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Other => Meta => Topic started by: Docnaster on October 17, 2019, 11:14:40 PM



Title: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: Docnaster on October 17, 2019, 11:14:40 PM
I was doing some small research into an Ethereum based problem and ran into obstacles that had no specific dedicated board for it to be addressed. So I ended up posting it in the Bitcoin Technical Discussion board https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193854.0

It is easy to dismiss this idea but it is very important that it does not get dismissed. It may not be practical to have a dedicated board for every altcoin but surely something that crosses a certain market cap level, could get its own board. Altcoins like Ethereum, Cosmos, DAI are pretty complex to understand in the first go and it will definitely be beneficial for all of us here in this forum if they got their own dedicated sub boards.

But in the case that is not possible, maybe a general Altcoin technical board for discussion of all altcoins could be the least thing this community deserves.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: suchmoon on October 17, 2019, 11:27:33 PM
Usually the threshold for creating a new board would be if a certain category of threads crowd out most of an existing board. So for example if technical threads take up 50%+ of Altcoin Discussion you might have a case. But I don't think that's happening. Alternatively, perhaps some other category is dominating Altcoin Discussion and can be split off, leaving Altcoin Discussion for more technical threads, but I don't see that either.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: Docnaster on October 18, 2019, 12:39:04 AM
Usually the threshold for creating a new board would be if a certain category of threads crowd out most of an existing board. So for example if technical threads take up 50%+ of Altcoin Discussion you might have a case. But I don't think that's happening. Alternatively, perhaps some other category is dominating Altcoin Discussion and can be split off, leaving Altcoin Discussion for more technical threads, but I don't see that either.

It is not happening because altcoin discussion thread is inundated with signature spammers. It is not happening because there is no space for it to happen. Not the other way around. There are boards for off topic here and there are board for regional languages which are almost always dead. So why not something that let's people discuss the technical things with more ease. I know some people like ETF, Dannyhamilton, etc never leave the technical and project development parts. If a new board existed, it would give us altcoiners a chance to get our queries resolved by them. Not that it cannot happen now, but getting noticed for a technical point among a sea of shit posters is like being the lucky needle in a stack of hay.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: logfiles on October 18, 2019, 01:13:53 AM
Honestly, the best way to get a better technical discussion of a given altcoin is to just sign up to their specific forums. There you will get Enthusiasts of that specific altcoin who will help you with the technical knowledge.

Most of the people in the altcoin section here are just clueless signature and bounty spammers who just care about getting a few tokens made out of a thin air so even if a technical discussion board was created, it would be filled with such people.

I mean just look at the different threads of most of those top projects like litecoin, Ethereum... Infact most of the founders and initiators of these projects have already abandoned the threads a long time ago to their specific forums.

I am not saying it's a bad idea to have altcoin technical discussion here but what's on ground is that it won't possible to bring back those enthusiasts who have already left for their specific coin forums like https://forum.ethereum.org, so you may find you problem or question not getting solved/discussed according to how you want it for days


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: pooya87 on October 18, 2019, 05:20:06 AM
i would love to see a new "altcoin technical discussion" board but not coin specific, a general one for altcoins is the best thing to do since i wouldn't expect that much "technical" discussion in such a board and this is a bitcoin forum, creating a dozen dedicated boards to each coin would just crowd up the place not to mention that if an when these coins die, their board will remain here and become useless, whereas a general board would still be valid.

by the way the question you linked is more like a technical support not discussion.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: marcotheminer on October 18, 2019, 05:40:38 AM
i would love to see a new "altcoin technical discussion" board but not coin specific, a general one for altcoins is the best thing to do since i wouldn't expect that much "technical" discussion in such a board and this is a bitcoin forum, creating a dozen dedicated boards to each coin would just crowd up the place not to mention that if an when these coins die, their board will remain here and become useless, whereas a general board would still be valid.

by the way the question you linked is more like a technical support not discussion.

