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Title: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on July 17, 2021, 07:53:13 AM I have been following meta dynamics with a little bit more attention lately.
I usually analyse Italian board (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5214672) situation quite attentively, but I recently have been looking more at the forum as a whole thanks to this excellent @ddmrddmr thread: Very brief overview of Merit Source sMerit Increase impact (first few days) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5348444.0) Apparently, since there have been too little time to properly judge, the move by @theymos kranked up merit system again, and this week he had what is the third biggest merit increase ever (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4428616.msg57479354#msg57479354) (the first being a brrr-like merit spree by Theymos). @ddmrddrm posted on his thread an image, supporting the evidence of merit circulation system, that contained a disturbing detail in my opinion. Here it is what saw: https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/16/blob538456be7c8a5554.png Merit receivers, the active users posting good content, or at least merit-worth content, have been on a steady decline almost since inceptions. Same could be said about merit senders, or users actively engaged in the merit system. On the Italian board I have noticed the same pattern, and as you know the Italian board is one of the highest merit/post ratio local board. Hence I suspect this has little to do with the merit system, but it is rather a broader phenomenon. We have been discussing these kind of data since a long time and we came to the conclusion that while old users got disaffected to the forum because boredom, getting disaffected to bitcoin or, why not, getting too rich to post on a forum, Bitcointalk.org failed to attract new users because of the forum format itself. New users might be attracted to different media: Twitter, Telegram chats or Reddit. All those forums are quite different, but all 9fcthem, bar reddit, are prone to a very short attention span. Search functions are very limited and I can’t see JJG posting one of his wall of texts on a Teegram chat, where it would be immediately spammed by users asking “when lambo?” Or “I bought shitcoin DEN and I have been scammed!”. Forum are more of a slow rhythm, deep tought, knowledge intensive conversations (yeah WO thread included), while other media look to me more like instant gut-feeling dominated brawls. To me this is what our forum has to offer:
These are the step that might be useful to attract new users
What do you think? Do you think forum is losing userbase and this is a bad thing? Are there other reasons this is happening and other solutions? Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: NeuroticFish on July 17, 2021, 08:08:51 AM What do you think? Do you think forum is losing userbase and this is a bad thing? Are there other reasons this is happening and other solutions? I think that it may also be related to the fact that lately (6-12 months, at least) [it should be seen as an addition to your list] * bitcointalk seems to be punished by search engines, it's getting much more difficult to find anything here * competitor forum(s) have come to life, some automatically paying per post (I know that it attracts mostly shitposters, but.. what if it's not only shitposters? I can't tell for sure though.) And yes, the fact that we don't have a proper (default) mobile theme looks to me too as a big problem. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: DdmrDdmr on July 17, 2021, 08:21:46 AM Just to mention that, regarding the charts, the last data point is partial as we know, since it currently covers half way through the current month. Since the Merit Sources have recently been increased in quantity and allowance per 30 days, those trailing numbers may lift a bit over the next month or two at least.
That’s from an objective numerical stand. Having said that, disregarding this current month, the trend is on a slow downward trend in terms of Meriters and Merited, thus the Merit Source changes may liven up the figures somewhat (which I figure is the aim). From a personal perspective, I do not seem to be encountering posts from newcomers that are as good as prior generations (i.e. years). You never know who’s really new on the forum and who pretends to be, but my overall perception is that of less decent posters, and not as good as before (no offence). My Local board is really thin on new contributors, and when they do pop-up, it’s often to spam links, or post in Telegram style, but barely to engage in a longer standing relationship with the forum. Those that are the die-hard users there, tend to believe that SEO is a key factor in not receiving new savia, as the forum is difficult to come across on searches made in Spanish. That’s why I mentioned the other day that a forum software change is not the golden nugget, lest it is accompanied by some strategy to take advantage of the change, and accompany it with strategic targets to achieve, laying the groundwork for the tactics to be used to comply. The forum is certainly a reference, but I believe it could be more so if it aligns with the new communication channels (not that I like them personally, but I get them), better linear information (not exactly an Academy, but certain learning areas), more visual (perhaps we should have pursued more positively and pushed @theymos’ idea to create a YouTube channel (ideally linked to the forum), SEO (ffs), etc. Ideally, pushing Bitcointalk as a reference brand for bitcoin(/crypto?) information into the mind of newer generations further that it currently does. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Charles-Tim on July 17, 2021, 08:24:31 AM What do you think? Do you think forum is losing userbase and this is a bad thing? Are there other reasons this is happening and other solutions? How about the evil fee paid that spammers already know how to bypass with VPN and DPN. Real newbies do not know how to bypass the evil fee while many of them do not even know how to make use of Bitcoin at the time of registration. They just left the forum because even many of them think the transaction fee for Bitcoin is high like $20 because most of them are misled by the exchanges they are using. How many people will want to pay such high fee. It will be good if there is another solution instead of the evil fee paid.Also we need new forum software, we need forum app, especially the mobile app which will have beautiful UI. But about that charts, smerit were pre-generated for users at the start of merit system in accordance to individual rank, spammers were sending merit at the time even to each other. But there suppose to be an increase after the sometimes as users are increasing, this makes your post valid. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pmalek on July 17, 2021, 08:33:24 AM SEO (ffs), etc. The forum has hundreds of bitcoins, why not use a tiny bit of that to create some search engine optimized content to get the forum to rank a bit better for certain keywords/keyphrases? The services board has dozens of content writers, some of them certainly know how to write SEO content, and if not, someone could be found for such a task. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: ABCbits on July 17, 2021, 08:45:12 AM SEO (ffs), etc. The forum has hundreds of bitcoins, why not use a tiny bit of that to create some search engine optimized content to get the forum to rank a bit better for certain keywords/keyphrases? The services board has dozens of content writers, some of them certainly know how to write SEO content, and if not, someone could be found for such a task. Honestly, i don't like writing article solely for SEO. The article usually have mediocre quality and not really helpful. We better learn few thing from Stack Overflow/Stack Exchange (https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/14056 (https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/14056)). They have good SEO, while maintain content quality and doesn't create article solely for 1st result on search engine. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Rikafip on July 17, 2021, 09:19:11 AM Golden age of forums was more than a decade ago, so no wonder that bitcointalk userbase keep decreasing as I've seen the same thing on the other forums I'm using; old users quitting and new ones are attracted by other platforms.
