Bitcoin Forum

Hi everyone, today I'm here to propose a new experiment. We have already replicated a large part of the Italian section of Bitcoin Talk on telegram and I would like to share with you too. As you well know, telegram has recently introduced the possibility of dividing the chat with topics. So I created the first Bitcoin talk italia forum on telegram and this will have to be complementary with Bitcoin Talk in order to attract as many people as possible.

https://files.catbox.moe/nu3qe9.jpg

But that's not all, @babo has also developed the bot for assigning merit with the same forum score and which will allow users to achieve the same levels.

https://files.catbox.moe/a6lu8g.jpg

Do you think that's all? No. Soon a circuit of sponsors with banners inside the chat will give the possibility to remunerate the most deserving users in satoshis who will create interesting contents.

In the meantime we stopped the domains @bitcointalkINT international section @bitcointalkUK English section @bitcointalkDE German section @bitcointalkFR French section if anyone wants to take part you can contact me here in the inbox or on Telegram @mendace.

---

Update 0.0.5

We have recently introduced the first tests on the publication of sponsors within the topics. Here is an explanatory image.
https://i.postimg.cc/SRcWx2h5/Screenshot-20221126-114042-01.jpg (https://postimg.cc/fST3Hbkj)

But that's not all in the meantime we have opened international community groups, English, German, French, Spanish, Indonesian.  At the moment these are empty and looking for administrators who want to commit themselves to carrying on the project with us.  The proposal is open to all but we will verify that you are a user of the forum and also your level.

https://i.postimg.cc/vZ6T5Rj7/20221126-115042-COLLAGE.jpg

As already mentioned and in the replies to the threads, the project tries to integrate with the forum by posting in a bidirectional way.  For the more skeptical in the Italian section we have already managed to get some of the desired result by bringing old members back to the forum.

At the next update




II already told you that the merit system is already present in the group and in fact it has now been well developed by @babo and already operational.

The first test sponsors started a few days ago, this will be the counterpart of the forum signature which, since it cannot be personal, we will have one or more than one but collective and which will provide rewards in satoshi in % of merits, activity and level.

 Didn't you tell us that someone could pretend to be a forum user then the good @babo added the "verify by talk" function or through an alphanumeric code that you must temporarily affix to the location label of your profile the bot will be able to authenticate yourself and verify that the btctalk UID corresponds to the Telegram UID.

https://i.postimg.cc/0y8JNMcV/Screenshot-20221129-221414-01.jpg

I hope these additional changes are appreciated.

In roadmap (what a shitcoinaro term) it is foreseen to open a topic where all the new threads of the Italian board that will be posted will be reported, this should allow a further connection with the forum.

At the next update

In other words, you want to compete with bitcointalk, and you advertise it on Meta. They are quite respectful of everyone here, but I don't think theymos and many others are going to be passionate about the subject.

I just don't see it as complementary. If I spend time here I'm not going to spend it on Telegram, or vice versa, if I like Telegram more, and I'm even going to have a monetary incentive, I won't be on the forum as much.

Would you have posted it in another section? And why shouldn't you spend your time elsewhere? There are many users including myself who spend time on many other platforms including telegram.

Idk, seems like this would decrease a lot of the activity here. Some users on the Portuguese board have suggested that we create a Discord server for some time, but if we're discussing stuff there, we won't discuss it here = bad for the forum overall.

You do not need approval to create a bitcointalk niche on some other chat based platform, AFAIK, there's at least one of such communities which is on discord, created by Cyrus.

Telegram has millions of users and if forum users are interested they can also join in as well.

---

Attempting to replicate the merit and signature system would depend on how much interest it generates. It could be some other way for users interested in Bitcoin, but not so much in the forum layout, to get to experience it on some other platform.

It doesn't necessarily have to be like this. I doubt that we will be able to bring many people from Telegram but it is an incentive to make the forum known. certainly younger people don't know it and if you link some threads maybe it can work.

So what is your proposal? To have bitcointalk community chat in telegram? for every local? or as a whole?

While it is good initiative for the bitcointalk Italian community, but i will leave telegram as a community chat more like updates, news regarding the forum as it will affect the post activity if more will use it instead here.

I see your point. The Portuguese local board is relatively small while there are some huge Telegram communities around Brazil/Portugal with 10k+ members and dozens of active users. I'm not sure how to make them switch over to the forum, maybe they just prefer the chatting app format. :P

I would say that I don't have a proposal but an initiative and that anyone can carry on their own community but all remaining united under the international section.  As I have already said, I have stopped some domains that I considered important and that I will give to whoever comes forward to manage their own.

