Bitcoin Forum

Im confused on why this forum does not have adsense, With this sites traffic it would generate around 1 million a year.

I guess admin doesn't need of funds to run this forum and making decent amount of funds via ad slots every round.

P.S:I don't want this forum's reputation to be ruined with some nonsense ads from google.

Because it's not always all about the money..

Don't quote me on it, but I'd assume it's a mix of wanting to control what sort of ads appear on the site as well as trying to avoid the egregious amounts of user tracking Google (and other big tech companies) employs. While the login captcha probably also collects data, it isn't on every single page so (hopefully) the damage to user privacy is minimal.

I believe this is it. Especially the wanting to control what is being advertised here.

In the past (and probably currently) there have been many scam sites that have advertised on adsense, and the damage would be very large on here if a scam site were to get ads placed on the forum. In the past, a small number of scam sites have slipped through the cracks and purchased advertising here, however theymos was able to quickly take them down and warn users about the scam. This would be much more difficult with adsense.

Google has flip-flopped on their stance on cryptocurrency ads in the past. Here's an article from 12 months ago when Google completely banned all cryptocurrency-related ads from their program:

https://www.reinisfischer.com/google-adwordsadsense-ban-cryptocurrency-related-ads

And then four months later in October, they (partially) reversed their decision:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/25/17901326/google-cryptocurrency-ads-ban-lift

Even so, they are still fairly restrictive when it comes to cryprocurrency ads. For example, ads for ICOs, crypto wallets, and sites that contain trading or investment advice are not allowed at all. And while ads for exchanges are allowed, there are many hoops that they must go through before being allowed to advertise.

Here is a more detailed article on the current situation:

https://blocksdecoded.com/crypto-advertising-restrictions/

And finally... this is just speculation on my part but one of the benefits (privacy issues aside) of using Google AdSense is personalized advertising. If Google thinks you like sports, then you might be served sports-related ads even if the site isn't about sports. If Google thinks you're from Australia, then you might be served ads for Australian companies even if the site isn't based in Australia. This system works well on most sites but probably less so here, because bitcoiners and cryptocurrency nerds tend to have similar interests (namely Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies) and cryptocurrencies by their very nature are international and do not respect national boundaries.

I'm not sure where you get that magical number 1 million from. The forum does have its own advertising program which gives more control over the ads that are displayed here. I'm pretty sure forum generates a good amount of money from that. If you want to do the math, here are the relevant links :  

https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adinfo

https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adstats

Just to add on what others have pointed, imagine this site is filled with ads mostly for etoro and iqoptions which are mostly the ads shown for crypto related websites the BCT forum will just look bad when they just look like another one of those websites paid for traffic. In a sense theymos controlling what ads shows in the forum gives some sense of formality in the website. He also do some kind of screening in what websites or services are allowed to auction in ad placements so there is a guarantee that this websites being shown to us are somehow legitimate.

In addition to what was already said, AdSense has very stringent content policies:

https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/1348688

Meaning it would have to be disabled on many pages on bitcointalk.org, or bitcointalk would have to ban a lot of content, e.g. the entire Gambling section, for one, but also signatures linking to or otherwise promoting gambling websites.

Honestly i just like the way things are when it comes to ads and I would love to give a lot of credit to the forum admin for this. I am very sure few people would find the way this forum displays the ads quite annoying to them.
I have been through other forums that use adsense and believe me, the ads are so annoying I have to even stop using those forums

Along with this, Google AdSense ads are obstructive as heck due to those flashy moving gifs. With Theymos' ads system, he gets to choose which exact ads to show and with the ads being just made of characters(and no images, just like the signature designs of campaigns), and he also gets to be paid BTC for it instead.

I believe there are multiple reasons for that.

1) It is annoying as hell
2) Visitors often get compromised by malicious advertisements from such AD networks.
3) The money is not THAT needed (btctalk's donation address (https://live.blockcypher.com/btc/address/17RTTUAiiPqUTKtEggJPec8RxLMi2n9EZ9/) currently holds ~188 BTC) That's pretty much enough to cover the next 'few' years of operating costs
4) It is annoying as hell

It would be even more disturbing to the eyes having paid sigs of members, forum ads and on top adsense ads. The point of ads being scam or uncontrolled arises later. Also, nowadays many users use Adblock which would indeed reduce the earnings of the forum.

You're all forgetting about one important thing:

Adsense doesn't pay out in Bitcoin.