Another thing that probably attracted more people to bitcointalk are altcoins; from my experience, new people tend to get into altcoins first (looking for quick profit) and then later on focus more on bitcoin. From what I could notice, bitcointalk stopped being a place where people come to discover new alts, therefore losing potential users who would later be more bitcoin oriented. I'm not sure that anything could be done to completely reverse the trend, but some of the things mentioned in previous posts could slow it down. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: kaggie on July 17, 2021, 09:34:15 AM New users might be attracted to different media: Twitter, Telegram chats or Reddit. Largely this.Younger generations probably think this looks old. But this forum is a rich historical artefact, with a clean interface. It brings together experts that you will not see in other places. Quote Forum are more of a slow rhythm, deep tought, knowledge intensive conversations (yeah WO thread included), while other media look to me more like instant gut-feeling dominated brawls. You probably have fewer trolls due to the way this forum is set up. In other media, you are contending with that you have single day accounts that can dominate conversations, which could be a normal user or paid by a corporation to do so.It's nice to have a focused place. Focusing on too many new media interactions is hard to keep up, but the forum may have enough money to hire people for that. Quote
Why are reddit, twitter, etc attracting users away from forums? A large single account can be used to talk about many different topics with a large userbase. A bit like core, you can replicate software but you need to replicate that dynamic. I don't think replicating the reddit/twitter dynamic is doable as within this forum, because this forum has a narrowly defined topic. Really to have a broader userbase and forum that doesn't 'die', you'd have to solve the social media issues. While this forum may still decline, it's active. It may come to an equilibrium level. There are regular posts every day. Perhaps it hasn't been advertised in a while -- but do you really want to do that? Would it help? I don't know? As rikaflip pointed out, lack of alt coin discussion probably prevents those users from joining. The forum already allows things like politics, so enabling larger topics isn't an issue entirely. Many advanced users probably communicate within their own particular communities, such as devs on github, slack, etc, making a forum less important. Perhaps the reason for a forum decline is that people are communicating more rapidly with their immediate peers in things like slack, and with broader communities in reddit/twitter/etc. A forum is the middle ground, which knowledgeable experts, smaller but not entirely enclosed community, which makes it slow, but it's still moving. Quote
I look at this forum on mobile, and it doesn't work perfectly. Ok to see interesting topics, but could be a lot slicker for browsing. A mobile app as well? Ability to launch to other social media is ok, but social media will change. It's not a deal breaker IMO. What would new software do? It seems fine as it is. Could there be any particular issues with user inter personality conflicts? I forget when I'm visiting here that there are what may be considered 'battle hardened' individuals, that had schisms over time (BCH; GA; CSW). There is a certain charisma aspect to keeping communities alive, which seems ok here but I wouldn't exactly know. I don't think it's a bad thing to lose userbase. This community should be preserved due to its historical information, and due to the consolidated expert knowledge that you cannot find in other locations. It's also nice to have a location that isn't controlled by the people who have bought the most stock in a public company and thereby influence it. It's active and rich of knowledge, so I see no real issues other than enabling a better mobile experience. --- edit: From a personal perspective, I do not seem to be encountering posts from newcomers that are as good as prior generations (i.e. years). This gives a hint. As bitcoin matures, long term experts and the most enthusiastic initial community tires or leaves, leaving behind newbies to keep up the energy...my overall perception is that of less decent posters, and not as good as before (no offence). The newbies need to transition into more mature roles within the community or the community dies. This is not specific to bitcointalk, but to any community that exists. The difficulty is figuring out who will continue in energetic roles, versus who may have to leave such sooner. New impactful news on bitcoin is rare. It occurs (e.g. all time highs as pointed out in the next user posts), which keeps people engaged. Yet, people find out more about these things on other sites. There is also personal effects where a older user has seen the same topics repeated numerous times (a la "who is satoshi") with very little new, and so it would feel tiresome to rehash the same topics. The mix of old, mature, and new can clash as people who have never discussed such things seriously discuss with people who have very formed ideas. Both bring something to the table, but it is a clash that is easy to be blind to. Quote That’s why I mentioned the other day that a forum software change is not the golden nugget, lest it is accompanied by some strategy Agreed...Quote Ideally, pushing Bitcointalk as a reference brand for bitcoin(/crypto?) information into the mind of newer generations further that it currently does. Perhaps bitcointalk needs more branding? There isn't a logo, which is nice, but also means that it isn't pushed. What sort of branding? It's a clean looking and relatively professional forum, so nothing too glittery. What sort of new tools could be incorporated? Being honest, new bitcoiners are likely to be investors with a lot of technical knowledge, or political (dare I say libertarian leaning?) people who might stick to larger bitcoin sites. The forum as is doesn't differentiate between these two groups, but if you had tools that interacted with other forecasting tools? That may change the nature of bitcoin talk from a forum.. I guess the question is: who is it that you are intending to attract to the forum? and why? Are there groups that would be left out? Quote You never know who’s really new on the forum I had an account a few years back. I think I got it to member, then stopped posting. It was a feeling of personal accomplishment to become a member, after which I felt satisfied and stopped. I also stopped partially because I felt the interactions a bit abrasive. I don't think there's anything to do about that off the top of my head. It makes sense, as you have the 1) conspiracy (Satoshi Nakamoto was a pseudonym who started a trillion dollar economy), mixed with 2) tech (devs, new algorithms), 3) wealth (old and new alike), 4) antagonists (spam and scam), 5) alt-coiners, and 6) actual newbies to it all. Each of these has their own perception, priorities, and self-preservation to maintain with or against the other groups. The newbies to it all are the most sensitive group and don't have enough ties to fight against tides of other groups. All of it are perfectly natural reactions, if not somewhat predictable. Still, the question is - which do you want to cater to, and then how do you best cater to that group? Maybe not do anything too dramatic if the goal is a buffet, which is fine? The forum accomplishes its goal of bringing new and old people together to interact in relaxed and serious manners.[/list] Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Kittygalore on July 17, 2021, 11:29:10 AM For me, the user base in this forum is like the oceans, it ebbs and flows meaning that there's times that we can see a low user base but at times we will see a spike. To me, I think that we will be able to see a spike in user base if the prices started rallying again, I noticed that there's an influx of newbie when the prices were still around the ATH.
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Lucius on July 17, 2021, 12:35:37 PM I think that all the posts above have detected very well the possible reasons why the number of new and active users is decreasing. There are many reasons, from the fact that some old users are no longer with us for their personal reasons or have unfortunately passed away, to the fact that the merit system has fundamentally changed the way forum members can progress (in terms of ranks), and thus reduced the interest of all those who saw the forum as a place to make money in a very easy and simple way.
Another important thing that no one mentioned is perhaps very important in the context of less interest in the forum - and that is the price of Bitcoin. When the average Joe looked at the price during 2015 or 2017 and read a forum full of posts speculating on a price that would one day go over $10k, it seemed very appealing to him from the perspective of his purchasing power, while today the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and high BTC price many simply refuse the new users to be active participants in the forum. I have previously expressed doubts that the new forum would bring results in terms of better post quality, and I sincerely doubt that it would attract new users, at least not in a significant number. In addition, it is necessary to look at how many users actually remained active from the initial years of the forum, and that the database has already decreased considerably at least once, which may indicate a natural process that may now be at its peak. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Daniel91 on July 17, 2021, 12:47:01 PM I would like to share my personal experience here.
