Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

I want to make my own forum for different coin, can I use the coin icons that you use?

Thanks.

Anyone?

The forum runs on a free open source software as far as i know.  It has some customizations which may also be open source or perhaps some "new code" has been created.

The basic platform is easy to find on google though.  Good luck creating a active forum, very very hard.

For the OP, the basic platform is SMF Boards :)

Yup, phpBB also another option for your free open source forum. 

Can I use the coin icons?

Dunno but they do not look like custom to me, maybe you should go to http://www.simplemachines.org/ and check out any demos and customizations, the coin icons might come in a download pack. 

You could just draw new coin icons and add the image files if not.

Anyone?

If admins don't respond, I'd advise you to use them until one of them tell you to stop
They look pretty random after all...

I'm sure I read somewhere recently that theymos created them. If he did, I'm sure he would let you use them, but to get an answer to your question you will need to PM him.

The customizations are not open source. They're not required to be open source, as SMF is licensed under the BSD license. http://www.simplemachines.org/about/smf/license.php

So may I use the coins or not?

By default, anything created by anyone is their property. They mostly won't chase you down if you are a small forums, but if you have aspirations, you NEED to make sure you have the right to use everything.

This user (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=328383) has made some awesome looking coins. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=736678.msg8329438#msg8329438)

If I was you, I'd ask him to simply make the same thing with your altcoin image, or ask permission to use his.

They look really nice and I'm sure it is simple enough for him to not turn it down if you offer a small fee. (0.05-0.2 BTC)

anyone (staff)?

i remember it was satoshi

This is off topic and isn't the place to try recruit staff.


Best try contact Satoshi then  :D.

it appears that the coins are a downscaled version of this picture: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/File:Bitcoin.png, which is under the public domain. If you really want to avoid copyright issue,s downscale the images yourself instead of copying them.

But it has a B in it and it's for an Altcoin the ones on Bitcointalk don't have a B.

Those are the ones used in the alternative version I showed you.

The BTCtalk ones use plain old gold coins, without any BTC symbol.

Well yes, but there is such a thing as editing. You shouldn't instantly dismiss any possibility of the BTC symbol having been removed, for instance.

They were created by Satoshi. They can be considered public domain as far as I'm concerned.

Ahh yes, it makes all sense that they would put Bitcoins under the name and then remove the BTC symbol from them.

Ok, I will use them, if Satoshi has a problem I will remove them right away!

Most likely that you'll never hear a word form him, hehe.

According to Theymos, the coins can be used by anybody. Why don't you make a new one? Change the colour and all or even the coin and make a new one. You can do it using the current coin or by making new ones. Anyway, Good Luck for the coins and the forum. It is really hard to make an active forum unless there is no forum like that.::)

  ~~MZ~~

I wish the I knew the terminology for this, but I'd like to call it some sort of inertia.

If a new store opens, offering a 5% discount off the normal stores, it still is not a likely competitor to companies with a pre-existing follower base, despite being a technically, better bargain.

The same happens on forums but is a much much higher factor. On forums, the other customers there are not only an indicator of good service, but the reason why you are there.
Dozens of altcoin forums have failed, because despite being more specialized and better at doing that, they are not populated enough in comparison to the Bitcointalk.org Altcoin subforums.

The only ways I can see you succeeding are:-

1- Give HUGE incentives. Yeah, it will take more than it will pay back and you will lose your userbase as soon as it stops.
2- Get a loyal userbase from outside of BTCtalk. Recruit people into the altcoin forums, not from Bitcointalk though, and ideally they should have never heard of Bitcointalk. This means, they will not have Bitcointalk.org as a better option or will be too loyal to you.