Bitcoin Forum

The idea comes from this:
https://ogrr.com
They are integrating Bitcoin with the board to make it like a market ( even if it's not automatic right now, but they ware working on it ... )

I though that there are many forums on Internet, and many will born on next hours.

Some them have already some economic features, but they are also many dedicated to games/mmo and many other topics that can be good for starting markets.

So I thought that it will be very good to develop mods ( or convert others as weex did here with osCommerce (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67166.0) ) to support Bitcoin currency.

This just to push Bitcoin even more all over the Internet.

Everyone will be able to add the free Bitcoin market on their boards just by adding a mod, and all users on the forum will know that there is a new currency in the world!

It should be good to have a mod for every common boards ( phpbb, smf, invision, vbulletin ... )

I just did a search and I found this mod (http://invisionmodding.com/topic/42273-e32-ibeconomy-points-system/) about Invision that can be a good start to get an earlier result.
( I don't know if there are better mods, it's just the good first result that I found )
Do you know other good mods for other boards that can be easy to be modified to support Bitcoin?

If you like this idea, we can also start a bounty for every mods.

And a fork to Reddit - see http://CoinSmack.com for how this would work.
 - https://github.com/reddit/reddit

This seems a good mod for SMF:

SMFShop - Shop MOD
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=65

Nice thread HostFat and thanks for the mention.

One thing to consider with each of these is how they will function when Pow! people want to add or remove BTC to the system. These points systems were meant to encourage use of their respective boards but with Bitcoin all of the sudden they have a chance to become real economies with some folks even making a living with their time spent there.

The other thing to note is that all kinds of problems can arise just by providing a deposit and withdrawal mechanism so I would suggest any mod first allow only manual, though easy-to-use, facilities for both.

DCAO was talking about this the other day. I totally support it and wish it would happen, and since MtGox is hosting the servers that would have the wallets, why not!  ::)

It should be noted that this is not specifically about bitcointalk.org. HostFat is trying to make it easier for all boards that wish to have a points system to instead use BTC natively.

It is a good idea for a project but I think it also needs a benefactor in a forum that has the desire to do this, help with testing, and provide feedback.

I see Flattr added something that looks like a Pinterest + Flattr mashup:
 - http://flattr.com/explore

The move to an internal currency is a concept that is gaining.  Quora has Quora Credits now where credits needed to post are earned as the result of participation on posts by others.  You can't buy Quora credits nor can you exchange them outside of Quora for items of value.

That's getting closer, but the concept is advancing towards a more direct-reward model.  For instance:

Klout has Perks:
 - http://klout.com/corp/perks

Calyp is a social media promotion service that gives agents rewards:
 - http://www.calyp.com/rewards.aspx (spendable using a prepaid debit card)

and then RedKonnect (pre-launch) is centered around the concept of compensating users for their participation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
 - http://redkonnect.com
 - http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/3/prweb9271211.htm

RedKonnect drives home the message: Online sites are making bank thanks to all of us doing Likes, Retweets, and Pinning.  How about they start paying us for that?

And once the breakthrough that users start expecting compensation for their participation, board and forum software will be pressured into enabling that capability as well.

The main difference is that with Bitcoin we will be able to exchange between every forums/communities! ;D

I really think that releasing mods for the most common boards ( phpbb, smf, invision, vbulletin ... ) will give an huge increase to the Bitcoin diffusion/circulation/propagation ... instantly!

There are many mods for all these boards available. ( they just create and use an "internal virtual currency" )
We just need that someone starts to modify them to support Bitcoin.

Another site of interest in terms of internal points systems is http://open-org.com/

The interesting thing about this site is that the points are being used to build the site itself. They are interested in creating an exchange between btc and their Profit points(open-org.com/roadmap lower right branch of tree). I think this model, where the total Profit points supply and site governance structure are transparent, could lead to a new generation of sites, businesses, and organizations.

Great idea!   

I agree, does anyone have a suggestion on which type of board to support first?

My suggestion to you is to give an offer directly to Ogrr. ( maybe you can make some money ... )
They haven't automatic funds right now, they always need an admin that gives you a new address, and to confirm the transaction :P

I think that they are using Phpbb.