---

But I also manage large communities of about 10k users and I will try to attract as many as possible from them.  It's a slow and tortuous path but has Bitcoin got us used to this or not?

Well, As you know I run a monthly analysis on the Italian board.

[Meta] Andamento sezione italiana (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5214672)

I have seen the activity definitely not picking up, and being stable.
The user turnover is in the region of 50ish monthly active users.
I am actually inside a few Italian telegram channel with member count from 3K to 10K.

For sure I cannot see the risk of some users that voluntarily logs into Bitcointalk.org with his 20 years old format, being lured into the Telegram discussion because of this channel.
I know the telegram handles of many Italian board members, and we are all in the same TG groups, meaning they already know the Telegram media, and for various reasons, they like the forum the most.

While I cannot see a risk of users going from the forum to Telegram (50sh)users, I can see, linking forum articles in Telegram, the possibility to lure some of them in the forum.

If only 0.5% of the 10K user group ventures into the forum on a monthly basis, this means another 50 users, or a 100% upside on the forum members.

Asymmetrical bets.
 

Are there any features Telegram will offer that this forum cannot? I found the moderators here to be more tolerant than in many other Telegram groups. The OP does not belong to the forum moderators or work for the forum, and he wants to represent the forum from another platform without permission. What is going to be done to prevent a misrepresentation of the forum and scamming members of a group with the identity of the moderator?

Is this a forum not a company or am I wrong? I do not want to represent any moderator of this forum but only bring a similar experience to another platform that is currently the most used for Bitcoin. How do you plan to help Bitcoin grow instead?

Nothing.

If OP really wanted to scam Users in Telegram with a representation of the forum over that platform, for sure he wouldn't have advertised that platform here on the forum.
Am I sure he is not going to scam the users on Telegram? Absolutely not, maybe there is a long shot from here (if FTX scammed their users, who I am to vouch for Mendace?)
Can the forum really do something about this? Not sure they (we) can.

Anyway, how could I scam users if I myself am committing to remunerate the most deserving ones. And as Filippone says why should I have done everything in the light of day here on the forum instead of preferring darkness?

With all the notifications telegram can really create a lot of distraction, and I don't find it very good for chats with multiple topics.
Good thing about it is that it can serve as alternative way of communication for members with mobile devices, since current bitcointalk forum is not really mobile friendly.
It can also be used for free promotion of Bitcointalk forum, maybe with official forum linked being pinned on top for more serious conversation.
Bad think about telegram groups like this are many, someone can takeover or attack it easier, history can be deleted, both personal and total group history, there is possibility of phone numbers and identity getting leaked, etc.

I am not against telegram groups like this, but I would like it for them to be somehow connected with Bitcointalk forum.
Maybe profiles could be verified and connected with bitcointalk profiles, otherwise we could see a lot of fake fillippone's, theymos's and others trying to trick people.

Yes, perhaps there is the possibility of doing this check, I will talk about it with Babo. I'm thinking that the telegram forum notification bot also interfaces via UID and username

This new features on Telegrams that can divide chats into topics seems good enough for an idea such as this. The goal is promoting Bitcoin and making it gain more popularity not minding where it is done be it here, offline or any reputable social media as long has orderliness and proper co-ordination is ensured and ensuring scammers and spammers are hunted down. 

There are lots of newbies who signed up to this very forum and left due to the fact the could not navigate the forum properly and out of frustration abandoned their accounts. It could be a way of presenting an alternative incase this seems difficult the try out the other. Then have a way of linking it up to Bitcointalk forum.

Only thing I can think is a sort of 2FA authentication.
The bot has a profile in Bitcointalk, and sends a PM to the user with a secret key that must be returned on Telegram.
This might be done manually by some Telegram admin.
This is the only way to be sure fillippone in the BitcoinTalk Telegram is the same fillippone in Telegram, even if the nick/handle ae different (like myself).

I just talked to Babo who assured me that forum users can be verified on telegram, obviously this will only be worth in the group where the bot for verification resides and which handle could be different from that of the forum. Unfortunately guys there are limitations compared to the forum but the user experience we can try to make it pleasant and similar.

