Topic: Should I close the Fit to Talk project? (Read 818 times)

The project isn't a problem, or even too demanding at a basic level. The real problem was the spammers attempting to join, and posting rubbish spammy content. That's why I had to complicate the signup process. I do add a few threads every now and again, but I don't get much encouragement. A few answers or comments would be handy, and would give me an idea of the topics people want to see.

I'll probably start adding audio files as well in the not too distant future.

I'm logging there from time to time, but I'm mostly reading.
The projects I'm working on IRL take most of my time so hopefully when they are finished, I'll have more free time for the fun part
I like the forum, so hoping that you'll find solution to keep it open and operational til I return

The Fit to Talk English project seem to be getting some consistent traffic, and I try to add a thread most days. Unfortunately it seems to have been abandoned by Bitcoin Talk members, and I think this is a bit sad, as the project was created to help foreign language members improve their posting.

I'm undecided as to whether I should open the site to more general membership, or if I should add some advertising, and use it as a minor revenue source. Of course it is still open for Bitcoin Talk members who want help to create English language posts to submit here.

Sure, you can keep the slow HDD for bulk data later as well. Just remember mechanical drives don't like sudden impacts, so be extra careful.

Before I switched to Linux completely in 2007, I used to use Irfanview as well, but mainly for viewing pictures and not transforming. The traditional tool for that in a Linux GUI is Gimp, but I admit that might be a bit overkill for simple changes.

According to AlternativeTo, and Askubuntu; among the programs to try are:

• Nomacs
• gThumb
• XnView MP

The last one is not open source and can't be used legally in a company without a purchased license.

I have been lazy enough to neglect searching for a decent image viewer. My little photography organizing is done with Shotwell, which along with Ristretto are perhaps not the best choices... I'm going to test out Nomacs which looks really good, gThumb i used it a long time ago but i guess its much better now. For KDE/QT desktops there is also Gwenview.


Finally as a last resort, nothing stops you from running Irfanview with wine.




As for running nodes, Linux is home for Bitcoin and other altcoin server/node/wallet software. Not sure i would do that in a laptop/netbook tho, it will use more battery and bandwidth. You could, setup a full node in a normal PC, setup a Lightning Node and an Electrum Server, and use Electrum in your laptop configured to use your own server. You can link both using Tor, WireGuard, etc. The possibilities are endless...

Linux puts the fun back into computers, a fun that was run dry by certain companies I'm not going to bother mentioning. But if you happened to use personal computers before those companies dominated the market, you can probably understand what this really means.

For anyone else reading this, consider giving Linux a try. Start here.

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Also take a look at Mumble, its free open source, and its voice quality is unmatched.

I had a teamspeak server, and that had a free licence. They have changed the licensing though, and it wasn't worth spending the monthly rental. I could use a discord channel, and I might explore that.

Could you not use something like Skype or Telegram to do something like this for free? As I understand it it was essentially voice calling you were going for?

Did you not have an open source system, I have an unused computer if you wanted to try and do something with my free electricity (however, I don't think I can use tor or get a fixed static IP so it might be something to give up on ). I could potentially get into the server and change something in the routing table however I don't really want to since it's not mine...

Thanks for the offer. My main problem is not wanting to cope with the disruption in switching my main operation from Windows to Linux.I use Ubuntu on the Netbook, and have done so for many months. I ran a Bitcoin node on it, and recently set up a Dash node, but I' still a bit undecided about Dash. I've been looking for alternative software in preparation for the move, and texting some of it. For example, I've used Irfanview for years, but there isn't a Linux version. I've found an alternative, and I'm comfortable with it. Many other utilities such as Audacity and Brackets have Linux variants, so I don't expect problems with them.

I decided on Ubuntu Studio because of the content producing software that is included in the installation package. Having most of the packages that I use installed automatically should be a great help in the switch. I planned to remove the HDD from the notebook, and replace it with the SSD. I can then do a clean install of Ubuntu. The Widows HDD can go into a case for connection via USB. This should let me access any files that I need. Does this sound like a good plan?

@JackG re:accorders. I still like the concept, and now that I have regained the use of Audacity, it could be restarted. I've even got an unused VPS hosting plan for it. The revision of the software licensing fees put me off its implementation. Given the current flux in Bitcoin Talk, I don't feel that I want to commit to a monthly fee for the project. I'll see if I can create a halfway solution through FtT.  I've got quite interested in Forex scalping, especially with Bitcoin, so there might be a bit of a delay in my introducing these enhancements.