After that ( if they accept your offer ), you will probably learn more about the phpbb board.

I'd rather not have every random forum holding coins.  They are screaming to be hacked.

Instead the "integration" should be the ability to look up the current balance of an address registered in the account details section, and post that balance under the avatar (or wherever)

To be honest though, it sounds like a non-problem.  Bitcoin is already capable of transferring value from anyone to anyone; and what is the advantage to me of having my balance published for all to see?

Bitcoin integration?  Just put an address in your signature.

Better is a reputation system.  And that doesn't require bitcoin at all.

Would be nice if you could get a Bitcoin magnet/html link that could outbound to your client and prepopulate the address. Can someone work that into a Firefox/Chrome extension, maybe make it compatible with instawallet?

Valid point. Steps can and should be taken to reduce risk. As it stands lots of folks have value stored in many sites with much less transparency in their account balances than what Bitcoin integration might bring. Holding Bitcoin (or something Bitcoin-backed) increases the likelihood of attack but it also increases the economic impact of a site, potential for trade, and even folks making a living from a site.

Right. One could even require a small payment or that a string be signed by that address to prove ownership.

You like social contests that improve the demand for an asset you hold?    This can be an option per site. It would probably be rarely used but in the case that a site owner really wants to encourage commerce, it can be shown. An additional option might be to have a public amount and a private one.

I like this idea and it's easy enough to do wherever one might want to. Still some users are funny about their addresses and may not want to publish them any more widely than necessary. It's also a little better for privacy if you generate a new address for each transaction.

The original idea of this thread is to increase the number of places where Bitcoin is used by recognizing the opportunity in replacing proprietary/fiat points systems. I'm sure any site that has any significant amount of commerce has a reputation system.

You bring up a good point though in that efforts encouraged by this thread should attempt to improve upon existing reputation systems. This could entice folks to integrate BTC into their economic model just to get the best reputation system available.

Ok people, we need to think hard how to make it viable....

1. Who receives BTC?
2. Who sends BTC?
3. What every transaction means?
4. How BTC is connected to karma?
5. Incentives...

Can somebody lay down basic strategy so we can start discussing it?

Maybe combine django-bitcoin and some python-bbs will be very easy.

Our goal is not to create another bbs or a bb platform that includes a Bitcoin economy component. Our goal is to make it as easy and straightforward as possible for admins to implement a Bitcoin-based points system/economy.

The numbered points here seem to be targeted at a specific site that isn't clear. When I think of Karma, I think of /. but perhaps you have a different idea Andrew?

At this early state, we could really use a survey of the available points and reputation systems. If we create a matrix of features that are currently available by CMS/site/bulletin board platform, we can prioritize features to be developed first.

I'm not sure where this matrix should live but a wiki is probably best. If someone wants to create this, link it here so we can work on it together.

Related:

Read about "PieTrust" in:
 - http://mwhite.calepin.co/the-emerging-wisdom-revolution/

And earlier, a "bounty" system for FOSS projects:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4435.0

I have suggested this before.

I recommend we start a bounty to get some developers to make plugins for all of the Boards available facilitating Bitcoin transactions.

That's the problem.... it's not clear what to do... + I think having Bitcoin in hands we can provide something much greater than simple rating or old systems

We need couple of use cases to discuss..

Let's say Oggr.com likes bitcoin...

What do they need?
What kind of problems do they have?
What bitcoin will enable them to do?

