Bitcoin Forum

Starting this thread to discuss the interest of introducing new sections in the Service Discussion board: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=85.0
Current board description:

This is very broad and some services got their own section eventually(ie: Micro Earnings). The purpose is to reduce clutter and to help users find similar threads more easily.
Talked to theymos about it and if there's enough interest new sections will be added.
Here are some suggestions for new sections, mainly based on the number of threads about these services.

• Service Discussion > Exchanges (Discussion about individual exchanges)
• Service Discussion > Online Wallets (Discussion about online wallets)
• Service Discussion > Stores (Online and brick and mortar stores that accept Bitcoin)

Please only post suggestions for Service Discussion for now.
PS: haven't included signature campaigns  as there are a small number of active threads(plus, this has been brought up before).

Yes please. Adding more sections is always good. It makes it easier to find stuff within the forum without having to go through loads of pages. Also, it allows me to block the section that I don't care about, thus improving what I see on the forum.

Definitely exchanges and and online wallets. There are plenty of threads on those two, not sure about stores though.

Yes vote for it. Same is the case for service section, if you want to find some specific service you will have to go through first 10-15 Sig campaigns and than hoping the best to find it at 2nd or third page.please make sub section about Signature campaigns. Etc.

If a stores section is added will that lead to the goods section merging with the stores section?

No. If a Stores section would be added, then all the threads relevant to that section would be moved there. Such as announcement threads from Service Announcements, or discussion threads from Service Discussion(the Goods section is where buying/selling occurs between members, not between a member and a service).
Same would go for Exchanges and Online Wallets or whatever.
Same thing happened when Micro Earnings was introduced.

i would recommend the 'comparison' board, due to some of the people made a board and the people who are wanting such information, cannot classify it because the thread is not be easily seen.
like 'list of signature campaign' will fit that kind of board. ???

There is only around 10 or so major-ish exchanges currently (and a large amount of the exchange discussion is done by the signature spammers), so I am not quite sure that there are enough demand for exchanges to have their own subsection. Plus there are really not active threads about all of the exchanges.

There are currently even less online wallet services, however online wallets are heavily used by (newer) users, and I believe that the number of online wallet services will grow over time. There are also often numerous active threads about individual online wallet services. So I think there is probably sufficient demand for online wallets to have it's own subsection.

Over time, there will be more and more bitcoin related stores as adoption grows, and there is currently too many online stores that accept bitcoin, both exclusively and along with fiat. I think it should be fairly clear that there is enough demand for bitcoin stores to have it's own subsection.

Regarding signature campaigns, I understand that many people are annoyed by signature campaigns, however I do strongly feel that many people are able to earn their first bitcoin, and to get involved in bitcoin from signature campaigns. I do think that signature campaigns having their own subsection would be overall beneficial to bitcoin

How about

• Service Discussion > Giveways (Faucets and other sites that give away coins)

If I'm being honest, I don't completely think this is needed at all. However, I don't frequently browse that sub-section so perhaps I do not have the right idea.
Looking at the first page or two though, a significant number of the topics wouldn't fit in to either of the sections mentioned in the OP. I think that maybe a:

• Service Discussion > Mining (Discussion for both physical and cloud minimg services)

Could be useful, as I see a number of threads relating to that throughout the first two pages of the board.

Isn't that covered by the Micro Earnings section?

I'm with the idea , however, I'm not sure about the "Stores" section and how active it's going to be. Moderators should be ready btw because we all know how much it's going to take users to start posting in the right section.

but I think that moving everything (including the posts in service announcements) to the new sections will bring some chaos , don't you think? It will be kinda hard to find announcements from anything else.

Neither do I. I'd imagine that it is a mess. However, someone should try making some statistics to check what kind of threads (what type) actually represent most of the threads on a decent number of pages. That way, it would be 'insured' that the best call is made regarding the choice of new sub-sections. An example would be:

This.

Yes it is.

I do frequent that sub-section and also move a lot of threads in there regarding individual exchanges and online wallets.