And please ban signatures there - meaning nothing is displayed there / uncounted somehow. Would make it clean and have only "real analysts" (?lol) checking threads out.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: Bttzed03 on October 18, 2019, 05:54:15 AM
^ Or just an active moderator. The Development & Technical Discussion (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0) allows signatures and I think that could be done also on the altcoin technical discussion board.



~
But in the case that is not possible, maybe a general Altcoin technical board for discussion of all altcoins could be the least thing this community deserves.
This has a higher chance of getting approved.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: pooya87 on October 18, 2019, 06:03:43 AM
i would love to see a new "altcoin technical discussion" board but not coin specific, a general one for altcoins is the best thing to do since i wouldn't expect that much "technical" discussion in such a board and this is a bitcoin forum, creating a dozen dedicated boards to each coin would just crowd up the place not to mention that if an when these coins die, their board will remain here and become useless, whereas a general board would still be valid.

by the way the question you linked is more like a technical support not discussion.

And please ban signatures there - meaning nothing is displayed there / uncounted somehow. Would make it clean and have only "real analysts" (?lol) checking threads out.

that's an idea.
but based on my observation majority of altcoin specific (not board specific) spams are done by those who are holding a bag and want it pumped. these people don't care about or even have any signature. they only care about advertising their garbage. so even if signatures didn't show in that board, they would still spam there.

a better solution, in my opinion, would be to add the said board as a sub-board of [bitcoin] Development & Technical Discussion (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0) board. that way "technical" discussions are kept in one place in the same category and also it could reduce the spam since most signature spammers are already avoiding that place and also those interested or capable of "technical" discussion are already visiting that board.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: BALIK on October 18, 2019, 11:33:40 AM
I can only imagine how much such a subsection would be abused by bounty hunters and mindless shills. Not saying it's a bad idea, but it would definitely need to have some stringent controls in place to prevent it becoming shill paradise.

Also, the overwhelming majority of altcoins are sh*tcoins. I can't see how technical analysis of sh*tcoins brings any value to the forum, but I can see how it could be problematic for new members/new investors.

Maybe the forum should only be for verifiable non sh*tcoins that meet specific criteria?


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: Heisenberg_Hunter on October 18, 2019, 11:36:32 AM
This has been into a matter of discussion for more than 1 year but there doesn't seem to be any initiative taken for this. Apart from Bitcoin, I am interested in the tech of some particular alts and I have requested for a separate board last year. I was initially active in Altcoin Discussion (not to spam) but to give out my suggestions/help for various Alt related tech questions. I skim around 10-20 mins in the frog pond to find one tech discussion topic which would be present in the 10th-20th page of the board. Sadly none of these topics receive a positive response from either of the spammers present there.

Many of them pointed out that this being a bitcoin forum, having an Altcoin Discussion is not really correct. But I guess this forum has gone beyond the limit of being a bitcoin forum and emerged more of a cryptocurrency forum over the 2 years.

And please ban signatures there - meaning nothing is displayed there / uncounted somehow. Would make it clean and have only "real analysts" (?lol) checking threads out.
No signature banning would not solve the problem and they are neither the problem. Spammers tend to spam only the common questions, so probably they won't be heading onto the Altcoin Tech Discussion and Support if something were to exist like that.

This has a higher chance of getting approved.
I don't think so it would get approved.

This was a topic started by me last year requesting for a Altcoin Technical Section : Can we have a separate board for Altcoin Technical Support & Discussion ? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3315093.msg34613078#msg34613078)

P.S All the attempts requesting for a Alt Tech board has resulted in a failure till now  :(


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: Coyster on October 18, 2019, 11:53:56 AM
Also, the overwhelming majority of altcoins are sh*tcoins. I can't see how technical analysis of sh*tcoins brings any value to the forum, but I can see how it could be problematic for new members/new investors.
You may be correct, but you need to also understand that there are few alts that aren't bad coins to actually obtain, there may be so many of them that are actually shitcoins and making the real/good ones invincible, but that's not a criteria for total generalization of all of them as shitcoins.