I'll take a first crack at this. They need a module that is easy to install on their existing board system with the following features:
* Account balances
* Deposit request and fulfillment
* Withdrawal request and fulfillment
* User reputation system with feedback forms

* Security of the funds themselves, since multi-sig isn't ready yet, the system should be able to facilitate one or more cold storage addresses. It should enable the admin to check the total BTC in the system and send anything over a reasonable amount of working funds into cold storage. It should also use the deposit mechanism to allow the admin to bring funds back onto the site when a large withdrawal comes. Any discrepancy should hook into the notification system of the board.
* Migrating from existing points systems. This is hard to automate without knowing more of what's out there. Still some tools would be useful generally. For example an automatic conversion utility that pulls in and exchanges point values from other tables into this module's. Another might be an estimator that would help the site-owner figure out how much BTC they'll need to back total holdings at a specific exchange rate. Or perhaps this module can help the owner increase transparency on their existing system and simply enable purchase and sale of points for BTC at whatever price the admin sets.
Bitcoin will enable them to attract productive users who wish to be paid for their time and energy. It can also help them develop additional revenue streams by allowing users to purchase forum upgrades, other goods and services from the admin using a widely(moreso than their points) accepted currency.

Imagine every member have 10 BTC on their accounts.

How BTC possession affects rating of the user on forum? Can i inflate my ranking by depositing more bitcoins into my account? Is rating mechanism as simple as transferring your bitcoins to somebody else if they made a good post?

I for one wouldn't explicitly use BTC for ratings. It's better as a tipping tool or for payment for virtual goods and services and that is how ogrr.com uses it. Other users might look at your BTC and draw their own conclusions but for the ratings/egoboo purpose perhaps you would have a number like total BTC earned rather than current balance.

Ok... continue... so far

tipping != rating

with tipping - everything is clear...

What about rating? how can we create new\implement old rating model using Bitcoins?

^ Use something like Litecoin or Microbits, give out a few free with a register, then they cannot withdraw the coins on their end and explicitly have to give them to someone else? Not sure if the spam filters could take that much of a pounding, but I'm just throwing it on the wall.

Here's an example of an opportunity.

The comments board for the community of readers of Calculated Risk is a Drupal 6 system which runs on the site called "Hoocoodanode" (as in, who could've known that the ninja / liar loans and the resulting housing bubble was really Goldman Sachs, AIG, Hank Paulson, and Countrywide Financial, etc. bending us over..  really, hoocoulda knowd)?

The URLs are:
 - http://CalculatedRiskBlog.com
 - http://www.hoocoodanode.org/node/5771

The sites see a pretty decent amount of activity.

What is interesting is how widely used are the icons in communicating.  It isn't just a few emoticons like :) and :(  and these icons become a substitute for typing and help as a visual aid.  I can scroll down a topic fairly quickly just looking at the icons to see what might be worth reading and what can be skipped.

Here's their legend for icons:
 - http://www.hoocoodanode.org/smileys_glossary

Here's a typical post to show how the icons are used:
 - http://www.hoocoodanode.org/node/15459

There's probably some monetization method there.  Like maybe to use more than one icon per reply you get a certain amount deducted from your balance.  Or maybe the operator wants to give an incentive for the use of the icons? I don't know, just that these are one example of something that I see on this one forum and haven't seen it anywhere else so I wanted to share.

Here there is another possibility :)
http://www.monotiz.com/smf/index.php?topic=21.msg42
Anyway, he said that it's occupied with other things :P

This very important discussion seemed to die out in 2012. I will attempt to revive it.

a module installable in a forum software should in my opinion ideally do the following:

1) Allow users to add public addresses to their profiles
2) Allow users to create multi-sig addresses (n/m) by selecting which user accounts are participating and what the n-of-m ratio is.
3) Allow users to share payment requests as parts of posts and as PMs.
4) For users with a public address in their profile, show a payment history with associated payment requests.
5) Allow users to configure if they want their public address shown or hidden.
6) Integrate well with the forum for notifications.

It is important that no funds are stored in the board at all, and that the board solely provides functions that makes using bitcoin more convenient.

I personally would be thankful if someone implemented this for phpBB so that I could manage family economics in a private forum like described here: http://forum.bitcoin.se/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=801

Well http://bitbiz.io/ have a interesting concept. {A forum where Crypto Currency Business is discussed}

The members get "shares" for things they do on the forum. Eg. 1 x share for each post or 2 shares for a new thread etc.}

All income from donates from sponsors and advertisers, are divided in dividends, as per their amount of shares.

The shares are sold amongst members for BTC

A real good idea to incorporate BTC in a forum environment.   ;)