Bitcoin Forum

I think it won't be news for anyone if I say this forum has gotten ridiculously large; so much so that it's actually getting hard to digest everything that's going on in here if you don't spend your time 24/7 on the forum. I think the software that empowers this forum, SMF, as it stands now, it's a bit lacking for Bitcointalk. I am the only the one thinking this?

One way that this forum could benefit tremedously for instance is if it had a voting system. I'm not talking about turning Bitcointalk into reddit, but damn, how much I wish sometimes that I could sort the posts in a thread by quality, so I could find the good, relevant posts quickly given the good will of the community to upvote the good stuff instead of skimming through dozens of pages of "lolz me too". Something like this would require modding SMF, but from a technical standpoint it's probably doable. What do you think?

Folks, let's discuss this and other ways to evolve Bitcointalk. I haven't been member for long, but it didn't take me long either to realize the forum is exploding at a faster pace than admins and mods are able to handle, and this sure is a problem if Bitcointalk is to stay for a while longer.

I would even go for a pay wall section of the forums. Or a pay to post, free to read section. In any case there needs to be a place for grown-ups to talk and organize. Every time a serious economic discussion gets going someone comes in with crap about the Illuminati or UFOs and makes us all look like confused, illiterate children raised on the history channel.
 

Looking for someone to create/modify software for this forum [5500+ BTC] (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50617.0)

The forum has a shit-ton of money in donations, and has been meaning to get new software for a while. But it's not happening for whatever reason.

Please don't change anything. Bitcointalk.org is nearly perfect as is.

The steady supply of the "less intelligent" is how the "more intelligent" can continuously take profits in the capital markets.

I think Soros Shorts summed this up perfectly, I'm quoting him so in the future I can easier find that tidbit of knowledge.

A thread/post rating plugin of some sort would add a nice touch.

Oh okay, I didn't come across that thread before. This forum is just that big, it's easy to miss the important threads.

So I guess the admins and mods have yet to the decide how to move forward best if they haven't pronounced themselves in that thread yet. At least they are aware of the issue, but something really needs to get in motion asap.

I think systems like that encourage an echo chamber mentality and discourages meaningful discussion about controversial topics.

Agree with you.

 I can't see my own threads  I had to go thru my each post to check my own threads and there is no Reputation/Feedback system, it annoys me.

Mybb is better alternative and xenforo too (PAID)

Do they still need it done?

I can do that, I mean that's my fucking job (Making and securing forums).

I believe so. Based on Theymos' most recent (I think) comment on the issue, I think he's just trying to work out some details in the new requirements or something.

Theymos started running the forum in the early days when the community was small.  Back then you didn't want a micromanaging, overbearing moderator - the forum was simply too small for that kind of person.  So whoever made the call to ask theymos to run the place made an excellent choice, he was the perfect forum mod.

However, times have changed.  The BTC economy is much larger and a large amount of the plumbing behind businesses takes place on this forum.  This forum is used to distribute news, discuss technology and find creditors and investors.  It is no longer acceptable to have a management who thinks doing less is the best plan of action.  Theymos thinks himself a forum moderator but his job title is really more like a CEO of bitcointalk.org.  CEOs don't get to say "hey, not in my job description" - they step up and direct people to make things better.  We don't have a CEO, we have a person who is incapable of delegation[1] and action.  If things are to change the tone coming from the top needs to change - either theymos steps up or gets out.

[1] see: lack of moderation of low quality posts, still no replacement forum software (and recently theymos was even saying he would start hacking on a new codebase himself, wtf) and the unending clusterfuck of scammer board/lending board moderation

Alright thanks, I'll contact him in evening :)

Speaking from experience, when you enforce too many ridiculous rules and try to make people post the way you want rather than just leave them alone forum communities like this one usually become ghost towns with only a few staff here and there and their supporters who think everything fantastic. Seriously, if you think you know better then go and set up a forum yourself, don't go usurping someone else's just because you don't like how things are run.

Why not try using Discourse (http://www.discourse.org/) by the creators of Stack Overflow? Looks like really cutting-edge forum software.

That's a good forum software for discussions etc but it doesnt have alot features that this community needs.
It's not just a bitcoin discussion community anymore, people buy/sell stuff here and it has a pretty big marketplace.

Only forum software with good features and support is best for it like xenforo which DP is using now https://forums.digitalpoint.com.

Also, how about a forum Rep system. I constantly get ignores by juvenile misfits, I want some reps from intelligent posters like me!

Rep system is good but it have some cons too.

1. People can use it to do scams
2. If negative reputation will be enabled, you will lots of peoples complaining about their negative rep.

Both things are happening on a another forum (Hackforums).

I like the forum how it is, but I have been using it for a couple years so I am pretty comfortable with its quirks. I try to go to other forums, and I get frustrated because thing are not where I expect them to be.

There has been a gradual improvement of the forum over the years. The board structure is pretty good for keeping things organized, and using the "ignore board" feature cuts out much of the stuff you do not want. Having the auction subforum not allow edits made auctions improved greatly.

The quality of discourse here is directly related to the quality of posters. Idiots come and go, but if you pay attention there are a few forum members who usually have intelligent things to say.

I like to check the "show unread posts" link at the top of the page, interesting, pertinent discussions will stay up there for a while, useless posts die away quickly (usually).

Yeah current system is good but it still lacks some features what other forums softwares are offering now.
Either this forum needs some tweaks and active moderators + some features that are needed.

Some things that i don't like.

1. I can't find my own threads easily.
2. If you try to search something it gives output as posts instead of threads and it's sucks sometimes
3. This forum doesn't had itrader sytem installed (it is installed now)
4. Other forum software have better post editors.
5. SMF needs alot core editing like phpbb for mods installation (Probably that's why Theymos didn't installed some  good plugins or upgraded forum to 2.0.4)

For 1&2, you're right. Even with the "advanced searches" (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=search;advanced) it's still lacking pretty bad. I'd also love it to let you search for topics only, or only threads by certain people. It does let you search for things by authors, but it still just shows all their posts. Changing these two things would make the forums significantly better for searching.

Theymos already slapped the idea of Discourse down, but I think that was a bit rash. He should at least tell Jeff Atwood that there's 700 grand in it for him if he can incorporate our needs into the Discourse code-base!

Discourse is open source software. Why not make bounties for features that are needed and let them all be contributed back as open source?

No because it will take alot time to make it compatible for bitcointalk needs. Even it will take alot time to put functions that currently SMF have.

SMF/Mybb and several other proper forum softwares are opensource too and theymos have already offered a big bounty.