Bitcoin Forum

After I made this post Test your forum knowledge (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5381108.msg58973383#msg58973383) People did not contribute much because I did not do it well. I did not put the questions in objective form. So I was determined to make research. I decided to start from outside the forum to know what people outside the forum say or know about the forum. I separate different websites and outline the important things they said about this forum. I tried to put some important things they said in quote so that we can note them. I also ask questions in red colour anywhere I was confused.

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Coinmarketcap.com
1. It did not recognise Bitcointalk as the largest Bitcoin Forum.

2. It did not recognise Bitcointalk as the oldest Bitcoin Forum.

3. However it recognised Bitcointalk as the most popular online Bitcoin Forum.

4. It said that Satoshi lost the first forum which he was using a to post about bitcoin development.  A SourceForge forum.  That Sirius (could it be this Cyrus (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=78147)) provided hosting for the present day Bitcointalk we know.

5.  It also said that the diversity of languages in Bitcointalk is one of the reason it became so large.

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Wikipedia(Campus afrika.com)
1. They have a decent definition of bitcointalk.

2. It said that the first Bitcoin transaction happened in this forum, which is the popular 10,000 Bitcoin for pizza.
I searched for this thread.
Pizza for bitcoins? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.msg1141#msg1141)
Is this actually the first bitcoin transaction?

3. It said that the cryptocurrency slang HODL originated from this forum.
Could it be this thread?
I AM HODLING (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=375643.msg4022997#msg4022997)
4. It raised the concern about scam and said that traded accounts are used to scam people.

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Meet bunch.com
1. It says that most ICOs promotes their projects here. That bitcointalk is ethereum first announcement platform. (happy and wonderful to me that I discovered this)

2. It describes the forum very well. It talked about merit, activity, trust, spam reduction, signature and bounty campaign, evil fees, copper membership, ANN threads and more.

3. It said something about the importance and dangers of seed account but I don't understand what seed account means even after the explanation below.help

4. In conclusion it agrees that bitcointalk is the oldest forum and that it is still reputable till date.

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Bitcoinwiki
1. It says Theymos is the admin but the domain name is owned by Sirius.
^QuestionIf Sirius decides to take his domain as the owner, can he or he can no longer temper with it, just as Satoshi can no longer temper with bitcoin?
2. It said the forum had before being hosted as bitcoin.org/SMF. In July 2011 it was moved to Bitcointalk.org to make it unofficial. But there was still a strong marriage of link between Bitcoin.org and Bitcointalk.org until recently.

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References:
https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/bitcointalk
https://zims-en.kiwix.campusafrica.gos.orange.com/wikipedia_en_all_nopic/A/Bitcointalk
https://www.meetbunch.com/the-bitcointalk-guide
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitcoinTalk

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Acknowledgement:
I acknowledge everybody that encouraged me when I made Test your forum knowledge (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5381108.msg58973383#msg58973383)
Now I have known what outsiders say about bitcointalk.org I will continue another phase of research.

Cyrus and sirius (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=4) are different person.

Theymos is the person who have full control for bitcointalk domain and its hosting account, cobra confirms it a while ago.

Thank you for proving me link to sirius (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=4). I checked the profile and I discovered that he did not get much merits and trusts like Theymos and Satoshi. It was only Theymos that trusted him as "co-creator of bitcointalk"

Good, I clicked the link to the sourceforge but it is not reachable again. Since the first is no longer existing, it is correct to say that the one existing is the oldest.

Merit wasn't implemented yet on the time when he was still active even trust feedbacks wasnt fully used on that time compared to now for DT members.

Theymos trusting him as co admin is enough for all members here to trust him as well.

Outsiders will say negatively about Bitcoin. Most of them will be outsiders forever. They would prefer to call Bitcoin as a fraud, too expensive, a bubble, fragile asset. Price is too expensive to buy and own. Like this video (https://twitter.com/mj_mendoza_iv/status/1482491280878092289)

Outsiders would like to stay with fiats and feel happy whenever Bitcoin has falls or crashes. They feel happy when they have pay raise but the don't realize that it is not enough to compensate for inflation rate.

It looks like you did not read the OP or what other people are discussing. It will be fine if you can read it now. Because your post is different from OP and what is being discussed.