In the last few years, I have suggested this forum to three of my friends. Two of them did not even manage to register to the end due to evil fee rules. When they saw the message that because of the evil fee they had to pay some amount to be able to post on this forum they just started laughing and said there was no way they would pay any money for the right to post on some forum. A third friend managed to register and luckily didn’t get the message that an evil fee should be paid but as soon as he started posting on this forum he was severely attacked by other members for a couple of unintentional, beginner mistakes he made like restarting an old thread that he simply gave up and said he would never return to this forum again. I am also a member of other forums and the same problem exists there, the declining interest of young people in forums. This is obviously a trend that can no longer be reversed and forums are slowly becoming an outdated way of internet communication. However, I believe that a large number of new members have dropped out of this forum due to the evil fee and the hostile welcome of older members. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: FIFA worldcup on July 17, 2021, 12:54:33 PM * competitor forum(s) have come to life, some automatically paying per post (I know that it attracts mostly shitposters, but.. what if it's not only shitposters? I can't tell for sure though.) Which competitor forum is paying per post automatically ? As far as my knowledge there is no such forum. Previously we had cryptotalk (forum by yobit) which automatically paid per post but it turned out to be a failed project. I also believe that currently there is no competitor for bitcointalk :) Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: CryptopreneurBrainboss on July 17, 2021, 01:21:29 PM What do you think? Do you think forum is losing userbase and this is a bad thing? Are there other reasons this is happening and other solutions? Let's be honest, the forum is static (or evolving at a very slow rate) and that has to be addressed. What stopped the forum from having a mobile app, having a more mobile friendly interface by now or introducing new features that'll make the forum a little bit interesting. For example, apparently I became more active on Facebook around the same time I created my account on the forum and the numerous changes been observed on the platform has a lot to says about how they value the community feedback. I'm not trying to compared both platform since Facebook has so many flaws but you should get an idea of where I'm coming from. I have seen countless number of thread created giving suggestions on how to improve the forum yet none is been looked into (atleast that's what it looks like). When people starts observing that the forum doesn't care about their suggestions then they'll stop trying to help which is why I think we haven't been seeing much of those suggestions recently. It's no doubt the forum is outdated and something urgent has to be done about this before it gets too late. We're losing user base and this isn't just because Bitcoin is on the decline of recent and other crackdown by search engine on bitcoin related search etc. We are losing because this generation aren't familiar with this format the forum is using. Things has evolved and the forum should evolved too. I still have my doubts if any of the suggestion made on this thread will be put into consideration although nice initiative my the OP. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: BITCOIN4X on July 17, 2021, 01:51:32 PM Golden age of forums was more than a decade ago, so no wonder that bitcointalk userbase keep decreasing as I've seen the same thing on the other forums I'm using; old users quitting and new ones are attracted by other platforms. The user base will also drop further if the altcoin (bounty) field no longer profitable anything for its participant. I can't imagine how this forum will have any user appeal if altcoins (bounty) are removed.OP, I feel if the benchmark of forum user base is seen from the cycle of senders and recipients of merit then I'm not sure it will be accurate enough because many forum users ignore the merit system and even they are not interested in getting involved as senders nor do they want to receive if we pay attention to the quality of their post. There are thousand of post on cryptocurrency alternative discussion board that do not meet quality standard and most of the people involved are bounty hunter. They're still active, but don't appear to be users interested in engaging either as senders or recipients of merit. In addition, the merit system also has an influence on the current user base of the forum. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: aoluain on July 17, 2021, 02:21:13 PM Golden age of forums was more than a decade ago, so no wonder that bitcointalk userbase keep decreasing as I've seen the same thing on the other forums I'm using; old users quitting and new ones are attracted by other platforms. Another thing that probably attracted more people to bitcointalk are altcoins; from my experience, new people tend to get into altcoins first (looking for quick profit) and then later on focus more on bitcoin. From what I could notice, bitcointalk stopped being a place where people come to discover new alts, therefore losing potential users who would later be more bitcoin oriented. I'm not sure that anything could be done to completely reverse the trend, but some of the things mentioned in previous posts could slow it down. This is what I have noticed also. Other forums I have been a member of have (a.) completely died with a handful of users rattling around or (b.) have significantly less activity. I would say that Twitter and Telegram are attracting more users than forums especially for the generation who have grown up with instant updates. While I love BCT I think the one drawback in the eyes of a newcomer is "The Vastness" of it, there is just a massive amount of information here both useful and worthless, it can be hard to, (a.) find exactly what you are looking for and (b.) time consuming to verify the information. I suppose in comparison to other sources (twitter, telegram) Forums are slow, require more reading and input. I'm not going anywhere though. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: NeuroticFish on July 17, 2021, 02:35:29 PM Which competitor forum is paying per post automatically ? As far as my knowledge there is no such forum. Previously we had cryptotalk (forum by yobit) which automatically paid per post but it turned out to be a failed project. I also believe that currently there is no competitor for bitcointalk :) Yes it was/is that yobit forum - I don't know if it runs and how is it going - , then there's some crypto/altcoins forum the bounties not-in-correct form for bitcointalk were held there, then there's a few forums that were advertised also here .. I don't know how good are they doing, but I guess that some of them do exist. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: zanezane on July 17, 2021, 02:42:59 PM Yes it was/is that yobit forum - I don't know if it runs and how is it going - , then there's some crypto/altcoins forum the bounties not-in-correct form for bitcointalk were held there, then there's a few forums that were advertised also here .. I don't know how good are they doing, but I guess that some of them do exist. Cryptotalk is already a fossil, it did gain traction in my school but it ended with nothing but air because the way they make money is unsustainable in so many levels. Also, I don't think that Bitcointalk is losing it's user base, there are new users in the forum that are slowly making merits and making a name for themselves, it's a slow burn so there's nothing to worry about.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: UmerIdrees on July 17, 2021, 03:12:14 PM Isn't it good that bitcointalk new signup are low as now people are less attractive to make alt accounts and most of the new accounts are from different individuals and not from a single person farming accounts ?
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pokapoka124 on July 17, 2021, 03:50:23 PM I believe bitcointalk forum is the first crypto community to ever exist, over the years crypto communities have formed and newer is always
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Charles-Tim on July 17, 2021, 03:53:58 PM Yes it was/is that yobit forum - I don't know if it runs and how is it going - , then there's some crypto/altcoins forum the bounties not-in-correct form for bitcointalk were held there, then there's a few forums that were advertised also here .. I don't know how good are they doing, but I guess that some of them do exist. I do not think so, I was ones a member on cryptotalk, the forum should have good users by now but there forum rules make many good posters to be banned as some have alt accounts which is against the forum rules while the many newbies that joined are spammers. You can't understand what I mean by spam I am implying, this forum is still better, you will read spam posts on cryptotalk and you will be tired. What Jr members and some members are posting on this is far better than posts on cryptotalk. It is a Russian forum, all English posters on the forum were banned because of obvious reason which the admin caused after banning quality posters, making stringent rules that will not make them to pay like before (like a user will have to rate (press like icon) your post before being paid, which was just pay by posts before). The forum is still active, but with Russian posters, all English posters are no more allowed to post indefinitely, maybe the admin might change their mind. One of the aims of the forum was to create a coin (I guess) which was called Talk token, after the creation of the coin, the coin failed and became shitcoin which I did was not even see on Coinmarketcap or Coingecko but traded only on yobit. The second forum that I know is Altcoinstalks, since I joined this forum, I do not post on cryptotalk again, and also was the time I knew Altcoinstalks, but I did not register on the forum because this forum has been the best. So, I do not know much about Altcoinstalks, but I know it is just only bounties that are advertised on the forum, I mean only bounty campaigns, and you know how bounties are not encouraging good posters on this forum if compared to signature campaign posters. Even the quality post members that do not put on signature on this forum prefer to post on Bitcoin boards. After these three sites, I do not know which one is paying other than Telegram, Twitter and some Reddit crypto related and the likes. No crypto forum that has its own site that I know other than this three. I even will say non. I did not see the other two boards (Cryptotalk and Altcoinstalks as competitors, they are far to be compared. You can try to check the traffic on the two sites and compare it to Bitcointalk. Bitcointalk at one time this year had almost 5 million (https://www.similarweb.com/website/bitcointalk.org/#overview) users visiting the forum frequently while the decline began during the bear marke. Less than 500000 for the other two forums (Altcoinstalks (https://www.similarweb.com/website/altcoinstalks.com/#overview) and Cryptotalk (https://www.similarweb.com/website/cryptotalk.org/#overview)). Also their quality of posting is not like this forum. No forum competitor. But this forum need to have grown better than this, but Bitcointalk is not newbie friendly and not blending with the recent softwares and apps needed. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: CryptopreneurBrainboss on July 17, 2021, 04:10:03 PM Isn't it good that bitcointalk new signup are low as now people are less attractive to make alt accounts and most of the new accounts are from different individuals and not from a single person farming accounts ? The concern here is about the genuine individual not joining the forum due to one reason or another been discussed above. If you read through you can see some concerning reasons been highlighted like the evil fees, better interface of alternative forum etc. That the signups are low doesn't automatically mean that those singing up aren't alternative account. If I was to propose a hypothesis basing my assumption on majority of the reasons for low turn up of members mentioned above been correct then I'll say the signups coming in are majorly alts and not the other way round as you're proposing but that's a topic for another day. Remember how clubhouse users hit the roof when Elon Musk tweeted about it. That's the kind of publicity the forum needs. We don't need such publicity as we didn't need one in the first place to get to this level, the success of Bitcoin is enough publicity for the forum. The forum just needs to put other things in place (shape) and everything will be back on track. If such publicity are made then the forum will just be a ground for spammers and quick money seekers giving the forum more trouble to handle. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: dkbit98 on July 17, 2021, 04:21:36 PM Are there any other Bitcoin and crypto forums, with more ''modern'' themes, that are better or more active than Bitcointalk?
