Hello, and welcome. I will be your mean & unfriendly guide for a few paragraphs. The idea is that if you don't follow my advice you'll be calling me mean & unfriendly in due course whereas if you do follow it you might end up amounting to something in BTC world.
I. Familiarize yourself with the scary, evil, mean, yet awesome gpg. This couldn't possibly be stressed enough. Bitcoin is a
cryptocurrency. The crypto part stands for cryptography, and you literally cannot be a part of it unless you have at least some cursory understanding of gpg.
If you do not you aren't part of Bitcoin. You may be part of internet drama, internet idiocy, internet delusion or whatever else, but the day you master gpg is the day you actually start being able to be part of BTC. At the very minimum you must be able to import keys, sign documents and verify other's signatures, encrypt and decrypt documents.
II. List yourself in the WOT. On one hand this is a sort of practical test based on what you've learned following I above, like the SAT. On the other hand this is your one and only identity in the BTC world. You may think you have other identities, such as forum handles, IRC names, whatever profile on Amazon, Myspace or whatnot. The fact of the matter is, you're wrong. The only identity that matters in BTC is your WOT identity, and the sooner you create it the better.
III. Do something useful. Contrary to what the noxious social proof of this forum might lead you to believe, opining left and right just because you can type is
not useful, neither for you nor for anyone else. A very large post count is also not an asset. A trainwreck of braindamaged posts and ridiculous arguments is not going to help you in the long run.
Contrary to what the same noxious social proof might lead you to believe, creating "an asset" just because there exist venues which will allow it is
not useful. The BTC world does not need yet another (mostly unintentional and unaware) Ponzi scheme disguised as a pseudo-bond offering, nor does it need yet another half-baked "mining operation" that's not about mining and doesn't operate.
Things that are useful and you could do:If you don't have money but have expertise you could contribute significantly by creating
a blog which reviews the matters you're an expert at. If you're an accountant you can make a blog where you review the financial statements of BTC securities. If you're an attorney you can create a blog where you discuss the various legal matters of interest to BTC. If you're a stock pundit you can create a blog where you discuss the merits and non-merits of the same. As long as you do all this impartially and fairly there is a
huge untapped need for this, both direct from investors, fund managers etc, as well as indirect. If you don't have money this is in fact the best thing you can do right now for Bitcoin, provided you do it well and stick with it for long intervals. Note that BTC world doesn't need further attempts at stupid, shilling, or stupid shilling. We have plenty of those.
If you have both money and expertise you could contribute even more significantly by creating a company that works meaningfully for BTC, especially if you then list it in BTC. Your shining examples in this field are S.MPOE, S.DICE, S.BVPS etc. These are the sorts of things that make Bitcoin grow and these are the sorts of things that make Bitcoin matter. Do better.
If you have neither money nor expertise you should be "seen not heard", as the expression went about children in medieval Europe. Don't make any noise outside of politely asking questions and wisely learning from the answers you get. Also, lurk more.
That's about it. Have a pleasant stay, and always remember: you don't become a part of Bitcoin just by using the word "Bitcoin" a lot.