Almost every bitcoin enthusiast have at one point or the other acquired some altcoins that we were interested in, even now that we're seeing a demise in the number of good altcoins, the technical analysis of the good alts are needed for those who are interested.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: mprep on October 18, 2019, 12:11:12 PM
Don't exactly enjoy repeating myself but I'm going to re-quote (with minor modifications) what I've already quoted in a topic not far back since the same applies here:

Unless a subset of possible board topics is dominating the front page (+50% of topics on the front page belong to said subset), it's highly unlikely that it'll have a sub-section created for it. Not much point in creating a board that will be dead on arrival.

As with all sub-forum requests, I'm gonna ask a question - how many topics about Satoshi technical aspects of altcoins are currently on the first 3 or so pages of any board? Or on several boards combined? If there aren't enough topics (at least 20 on the frontpage and around 10 on later pages in my experience) to fill a board (meaning such topics do not dominate the discussion sphere of an existing board), what's the point of making a new section that'll be dead on arrival.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, boards are created not to encourage discussion of a subject but to stop a certain subject from dominating a board meant for a larger array of topics.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: hosseinimr93 on October 18, 2019, 12:28:09 PM
I don't think we need such a board.
Every altcoin has its own thread. Many of then have their own forum. Technical discussions can be done on altcoins threads.
Bitcoin technical discussion now includes quality posts by very good users of the forum. I don't think we will see such useful discussions on altcoin technical discussion board, Because there are many shitcoins.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: coupable on October 18, 2019, 12:55:52 PM
It would not be effecient to create this board, as the "technical discussion" for altcoins can't be generalized with different technologies behind each of them. I agree that technical discussions should be made to understand better some interrested altcoins like Grin and Ethereum and Dash... and i also agree that a forum user should have a place where to contribute to those discussions without the need to use the bitcoin technical support board or a dedicated board and without leaving the forum, but there is already some other solutions:
 - Official announcement thread for an altcoin is the best place where to start a technical discussion about it.
 - If the discussion isn't about a specific altcoin, then it belongs to "Altcoin Discussion" board where you can till start a self-mod topic
 with a big Red Warning that spam/off-topic/non-technical participations will be deleted, until the board get cleaned from shits.
If you want to publish an important update or start an urgent imprtant discussion, i think you can still use technical board to invite Devs. After the topic get the attention requested, mods they will move it to Altcoin board, but it should be in very urgent cases and when it's not about a specific altcoin.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: pooya87 on October 18, 2019, 01:00:29 PM
Don't exactly enjoy repeating myself but I'm going to re-quote (with minor modifications) what I've already quoted in a topic not far back since the same applies here:

Unless a subset of possible board topics is dominating the front page (+50% of topics on the front page belong to said subset), it's highly unlikely that it'll have a sub-section created for it. Not much point in creating a board that will be dead on arrival.

As with all sub-forum requests, I'm gonna ask a question - how many topics about Satoshi technical aspects of altcoins are currently on the first 3 or so pages of any board? Or on several boards combined? If there aren't enough topics (at least 20 on the frontpage and around 10 on later pages in my experience) to fill a board (meaning such topics do not dominate the discussion sphere of an existing board), what's the point of making a new section that'll be dead on arrival.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, boards are created not to encourage discussion of a subject but to stop a certain subject from dominating a board meant for a larger array of topics.

that sounds reasonable and maybe if an alt tech discussion were made it would die on arrival. but here is my problem with that logic.
when comparing the ratio (50% of topics) you can't really consider the topics that are spamfests. right now on page 1 of altcoin discussion board (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.0) (the place where you would post any altcoin technical discussion due to lack of a dedicated board) contains 35 topics without the stickies, 14 of them are price/investment related (keep in mind there is an altcoin speculation board!!!), out of the rest i can see maybe 1 or 2 topic worth staying in first page and the rest may be good but are already answered and at this point are being spammed by repeated replies.
so in my logic, if today somebody started only 1 technical discussion there it should be considered 50% of the topics.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: suchmoon on October 18, 2019, 02:54:58 PM
that sounds reasonable and maybe if an alt tech discussion were made it would die on arrival. but here is my problem with that logic.
when comparing the ratio (50% of topics) you can't really consider the topics that are spamfests. right now on page 1 of altcoin discussion board (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.0) (the place where you would post any altcoin technical discussion due to lack of a dedicated board) contains 35 topics without the stickies, 14 of them are price/investment related (keep in mind there is an altcoin speculation board!!!), out of the rest i can see maybe 1 or 2 topic worth staying in first page and the rest may be good but are already answered and at this point are being spammed by repeated replies.
so in my logic, if today somebody started only 1 technical discussion there it should be considered 50% of the topics.