[PROGRESS]
I made a quick recording a few minutes ago. It's straight off the cuff with no editing, enhancements or anything else. It's in McD with background music, so I would be interested to hear some opinions. It's mp3, and the file is a bit larger than I would like, so might have to  look at some compression methods. - First audio test of Blue Yeti

I haven't tried the tor tab within brave (i do use brave for certain tasks) but can't seem to figure where you configure it. Ironically obfuscated bridges are needed in Venezuela to visit censored pages, without that its useless, direct tor connections are blocked by the Maduro regime.

Also i don't particularly like each browser spawning (yet) another tor instance, to me its simpler to configure a proxy pointed to tor (polipo).


If you revive the Ubuntu thread, I can help you with that as well. What is holding you back? Are you set on Ubuntu or still considering alternatives?

Can you use bridges with the brave browser tor window?

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It'll be interesting to see if you can get some of your old projects up and running. did you get anywhere with accorders again it might be interesting to try and use that with a few people.
It'll be good to see "talker" posting again on fit to talk too. You could use some of the very helpful content mbyzico (I think that was his name) gave us about venezuela.

The Brave browser is Chromium based,but it includes a Tor window with DuckDuckGo as the default search engine.
I don't use it all the time, but it estimates that it has saved me 19 minutes since I installed it.

Re: The Fit to Talk project. I've managed to fix Audacity. Windows had changed an internal setting to protect my privacy. This was in the April "downgrade". I'm getting desperate to dump it and switch to Ubuntu using the SSD I bought a month ago. I daren't take on any more projects though. I will try to add some audio files soon, and then you will be able to hear me using received English to talk to you.
Fit to Talk has been pretty quiet recently, and I may open it to a wider audience than Bitcoin Talk. I'm really keen to try to get some interaction between people living under oppressive regimes. I'm starting to think that includes England.

This is offtopic so I'll be brief: Brave is Chromium based, while Tor is Firefox based.
Any browser can use Tor when configured correctly, but Tor browser bundles Tor and it comes per-configured for privacy as well.
Brave uses its own altcoin (BAT) which can be used to pay or be payed for viewing sites, it also has a referral program.

I visited the site today, typos have been fixed completely.
Well done, Jet Cash.

By the way, I would like to know that whether Brave browser is better than Tor browser or not.
Better in some following criteria:
- Faster loading speed.
- More privacy.
- More secured.
Can you give me some recommendations with your experience with Brave browser, please.

This help desk looks good for crypto enthusiasts, especially crypto newbies.
The song, Ode to Satoshi is the most favorite one song in your bitcointunes store.
Thanks for collecting all those amazing songs.

Some day, we might see the Jet Cash Store, in which bitcointunes gives crypto enthusiast big collection of crypto songs. Why not?

I've made those changes, and thanks guys. I know I need to go through the linking and other stuff like that. Maybe I can do that over the week end.

Given my penchant for typing "r"s instead of "t"s, I'm surprised I didn't type "Bitcoin runes" somewhere. I could do with some Bitcoin runes to help with my embryonic trading ventures.

I'm not sure if I should be awarding merits for the help, but what the hell, It's bumped the Fit to Talk thread anyway.

@r1s2g3 you missed out the rape recorder...

And that's a good idea. Start adding links to threads about this thing. It's not the easiest thing to find since it's not the landing page of fittotalk.com you have to add the english-talk to it.

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FFS another almost self made legendary Jet .

I agree.






Please change the OP also, so that it can encourage more people to join.

Thanks Jack -it's my fat fingers that are the problem. I try to pretend that it's a dodgy keyboard, but people seem to suspect the truth.

@lobcmt2, I normally sort out the corrections for fittotalk. I used to like the huge posts people put there in their semi-accurate English, it was quite fun to correct them too.

As I understand it the bitcoin tunes site is mainly a thing under development so I'll let him know about this but the point of my post is that three of us would review the one post so it was really accurate.

I'd like to see more people joining there. The other languages side of things seems to have hit a snag but I still check ftt on a weekly basis to see if there's anything requiring corrections.

Edit: he's already arrived.

Thanks for the heads up, and I'll fix those asap - probably tomorrow.

I seem to have so many things on the go at the moment, that I decided to open a help desk. I put it on my Block Error domain, but I've still got a bit of customising to do, so I haven't added it to my sig yet. The link is -
Block Error - The Jet Cash help desk.

I've got a bit caught up with the Crypto Coin Tree investment club, and my pathetic attempts at in channel trading.