No. That's just the first time that Bitcoin was used as a payment method to purchase something of value (two pizzas). It was the first time it was used as money. The first transaction happened in the very first block. Satoshi also sent transactions to Hal Finney before the pizza transaction.

Cøbra and theymos have managed Bitcointalk and Bitcoin.org for a long time. But that's no longer the case. theymos doesn't have anything to do with Bitcoin.org anymore and Cobra has no rights on Bitcointalk. This quote explains it nicely:

   

OP, just from reading the first blurb there about coinmarketcap's alleged understatements regarding bitcointalk's status among crypto forums I can see that this is all just nitpicky stuff.  There might be some language difficulties that account for your claims, whether they're on your part or on the sites you took quotes from.  For instance:

For one thing, f you put a comma after "forums" in the first sentence, the meaning changes to exactly what you said CMC didn't recognize.  For another, CMC looks like it uses a lot of "couch phrasing".  A lot of people and journalists do this, writing "one of the best/biggest/whateverest" instead of declaring absolute dominance.  Calling CMC out for that just isn't worth doing, IMO.

My advice to you is to just read before starting these threads about bitcointalk.  You might have fallen in love with the forum, you might be fishing for merit, but to me (and probably some other older members) it's kind of blah.

That is something that is commonplace for the non-educational and pro-government community because not everyone will agree with the existence of bitcoin as a currency. Some people agree with bitcoin ^{[its community]} while others oppose bitcoin with various misguided assumptions and understandings which are actually unjustified myths. Just look at how people call bitcoin a giant ponzi scheme, it's enough to prove that not everyone likes bitcoin.

LOL, I hope the bitcoin price correction so far has not affected your emotions too much, The Pharmacist. Let them explore themselves and their speaking skills which sometimes seem displeasing to many people.  :D

In regards to the bolded part, that's not always the case: "If you post threads outside of your own local thread you will be banned (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2589999.0)"!

It's referring to those that use bumping services ^{[e.g. shills]}...

That's no longer the case... Theymos changed its behavior in some of the boards: Bumping changes on some boards (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5183553.0)

That rule applies to the local thread section and I believe it was put in place to prevent users from creating multiple local threads in that section as it could get it clogged up and make it difficult for users to find a thread that applies to their language.
If a local board exists then anyone can actually create a thread there and join discussions.

Some languages actually do have multiple threads in the local thread section, but the users who created them are not banned, Maybe cause those threads are specific and do not contribute to spam.

bot accounts?

If you are referring to the most recent video posted on that channel about a quiz, then that particular question was referring to "bitcoin.org" and not "bitcointalk.org". And the question was about who has access to the domain, not who founded.
Theymos has sole access to this forums' domain name (bitcointalk.org). Satoshi is also still the inventor of bitcoin.

You don't ask bankers about bitcoin usage right? The outside people who doesn't know anything about the bitcointalk forum will talk absolute shit about it but in the end if you have not yourself used to it then listening to the talks from them is preety useless.This is how things can be changed from one end to other like government says btc is used for criminal activities and other nonsense stuff but those who understands it and have faith in it truly believe in reality of decentralisation with security.

The bitcointalk is best bitcoin related forum from over past 13 years after Satoshi established it and the legacy is being carried on by the existing members and you would find out that how many active community is at the moment on forum discussing about any bitcoin related updates like taproot or any information you want to ask.But could you find it on Wikipedia or coinmarketcap? Suppose you want some technical details about mining rigs and cooling procedures then a miner on bitcointalk will explain it you better or pre-estimated stuff on Wikipedia and other sites? There are many things that makes forum a far much better place to have discussions and meanwhile other benefits which you can't on other platforms.

There was a thread also discussing about wrong information about bitcointalk on Wikipedia and you can check it here :

 Wrong information on Wikipedia  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5371755.0)

So you see finding lot of negative stuff about forum and btc both but it's yours responsibility to check them all and find out the reality.Ask the forum members what's the best and you have here for some time so don't need to ask them at all about what's their perceptions about forum as you know in the end.

Many of the people outside the forum does not know much about the forum. They write anything they like as long as they have litte knowledge.
But I have seen some that know very much about the forum. I suspect that it is people that are in the forum or have being in the forum that wrote those ones.