I mean, sure, the other reasons mentioned here would probably just prevent Theymos from implementing Adsense on this forum (at least on many boards).
But the fact that he can now auction ad-space in exchange for Bitcoin is really what this forum is all about.

This is the first crypto community where goods and services were ever exchanged for Bitcoin, I think it's only right that the forum also gets its revenue in Bitcoin.
At least, I hope that this also influences Theymos his reasoning. It would be nice to know that there's a little bit of ideology left in the forum.

Pretty much what malevolent and mprep said. I believe theymos has stated as such previously somewhere. Maybe someone should index all theymos' posts in one thread with a keyword like 'adverts' or advertisement so his posts can quickly be brought up without going through them all. I often find myself spending quite a bit of time trying to find things he's previously said to answer a question someone brought up.


The money won't last forever and if the forum doesn't technically need it as I've suggested before we could give 100% of it to charity. At least something good comes from it then. Theymos seems to be quite against things like more ad slots though and he said he's even considered getting rid of them but I'd rather see more ad slots than sig spam everywhere which bring no money directly to the forum and yet make an exponential amount of workload for staff. The current ad slots are barely noticeable and I've actually had people in the past ask me why the forum doesn't even have any ads so that tells you how noticeable they are as they just look like another sig advert. Some people have even mistaken them for such and I remember one user actually asking in Meta why he had an advert for something in his signature when he'd mistaken the forum ad for one  :D

I think another advert at the top of a few of the main subs like this would be lucrative:

https://i.imgur.com/jIbHl22.jpg

That way advertisers can target their market ie a gambling site would advertise in the gambling board etc. At the moment the ad is pretty random not to mention barely noticeable. I think that's why businesses tend to go with sig campaigns that ads because you get far more exposure.



You don't have to go with adsense as we've had plenty of offers for things in the past, but I actually think it would be wise for the forum to hold some fiat reserves (if it doesn't already). I asked theymos a while back if he does hold some money in cash but I didn't get a response. Holding so much bitcoin is great when the price is on the rise but the forum took an almighty hit when the bubble burst. I'm sure theymos doesn't pay out everything in bitcoin as well, especially not taxes, so having some cash ready would be helpful for those things especially given the fluctuation of bitcoin. One day we might get stung with some expense and have to cash out a lot of bitcoin and if the value is low that makes the blow much worse and that's when those funds will quickly start to dwindle.

THis forum doesn't have adsense and it really don't need.

There are following reasons why I think forums should  not use adsense or similar ad networks.

1. It's annoying, we already have signature (mostly all forum has signature)

2. This forum has many pages and few of them are from Gambling section which is not accepted by google. (according to previous rules Adsense doesn't show ads on the site which are related to gambling, today, status is same but now Adsense is stoping to show ads on Gambling related pages. If you add Ad codes on gambling related pages then Adsense will block your that page.)

3. This forum has section like Micro Earning where users are promoting or talking for site like faucet which are not accepted by adsense. Not directly but indirectly adsense doesn't like it.


4. This is the forum which has many different types of section if this site use Adsense then Adsense has to disable many pages. And it is not impress-able for sites in view of Adsense

I think this is the theymos

I really don't think money is an issue here.

More than 1.7 million USD (at the current rate) should be more than enough to fund the forum for several centuries..

Still, the money won't last forever, especially if you get rid of adverts. Do you know how much the forum pays out a month? I think theymos mentioned the forum was operating at a loss a while ago (or more money was going to mods than was being taken in). Also, this time last year the money was worth half of that and that could easily happen again. There's a lot of money that will go to taxes including capital gains as well. There's also the possibility of an unexpected tax bill. I think one million was spent on the new forum and will there be costs for future updates or development? How much is theymos paying to Cyrus and co for the account recoveries? It all ads up. We might be ok now but nothing is guaranteed in the bitcoin world. Better to be safe than sorry.

I think you might be underestimating how much it costs to run this place (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2659454.msg27122179#msg27122179) by about an order of magnitude.

Well, I am here for cryptocurrency discussions and not for annoying ads that will just pop out every where. However, there are too many ads actually but in other ways like signature campaign. Wearing signature is already in a form of ads. So, why bother looking for ads when the forum can provide it in a formal way? Besides, there are advantage and disadvantage also in it. One of it is that promoting ads here could lead to malware, phishing links, and other scam activities. So I am currently satisfied with how ads being run in the forum.