Topic: Is this forum getting worse and worse? (Read 2174 times)

The sad reality; everyone starts at the same point, grabbing onto their best gear in anticipation for a rocket shoot -- of which, most great shooters ain't even on the know they'd be this great...and, it isn't a fair play at the end! Some would gain momentum with few paces, others will only feel the emptiness. Like a shadow, it fades away when a beam of light is moved yonder; with prowess and 100% effort, the results are still undesirable.

It has never happened - that a new revolution and Renaissance supersedes the ancient ones.. we gotta realize that the knowledge of the prehistoric ancestors and heroes knew no bounds. Evolution & history? Soccer? Recognition of early scientist and discovery? Name them..... Why do I read too much of old threads? There are still more legacies left in them!

Age is the factor here. Most old folk have been in the forum for a long time now they see the forum to be boring, they also feel they know a lot about the forum and there is nothing new to learn. It's all wrong, this is only the beginning of the forum and who are those persons to help with its success? The Gen Z of course. I see a lot of DT members are bitcoiners who have been in Bitcoin for decades and are over 40 to 5 years old. I their perspective of the forum is that the forum is getting worse then dont ell that to newbies in the forum. The newbies see the forum as a new home, they are excited to have joined but i bet that these old folks don't see the forum in such a way. You know when you have too much of something you tend to lose value in it that is the feeling that propelled this topic.

I still consider myself new to the forum as well. Fillipone I am in support.

I would place us somewhere in the middle-- part of the next generation, yet still respecting and inheriting the ideals of the previous one.

I always thought that you were older than me on this forum because of your high number of merits and good knowledge but I just checked and you registered here in 2018 while I registered in 16. Btw I don't feel like an old member because when I was registered here, I was a kid to be honest who was learning English and this forum tremendously helped me to improve my skills. Also this forum helped me to understand finances better and I learnt more from everyone. Bitcoin and bitcointalk are things that made my life better. I'm almost addicted to this forum. Once I left this forum for some months, then for a year or two and I was craving it. It became a habit for me to post here and I also love when I see familiar faces. Many of you are in my memories 

I was a kid when I registered here, I'm still very young. I have a curious question, where am I? Am I the first generation of Bitcoiners or the part of new generation? The new generation is people of my age but I learnt about it with the first generation but I was a kid.

What do I have to say?  

But, it is a place for discussion as well. It wouldn't be the latter if it couldn't have done a good job by being the former. And as you rightly said, what matters is the direction. So, where are we heading to? What does the new generation of Bitcoiners have to offer? Do they share the same vision as the first generation? In my view, both these questions have disappointing answers.

Maybe I'm mistaken, and it's simply that a vastly greater number of people have entered the space for the economic principles of Bitcoin, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I just wish there was more of the cypherpunk spirit still alive within these boards.

(To clarify, there are still cypherpunk minds actively influencing Bitcoin's development. However, under the current status quo, Bitcoin's progress is slow because consensus needs to be reached in key areas for meaningful growth. This process can be particularly challenging and demanding overall.)

so much this. @fillippone has posted more useful information in his what, ~6 years than i have posted on this (or any other forum) in my entire life.

Don't sell yourself short, though.  Older doesn't automatically equal better.  Your contributions, from what I've seen, have always been substantial in terms quality.  There are users who have been around longer than you, but I wouldn't be able to say the same of their contributions.   

I stopped feeling "new" I mean I started feeling "old" after I'd been here more than half the time the forum (or Bitcoin for that matter) exists. Give it time

In addition, most members comfortably don't contribute to the forum because they know the forum is doing just well without them. The knowledge they've impacted in the forum is yielding great results as many forum members have learned from the grassroots to a greater length of Bitcoin knowledge. Aside from the forum, most bitcoin developers like "Gavin Andresen" don't add codes to bitcoin anymore nor does he share posts here anymore. When asked he said something similar and mentioned he had to move on for the young coders to continue. Besides he has a soft spot for shiny new ideas.  Below is a screenshot of his response.



Priorities changes and people find fun in trying new ideas.

https://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2024/03/its-doing-that-thing-again.html

I'm afraid I have to disagree that the forum is getting worse and worse.
I still consider myself particularly new to the forum, as I only crossed the way with some historical members, and I have not lived the most glorious years with Satoshi, Hal and the other Bitcoin OG.

The forum is not a chat. All those users are still with us (o_e_l_e_o included), and the greatness of the forum is that we can continue with them, quoting, reposting, and cross-analyze to "interact" with their thoughts in this forum.

The vast majority of posts are only slightly above the mediocre level. Probably, but the point is the direction.
This forum is not just a place for discussion but an invaluable resource for spreading knowledge. We must recognise that this is the main goal; we must preserve this resource, not just for ourselves but for the future generations of Bitcoiners who will follow us.
Regardless of its immediate impact, every post contributes to the accumulation of knowledge in this forum. It's not about every post being remembered but about the knowledge stacking up, post after post, for the benefit of all.