Indeed. There are plenty of scammers who have had to ditch their accounts and come back as a newbie to start over. That’s why users with old accounts that haven’t been destroyed by attacks and controversy are viewed as pretty amazingly trustworthy people by this point. I know after the 2013 bubble deflated in 2014, suddenly a lot of users did questionable things and came back as newbies with 2015-now registration dates. I have so much respect for the guys that came in from 2010-2013 and are still here doing positive things because I know how difficult that is.

How can we expect an another news site will say bitcointalk is the biggest bitcointalk forum? News are also centralized so they publish what they want the people to see now what is the reality.

Bitcointalk created by Satoshi who is the creator of bitcoin as well which is enough. Even when I entered I didn't realize how important this forum is but now everything changed.

I believe you, because you will some experience that newbie will share that is meaningful and current, that knowledge is not some thing some got from outside before coming to the forum is either the newbie have being chest out before and it come back with new account, some suggestions newbies answer is surprise to me, is research that makes them good enough or they are here already

Some newbies are old users who create new accounts because they want to do something better regardless of whether they were previous scammers or indeed users who left the forum for some other reason. You'll probably know how they got things started here with a fair amount of knowledge that might differ from other newbies who don't even know what a merit system is if they don't have friends or better reading interests.

But as long as they don't post things like spam, attempted scam, and other things that harm other people then their existence in my opinion doesn't matter. They have the same rights to use this free forum as any other user.

At the first meeting with the forum, some newcomers do not always understand its value and come to it with only one purpose of earning. And to increase the benefits, they also create several alternative accounts. I have often encountered this situation. People sometimes change their minds after earning negative tags. And then we see a person who seems to be not a beginner but begins to appreciate his account and begins to take a deeper interest in bitcoin. I don't see anything wrong with people making a mistake and wanting to change. I also know many examples. It is better to stumble and realize that to constantly resurrect under other names, having only the goal of deception behind your soul.

Of course, I can know it well.
I agree how people can rise up and change their attitude for the better and contribute ^[spammers] but scammers will remain scammers because they can't be trusted forever.

So far I have reported more than 1000 spam posts on this forum mostly made by bounty posters with 0 quality. Some of them noticed and started changing after their 50 or so posts were deleted but some others maintained 0 quality of their every posting activity. But a good newbie is one who is willing to read more and can build his account reputation with good quality posts.

You have done your work preety well by reporting such posts to the moderators because they didn't contribute anything on the forum but the fact is you will find pile of bounty hunters shitposting on the forum in some boards.You will find out that they have hundreds of posts apart from bounty submissions and activity matching to some high rank members but with zero merits on them which clearly shows how the hell they are writing up.

If their scope is limited to bounty submission then we don't feel any problem as they are contributing nothing to forum bad as well and have their own way of seeing this forum but if you are serious about growth then focus on enhancing your knowledge not rank because your rank will not decide whether you have knowledge about something or not but your post quality will automatically show this up to everyone and your merits will be rewarded and ranking up.But no we still find some members going the other way around and creating some abandon path for themselves that will lead them to road of darkness but gaining knowledge will lead them to bitcoin light path on this heavenly forum.

This is a very good resource for knowledge and the fact it's coming from a member rank is also a huge plus.
Most of the things the op discussed is new to me even with my long stay in the forum, i must say kudos, what's done well is worth appreciating.
One thing I still don't understand about this forum till date is the evil fees, I have introduced alot of crypto newbies to this forum and after registering, they are told they can't post until they've paid a fee for the evil their IP committed, as hilarious as it sounds, the fees are very small but due to the fact this guys are very new to crypto, some find it very difficult to pay and end up abandoning the forum and their account, makes me sometimes wonder if an IP that's never been used to access the forum can actually commit evil on its first day of access the forum.

See this quote from Theymos, I think it'll better clarify things/you.
Thus if the IP address of the people you introduced isn't somewhat suspicious, then they definitely wouldn't get the "evil fees" message, if they do get it, then the forum has prolly marked/banned their IP's (as being suspicious), or that of those (IP's) close to them (that's what Theymos meant by "known proxies" above), just explain this to them and since they will probably be newcomers, you can also assist them to pay the fee, cause it's a really small amount, and if they are still reluctant, then their bad.