- No. I am not sure that adding a mobile theme and improving search engine would make a drastic change, but we could use some refresh like big tech are doing all the time with their websites. We should also not forget the fact that people die and move on to other things all the time like Satoshi did, and we shouldn't be surprised by this. New people are generally young generation with short attention span, more suitable for tiktok and stuff like that :P Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on July 17, 2021, 04:30:20 PM Are there any other Bitcoin and crypto forums, with more ''modern'' themes, that are better or more active than Bitcointalk? - No. I am not sure that adding a mobile theme and improving search engine would make a drastic change, but we could use some refresh like big tech are doing all the time with their websites. We should also not forget the fact that people die and move on to other things all the time like Satoshi did, and we shouldn't be surprised by this. New people are generally young generation with short attention span, more suitable for tiktok and stuff like that :P Thank you all who wrote in this thread all your ideas. I am going to update the op with a summary of contribution later during the weekend. I am answering this particular message almost by chance, but it is particularly on the point: I am not complaining old user moved on with their lives. This is perfectly understandable and relatable. I am complaining I can’t see new users coming in. And while I do agree newer (younger) user might be prone to short attention span, I refuse to think we cannot engage a few thousands people all over the world interested in bitcoin to write a merit worth post monthly in this forum. This is what worries me the most: a community not able to engage new members is eventually going to die. And I think that day it would be a sad one. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pmalek on July 17, 2021, 04:34:15 PM Honestly, i don't like writing article solely for SEO. The article usually have mediocre quality and not really helpful. We better learn few thing from Stack Overflow/Stack Exchange (https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/14056 (https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/14056)). They have good SEO, while maintain content quality and doesn't create article solely for 1st result on search engine. As you pointed out, it can be done. Targeting top spot might be too much, but having the forum appear on the first page of search results for certain keywords is doable with a quality SEO team. Another thing that probably attracted more people to bitcointalk are altcoins; from my experience, new people tend to get into altcoins first (looking for quick profit) and then later on focus more on bitcoin. Good point. I am sure many of our currently active members started out collecting a few alts and shitcoins along the way. As the time passed, they either made some profit or learned from their mistakes and moved to bitcoin. But 2017/2018 was a long time ago. A third friend managed to register and luckily didn’t get the message that an evil fee should be paid but as soon as he started posting on this forum he was severely attacked by other members for a couple of unintentional, beginner mistakes he made like restarting an old thread that he simply gave up and said he would never return to this forum again. That happens unfortunately and I have seen it as well. We, the elders can be tough sometimes when freshlings start breaking the rules. Some are justifiably put in their place, while some, like your friend, receive too harsh of a treatment. I can't imagine how this forum will have any user appeal if altcoins (bounty) are removed. That won't happen. Even with all the problems the altcoin boards bring, theymos and the admins are well aware of how much appeal it has to many people and I don't see them cutting off their hand.Also, I don't think that Bitcointalk is losing it's user base, there are new users in the forum that are slowly making merits and making a name for themselves, it's a slow burn so there's nothing to worry about. It's not really a matter of opinion. You have stats in the OP of this thread and several other threads that show a decrease in activity and active users. Those can't be overlooked and ignored by having a different opinion. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: BITCOIN4X on July 17, 2021, 04:48:11 PM ~Snip I may not agree with your opinion. Based on the bpip.org site, currently the number of profiles registered on the forum has reached 3,357,216 profile (the accuracy is not known for certain) and it is proof that the bitcointalk.org forum has received quite a lot of enthusiasm from people who come. with different purposes. Only 122,859 profile are currently tracked as active profiles and the rest are inactive and archived. Remember how clubhouse users hit the roof when Elon Musk tweeted about it. That's the kind of publicity the forum needs. There is a correlation between the price of bitcoin (bearish and bullish) and the user base of the forum. During the bullish period, most of the new users logged in and some of the old members became active so the increase in the user base became noticeable. The opposite also happens when the price is bearish, the interest of new users begin to shrink and old users fall asleep. I think they are trader or investor who only use this forum for the purpose of getting information about trading and other thing that can be used as fundamental. So I don't think that one should create hype to increase the user base of the bitcointalk forum. But it will happen naturally when the pump period starts again. Apart from some of the factors I mentioned, the price of bitcoin also has an impact on the active user base on the forum. That won't happen. Even with all the problems the altcoin boards bring, theymos and the admins are well aware of how much appeal it has to many people and I don't see them cutting off their hand. Right, I know that. At least it won't happen on forums but it's still possible to make it more restrictive, right?Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: AverageGlabella on July 17, 2021, 04:56:08 PM Its funny that you wrote this thread as this is something I have been concerned about for a while if you note down the number of reddit subscribers at /r/Bitcoin and note down how many members are here on Bitcointalk you will see that the sub reddit is growing at a quicker rate. I am not sure how we are going to compete with forums and reddit which allow more text like speak but I would like to see theymos put something together. If signature campaigns disappear from the thread or die down a little bit then the forum would lose yet another part of its appeal.
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Upgrade00 on July 17, 2021, 05:24:10 PM This is quite an interesting thread with lots of similarly interesting opinions; The charts in the OP does show a progressively decreasing engagement in merit exchanges which could be indicative of a decrease in overall engagements, but previous higher numbers may not be something to miss as the forum has for long been filled with spammers leading to changes like the newbie jail and enhanced newbie requirements and the early period of the merit launch led to the growth of lots of account farms - Not all traffic is beneficial.