One last think: I see little competition between the medium.
On the Italian Board we started experimenting (this is what we are talking about: experiments) with different medium which are three different and complementary formats for sharing information:

1. Telegram for the quick, instinctive and animal/short memory/short attention span question and answers that is so fashionable today.
2. The forum for more reasoned discussion and for the display of complex tris.
3. The wiki for “stratified and accepted” knowledge about which there is little to discuss.

Those mediums reflects different user base, which we have seen, so far, little keen on "changing state" from one medium to another.

OP, I appreciate your efforts to drive more interest into bitcoin via group chats on telegram. But don't you feel that something like this will be easily ignored by many users and boring when they feel the notification will disturb their rest time?

I don't like group chats like this even though they can basically be grouped by topic. But I am surprised that your chat group has 370+ users at the moment, are they all Italian?

I see a mute symbol based on your preference, meaning you're more likely to ignore a chat due to persistent notifications.

https://i.imgur.com/XKrHn7d.jpg

Well it is a good idea to change groups with a consistent flow of messages otherwise your smartphone will vibrate so much that it competes with a sex toys, but fortunately telegram changes substantial groups by default. They are not all Italian but most are, but I don't see how it can be a problem. Rather we should look at the statistics among the daily active members here on the forum and on telegram.

Anyway thanks for the merit

---

Ah the wiki that genius found of our babo. And to say that you could also bring this to know and interact in parallel on both platforms.

Your naughty answer makes my eyes look even more tired, yeah I guess I should get closer to my soft couch. OK, I understand there. Good luck to you.  :D

Even if you have said something true, then I hope you really succeed in making this forum more and more popular among your group members there. Bitcointalk.org is more complex for many discussion they need, so push them more here if they haven't already.

Friendly reminder; don't post consecutively in less than 24 hours, it's break one of the rules on bitcointalk.org.

I think it will be my last daily post because in this part of the world it was night. But mine was not a bad but ironic answer, I apologise if I seemed rude. In any case, I'll wait for you on telegram so you can test it yourself.

Good initiative, but I am not interested in Telegram I just stick with the website itself because its clean, simple,easy and its really a best place for someone who loves reading while on apps like Telegram there will be lot of distractions, pop up, privacy issues so notification bots are enough and I am happy with it.

yes i can do, the verification is similar to keybase.io (i love it before zoom acquisition)
my bot give you unique number
you write a thread or post, and link it to bot
bot verify, if number/hash is written by user BABO, you are verified like BABO




i love this man :)

We already have unofficial Bitcointalk discord server created by Cyrus in this thread [Bitcointalk Party - Discord sv] Bitcoin Pizza bake-off contest! Enter by 29 May (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5247383.0).

I don't think there's a huge difference between discord and telegram because the main reason why we use is to communicate with the others. But as you can see on the discord server right now, there's only Gene, Rizzrack, and pupkit are active, also there's not so much discussion unlike in this forum.

The conclusion users are prefer to write a post in this forum, not in the social media.

I am sure that a large part of the reason for this is the economic incentive to post on the forum. If the OP would get sponsors and have people get paid to post there, as he says, I'm sure he would get more traffic than Discord. I'm maybe not so used to Telegram but I don't know if younger people might prefer that medium.

Discord is more forum-like than Telegram (at least before this new Telegram feature to divide chats), but telegram is way more popular than Discord among crypto community so its no surprise that bitcointalk Discord server kinda failed in its intention, despite all the effort.

---

As someone who uses Telegram intensively for years, I like the idea and would certainly use it. Regarding Telegram removing some of the activity from bitcointalk, I don't think that would be the case as those two platforms are quite different and one can't really replace the other. And who knows, maybe it would even bring new users to bitcointalk.

The rewards system will not be easy to obtain and should not be the main reason to use the telegram forum, among other things I can guarantee sponsors only for the Italian section but not for the other communities if someone wants to participate as an administrator.


Thank you Rikafip for the support and yes as you say Discord does not have the same user experience in cryptocurrency numbers compared to telegram not to mention the user experience that is terrifying among other things. I am sure telegram users will appreciate this initiative.

---

Anyway, as I have always argued, the real purpose is to attract more audiences here on the forum through publications of links to threads and try to intrigue perhaps by not discovering everything on telegram.