The obvious solution would be to report the 14 threads to be moved to speculation, perhaps some others can be trashcanned for being shit - and there's room for technical discussion. Inside technical threads any shitposts should be reported too until shitposters learn that they shouldn't step into anything that has unknown words in it. A new board wouldn't magically solve this problem anyway - it would still rely on reports and moderators to stay clean.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: The Sceptical Chymist on October 18, 2019, 03:04:02 PM
Usually the threshold for creating a new board would be if a certain category of threads crowd out most of an existing board. So for example if technical threads take up 50%+ of Altcoin Discussion you might have a case.
Yeah, well you'd think if that were the case there would be child boards for ban appeals and merits, and those have even been suggested a couple of times but nothing changed.

But I don't think that's happening.
I don't either--I remember reading something about Theymos basically capitulating to the altcoin crowd when he added the altcoin sections, and that he didn't really want to do it.  I think I read that a long time ago, so I may have misunderstood it or gotten some details wrong, but my impression is that he wouldn't be too keen on adding even more subsections to the altcoin part of the board.  He also appears to take great care (and time) to make even minor changes, so if I were OP I wouldn't get my hopes up.  And I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that it probably won't happen.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: Bttzed03 on October 18, 2019, 04:02:07 PM
This has a higher chance of getting approved.
I don't think so it would get approved.

This was a topic started by me last year requesting for a Altcoin Technical Section : Can we have a separate board for Altcoin Technical Support & Discussion ? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3315093.msg34613078#msg34613078)

P.S All the attempts requesting for a Alt Tech board has resulted in a failure till now  :(
I was talking about having a general atlcoin technical discussion board having a higher chance compared to each altcoin having their own tech board.

All attempts so far failed because there are only a few tech discussion threads. If OP and others who requested before starts posting technical topics in the Altcoin discussion board, I bet future requests will likely get approved.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: CryptopreneurBrainboss on October 18, 2019, 04:23:05 PM
Why do we need a technical board when specific threads (probably self moderated ones to avoid spams and offtopic discussions) can be created on the general Altcoin discussion board then related technical (serious) discussion can be carried out on those threads. Example: Dash Discussion Thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5115659.0) Also what's the ratio of members who're capable of discussing technical matters visiting the altcoin board for them to demend this? Have they tried using the general Altcoin board for this purpose and it hasn't be successful?

If none of those have been tried then i don't see a need for this as probably the board would just go cold due to lack of usage like most subsections already existing on the forum. Try creating an audience to back this demand and then theymos won't hesitate to give you guys what you want.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: bittraffic on October 18, 2019, 04:45:15 PM


This will provide a support for the scripting language of the projects like Solidity of ETHEREUM and also others like the programming language used by Cardano. I tried learning about it months ago but I have no knowledge about what the smart contract says with all the line of codes. A section like this in the forum will most certainly will encourage me to continue learning.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: Thirdspace on October 18, 2019, 11:18:02 PM
Honestly, the best way to get a better technical discussion of a given altcoin is to just sign up to their specific forums. There you will get Enthusiasts of that specific altcoin who will help you with the technical knowledge.
agree, one should just go to the dedicated forum to discuss such things
or just raise the questions in its own altcoin ANN thread on this forum
starting new altcoin subforum will just provide new ground for spamfest

You may be correct, but you need to also understand that there are few alts that aren't bad coins to actually obtain, ...
if they are well developed coins, most likely there will be many supporters and communities
and they would surely make an effort to have their own sites and forums to accomodate their needs


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: Docnaster on October 19, 2019, 02:14:29 AM
Thank you guys for the support you are showing to this topic. Let's continue to have a healthy discussion on why we need a technical board for all altcoins rather than scattered threads here and there that are really hard to distinguish from financial, ico, bounty chatter.

