receiving such request.
Not sure. I am using TOR for connecting with IndiaBits, so there wouldn't be any problem for me I guess.
I find bitcointalk more secure because I know Theymos won't entertain such requests from any enforcement agencies unless a serious scam is involved! Do you have such assurance from Indiabits??
My question may seem little odd, but since India is planning to criminalize cryptos, it is always better to be cautious!
There is nothing to be odd about the question since everyone are very much concerned over their own privacy in an online forum. As far as I know there is a major difference between privacy and getting involved in a discussion forum. I had been there from day 3 in IndiaBits, but I never use the forum without connecting through TOR or at least a weak VPN whereas on the other hand I use bitcointalk with my own IP. The forum is based upon in Indian and there are many ways for the government officials to sue the forum if on very bad situations. Even if my account gets caught and the officials try to get my IP, they will be varying every day and every time I close and open my TOR. That would make them certainly not possible to track me down.
But the case of bitcointalk is very different since they are operated from USA. Even if the Indian government issue a subpoena to leak our IP, theymos would neglect their proposal since he is against these sorts of things. Weather or not IndiaBits admin is trustworthy, I would never use the forum without TOR.
P.S : I am no way related or endorsing to use the forum. Just that the forum might be helpful for us to reach a wider range of Indian crypto enthusiast.