We're not making a section only for those announcement threads, but rather for all the discussion about those services. Similarly, this is what happened with Micro-earnings, Collectibles and even Investor-based games. In all three cases I've went through hundreds of pages of threads and moved them in the newly created sections. In the long run it turned out to be a beneficial addition to the forum. It's a big forum and branching out(in a slow, calculated pace) is not a bad thing.
Discussion about exchanges is found in Service Discussion(individual exchanges) and in Trading Discussion(general discussion), not counting announcement threads in Service Announcements and off-topic threads in Bitcoin Discussion and Currency Exchange(moving them as I see them). Here's a list of threads based on the first 5 pages of Service Discussion only(block of text incoming). The list comprises about half of the threads in the first 5 pages(similar to the number of threads I've moved in Micro Earnings and Collectibles in the first few pages back then), and around half(or under) have a paid sig:

Online Wallets(36 threads):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1525092.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1508202.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=902526.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1416222.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1506618.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1519100.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1520757.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1519100.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1519988.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1518003.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1516588.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1508879.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1477531.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1516825.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1439729.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1514959.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1065373.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1514980.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1513739.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1508604.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1513395.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1512984.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1510800.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1483640.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1508171.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=133213.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1506661.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=145797.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1505823.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1504769.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1502258.0

Exchanges(56 threads):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1523484.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1525042.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1496194.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1523501.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1524199.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1523290.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=156402.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1521538.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1521419.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1522828.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1515276.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1520821.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179586.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1519637.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1378867.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1519348.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1519064.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1520410.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1515871.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1523376.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1519345.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1103900.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1261707.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=812397.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1516097.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1516763.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1467061.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1516565.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1516177.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=229438.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1461564.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1514569.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1512385.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1510097.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1510860.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1513927.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=708622.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1511961.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1512485.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1512075.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1511995.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1509034.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1508805.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=97272.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1160323.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1508454.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1120816.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1508856.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1508856.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1428790.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1505595.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1508363.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1503860.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1502923.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1373878.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=500639.0

A board for worthless response high activity threads would be useful. The discussion forum is clogged with the same old threads that nobody will read. I've taken to ignoring most threads with over 100 responses.

Yes, yes, yes! The service discussion board is used to discuss services that you are interested in or want to share your knowledge about. It's hard to do that with a dog's breakfast of a board.

I think it's a good idea. Lots of posters start threads about online wallets in the wrong parts of the forum. An onlime wallet discussion sub section would clear up the spam/shit posts.

An exchanges discussion only would also be good.

I also think that this is a good idea - having everything structured nicely is a good thing.  It happens more often than not that I have to google for a particular topic because it's easier to find that way than trying to dig it up on Bitcointalk. So yes, please, new thought out sections are a good thing

~CfA~

Hmmm, it seems that I might not have realized just how many exchange discussion threads there are. I think that some of the exchange related threads are probably attempting to promote their scam exchange (somewhat similar to how, on reddit, people post some random website claiming that they are offering 5% better rates then is available on coinbase for the next 2 hours), however with that many threads there probably would be sufficient demand for exchanges to have their own sub

edit: a quick review of the linked exchange related threads reveals that most of the exchange related threads are not very active. Out of the 56 threads listed, I counted 11 with 3 or more pages, 6 with exactly 2 pages, and the rest with only one page of posts.

No please. Service Discussion seems alive when all are together. If u split them up, individual sub-sections will appear dead.

I should publicly stated my opinion: I agree with two of the proposed sections, Exchanges and Online wallets.

If by 'active' you mean spammed by signature spammers and a huge mess, then I agree. Finding the content that you're looking for on a forum should be easy (which is not the case in that section - as seen in the statistic provided), especially for new members.

I sent messages in to both Cyrus and hilariousandco about adding a new subforum.

The subforum I want added is Adult.

This is a sizable and growing section of Bitcoin consumerism.

It's an industry that is vanilla enough for banks to get involved, but taboo enough that credit card processors hate touching it.

It's a place where Bitcoin actually has a viable use case and is already being used.

I'd like the creation of that subforum solely to connect with other Bitcoiners and help grow the adult Bitcoin industry.

I don't think there are enough Adult business threads yet to warrant such a section.

On the other hand, here's the latest thread about an online wallet posted in Technical Support(I've moved it to Service Discussion in the meantime): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1529212
This is a somewhat common occurence. These threads are created there because, while in need of support regarding an online wallet, Technical Support makes more sense than Service Discussion. An Online Wallets subsection would most likely clear that confusion in the long run.

