Bitcoin Forum

There's been a spread of image macro replies and terrible memes on this board. As several others have pointed out, there is a general lack of moderation with regards to the forums in the first place, but I think one thing that could go a long way to cleaning up the forum is to develop a hard-line stance on things like image macros.

Image Macros, memes, and inside jokes from 4-chan contribute nothing to any discussion, they worsen the image of bitcoin by making it appear as if the primary userbase is sophomoric teenagers who have nothing to contribute. It's frustrating sifting through crap to find the few useful replies, and nothing is more frustrating than seeing a terrible image with an unfunny joke someone pulled off the internet and just decided they HAD to share with people as a first reply to a well thought out post.

Further hardline moderation of people referring to everyone who disagrees with them as trolls would go a long way towards helping clean this place up.

It's not a general lack of moderation.  It is an intentional decision to be very tolerant.  If you dislike it, make a competing forum.  I'd love for there to be multiple places to discuss bitcoins  ;D  Why only have vanilla?

Atlas, this is not the thread of mine you should be replying to.

Policing images would put far too much work on the mods plates.

I think we'll be sticking to our very permissive ways for the near future until it becomes a real problem (i.e. image spamming). Also sometimes I like the images, has anyone looked at the thread watching bitcoin prices, that's full of those images. Some of them are pretty appropriate though.

Long story short though if you don't like them then use a filter.

Nefario.

Things like the image Atlas posted above contribute nothing to a thread other than to eat bandwidth and pad his post count. I understand you might personally like them, but are you seriously making policy decisions based off of personal taste?

I would also argue that image macros are the very definition of image spamming.

Some people like images... especially the funny ones... like the one Atlas posted above.  I enjoy those sort of things.  And I'm not some teenager from 4chan, I just enjoy that type of humor.

Just because you don't like it doesn't mean everyone else agrees with you.

Because that's exactly what the mod staff needs. It occurs to me that a very large amount of stupid useless material hits this forum every day, not just in image macro form - if the mods tried to police stupidity or uselessness we'd need a full time staff of hundreds.

Also, such macros reek of 4chan and I'm pretty sure our mods are 'net veterans who know better than to mess with 4chan.

An image can convey a lot more than text can.  Especially some good laughs.

What you find funny and what other people find funny could be completely different things.  You can't say "Most of these images are not even funny," because it's simply not true.  You can't make statements like that with the implication that they apply to anyone and everyone.

And none of those texts would be funny without the corresponding images.

Comedy value aside (though personally I find them completely unfunny), if this is going to be a serious place to discuss the future of an entire currency then perhaps we shouldn't be allowing the most vocal segment of the users to look like idiots at passing glance in a place easily accessible to the public.

Macros make you come across like a teenager or an idiot, neither of which is a good face for a public forum linked to Bitcoins.

The "serious place" ship has sailed my friend.

If you want good info and strong moderation, help us get the StackExchange site started:
http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/30763/bitcoin-crypto-currency

It's stagnating and could use some help and strong promotion.

YOUR ALL CRAZY!!!!  :o

Is this your project?

And as long as this forum is linked to the official Bitcoin site, the moderation staff should do their best to make it presentable to the general public and the media. That includes not allowing it to become an extension of 4chan.

1) Not my project, but I think it's worthwhile so I'm trying hard to help it succeed.

2) We were removed from the main bitcoin.org page some time last week, probably for the exact reasons you specify. StackExchange lends itself to an info-centric and heavily moderated format much better than an open forum, hence why I'm hoping it works better than these forums for certain purposes.

how much you chargin for the signature space you got fer rent?

While I lay no claim to the bitcoin forums as belonging to me, it seems to me that those wishing to disrupt the status quo have the burden of proof to show why their way is better.  Personally, I am unconvinced by your points.  You claim it is best to appeal to the media, which I hold will never embrace it.  You also seem to think it will be accepted by the general public (which due to the media I think is unlikely to be the case). 

Instead, I would favor targeting people who might actually use it, like pirate bay users, 4chan, <25 yr olds, and other users of peer-to-peer technologies.  In my view, they are most likely to embrace bitcoin and bring it to fruition. 

I'd recommend you pull the stick out of your ass.

Not everyone is blessed with an Asperger's lack-of-a-sense-of-humor. Just rock back and forth and rattle off pi to the thousandth decimal. These mean ole' memes can't hurt you.

Seriously...did this fucking troll's nest ever seem like it is a serious place to discuss the future of an entire economy? As someone earlier said, that ship has sailed a long time ago.

e: typo

If a "serious discussion" section was ever created, image macros (and possibly all embedded images) would be forbidden. However, they are sometimes funny and relevant in less serious threads.

The OP of a topic can forbid image macros in the topic, and off-topic posts should always be removed.

As an investor and a vendor, this exact post is what the problem is.

Personally, I don't mind the images. Adds a bit of color to the conversation. I'd rather have more users contribute in any possible way, beneficial or not.

To impose any sort of limit on the so called 'quality' of users seems to run against everything bitcoin stands for.

Alright, Chief Have-no-fun.

there you go: http://lynx.browser.org/

There's one thing I agree with them (I mean the bitcoin-is-serious-business guys)
Some images don't have to be sooooooooooooooooo huge
Going to imageshack.us and have a smaller one takes about 30 seconds

Maybe we could make a sub-forum just for this guy and all the robots that post here.  We could even shift it .5 seconds into the past so it's Fun Sucking Black Holeness doesn't destroy our reality.