Hello Jet Cash,

I know that the post is out of context of the topic, but I don't know where to post it appropriately.

I visited your site (https://bitcointunes.com/about.html), and found some typos.
You should fix them all when you have time.


Best regards,

Sweet. No worries, I won't abuse my position.

Spammers are everywhere, so it's completely normal to have issues. On my personal blog, I've disabled the comments because of the constant spam sh!t from all those bots out there. . I'll add captcha and solve the problem when I have more free time ( and will ).
Back on the case, I'll check it out now, but I guess if I'm moderator then the things will be fine.
I'll come back with more input.

It looks as if I need to plan out the whole permission structure. These Russian spammers are a real nuisance. In the meantime I made you a moderator. This should get over the problem in the short term.

I'll have a look at signature permissions as well, and I'll try to enable them for senior members. I might move avatar use into the shop, and make that section active.

Thank you for your patience, and I apologise for the difficulties.

I think you have to double check your permissions.
Same thing as the last time, I was thinking of opening a new in the General Discussion but I ended up there :

It was so that you would bump this thread.

Really sorry about the problem. I changed the permissions so that newbies couldn't post, and I upranked everybody who had made at least one post. Unfortunately, I seem to have messed up the permissions for a couple of ranks. You should be OK now.

The idea was to restrict posting to people who had made at least one post, and that put newbies on hold. I add them to the member group 'verified' when I have established that they really are Bitcoin Talk members. I made you a verified member, and I sorted the permissions for post count rankings, so you should be good to go on either count.

Why I can't open a new thread in any section of FTT ? Have only Notify and MarkAsRead as options.

Just wanted to check it someone has seen the new Bob Lazar documentary but I can't open a thread? Do I need to rank up there too? Is there a whitelist or something?

If any of you guys who visit the project could make a quick post, then it would show the trainees there that they are getting some exposure as responsible members. I don't think the bots and the bounty spammers will join, as there are no merits for posting there, and no promo signatures allowed - although maybe I should change that for responsible members.

If the Brave browser affiliation and a few other promos generate a small amount of income, I can spend this on expanding the project. I'd welcome any ideas  about this.

I suspect I need a few helpers to boost the activity, and I'm not sure how I can reward them.

Re: opening the project to a broader membership. I'm not too keen on this. My primary objective is to help non-English speakers in emerging, or under-developed countries to adopt Bitcoin and other cryptos, and I believe that this fits alongside the Bitcoin Talk philosophy.

[ADDITION]
This is the sort of problem I've been having with registrations. I have a new member surfing with a Russian IP and a Russian email address, but who states he is Austrian. He isn't a member of Bitcoin Talk, and obviously hasn't read the registration agreement before submitting his application. What a waste of time for both him and me. He can't post until he has a post count of one, and that seems to be a good way of blocking these guys to see if they joint Bitcoin Talk.

Dude, I'm not that active on your board but hey, you've done a great job so far, why would you quit now?
I wish I had the time to joint the fun there, and here too > http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/cockney_translator/
But all those projects this year are killing me.. slowly...

I don't think you should close it I'm thinking in the other way, you should open it and let anyone register because is hard to get a new audience for a project and with your registration process you will make people think it twice before opening an account there.

I would like to be part of that project because I know my English isn't the best one, but for personal reasons I can't 

The focus on the project is awesome, I mean, make form the people who already are on this forum a people with better lexicon and proper English talkers, that would be awesome. But what if we focus on a project to bring more people to the forum? that would be better.

In the end, each one spends his time in the project he wants and you already make a great work for this community, so don't give up and keep it up that great work. 

I've made some changes to registration. I'm fed up with checking for membership here, and finding that applicants haven't read the rules, or are just spamming chancers. So this is how it works now.

You have to be a junior member to make a post, and to save messing up existing members, the requirement for junior ranking is one post. This means anyone who has already made a post will be unaffected. If you have joined, but have not yet made a post, then you may need to send a pm to Jet Aid - here is the link.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;u=2386998

New applications will still need to verify their account by email confirmation, but they will no longer require admin approval. They will be given the rank of newbie, and they will not be able to post with this rank. Once you have confirmed your registration, you will need to use the above link to request membership of the verified group, and this will allow you to start posting. Please note that you will have to be a member of Bitcoin Talk, and you will need to use the same user name for both forums.

I hope that this change will not inconvenience anybody, and that it will make it easier for new members to join.

It is my intention to add some new features to help members - the accorders voice posting is one of these, and the integration of the mobile image gallery is another. You will be able to use the mobile image site to host permitted images in the Bitcoin Talk forum as well. I'll probably put some hotlinking protection on the site, but Fit to Talk and Bitcoin Talk will be permitted.

