I remember the old forum from my days of noobness. It wasn't until 2013 when it was clear that BFL had really fucked me over that I decided to join the forum and vent about my Jalapenos and SCs that never arrived.
Funny how I never got to the complaining part as I got caried away when BTC hit $1k for the first time. Almost seemed like it happened faster than the 2017/18 peak. In fact, it did.
Topic: [BCT FACT] Bitcointalk was originally on Bitcoin.org but ... drama - page 2. (Read 1320 times)
November 22, 2019, 08:06:43 PM
November 22, 2019, 08:04:06 PM
I didn't know EFF refused a Bitcoin donation for tax reasons, TIL.
Basically there were a lot of Bitcoin donations-- thousands of Bitcoin-- sent to the EFF and then they decided they didn't want them, and they handed them over to Gavin.I think it's really good to learn about history from primary material like these logs-- it wipes away a lot of the bullshit hero worship and false certainty, like the idea that great leaders usually have any freeking clue what they're doing, that shows up in more derivative historical work. But it has limitations: you're stuck with the misconceptions that existed at the time
My recollection is that their reasoning was more complicated than "tax reasons"-- essentially they were concerned that if they accepted Bitcoin they'd have a conflict of interest that might impede their ability to defend Bitcoin in the courts. E.g. if any use of Bitcoin was criminal then the EFF might have been a defendant in anti-bitcoin litigation. My understanding is that they were also getting flak from some of their donors for 'endorsing a scam'.
Here is EFF's blog post https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/06/eff-and-bitcoin ... it seems to backup my recollection.
November 22, 2019, 06:52:23 PM
I didn't know EFF refused a Bitcoin donation for tax reasons, TIL.
These IRC conversations also show why the forum had the newbie jail for a while. It wouldn't be until 2013 when the forum faced another huge influx of new users.
These IRC conversations also show why the forum had the newbie jail for a while. It wouldn't be until 2013 when the forum faced another huge influx of new users.
November 22, 2019, 05:19:29 PM
One thing about going over these old logs which I didn't recall was the claim "bitcoinj might end", which I don't have more more context for, or at least don't remember the context for. Clearly Mike Hearn was pretty cross about the illegal activities discussion.
I believe BCT has an order of magnitude more active posters and posts than the Bitcoin subreddit or any other single bitcoin-related venue. It's not hyper-engineered to capture and spoon-feed a massive passive reader base like reddit or twitter.
Hm? The design is more or less that of most other SMF style forums, it's not uncommon.
I don't see any technobabble here!
Maybe it's just me, but bitcointalk continues to give an eerie vibe of discovery with its obscurity still...
I believe BCT has an order of magnitude more active posters and posts than the Bitcoin subreddit or any other single bitcoin-related venue. It's not hyper-engineered to capture and spoon-feed a massive passive reader base like reddit or twitter.
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The unorthodox design, the technobabble that members talk about... Everything from top to bottom with this forum, at least to me, still looks and feels geeky to me.
Hm? The design is more or less that of most other SMF style forums, it's not uncommon.
I don't see any technobabble here!
November 22, 2019, 02:39:44 PM
Thanks for this piece of history. It's nice to have the background on how things came to be with bitcointalk. Maybe it's just me, but bitcointalk continues to give an eerie vibe of discovery with its obscurity still... The unorthodox design, the technobabble that members talk about... Everything from top to bottom with this forum, at least to me, still looks and feels geeky to me.
November 22, 2019, 02:20:30 PM
I like the separated setup. It allows the bitcoin.org domain to be somewhat more neutral and the bitcointalk domain to promote certain values and opinions that if were on the bitcoin.org domain might be exerting too much control over Bitcoin.
November 22, 2019, 01:48:44 PM
Someone should remind me sometime and I'll write about when I was offered stewardship of the bitcoin.org domain and how glad I am I didn't accept it.
You dodged a bullet there.
hero member
Activity: 728
Merit: 1006
BountyPortal Supporter & Hhampuz is my manager
November 22, 2019, 01:07:30 PM
I tried opening the contents of the forum on May 03, 2014 through web.archieve.org
And I found this:
http://web.archive.org/web/20140503031758/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=56400.0
The scammer tag. Is this tag the first trust system in this forum?
And I found this:
http://web.archive.org/web/20140503031758/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=56400.0
The scammer tag. Is this tag the first trust system in this forum?
-snip-
I like theymos signature. November 22, 2019, 01:01:28 PM
@theymos What is Respect BTW 
It was an SMF mod used here for only a short time as an experiment. IIRC, you could upvote/downvote users, but there were no effective limits/controls, so it was kind of meaningless.