Maybe because that is the main point of 99% altcoins? If you dig in the history, just a little bit, then it should be enough to burst the bubble, related to "good, old coins, like X or Y". For example, imagine reading those things today, about some new altcoin: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ann-litecoin-a-lite-version-of-bitcoin-launched-47417


Or maybe this, if you wonder, how Monero started: https://web.archive.org/web/20140520010917/http://wiki.darkcoin.eu/wiki/FAQ

And then, you go on forum, you read posts like "altcoins are about innovations, not about mining". Then, you open ANN threads and FAQ pages for those altcoins, and read them, seeing exactly, how many paragraphs are specifically about mining, and how many discussions were related strictly into that. Also, you read posts about "good, old altcoins, without any premine", then you explore them, and see exactly, how many of their coins were premined. Then, you read some discussion about a number of confirmations, and, guess what: Litecoin ANN thread, directly says "wait for 4x more confirmations".

When it comes to Monero, there is even more drama: imagine having a new altcoin today, with its ANN thread, changed from altcoin X into Y (here: Monero ANN thread was changed into Dash). Imagine reading about "the number of created coins, depending on the network difficulty", and think, how it could be easily gamed by miners, who could easily pretend, that "the difficulty was low, so we created a lot of coins". Imagine reading about some altcoin, and about being unable to easily calculate the real network hashrate, because "X hashes in algo A equals Y hashes in algo B".

So, after reading all of that, after digging in the history, and just scratching the surface, are you really sure, that today, we are in a worse situation, than in the past? In case of many altcoins, they had more luck, than knowledge and code. If you check the history, then you notice, that Litecoin is not "just a fork of Bitcoin", but we had "a fork of a fork of a fork thing" long before 2017. Also, in case of Monero, you have more posts about mining algos and hashrate, than about the math, solving the problem with address reuse.

I salute your conversation, you mention the existence of Bitcoin's price and its busier community. We see that Bitcoin's price stays in the same position for a long time. If we playback a few years ago, there we see the Bitcoin price was held in the same position long time. Sometimes increases a few and a few decrease but the increasing value is not much more. At that time the audience's movement were'nt busier. But when the price of Bitcoin is increasing day by day that time the crypto-holders start their movement. At that time a much larger audience are busy learning more about crypto and Bitcoin.

So, we think that the busiest time is not so far from the Bitcoin Community.

I believe the reduction in activity has also been caused by the difficulty of ranking up after the merit system was introduced. That's not new news but you get my point. I'm not against it by any means; the forum was attracting a lot of spammers that would have ranked up to higher ranks if it weren't for it and still are, but the number is considerably lower. We're reporting an average of 2 AI spammers per week, more or less, which to me shows that a a considerable number of users cannot produce content that's merit worthy.

However, I don't think the forum is becoming considerably worse. I wasn't fond of the mixer ban, a controversial topic that sparked many differences, but it's better than risking the forum shutdown by the Feds. Are there uninteresting topics? Certainly, but there's also an abundance of interesting topics from reputable users who are still producing quality content.

This forum is not alone for having boring content.

Reddit suffers from the same problem. Whenever I visit my favorite subs, they always have the same boring titles and discussions.

People are addicted to fear and adrenaline.

When someone loses his grandma’s $700k inheritance money on intc, millions of people speak about it. That’s news. That attracts clicks.

Otherwise nobody cares what shitcoins do.

Aw maan $700k on intc what a fucking moron you should have bought bitcoin noob

"Parabola and excitement" is not how I define "genuine interest". A decade ago, people's ideas ranged from scalability and privacy solutions to resisting totalitarian governments through the use of a currency without trusted third parties. These concepts are brilliant, and intellectually stimulating. Today, the primary concern seems to be when "the number will go up". I don't deny that I appreciate the gains, but I believe it's crucial to remember where we're coming from. It seems to me that the vast majority here have little to no interest in the cypherpunk spirit, and that's just sad.

Take a look at this thread I created a couple of days ago: Say no to maximalism. In it, I argue that Bitcoin maximalism has a negative impact on the space, as it stifles intellectual growth. I believe we should critically evaluate the tradeoffs of other networks without letting Bitcoin's status as a currency bias our judgment. This discussion isn't about "investing" or "market cap", yet notice how many people in the replies focus on those aspects.

I think that has been said before, possibly it aligns with the period we are in Bitcoin four year cycles. I imagine the forum will be buzzing with activity when we enter the peak bull phase of this epoch, which should be in 2025.

At the moment there is no excitement due to the relatively boring price action. With parabola and excitement surrounding Bitcoin’s price, comes a surge in activity here at bitcointalk.org. I’d suggest this place will be a lot busier with a lot more activity this time next year.

