We've had soft launch on 15th of August. I consider it mildly successful.
The real launch is scheduled for 22nd of August. It is not going to be anything significant. Just a few announcements, new promotion, maybe a "press release".
Some new functionality is expected to be rolled out by the end of this week, particularly I have hopes on finishing testing "real, industrial strength search" and theme selection (white'ish label) for participants of "Project Support Centre".
At bitcoin.org.uk "The Novice" policy is slightly different from this forum. We are all "Novices" there. And all members are allowed to post in most sections of the forum. Keep it civil though, it is all moderated.
There are restricted sections on the forum where only software developers, pool operators and other "Pro Members" are allowed to post, and "general public" have read-only access only. In any case those sections are not being used much at the moment.
Details of post launch promotion are being finalized. This is how it is expected to work (subject to change):
- Every day starting 22nd of August 2011 and until 28th of August 2011 I will count number of new "real" users signed up this day
- I will multiply this number by 0.1 BTC, the result will be the prise fund for that day. (i.e. 1 BTC per 10 new users)
- This prise will be awarded to a random "real" member.
"Small" print:
- I reserve the right to not count some new members as "real" if they look "spammy" i.e. just a signup and no posts with some content. Exact criteria are not disclosed, but you get the idea.
- I reserve the right to reroll if the winning random member turns out to be someone who has not contributed to the forum i.e. appears to be "spammy". As above I do not disclose exact criteria, but to give you an idea it is unlikely that inactive members will win.
- This is done at my sole discretion
- The rules can be changed at any time, and promotion can be discontinued at any time.
- Moderators are eligbile to win in this promotion, administrators are not.
- There are tentative plans to continue this promotion indefinitely starting 1st of September, but possibly with some modifications, like on weekly basis instead of daily.
The idea of this promotion is to ensure that "dead souls" do not dilute chances of active members to win the raffle.
There is no need to wait until 22nd, though, another great promotion in force right now. Sign up, post something interesting and you have a decent chance to win 1 or even 2 BTC everyday.
Suggestions on what else can be done for the launch are welcome.