What's the benefit will it bring to the existed members? As I can see, most of the times, you mentioned it will attract new member to the forum. It sounds like marketing for Bitcointalk. I can't see a lot of benefits on it. Maybe I didn't get what you meant (effect ofArgentina vs Saudi shocked)

For current members, not much will change but if new users were to be attracted this could affect the traffic of the forum and perhaps also incentivise those who do marketing campaigns here to get even more choice since there will be more traffic.

---

Regarding Argentina, I've gotten used to it by now thanks to Italy

Current members could see a flurry of new members!
This means that some TG users interested into a specific thread I guess could be pushed to post in the forum as a newbie, with all the consequences in terms of quality of content, posting etiquette etc.

In all fairness, I really can't see this becoming a significant trend a toss the boards.

Thanks for your offer, but unfortunately I'm not using Telegram yet, so I can't test it yet.

But I am surprised about your interest in the forum now, tell me do you really want to promote 1xbit campaign in your signature space for $20/week?

Pay attention to this warning right below your app post in 1xbit campaigns: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5367666.msg61330897#msg61330897
If you are prepared with all the consequences, it will quickly destroy your account reputation. Sorry to go off topic, but I just wanted to warn you.

Don't worry boy you will have time to try Telegram and you will be able to understand how I am acting in good faith.

---

But I'll give you some advice either put on a good pair of glasses or you haven't looked at my signature correctly.  The 1xbit campaign was removed before you wrote this post, so I don't understand why to reiterate this.

I don't like Medium very much, so many times I saw accounts getting banned there without valid reasons, so all posts gets deleted forever.
Sure, I can archive all my posts, but then what's the point of posting anything on that platform.
It's much better to have your own website or blog that can't be censored or restricted.

Maybe they can use telegram to post most important things that happened in Bitcoitnalk forum or news from last week or last month.
In theory this could bring new genuine members to register in forum, because a lot of young people never even heard about bitcointalk forum.

Finally someone who hit the point, I was thinking I had explained it wrong and that the message had not passed. Possibly you could also try to insert the trust formula and as already anticipated the verification from the forum, so who if a user is serious why should he be banned or lose messages? But even here on the forum they can delete the messages so I don't see many differences.

I am not against using telegram to keep in touch with people from the forum, specially when comes to business.
But would it not be better not to separate the discussions into categories?, so the conversations can be more casual, perhaps that way there would not be a direct competition between the activity of this kind of telegram groups and the forum itself. Just a thought.

I'm honest I didn't understand your reasoning or point of view, can you explain better what you mean?  The chats are not divided but are in a single chat divided by topic, section, call them as you wish.  And that's pretty much how it works here.

I updated the  trhead (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5422491.msg61327738#msg61327738) explaining new features.

Hello,
I think it is fair to detail a little bit a couple of details:

• The sponsorship via messages is only a test for the moment, no special deal has been done with the mentioned exchange. Maybe we can try to sponsor the forum itself instead of an exchange?
• As mendace said, we saw a few users getting back to the forum. Actually, if we want to be 100% intellectually correct, a lot of old members came back to the forum in these days, a there was a shift in regulation that awakened a few inactive users worried about their tax returns.

SO far, I think it is a positive test.

You are correct, we had the same issue when we created the Nigeria Bitcointalk community on Telegram last year, it was interesting at first because we were able to get to know ourselves better, new members were introduced, but the negative impact on our local board was much bigger than we expected, we noticed a decrease in activity on our local forum thread and that didn't help in our quest to have a local board last year, so we decided to delete it and since then our activity has increased again.

promoting a project that would reduce activity on Bitcointalk  on Bitcointalk forum——- ironic ;D


What is the purpose of this project? You've even included the merit and signature systems. theymos is not going to like it..

It seems impossible to me that I have to answer the same question all the time.  What is the purpose of the project?  Well I won't answer because I've said it too many times already and I've said it many times already that it's not true that the activity will decrease if links are posted from the forum.

Apart from causing distraction to those who are going to subscribe to the telegram channel, it will end up as a mere gossip channel. It won't have the strength of character of teaching and learning that BTT is endowed with. That's if the telegram channel doesn't even end up as an avenue for account sales and merit trading. Again, if you want something that can compete favourably with this forum, it won't be to set up mere telegram channels. Run enticing bounties and signature campaigns and you will see how things take a sharp turn.

I updated the  again.  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5422491.msg61327738#msg61327738 thread[/url)

Well, @mendace, you probably haven't written a shitcoin paper or an ICO, as you we can see from here marketing is not your cup of tea.

What did you update on the OP? Better put a small recap.