The key thing that happens is a reduction in activity. In the last few years, more active members have left than new ones have arrived (who are constructively active).
Nevertheless, this forum still enjoys a good reputation and maintains relevance in the crypto community. Still, many beginners as well as the services themselves come here for advice, as discussions from Bitcointalk are still often mentioned in various analyses on third parties.
So, less activity, definitely yes. Still, the relevance of the forum is certainly yes.

I totally disagree that the forum is getting worse. It was founded in 2009 by the great Satoshi Nakamoto but in the early days there weren’t many members and Bitcoin was a niche idea, a form of payment with very little adoption.

We are in 2024, Bitcoin is a real world commodity, we have institutional investment in Bitcoin and we are getting closer and closer to mainstream adoption. This forum is the flagship place to chat about and discover Bitcoin. We have many different Local Boards where people from all over the world come to learn about and discuss Bitcoin. There is a Collectibles section, a Gambling Section where very established crypto sportsbooks and crypto casinos advertise. This forum is big business for many companies.

The forum helps people link with like-minded individuals. I have met multiple people from this forum who have become real life friends. One was a guest at my wedding last year. The forum, through its many helpful members and sources of information has made many people very wealthy but also helped people in under developed countries out of poverty.

There are many ways to make money here, not just through signature campaigns. You can participate in many pools and competitions in the Gambling section that have multiple prizes. There are escrow providers here that help facilitate trades. We have established loan providers in the Lending Section.

This forum is the best place to learn about Bitcoin. There are so many helpful posters here. I got into Bitcoin 10 years ago, this place taught me so much, I have soaked up so much knowledge from the many helpful posters here. I wouldn’t be in the very comfortable position I am in life if I hadn’t found this forum in 2014.

So back to the question, is the forum getting worse? I can tell you 100% that the answer is no. If you don’t like posting here then leave, nobody is forcing you to be here. The forum is getting bigger and better every single year.

I have only recently discovered this thread when it popped up again in August. My own opinion to the topic is a bit divided.

I'm active mainly in the Spanish and German subforums and some parts of the English section. And the developments in the last years in these sections weren't exactly the same.

The Spanish forum was the first I used, and at first (let's say until 2015/16) was quite active. But then some high profile members left and the section was almost dead, until new people popped up around 2018/19. Particularly one of them became one of the most prolific and high-quality contributors of the entire Bitcointalk forum and they also were very active in the local Spanish subforum with interesting topics. A few months ago they reduced their activity drastically, and since then the Spanish forum has again much less activity, although there is also almost no spam anymore (probably thanks to Merit). New users almost never pop up which is really a pity. I think the forum has also still SEO issues, even if it now show on the first page on Google for "foro bitcoin".

The German forum's development was different, it was much more steadily active in the time between 2015 and 2021-22 and so during this time it became my "home" here Recently (about 2-3 years ago) there was a generational change it seems which brought some new people into the subforum, some with very interesting and very elaborated content, while the OGs from about 2015 reduced their activity. But also here, in 2024 one of the high-profile quality posters reduced their activity greatly, but at the same time thanks to other users of the "new generation" there was still a quite high level of activity. New users sometimes pop up, much more than in the Spanish subforum, but only few stay. Spam is very unfrequent.

I found the English sections interesting at first but from about 2016 on I felt they went downhill and filled with spam, but some sections were still worth reading (the technical sections). For me the worst time was 2017, from 2018 on with Merit the situation improved, but very slowly. The recent removal of the Mixer signature campaigns probably helped to reduce the spam level further, but it is still quite rampant. I particularly don't like that the Economics forum is now almost 90%+ off-topic content (not related to Bitcoin). Of course the economic aspect of Bitcoin has been thoroughly discussed but the local subforums show there are still a lot of interesting Economics-related topics to discuss. In the last 2 years I also noticed a decrease in quality of the technical sections. But very recently this seems to have improved again, let's see if it lasts.

Altcoin Discussion, since 2-3 years, is in a particular bad state, even "interesting" topics are mostly created with shilling intention. But ok, I understand it's not Bitcointalk's main focus.

In general I would say that there was some activity decrease in 2024, and that for sure had to do with the mixer campaigns. On the other hand, the Spanish subforum in particular still works better than in its worst moments. So I still don't see the forum in a "critical" state, it's part of the ups and downs I experienced in the last years. However I would like some technical improvements, like a more attractive CSS theme.

Well I don't know how you may see this forum but technically the person we lose here is a sole contributor to the forum, that doesn't mean there is no reputable user or good people here but as we know those people they are of great value to the forum. And of course you can still read their post and contribution here to educate yourself more better but we can never have person exactly like them, we may have people who are greater than them but to say we would see them here again is no more.