November 22, 2019, 12:58:27 PM
Do we have any archive or something of the forum when it was running as bitcoin.org/smf/ or forums.bitcoin.org?
Yes there are archives of forum when it was in the older domain. But it's the same forum as it is used to be now but with less boards like when you see the oldest archive of the bitcoin.org/smf domain, there were only 2 boards present (Bitcoin Discussion and Technical Support) boards.
https://web.archive.org/web/20091215005450/http://bitcointalk.org/
If someone is not willing to visit the link posted above, here is a pic of that :
Another Interesting fact is gavin was the administrator and theymos was a global moderator at the time when satoshi left and there was a feature like posts per day near your total post count in your profile and something like Respect was present.
@theymos What is Respect BTW
November 22, 2019, 12:42:37 PM
Do we have any archive or something of the forum when it was running as bitcoin.org/smf/ or forums.bitcoin.org?
You're on it. Nothing was changed except the URL/domain.
November 22, 2019, 12:23:54 PM
Do we have any archive or something of the forum when it was running as bitcoin.org/smf/ or forums.bitcoin.org?
I only know about these:https://bitcointalk.org/oldSiteFiles/
https://bitcointalk.org/first_topics/
BitcoinTalk’s first posts and some old files.
November 22, 2019, 12:20:17 PM
Do we have any archive or something of the forum when it was running as bitcoin.org/smf/ or forums.bitcoin.org?
November 22, 2019, 11:53:16 AM
I registered here a couple weeks after that conversation. Vaguely remember checking out the forums a month or two prior on the old domain.
Good times. I miss the early(er) days.
Good times. I miss the early(er) days.
November 22, 2019, 11:49:14 AM
I just can agree with others in here , realy nice and to read the conversation .
Some history again that not much today knows , gmaxwell thanks for the Information and the Thread.
Should be quoted or posted in some History Threads we have here on the Forum.
Some history again that not much today knows , gmaxwell thanks for the Information and the Thread.
Should be quoted or posted in some History Threads we have here on the Forum.
November 22, 2019, 10:24:19 AM
Haha less than a 2 hour stint as a global Mod. Interesting to know that the forum and Bitcoin have been declared dead for nearly the same amount of time.
What can I say I applaud the commitment you "old timers" have put into this space.
What can I say I applaud the commitment you "old timers" have put into this space.
November 22, 2019, 09:28:00 AM
I realized I missed the earlier part of the discussion. If you read the logs earlier and found them interesting, go back to the top!
Theymos, thanks for the example-- I felt a little uneasy about being specific about some of the more crazy stuff that was posted early on, your example using Ross' announcement of silk road is a great example.
Theymos, thanks for the example-- I felt a little uneasy about being specific about some of the more crazy stuff that was posted early on, your example using Ross' announcement of silk road is a great example.
November 22, 2019, 09:24:01 AM
That makes me nostalgic for when I was quite that naïvely revolutionary. The forum was pretty crazy back then...What an awesome thread! You guys have a ton of great ideas. Has anyone seen Silk Road yet? It's kind of like an anonymous amazon.com. I don't think they have heroin on there, but they are selling other stuff. They basically use bitcoin and tor to broker anonymous transactions. It's at http://tydgccykixpbu6uz.onion. Those not familiar with Tor can go to silkroad420.wordpress.com for instructions on how to access the .onion site.
This has big publicity potential and could increase the user base. It's just a bit difficult for them to build reputation as most people don't want to publicly admit they bought from there. Maybe private recommendations will do. Or people can say "I know somebody who successfully bought from them".
Or was jgarzik the one to suggest that domain?
He came up with it.
November 22, 2019, 08:43:02 AM
It'll be interesting to know what users reflections are on moving now that its been done.
Seems like it was already decided that it was going to be called Bitcointalk.org before it was registered? Or was jgarzik the one to suggest that domain?
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2011-06-15 04:07:10 I'll even purchase the domain (bitcointalk.org?) for 10 years, register w/ privacy enhanced domain registrar, and transfer it to theymos or whomever wants it
Seems like it was already decided that it was going to be called Bitcointalk.org before it was registered? Or was jgarzik the one to suggest that domain?
November 22, 2019, 07:22:11 AM
Thank you. I love to read all these old time stories.
Another interesting fact maybe not so forum related was that after the 10 000 bitcoin pizza Laszlo bough some more pizza but using the Lightning network
Another interesting fact maybe not so forum related was that after the 10 000 bitcoin pizza Laszlo bough some more pizza but using the Lightning network
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