I'm considering some monetising options to cover the costs of these extas, and the Brave privacy browser is one of them.

Your Fit to Talk project has helped at least four or five forum members from my local board to move on to the global English sections at some point, and that is certainly appreciated. I encourage people from my local board to post in the English sections too, finding them way more vivid than my local board. Some of their content is also interesting to see from a global perspective, where country specific issues may not be known to many.

While I do find that some people on my local board have enough language command to be able to post in English, I’d say that Fit to Talk has deemed a great help in boosting self-confidence to step out of the language confort zone. Obviously the time you put into it can only be measured by you, but from a local board’s perspective, I’d say keep it rolling whilst you still have stamina for it.

Did you try to join as Peacemaker1994? I've just rejected an applicant with a nick starting with "ofis". There is no member here with that name.

It really is important to read rules and guidelines if you want to earn on the Internet. So many peple don't and they put effort and money into projects, only to find that their accounts are deleted because they have broken the rules. Irt is quite time consuming for me to have to check memberships, and send emails to applicants that aren't members of Bitcoin Talk. It's really quite simple to apply.

- Register your Bitcoin Talk name through the fit to talk link. You must use your BT nick for two reasons. The project is to help Bitcoin Talk members, and not the whole of the Internet. You need to ensure that your post on FtT are not flagged as plagiarism if you copy them into this forum.
- You need to use a valid email address, even if it's just a free throw away one. This helps to cut down on spammers applications ( but not a lot). I don't use the addresses for anything other than registration confirmation, and you can keep it hidden in your profile.

We'd love to have you as a member, please can you apply as Peacemaker1994  - you can even use an avatar if you want to, and set your country code, so that you can have a small flag in your profile.

[update]
Since opening the forum, I've started getting the spammers attempting to join the project. I'm now just rejecting them without emailing them an explanation. I'm thinking of starting an application thread on one of the boards here, and I'll add new members manually. I really want genuine Bitcoin Talk members ( newbies or otherwise) to join, but I don't want the pharma spammers in there
[/update]

I tried applying before into this project but I was not able to register am really interested in brushing up my English and also to be able to present my article so that it can be readable well I will give the registration another trial I hope I get access

if really not expert in English then can try some Chinese forum

I want to use my signature for the Crypto Coin Club, and some political projects.

I'm revieweing my projects at the moment, and here are some comments on them.

The Fit to Talk English project
It looks as if there is some interest in this still, so I'll keep this running, and maybe add some extra features to make it a bit more attractive.

Images from your mobile phones
I haven't promoted this, but the plan was to use this to support political threads.  I need to find a way to add selected images to Fit to Talk.

Ask a Legendary
I've just spent time deleting 63 spammer applications, and the associated emails and posts. I've closed this site, and may re-evaluate it in the future.

The Crypto Coin Tree
The investment club project is inchoate, and therefore doesn't have much to offer at the moment. I hope to build this into a major project.

Assured coin
Assured coin will be the security token for the Crypto Coin Tree project. No work has been dne on this so far.

The Jet Cash merit source blog
I've rather neglected this recently. It's my blog as a merit source, and there are a number of  articles related to Bitcon Talk and crypto

Snow Eagle
I had planned to make this a site listing new Bitcoin Talk members of note, and to start a new ignore list. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to set this up, and all that is there at the moment is an avatar list.

I have got a number of other projects, and these are mainly social or political. For example Jazz pics is a gallery of photographs that I have taken for various reasons.

Exactly what I was going to say.

@Jet Cash since you are not wearing a signature you could have one made for you to advertise your site. CryptopreneurBrainboss is right, I dont think many members know about it and even if they do they might not know what the purpose of Fit to Talk is!

You could also make a poll asking BT users a simple question:
Have you heard about the Fit to Talk project and do you know the purpose of the site?

Glad you reopened registration, i can remember I have to PM you to register. I believe lack of advertisement is the cause of the project been stagnated of recent. Maybe a signature campaign with either volunteers or paid campaign to create awareness for the project will be the best option. Many forum users aren't aware of the project yet. Also there isn't enough testimonies online to convince those having doubt about the project. Maybe if one or the two suggestions above can be looked into, it will go along way in reviving the project.

It should be open now, so just sign up with your BT name. It should give me an alert, and I can approve you, and then you are good to go.

There is a closed board for some Spanish speakers, and you will need to ask me if you want to join that one. Other than that - the forum is your oyster.

