Topic: The 1.5 million dollar (5067 bitcoin) new bitcoin talk forum. - page 3. (Read 8905 times)

That's the way most online forums are.  Rarely do you see users who maintain a high level of involvement year after year after year; either they tire of the forum or of whatever hobby that forum is supporting.  This is hardly the fault of signature campaigns.

I would say my opinion is biased as well, since I participate in a sig campaign, but it's no more biased that those who don't participate and don't like it.  I actually see more spammy posts/posts that make no sense/bad google translation posts from people without ad signatures than those with.

Support the little guy, both advertiser and avertisee, keep paid signature campaigns around.

Paid signatures suck and are designed to create spammers. The worst ones are the mining companies. Not only are the ads spamming the forum but the companies are stealing from people. Are there any mining companies left that have not robbed their customers? I don't know of one.

On the other hand, if you completely stop advert spammers this forum might not have many regular members left. The number of regular, long time, members posting daily compared to 2012 is greatly reduced. I don't just mean the Clipse, PatrickHarnett, Goat types either. I expect them to be gone. Members that I've talked to for years have either vaporized or post very infrequently.

There are a lot of proposals about how to handle paid signature advertising that are being worked on, the issue doesn't really pertain to the new forum software, but more to forum policy. Sure something in the new forum software might help limit the damage done by people abusing paid advertising signatures, but for the most part, its going to come down to making feasible and reasonable changes. I have no stake in paid advertising signatures, but most can agree that if spam isn't a factor, then paid advertising signatures are a neat idea that gives some people a bit of coin to spend.

There are a lot of interesting spam reducing measures bouncing around. By the time the new forum software comes, I'd hope that we have implemented some new policies to cut down on spam. Its getting out of hand.

I disagree.
I am maybe just a bit biased considering I have a signature.
But look at how large primedice got, and how large bit-x is getting. This is the free market, so on the forum, the best companies will be able to afford advertising and push out all the scams from the mass advertising. Companies and most users will probably support the sig campaigns.

Well I would hope you would agree that Bitcoin is based on free market economics. I believe that the reason Bitcoin was created was to allow commerce to take place more freely without relying on the banking system (which is very centralized).

Without signature advertising then I don't see any cost efficient way for a small business to advertise. The last time that the forum auctioned forum ads each spot cost 2.9 BTC for (at most) a 10 day period. That works out to roughly $1,900 per month at the very minimum. Do you think that many small businesses can afford that large of marketing costs?

My response to my above question is that they cannot. The result of this is that without paid signatures, small businesses would have difficulty advertising their goods and services, and as a result would not be able to grow. If small businesses are unable to grow, then larger businesses will be able to command a larger share of their market and will become more centralized which is not what Bitcoin is all about.

I can say that forum ads was one major thing that got me involved and interested in/with bitcoin (I have had mild interest in both bitcoin and Bitcoin over the years, however never really took the time to buy any or to really understand hot it works until I joined the forum), and once I started posting (with a paid signature ad), I was able to learn more about Bitcoin (notice the little/big "b" in this paragraph and throughout), although I admit that I would probably be considered who is far from an expert regarding most of the technicalities behind Bitcoin.

Has paid signature advertising done some harm to the forum? Yes, absolutely. Paid signatures create the incentives to spam the forum with useless posts. This however is being dealt with by BadBear who is being aggressive in banning people who make insubstantial posts; it is a work in progress. People will also post "fluffed" up posts that have very little contributory value, if they do it enough then they will likely also get banned. The fact that a lot of people have been banned for making insubstantial posts with a paid advertisement has been very public and I suspect that as a result others are going to be more hesitant to go around making useless posts, and will either abandon their account(s), sell their account(s), or put more effort into their posts.

Does the good outweigh the bad for paid signatures? I think so. Any community that has grown to be as large as the bitcointalk community has grown to be is bound to have a spam problem. I would speculate that we would still have a small amount (maybe ~10-20%) of the shitposts that we have today even if paid signatures were banned.

No-one without an ad-sig would ever back this statement up (apart from sock-puppet accounts created by ad-sig posters of course).

Ad-sigs have *ruined* this forum and if used in the new forum will ruin it to.

People should note the sigs of long-time forum members such as @DannyHamilton.

Signature deals is one thing that can get people interested in bitcoin, and will often be the only way that many bitcoin small businesses can afford to advertise their business. The forum benefits because it gets additional impressions for the advertisements that it sells so the forum ads are worth more.

Any software project should be expected to have delays, especially one that is going to be used for hundreds of thousands of users.

The amount spent for the new forum software is not too much (in my honest opinion).




If with Gggiiiifffssss you are meaning .gif files (as avatar) I do not think it will be enabled in the new forum software. However what do you think guys ... will be created (for first) the new forum software or will 'arrive' the block reward halving (always for first)?

Its not about the rush, its about being fooled over and over with this forum's special 2weeks^TM politics.

I couldnt care less about the new forum now that avatars are back up tho.

PS: but i want Gggiiiifffssss!

Why is everyone in such a rush for this new forum anyways? No matter what a chunk of users will be complaining either way I guess. Personally I am fine with just using the forums as-is 

so there are $100k left for the new forum. that is a realistic amount for new software

This concerns me a lot.

The state now is perfect, at least for me. My internet connection isnt the fastest on earth, so it would take me ages to load a forum with tons of images/design on every page. Honestly, signature campaigns are one of the most important factors to bring people to post here on the forum - thats what actually keeps the forum alive. There other bitcoin forums out there that look much better than this forum, but still hasnt got nearly as much users as this one.
The signature thing is great, it lets users make money while posting and lets companies/website advertise on the forum. New users register ln this forum because of this advantage

Some of your estimated are quite far off, but in my opinion, your point is kind of right. A million and a half dollars seems like way too much, but this has been discussed plenty before already and there is nothing we can do about it. I am also quite sure that it did take Google money to get to where it is now . I also would not call it the best site on Earth. A forum is also not that easy to make. As to if it is perfect in its current state.... meh, that is up for debate.

Wooo, that means a lot, it seems that we probably need a detail list about funding if we have the right to ask.

It is hard in SMF(current forum software) and that's why we need new forum software. Epochtalk is it's name.

Well, I think spending 1,5 million $ on an online forum is too much... Honestly
You could shoot a super professional hollywood movie (well, nothing like Harry Potter, Transformers etc)
You could hire a game developer team and develop an AAA game
You could buy an office to let the staff work togheter
But spending 1,5 mil $ on a forum? What can you get? It will probably just be a hardware upgrade and/or a whole new forum script, but that doesnt cost over a million $?
The forum is great as it is, its perfect! Its one lf the biggest forums in the internet. People are enganging in the forum like crazy. The whole system works perfectly toghether.
Much money doesnt mean good quality. Look at google, it didnt take the developers a cent to spend on the development, however its the best site on earth.

I think the forum should stay how it is right now, maybe changing/fixing some small things on the forum (adding more features, some small design implements, MORE EMOJIS!)

Matthew is that you?   lol

Will it come this month ?? I'm not really ready for it  i think it will be build from diamonds or something equal to 1.5 M $
we can still wait for another month  .

Kind Of Respect ,
Bitcoin Boy .

You maybe right. I read somewhere that they have spread the source code to multiple repositories, not just one and also I got such "assumption" when I saw few updates.