Maybe you wanted to highlight in your post that you added a verification process to link the Telegram Handle to the forum account trough a verification code the user must post on his forum profile page to confirm it's the legitimate owner of the profile?

This is a very good addition, as many users, myself included, have different handle for TG and forum.

Ps. The fact I might be better at marketing doesn't imply I am a shitcoiner!

Dear Fillippone you really convinced me, I think I will join the telegram group.  Thank you.

Oh, really? I guess you had the wrong quote inserted.

Bitcoin Talk Telegram Campaign Recap:

If you want background music on the post, we suggest  "Thunderstruck (live-1991) AC/DC."  (https://youtu.be/Af0P6XEkI7Y)

The Rock Trading campaign ended on Sunday, February 12, after 4 weeks. The campaign will not be renewed, but the remaining funds from the previous campaign will be used for another 4 weeks. During the 4 weeks, the campaign distributed 325,734 satoshis to participants and significantly increased the flow of messages within the forum.

Participants wrote 588 messages in the 4 weeks.

In the first week, 5 campaign participants produced 119 messages. I
n the second week, 7 participants produced 190 messages.
In the third week, 6 participants produced 157 messages, while in the last week, 6 participants produced 128 messages.

Unfortunately, the tracker is not in our possession, so the iterations with the campaign are not visible. Nevertheless, we thank The Rock Trading for the boost it gave to the forum and wish them a speedy resolution of their problems or information on what is happening.

The Sell Defi campaign ended on Sunday, February 20, with a duration of 4 weeks and no renewal at the moment.

There were always 2 participants, and they contributed 47, 54, 63, and 63 messages from the first to the fourth week, respectively.

During the campaign, it delivered 228,184 satoshis and received 227 posts from participants. Obviously, these are different numbers than TRT in terms of posts, as there were only 2 users.

During the campaign, the link received only 33 clicks, and we invite users to be more involved with our sponsors. The Sell Defi service has been used 3/4 times within the forum. We thank SellDefi for its contribution.

The SIM Privacy campaign is still ongoing and will end in about 2 weeks. We will update you later.

Stay tuned for the next update.

congratulations on the success of your project on telegram, you are finally starting to see the results of your project! really remarkable, I wondered, but can these sponsors also be proposed in the telegram forums in other languages?

Certainly, there are currently active international sections that are not being managed by anyone. In practice, these are vacant positions and anyone can apply for them. However, the applicants will also have to take care of the sponsors.

it's really a pity that no one has yet come forward to manage the other groups of the project, I find it really well done, full of content like here on the forum, and also the sponsors are starting to invest in the Italian "board". I hope someone will step up one day and manage the international group perfectly

I am impressed with the result of this experiment.
We have seen a constant outflow of users from the forum toward more modern social media. This hybrid experiment with Telegram showed we could somewhat influence these dynamics, exposing more users to forum contents and maybe showing them something they would have ignored.

Well done, and looking for more implementations in other local boards.

I believe I may have expressed myself poorly earlier. What I meant was that there are already open communities available (in French, German, English, and Indonesian), but we are currently seeking candidates to serve as administrators to manage these communities.

I understood then I also misunderstood, so in summary there are already communities for other nations but no one has come forward to manage them, did I understand correctly? Hopefully someone interested in reading this thread will come forward. let's say that it is a good opportunity both for the forum which will perhaps get new subscribers and also for the telegram group which may not be interested in the forum but interacts with the chat. who knows! let's hope so

It is surprising how they created the entire section on telegram. Though I would suggest it is really not necessary but to keep Italian spirit on, I think they did great job by doing this. At least those who loved the fact of having bitcointalk section on the telegram will be more impressed with this. Personally, I love the bitcoin talk forum as it is.

There were many suggestion back then to add more stickers, to have some animated contents, or may more sections which will be able to run the videos directly and what not.

However, what really keeps bitcointalk special is it's simplicity and that silent color tone which is unchanged since the beginning. If we start adding more contents to it then it may not feel like same old forum and would take out all the fun.

Though I suggested few changes myself in regards with profile, for example adding QR codes etc but it was mild one and also insider one, related to profile.

So, by that calculation, having entire section accessible from the telegram is just too far, you know? Just personally I would be less active on it and more here. Just love that tap tap tap on the key board whenever I am reading and posting.  ;)

Exact!!!  You got it right there are already communities but there are no users.  It is a pity that they remain empty