I'm not sure if you guys are aware of a support site for Fit to Talk. I started Mobile img to allow members to post pictures taken using their mobile phones. The idea is that various political events could be captured, and the pictures used to supoort comments. Membership is restricted, as I want it to be a serious political service, and not just a general imahe hosting site.

There is also a voice site planned, but until I sort out my Audacity installation that Windowsmessed up, that will have to wait.

The shop and the English Gold tokens are just a bit of fun, as I can't think of a practical use for them at the moment.

I honestly hope this project get the needed support and encouragement it sure deserve. The idea is just epic am probably not the best to help financially well I guess you don't need my finances(there is a cash attached to your name) but I would love to be part of this project.

I have stated severally that I am a community leader in my region and I suggest this forum to members but they get cold feet because of poor quality English project like this would really work in my favour and help me impact into lives .

And how would the the registration be from now since you have close it

Thanks for the encouraging replies. The site doesn't cost much to run. It's hosted on a multidomain plan, so the only real cost is the domain name registration, and that is under $9 per year for me, so a couple of affiliate links would more than cover that, and add a contribution to the cost of the hosting plan.

The major problem is the time it can take to maintain the site, and that is why I disabled registration, and made it a manual operation. I've opened this subject to admin approval and email confirmation. I don't use the email addresses for anything other than registration confirmation. It helps to cut down on the Pharma spammers. You MUST use your Bitcoin Talk name to register, and any variation will cause your application to be rejected. This requirement is to help the mods in this forum, and to avoid misunderstandings that could lead to accusations of plagiarism.

The Spanish section is probably the most active of the foreign language resources, and you can even post in Spanish to help you to get started. It is probably my influence tht has created this section, as I am interested in various political topics such as Catalonia and the Venezuelan economy.

We can help you to create good posts, and there are even projects to help you to gain merits, but we prefer not to discuss the merit system itself.  I hope that the main emphasis in content to be ported into the BT forum will be current political comments, and discussions about Bitcoin and other crypro currencies. There are a variety of social sections to help you to improve your English discussions as well, These include topics such as dog management, health care, transport and ethnic dancing.

 Well the idea to aid members improve there English is quite a welcoming one since English is the most used language here on the forum.

This poor English barrier had made members scared to contribute there part to the forum they don't want to embarrass themselves with there post.

Well I am just getting to know about the fit to talk project I have gone through the and I am already poised to register and also get individuals that are in need of such aid to get in.

I would appeal to the organiser to not close down this very important assistance. Probably it's in starting stage and hurdles are most likely expected but closing it is sure not the best step.

The project does not look in too bad a shape.
The issue I think may be publicity, not enough of it.

I doubt a lot of newbies know about the project, as the target audience is those with less command of the English language, wouldn't it help to have a welcome message translated and posted in their local languages? (I don't know is this has already been done), since they rarely come out to the strictly English boards

Here is the link - http://fittotalk.com/english-talk/index.php

I would like to read up on the project but I'm having trouble finding the post could someone give me a link to it .

It's not really a good one to hear,as you tried to use that project to give back to the forum what it has indeed given to you,this lack of interest could be down to laziness I think,as some members wouldn't wanna take the due step to improve themselves on the forum..
They prefer to try posting in poorly fit or articulated English and hope they get merited one way or the other..
I'll still advice you leave it open,as a handful of genuine members is far better than a whole lot of spammers

Sorry to hear your project isn't going well. Iirc there were some early successes though, a couple posts you did submit to P&S maybe?

I guess it's a small scale example of the barriers to entry theymos refers to from time to time. Though I still think it's lazy to not take the extra step. I like the idea of your project, and if you're interested would be willing to review some of the member accounts that do apply. I'd have to check over what your criteria is and I could just review a list and send you a list of who check all the boxes.



Feel free to Pm me if you fall behind and need an extra set of eyes.

It seems to have stagnated recently, and yet people are still clamouring for merits, and also apologising for the quality of their English.

Fit to Talk Englsh was created to help Bitcoin Talk members to improve their English, and to enable non-English speakers to bring their political comments into the forum. There is quite a bit of dramatic news from around the world, and much of it involves crypto currencies - what can I do to help broadcast this news to the English speakers in this forum?

I closed registration a couple of weeks ago, and required a pm for registration. I did this because of the workload in checking the Bitcoin Talk membership requirement, and the rejection of the pharma and gambling spammers. I can reopen registration tomorrow for a  week or so if there is sufficient interest.