About users losing interest; This could be due to the retro forum layout which is a bit difficult to navigate for someone new to the forum, I can remember how alien this forum looked to me in my first few weeks here, but anyone who is truly interested in Bitcoin should be interested in this forum, regardless. As the OP mentioned, there are lots of useful information here and members do not have to be active or even logged in to access them, if I didn't have much to contribute, I could simply use this forum as a digital library for Bitcoin and my presence would not be felt, I can imagine some use it this way. Does the administration need to do anything to influence traffic? No, in my opinion. Bitcoin does not change with the times and does not market itself, this forum is a reflection of Bitcoin and should mimick it. Comparing bitcointalk to other forums is not necessary imo, as any other forum run the way this is would have lost almost all of their userbase, regular social platforms constantly market their service and make regular changes to their software, btt on the other hand has had the exact same outlook for over ten years with no updates, but still retains a good number of active users. As I've mentioned in another thread, a new forum software would not matter much in attracting new users, but only to add changes that majority of members have been requesting. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: NotATether on July 17, 2021, 05:28:31 PM SEO (ffs), etc. The forum has hundreds of bitcoins, why not use a tiny bit of that to create some search engine optimized content to get the forum to rank a bit better for certain keywords/keyphrases? The services board has dozens of content writers, some of them certainly know how to write SEO content, and if not, someone could be found for such a task. AFAIK, topic OPs are the only posts that rank on google search. And those that do (mostly in the technical, ANN, and service boards), are usually in the top 10 results because of Bitcointalk's very high domain authority (89). Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: AverageGlabella on July 17, 2021, 05:31:04 PM Does anyone have any accurate data on the amount of active members in the Bitcoin boards?
Does the administration need to do anything to influence traffic? I do not agree that Bitcointalk should mimic Bitcoin they are completely separate entities and are different in the ways they grow. If we carry on with the current user projection then Bitcointalk would need to advertise to try something to try and get more people registering. If you take a look at the forum currently you will see there is a lack of new members and only existing members contributing to discussions. Over time these existing members will leave for different reasons and if we are not replacing those members with new members then the forum will quickly become a ghost town. Even when Bitcoin hit a new ATH the amount of new accounts being registered was much less this time than in 2017 so something is definitely effecting that. No, in my opinion. Bitcoin does not change with the times and does not market itself, this forum is a reflection of Bitcoin and should mimick it. Comparing bitcointalk to other forums is not necessary imo, as any other forum run the way this is would have lost almost all of their userbase, regular social platforms constantly market their service and make regular changes to their software, btt on the other hand has had the exact same outlook for over ten years with no updates, but still retains a good number of active users. As I've mentioned in another thread, a new forum software would not matter much in attracting new users, but only to add changes that majority of members have been requesting. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Saidasun on July 17, 2021, 05:51:11 PM I am complaining I can’t see new users coming in. And while I do agree newer (younger) user might be prone to short attention span, I refuse to think we cannot engage a few thousands people all over the world interested in bitcoin to write a merit worth post monthly in this forum. I think this community in its current state is not very welcoming for new members and that will effect the amount of people are register but also the people who do register might not want to engage out of fear of hostilities. I am not branding the whole community as being unwelcoming because there are definitely people out there that make it like their goal to welcome new members into the community but overall I do think there is a problem there even if it is the minority. The only way we are going to correct that is by more senior members correcting their behaviors. As for attracting new members I do not think theymos or any of the staff are going to do anything but as a community we could organize things. Hell the only thing that seems to work around here is signature campaigns so maybe we could do a community funded advertising campaign for those that have big followings and pay them for sponsored content or we could fund raise as a community and pay for advertising ourselves but I would like to see some of the forum funds used for this. This is what worries me the most: a community not able to engage new members is eventually going to die. And I think that day it would be a sad one. Whatever the solution we need to find one as the forum is slowly but certainly losing its members. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: The Sceptical Chymist on July 17, 2021, 06:08:24 PM Forum are more of a slow rhythm, deep tought, knowledge intensive conversations (yeah WO thread included), while other media look to me more like instant gut-feeling dominated brawls. I couldn't agree with you more about your analysis of what bitcointalk is compared to the social media sites you mentioned, and I hope this forum doesn't start pandering to the zero-attention span crowd (and I'm not sure how that would be accomplished, but I'm sure it could). Admittedly, my own attention span is asymptotically approaching the zero point, but with bitcointalk being what it is, it forces me to slow down, read, and put effort into what I write. Anyone should should do the same when making posts, whether they're in a bounty/campaign or not.
On the merit front, I still think it's a bit too early to judge whether Theymos's recent changes have had or are going to have a significant effect on the number of merits being distributed. And whether or not there is such an effect, I don't hear too many members bitching about not being able to rank up--certainly not like they used to a couple of years ago. So I hope the changes help, but if they don't, I'm not convinced it'll be a crisis for the forum as a whole. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Stedsm on July 17, 2021, 07:29:01 PM Merit givers aren't giving merits because there aren't any valuable discussions that deserve merits, else I don't think that merit givers are doing it any bad. The ones who are leaving are maybe because either they are fed up of the merits system (which was released to actually weed out those parties who don't post with constructiveness), or they are not seeing any more campaigns coming online because of the exhaustion of companies maybe or such are scared to come up with BTC campaigns following highly volatile moves being seen in it nowadays (maybe). I believe that if it's losing some users, then they either don't deserve to be here or they have lost interest in crypto (again, maybe) or they've become too busy IRL to come here.
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: skarais on July 17, 2021, 07:35:51 PM I also took the same steps to make a little analysis about the activities of local board and also about the sustainability of the forum and its users for local Indonesian board.
1. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5209309.0 2. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5348298.0 Since theymos implementing merit as a new requirement for rank and rating quality post in 2018, I've seen a decline in the forum's user base exacerbated by bounty situation, most of which ended in scam. Many local Indonesian users stopped posting and left their account especially users with low rank. That condition lasted throughout 2018 until the price of bitcoin and most altcoin began to rise in 2020. What do you think? Do you think forum is losing userbase and this is a bad thing? Are there other reasons this is happening and other solutions? Yes, I have seen a decrease in the user base. Even though the number of registered account has exceeded 3 million, I'm sure there are still many old users who leave this forum. I also found data showing a decrease in the number of merit distributed on the local board as well as the number of users involved in the merit cycle since I updated that thread every month since 2021 whose data I retrieved from the DdmrDdmr Merit Dashboard. Of course it is not the best condition if we have a number of merit source scattered throughout the forum and some of them are also representative of their respective local board. But I think this is not only happening in local board, but globally this decline is clearly shown based on merit dashboard data. I just hope that once the merit source is increased to 111 users, there will be an increase in the number of users involved in merit distribution and encourage users who have never used sMerit before to get involved in this cycle. The forum's user base may still increase if the bitcoin price hit ATH again, but the user base involved in merit distribution will not grow if user interest in using their sMerit on quality post is not stimulated. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: AdolfinWolf on July 17, 2021, 08:00:46 PM My two cents: the forum is dying - and perhaps that's deserved / inevitable.