Many people have said diverse things about the website with which we are today; some have said that it's a scammy website and that people get dubed of thier cash and coins each time the log online to make a trust-trading business.. , some have said that the platform isn't active and is boring ...
 I use to ask myself why these people end up saying this things and I discover that this is thier own view in terms of understanding crypto as a platform.
 Outsiders might think differently since they ain't involved and registered in here but you're here and you know the achievements  that you've made outta the forum, likewise the forum itself so that's not a problem

Nicely complied, but I won't think much about what people say about the forum from outside instead we should focus more on what the in forum users think about the forum, outsiders don't know what goes on in the forum so they just assumed but the occupant do but scared to speak up. As a users that have stayed active on the forum I can tell you for a fact we have a high number of toxic people here, people that think they're above others either due to their geographical or educational background, and you know what's disturbing the younger generation (new users) inherit this traits and treats others (mostly lower rank) in the same manner.

Understandable spammers and scammers has made the fourm a little bit not so conducive for discussion but that doesn't mean you should go around treating users especially newbies in the way we do. It can be very discouraging, kudos though to the users that take time in correcting the upcoming without them many won't have levelled up on the forum.

This should be a friendly forum and yes you can correct people without having to sounds harsh and hurtful, I know it doesn't matter as we're all entitled to our opinion but someone just have to say it.

A few trusted members have been given permission to whitelist newbies so that they can access the forum without having to pay evil fees. So if you are a newbie who has never been here before and the forum asks you to pay an evil fee, you should check out this thread > Remove Proxyban (evil fees) - email to get whitelisted for free (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5350260.0). LoyceV is one of those who can whitelist you. The others are SFR10, Welsh, hugeblack, and Upgrade00. Not sure if more people can do it in the meantime. 

Thanks for this detailed information.
I knew about LoyceV but not about these other members.
In fact, this evil fee was an unfortunate measure and a reason why some good members gave up this forum, which I know from personal experience.
I'm glad that this has now been resolved in this way and that good members can now get around this problem when registering on the forum.
As for the forum itself, what others will say or think about our forum will always depend solely on us, the members of this forum.
If we build and manage to maintain a representative bitcoin and crypto forum, a central place for quality discussion and exchange of crypto information, then we will have a large influx of new members.
If we fail to maintain such a standard, then we can't expect to be attractive and interesting to other potential members.

I think that theymos also added a link in the evil fee notification that those affected by it see on their screens. Can anyone confirm that? LoyceV?
If that wasn't the case, newbies wouldn't even know there is such an option on the forum. The evil fee thread has not been stickyed at the top of the B&H sub and we don't have a welcome message that would point new users to that thread. The thread is currently located on Page #3 in B&H. I will use this opportunity to bump it. 

When I tried it out during last summer, the related proxyban message I captured did include a reference to a list of people that could whitelist an account:

The "here" link leads to this thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5350260.0
(I just tried it out again to make sure it pointed to the same link).

A couple of workarounds:

• For smaller fees, they could've tried faucets that "paid and still pay directly" to external addresses.
• Register another account with a different IP.

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From the above link ^{[credit goes to yourself :D]}:

• Quote from: LoyceV on July 20, 2021, 03:59:04 PM
  Background
  

  Quote from: theymos' post yesterday

  ~Snipped~
  (All Staff can already whitelist users, as well.)

Yes, I saw that part in theymos' post as well. But I don't think that's a new feature for Bitcointalk staff. I am pretty sure they could do that even before the first forum users were selected to perform the same task. I was just wondering if there are any new regular users who should be mentioned.

Confirmed (by creating a new test-account months ago).

Correct.

If they want to be mentioned, they'll have to announced it by themselves. Even years ago I read some non-Mods can whitelist users, but I don't know who they are.

Having 14 merits in my post is giving me joy. I did not expect it. Thank you LoyceV for increasing my merit to full member merit.

Well, some information on these websites is simply outdated, some things is just wrong. There is nothing surprising about. People from outside can't know things better than these who are regular on Bitcointalk.
I think that by saying "one of largest online forums" they talk not just about Bitcoin forums. It's about all forums from all categories - cars, food, IT and all other stuff. Because probably there is not that many forums online with over 3.4 million registered users.
Offcourse, I may be wrong. It may be just nitpicking.