At GoCoin most of our growth has been in adult merchants.

General merchants and other services haven't been growing or have been losing volume.

The addition of an Adult subforum would allow me to better coordinate a community of users who are entering the Bitcoin world from wanting to spend on adult sites.

I created Online wallets and Exchanges. Not sure about Stores -- I kind of feel like the top-level Service Discussion board makes the most sense for general discussion of stores. And I guess there aren't enough threads for Adult.

If I funnel all our adult customers and stores to the forums can you make the subforum?

Thank you. Started moving threads in.
Guys, please report threads that I might have missed.

As you can see, new sections are added when there's a need and enough demand. It's theymos' choice, but if the number of adult services threads increases enough and the interest is sustained, a new section might be eventually created(as was the case with these two new sections).

Technically, "online wallets" should be under the "Development and Technical Discussion", under "Alternative clients", am I right?


There is quite a big market for NSFW things in the world, and this market has the potential to use bitcoin as it's main currency, as adult uh... things are usually spread through the net. It should have a corresponding way of anonymously sending payments, hence bitcoin would be great.

But I personally feel that having a NSFW board wouldnt be good. Maybe a seperate forum. This forum IIRC was made so that the Development and Technical Discussion was meant to be the main thread. I think it should be restored back to this, not with all these semi-relevant topics like politics, off-topic, investor-based games, etc.

If you are using wallet software you either need to a) personally audit the code to ensure that the wallet does not do anything malicious in terms of key generation, transaction signing and overall not having malware b) trust the creator to not include anything malicious in their wallet software, or c) trust someone else to perform "a" for you.

I understand that there have been instances in the past when wallet software itself had caused financial losses to it's users. One example is the RNG issue (https://bitcoin.org/en/alert/2013-08-11-android) in 2013 (I want to say that I also remember a specific android wallet that intentionally created private keys with weak RNG -- but maybe this was the same incident). Also, it is alleged that the reason cryptsy became insolvent is because of a malicious (altcoin) wallet.

Maybe the warning could be revised to something along the lines that you must trust the operator of an online wallet with your money, and that there have been a number of losses/hacks/thefts involving online wallets.

No, they are anything but 'alternative clients'. You should read the description of the newly added section and you will understand what I mean. Here's the quote:
They aren't trustless (you have to trust a 3rd party and they can block transactions e.g. Coinbase and gambling), thus they shouldn't be in 'alternative clients'.

Would that necessarily be better for your customers, stores and the forum? If so, then I'm certain that there would be a subforum if there is enough demand for it ("supply" of such threads).

So would wallets like BitGo (2 of 3) be considered as online wallets or clients in themself? Because they do have a local client, but they still require a level of trust, in that BitGo/pay won't team up with their key storage service.

That's a good question and I'd consider that specific wallet a 'mix'. Keep in mind that there aren't that many wallets with similar functionality (at least that I'm aware of). I think that it depends on what the user has problems with. If the user does only use the online interface then the thread should go into 'online wallets', otherwise it should go into 'alternative clients'.

How about a Advertising networks that pays with Bitcoin such a-ads etc.. section too? (Both questions and announcements and everything related to it)

Random question (or maybe not) - where does an announcement thread for a wallet/exchange belong? Should they be in the service discussion --> exchanges (or online wallet) section or in the service discussion section?

Would the announcement not belong in the Service Announcements (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=84.0) section, then a discussion/support thread could be made in the Service Discussion->Exchanges/Online Wallets section?

I'm not sure if there is enough demand for that, especially since the Micro Earnings section already encompasses them.

That is exactly what I thought, however it appears that announcement threads are being moved out of Service Announcements (look about halfway down on the first page of Service Announcements -- upon reviewing a few of the threads that were moved, I determined that they were in fact announcement threads).

If certain types of services have a dedicated section then all threads regarding those services should be in there, announcement threads included. Faucet and ad network announcement threads reside in Micro earnings, same for physical coin announcement threads in Collectibles and 'investor-based games' in, well, Investor-based games.
I started moving exchange/online wallets announcement threads in batches to make it more visible.
If I miss anything, please report it, PM it or even reply it here.