The obvious solution would be to report the 14 threads to be moved to speculation, perhaps some others can be trashcanned for being shit - and there's room for technical discussion. Inside technical threads any shitposts should be reported too until shitposters learn that they shouldn't step into anything that has unknown words in it. A new board wouldn't magically solve this problem anyway - it would still rely on reports and moderators to stay clean.

It would have been much easier to do that if the reporting process was any easier. Right now it takes too much effort to report a mere shitpost.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: Julian ogan on October 19, 2019, 05:08:17 AM
There is a seperate Ethereum and other Altcoin based Forum on Altcoins Talks (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/) forum. I think we can create a Techincal discussion board on that Forum. Altcoins Talks is a Cryptocurrency forum specifically for discussions related to Altcoins. Instead of creating a board on Bitcointalk, you can create a board on Altcointalk.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: Docnaster on October 19, 2019, 06:36:01 PM
There is a seperate Ethereum and other Altcoin based Forum on Altcoins Talks (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/) forum. I think we can create a Techincal discussion board on that Forum. Altcoins Talks is a Cryptocurrency forum specifically for discussions related to Altcoins. Instead of creating a board on Bitcointalk, you can create a board on Altcointalk.

The two forums aren't managed by the same individuals that's theymos doesn't have control over what happens on that forum. If there was any forum that needs an altcoin technical discussion, it would be Bitcointalk as altcointalk is just filled with spams and copy paste posts been discussed on bitcointalk. Bitcointalk is a host to more individual which can be accounted for technical discussion.

I agree. I wouldnt want to leave this forum and go to some other forum only to find my email id / password leaked or sold off during some hack attempts. Which is entirely very common for small forums like those.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: Docnaster on October 20, 2019, 11:23:05 PM
This has a higher chance of getting approved.
I don't think so it would get approved.

This was a topic started by me last year requesting for a Altcoin Technical Section : Can we have a separate board for Altcoin Technical Support & Discussion ? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3315093.msg34613078#msg34613078)

P.S All the attempts requesting for a Alt Tech board has resulted in a failure till now  :(

That's what i think as well, additionally there's no moderator or potential moderator who :
1. Have sufficient technical knowledge to identify pseudo-knowledge
2. Can be neutral when moderate controversial topic (such as on-chain/off-chain scaling and PoW/PoS)
3. Interested to moderate this suggested board

I agree. I wouldnt want to leave this forum and go to some other forum only to find my email id / password leaked or sold off during some hack attempts. Which is entirely very common for small forums like those.

Temporary email and different password for each website could solve your concern.

I personally know two people that would kill each other debating over PoW and PoS it would not be very hard to find someone from the technical bitcoin boards to be a mod here. At first it can be a global mod board too. Much like your Indian section.
I know mods here like to remain neutral, it can be a character trait that can be looked for if there was an active interest in getting things moving in the right way. Sad that no attempts before have resulted in anything good, so why don't we try something that lets us make a stronger case this time around?


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: DannyHamilton on October 21, 2019, 09:26:08 PM
I know some people like . . . Dannyhamilton, etc never leave the technical and project development parts. If a new board existed, it would give us altcoiners a chance to get our queries resolved by them.

99.999% of all altcoins are either worthless junk or scams.

I have no interest in wasting my time assisting a scammer with his attempt to create yet another uninspired crypto.

You want to talk about Bitcoin, I'm happy to help in any way I can.  You want help with some altcoin nonsense... I'm not your guy.


Title: Re: Creating an Altcoin Technical Discussion Board
Post by: actmyname on October 21, 2019, 10:05:00 PM
I already report a huge number of posts that come from Altcoin Discussion. I have probably only scratched 2% of the spam there, though.
Why not move to Serious discussion, where it's much higher quality than Altcoin Discussion but flexible enough to open for the topic?