The kind of discussion this forum was build for is no longer desired by the "mainstream" "consumer" of forums, nor was it ever, probably. eg. there's (was) little to no groupthink (or an enormous amount, depends on how you view it), although the introduction of the merit system changed that a lot for the worse IMO, a lot of esoteric discussions about technical details etc... Add to that a terrible UI, terrible average poster + shitcoin campaigns and you get an inevitable deflation once said campaigns stop and end up with nothing of value apart from some very technical discussion no ordinary user will understand. Of course, when you have a devteam that's literally just scamming instead of improving the forum that's not helping either. So yes, bitcointalk is losing her users, and it is totally deserved. Over the span of ten years nothing has been done to improve accessibility, useability, or its reputation. Instead, bitcointalk was just "first". I guess we see what that has lead to, but don't get me wrong, I think it is inevitable that a lot of users have switched to forums/social media such as reddit either because their opinion is better represented there, the discussions are better, or because it is simply much more accessible in such a way that bitcointalk never could have competed with. So what's still so special about bitcointalk IMO? - It was "first" blabla. - You can "make money" posting. > Make money promoting morally dubious products such as bitcoin m***** or complete scamcoins, mostly. User activity grows exponentially on the way up when there's the opportunity to spam shitcoins for moola - and declines exponentially when interest cools down in crypto. Seems pretty inevitable. I mean, no one should forget where most of the popularity for this forum has come from for the last couple of years: a self-reinforcing hype of idiots constantly promoting rugpulls, shady casinos, or other shady financial products to each other. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it's just bound to lose steam at some point until the next "framework" (what crypto is to the internet, kinda) to play these games in comes around, and new suckers are able to be drawned in. Also seriously, I get an ad for "Elon Coin" by a DT1/DT2 member called lightlord? Wow. seems like the forum is extra desperate for cash these days promoting really obvious false grassroot rugpulls. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: KingsDen on July 17, 2021, 08:05:08 PM Merit receivers, the active users posting good content, or at least merit-worth content, have been on a steady decline almost since inceptions. However, I believe that a large number of new members have dropped out of this forum due to the evil fee and the hostile welcome of older members I highlighted the above portions of Op and @Daniel91 posts because one pointed out a problem and the other one stated how the problem is created. I want to in my little way suggest a solution. A system that has a means of punishing the offenders or disobedience, should have a means of rewarding the law abiding members. When there are no means of rewarding goodness, it will surely decline. For instance, if there is a reward for a newbie who under few months grew an account to full member without spamming or plagerising, it will in no doubt jealous others to begin to make merit-worth posts. In the case of hostile welcome of newbies by older members. I am happy a legendary member pointed out this issue. I believe many, very many new users dropped because of this. We should endeavour to help and mentor newbies that show inclination to grow and help the forum. This might not be obtainable or should be disregarded if the purpose of this forum has been achieved years ago. Maybe, we are just here for formalities. If not, let us encourage the new users who are really willing to add something to the system. A mere suggestion by a newbie will attract countless attacks. At a point some new users will be advised confidentially to limit the number of posts they create. Be mindful of whose thread they reply or whose post they quote in other not to get into troubles. A newbie who can make 10 quality posts will limit to 2 from 2 to 0 or become dormant or a shit poster. Alternatively, he will begin looking for alternative forums that will appreciate their weaknesses and encourage their strengths. Please, I am sincerely inlove with this forum. I regret why I haven't known this forum for long. Here is like an institution for me, even though I will not be certified, the knowledge I gain here is high. Let us uphold the sanity of the forum and allow love lead. I also wish to suggest if a board like "Skill Acquisition" can be created where people voluntarily teach skills. It will be a big empowerment, such that whenever you leave this forum for whatever reasons, there would be memories to remember, efforts to appreciate and relationships to uphold. Perfect Peace! Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Magicalking on July 17, 2021, 08:23:33 PM I am complaining I can’t see new users coming in. And while I do agree newer (younger) user might be prone to short attention span, I refuse to think we cannot engage a few thousands people all over the world interested in bitcoin to write a merit worth post monthly in this forum. I think this community in its current state is not very welcoming for new members and that will effect the amount of people are register but also the people who do register might not want to engage out of fear of hostilities. I am not branding the whole community as being unwelcoming because there are definitely people out there that make it like their goal to welcome new members into the community but overall I do think there is a problem there even if it is the minority. The only way we are going to correct that is by more senior members correcting their behaviors.This is what worries me the most: a community not able to engage new members is eventually going to die. And I think that day it would be a sad one. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Red Pie on July 17, 2021, 09:48:55 PM What do you think? Do you think forum is losing userbase and this is a bad thing? Are there other reasons this is happening and other solutions? Maybe when the forum was first established, it could meet all kinds of needs. But we have arrived in 2021. Smartphones are everywhere in our lives. Phones have become the main tool for managing our lives. Perhaps the greatest need of our forum is a mobile application. As for other forums, I don't think any of them can be Bitcointalk. There are some great writers on this forum. They found quite rich things in terms of content for the forum. We can't see this in every forum. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Shamm on July 17, 2021, 11:40:40 PM I am complaining I can’t see new users coming in. And while I do agree newer (younger) user might be prone to short attention span, I refuse to think we cannot engage a few thousands people all over the world interested in bitcoin to write a merit worth post monthly in this forum. I think this community in its current state is not very welcoming for new members and that will effect the amount of people are register but also the people who do register might not want to engage out of fear of hostilities. I am not branding the whole community as being unwelcoming because there are definitely people out there that make it like their goal to welcome new members into the community but overall I do think there is a problem there even if it is the minority. The only way we are going to correct that is by more senior members correcting their behaviors.This is what worries me the most: a community not able to engage new members is eventually going to die. And I think that day it would be a sad one. In my opinion Many users Left the forum not because they don't like bitcointalk but I think they not treat properly to the older Member as I saw other higher rank not treated very well some newbies remember that Newbies are still learning and developing their knowledge so we must treat them like our friends we help them. Some high ranks looking down the newbies witch is not Good for a role model. And some users left us because the saw other source of income or they felt and odler version of the Forum. What do you think? Do you think forum is losing userbase and this is a bad thing? Are there other reasons this is happening and other solutions? I suggest that we must update the bitcointalk to a newer version and more interesting or update our posting methods especially the way we treat newcomers we must handle them with care we should be a good role model in their journey so that many users will comeback to us and many user will come to this forum. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pokapoka124 on July 18, 2021, 12:15:45 AM For instance, if there is a reward for a newbie who under few months grew an account to full member without spamming or plagerising, it will in no doubt jealous others to begin to make merit-worth posts. Jealousy isn't the motivation that will prove helpful. The merit system in itself is enough to motivate one. The Bitcointalk Urban Achievers Merit Scholarship Program (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5338649.msg57047255#msg57047255) is good motivation In the case of hostile welcome of newbies by older members. I am happy a legendary member pointed out this issue. I believe many, very many new users dropped because of this. The hostility comes from the years of frustrations of being flooded by arrival of newbies who don't contribute, but just want to know how to get free bitcoin. A lot of newbies ask the same questions over and over without bothering to read the answers, this trait tends to upset some people. The attitude you speak of is not limited to bitcointalk forum, there is no perfect ecosystem except maybe the matrix lol. But if you ever feel like you are repeatedly attacked by the same person you can confront them, or you can use your ignore button. It is your choiceWe should endeavour to help and mentor newbies that show inclination to grow and help the forum. I also wish to suggest if a board like "Skill Acquisition" can be created where people voluntarily teach skills. There is the service board. We don't need to create a new board for skill acquisition.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pmalek on July 18, 2021, 06:51:22 AM A system that has a means of punishing the offenders or disobedience, should have a means of rewarding the law abiding members. When there are no means of rewarding goodness, it will surely decline. Can you give an example of what kind of rewards system you are talking about? How it would work, and where do the rewards come from. If a newbie manages to rank up to full member (and some have even ranked up to legendary), the whole community took part in his progress. That's the reward. The 100, 250, 500, or 1000 merits he received along the way is the community's way of saying we see you and we appreciate what you are doing. For instance, if there is a reward for a newbie who under few months grew an account to full member without spamming or plagerising, it will in no doubt jealous others to begin to make merit-worth posts. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Charles-Tim on July 18, 2021, 07:26:06 AM That's the reward. The 100, 250, 500, or 1000 merits he received along the way is the community's way of saying we see you and we appreciate what you are doing. This is just accurate already. Newbies love/like their posts to be merited, the quality posters among them are merited. KingsDen, with what is going on this forum, no newbie that actively become a full member will find it difficult to join a signature campaign paying up to $40 weekly, is this not a reward enough when there are still bounty options for some that purposely register account for bounties. The reward system of this forum is accurate enough and not comparable. Or, which reward are you implying? I believe it will be one of the ones that can result to this forum becoming spammers forum. One thing I noticed the admin accurately gotten rightly is the merit system which is enough as the reward system. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: PrimeNumber7 on July 18, 2021, 07:36:11 AM What do you think? Do you think forum is losing userbase and this is a bad thing? Are there other reasons this is happening and other solutions? I created a somewhat similar thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5313658.0) in February. Both trading activity and forum advertising revenue are way down. In the past, forum ads would run for approximately 10 days, but they are now (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5347042.0) being run for 30 days. In the above thread I created, several people suggested the forum could take steps to encourage LN use. While there is a lot of interest in bitcoin, over time there has been less to discuss about bitcoin. This is especially pronounced when compared to the sum total of discussions related to cryptocurrencies. The only crypto I currently own is bitcoin, although I have owned a small number of altcoins in the past, I find it unlikely I will own any altcoins in the future, and I do not own any NFTs (nor have I ever owned a NFT). I think there is the potential for a lot of discussion around things such as smart contracts, stablecoins, ERC20 coins (and similar), and NFTs (this may be temporary). The current structure of the altcoin section does a poor job at facilitating conversations around these topics. I think that at a minimum etherum and stablecoins should be given their own main sections with subsections. This is not a reflection on the technical superiority of the above, it is a reflection of the interest in, and the potential conversation topics of the above. Neither of the above are a short-term phenomenon, and both have a significant impact on the overall cryptocurrency economy. In the case of stablecoins, they influence bitcoin markets. Consideration should be given to creating subs for things such as smart contracts or NFTs. I also think more difference should be given to proposals that are unlikely to gain consensus to be implemented into bitcoin, such as alternative "proof of" methods (POS for example). It remains my firm opinion that POW is superior to any alternative. I think arguments in favor of alternatives such as POS will result in more debate, which should attract more technical-minded people to the forum. Discussions about these types of topics may also eventually lead to improvements to bitcoin, even if no original proposal is ever implemented. I might be personally interested in stablecoin discussions, and I very much enjoy debates about policy proposals, but I would probably personally not be interested in participating in most of the above-proposed subs. I do however think there is probably demand for topics involving the above subs, and there the above may increase traffic, and unique actual users who participate in the forum community. There will need to be merit sources who active read the above proposed subs to give out merit to thread participants for the metrics in the OP to improve. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: CryptopreneurBrainboss on July 18, 2021, 07:57:42 AM In the case of hostile welcome of newbies by older members. I am happy a legendary member pointed out this issue. I believe many, very many new users dropped because of this. We should endeavour to help and mentor newbies that show inclination to grow and help the forum. What do they expect when all we get from them this days is, 'I'm a newbie here, how do I earn, how to get merits or the funniest, newbie advising other newbie how to be a good newbie. The beginners and help board is just a comics board this days with all the hilarious content been posted daily all in the name of creating a merit worthy content. The newbie getting attack are those too inquisitive to get merited or start earnings from the forum and this can be observe from the kind of discussion they engage in. This type of users won't be productive to the forum in future, chances are they're just account farmers and majority of the time, it turns out to be true. The real newbie aren't getting any type of hostile treatment, they're widely accepted and getting as much support as they can. This type of newbie you see them trying their very best to engage in regular discussion, asking questions when they're confused or that have no idea on what is been discussed etc. 90% of the time, they spend less time in the meta, beginner and help boards, just viewing their posting records and it'll be obvious they're actually beginners. I'm not justifying the hostile behavior to the newbies but just know, majority of the time, the feedback you get as a newbie is from how you present yourself. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Westingcote on July 18, 2021, 07:58:03 AM We have lost a lot of members recently and while they may have caused drama that is what got people engaged and currently Bitcointalk does not have any drama or major drama, mobile theme, aging forum software, mosts threads are beating the same bush a million times and people are getting tired of it. Its natural for high profile members to take extended breaks or leave the forum permanently just like any other forum but we are not replacing them. If you look at the top page for each board you will see the same names there are no real interesting members emerging and that could replace the old. The altcoin boards are a mess and that does not help encourage good quality members to join the forum and while the main bitcoin boards are ok we just lack the sort of discussions which would encourage members to join the forum. Most people joining the forum will find it via a search probably asking a question and seeking an answer but once that question has been answered they will disappear we just do not have the lure that the forum once had and I am not sure we can fix that. This is just how websites go and other forums are having similar results now that social medias like Reddit are a thing.
I hate to say it but I think going along with the NFTs and try to use that to stay relevant is the only way to go as that is bringing in the most attention right now. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: KingsDen on July 18, 2021, 08:21:16 AM The 100, 250, 500, or 1000 merits he received along the way is the community's way of saying we see you and we appreciate what you are doing. This is very correct sir and the merit system is working effectively. Maybe I used the wrong word to express my point. However, let me rephrase and see if you, @Charles-Tim and @Pokapoka124 will understand me better. Reward I meant is not monetary, which cannot be unless from campaign. Let me draw an instance from a firm that has employees. Salary can be likened to the merit system here. All staff are entitled to salary provided you accomplish your job specifications. Some staff may receive something lesser than the standard salary because of irregularities and inability to accomplish task, which is likened to inability to earn good merits. Cool, then some good staff who do well may receive Bonuses (additional reward), job security, promotions etc. I might be very much out of tracks in my suggestions because here is a forum and not a company. However I have a group of children I mentor, I used the system of additional reward to make every one the best. Yes, in their guess to hit the moon (additional reward), they all landed at the star(the set goal) Since my interest in this thread is on quality and regularity, hence my submission. Perfect peace! Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pmalek on July 18, 2021, 12:24:33 PM Salary can be likened to the merit system here. That is not the purpose the merit system was created for. It's supposed to be be used to reward good posts, and that is it. You are suggesting merits as an additional bonus on top of the merits people already receive, is that it? Or are you thinking more of a system where merits are rewarded for certain services? The latter makes it look like merits are exchanged/sold for services, which shouldn't be done. If merits are given as a bonus, where do those merits come from? Let's say we had a threshold where all members who earned 100 merits in a 30 days period get an additional 10 merits as bonus. But where do these 10 bonus merits come from? From the forum automatically? Theymos could probably automate something like that, but I don't think it will happen. Maybe I still didn't understand the reward system you suggest, so please provide a precise example. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Daniel91 on July 18, 2021, 12:45:03 PM The 100, 250, 500, or 1000 merits he received along the way is the community's way of saying we see you and we appreciate what you are doing. This is very correct sir and the merit system is working effectively. Maybe I used the wrong word to express my point. However, let me rephrase and see if you, @Charles-Tim and @Pokapoka124 will understand me better. Reward I meant is not monetary, which cannot be unless from campaign. Let me draw an instance from a firm that has employees. Salary can be likened to the merit system here. All staff are entitled to salary provided you accomplish your job specifications. Some staff may receive something lesser than the standard salary because of irregularities and inability to accomplish task, which is likened to inability to earn good merits. Cool, then some good staff who do well may receive Bonuses (additional reward), job security, promotions etc. I might be very much out of tracks in my suggestions because here is a forum and not a company. However I have a group of children I mentor, I used the system of additional reward to make every one the best. Yes, in their guess to hit the moon (additional reward), they all landed at the star(the set goal) Since my interest in this thread is on quality and regularity, hence my submission. Perfect peace! I see an interesting initiative here but insufficiently elaborated and clear. I guess when you talk about rewards you mean some other system similar to the merits we currently have on the forum? I remember someone recently mentioning the introduction of a ''like'' button (can't find it now), similar to the system on social networks, so that members who may not have enough merits could in such a way show that they like a certain forum post. Is your idea going in this direction? Then the whole idea should be better presented and explained, so that the admins could seriously consider it. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Charles-Tim on July 18, 2021, 01:16:40 PM Maybe I still didn't understand the reward system you suggest, so please provide a precise example. I am thinking that is what he is suggesting.Then the whole idea should be better presented and explained, so that the admins could seriously consider it. The merit system is obviously perfect enough for what KingsDen is explaining I think. Only quality posts are merited while active members will be merited more than less active members while non active members will not be merited (just implying how quality posters can receive merit in relation to how active they are).---snipped--- Let us take for example, check you merit history, also check a member that is not as active as you merit history, also check a member that is not active at all merit history. You will see differences. I always make this comment, I knew no one when I started on this forum in 2020, but check my merit history now. The merit can be somehow partial that some people not posting than you are given more merit, but yet those people are perfectly active with good quality posts, also you being active will result to many other members meriting your posts. And just take it like this, you in particular, the more active you are, the more the merit, I say this because I know you are active with quality posts, and the more you know. So, this seem more like what you are explaining.But, If you think there should be bonuses for more active members, don't you think people will abuse it? I think it will be abused unless only few people are given, which is the work of merit source. And anyone can apply for merit source. I think we do not need to comment about merit or reward as this is getting us out of line of this thread's focus. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: skarais on July 18, 2021, 03:25:47 PM Does anyone have any accurate data on the amount of active members in the Bitcoin boards? Yes, you can find it anytime. It seem that https://ninjactic.space/ has the data you need to know the number of active users posting on a particular board for a certain time span be it every minute, hour, day, week and month. I saw a max limit of just 2000 users stored in the database if you want to know how many active users are posting on the board you want. For a bitcoin discussion board, so far it has a number of active users between 1300-2000+ every month throughout 2021. However, because the site has limitation, I don't think we can find accurate data if the time span you use exceed 14 days or 1 month. Use a shorter timeframe if you want to get data on the number of active users on a particular board.Example: This is the number of active users on the bitcoin discussion board from July 1 to July 17, 2021 (excluding child board). Over 17 days, there were 959 active users on the bitcoin discussion board (excluding child board) for a total of 7009 post (deleted, moved and still available). https://ninjastic.space/search?after_date=2021-06-30T23%3A59%3A59&before_date=2021-07-17T23%3A59%3A59&board=1 Code: 1. Kong Hey Pakboy [106] Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: aoluain on July 18, 2021, 04:32:30 PM SNIP Example: This is the number of active users on the bitcoin discussion board from July 1 to July 17, 2021 (excluding child board). Over 17 days, there were 959 active users on the bitcoin discussion board (excluding child board) for a total of 7009 post (deleted, moved and still available). SNIP I'm surprised with those numbers, I imagined them to be a lot higher. I have been applying the same criteria to other boards excluding local and including the relevant child boards for the same time frame and again the numbers are not as high as I would have expected particularly in the Mining and Development & Technical Discussion boards and also the much debated Altcoin Discussion Board with only 1174 users over this period of time. Code: (Marketplace = 2000) 1. KTChampions [166] Code: (Development & Technical Discussion = 195) 1. NotATether [61] Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: aoluain on July 18, 2021, 04:41:13 PM Code: (Ecomonics = 743) 1. ChartBuddy [394] Code: (Mining = 193) 1. philipma1957 [100] Code: (Beginners & Help = 333) 1. isaac_clarke22 [37] Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: LoyceV on July 18, 2021, 05:02:02 PM In the last few years, I have suggested this forum to three of my friends. I've always felt the same way: I'm pretty sure I can consider myself a contributing user, but there's no way in hell I would have joined this forum on February 26, 2015 if I would have had to pay for it. At that point, I owned maybe a few bucks worth of Bitcoin, and I wasn't going to hand it over.Two of them did not even manage to register to the end due to evil fee rules. When they saw the message that because of the evil fee they had to pay some amount to be able to post on this forum they just started laughing and said there was no way they would pay any money for the right to post on some forum. Luckily, I didn't need to pay an evil fee (and I had no idea it even existed at the time). Considering how many spammers we have, it's obvious the captcha and evil fee doesn't stop them. Since the Merit system now makes account farming pointless, would it be worth to try running the forum without evil fees for a while? Consider this: Limiting newbie participation is very harmful for a community. Newbie jail will never return: I consider the newbie-jail period to have been extremely damaging to the forum. When barriers to participation are too high, then the best people often just won't go to the trouble of joining, and the people who are willing to jump through the hoops are often people who aren't good for the community: people with nothing better to do, scammers, get-rick-quickers, etc. Having a permanent newbie jail policy would improve things a lot in the short-term, but would end up being a fatal poison to the community. Daniel91's personal experience confirms evil fees are damaging to the community, and many scammers/spammers have shown it doesn't stop them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but: can we go without evil fees for new users?However, I believe that a large number of new members have dropped out of this forum due to the evil fee and the hostile welcome of older members. I've seen this too, and I think I've become easier on Newbies over time. Of course there's the obvious scammers who deserve no mercy, but I try to Merit anyone who looks like a real user, and help them out whenever I can. I also try not to be trigger happy on the negative trust, and like to ask myself: "Does this makes Bitcointalk a better place?" before tagging someone. I would for instance not tag Newbies for asking for a loan: anyone who's dumb enough to trust a Newbie has only himself to thank, but more importantly the Newbie can learn how the forum works later on and still become a contributing user. A negative tag right from the start isn't encouraging them.We are losing because this generation aren't familiar with this format the forum is using. I like this forum format, and don't need it to become "more modern". But I also know many people easily fall for flashy looks (that's probably why every ICO scam site looks about the same). I don't like Reddit, it always makes me feel like they want to decide what I get to see. Social media in general are even worse: there's for sure an algorithm that determines what the user sees.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: skarais on July 18, 2021, 05:34:02 PM ~~~ But remember, you still won't get accurate data to judge the number of active users on a forum because the same member can post and be active on multiple board. What I've shown above is to see who and how many are active on a particular board and can't be used as a tool to assess the user base across forum.Merit may be one of the variables to assess the user base who cares about the quality of post and also users who care about the forum system (merit system). But if merit is used as a variable to assess the overall number of current active users, it may never be accurate. About what is displayed on the merit dashboard regarding merit senders and recipients, it seems to be clearly decreasing over time. But I think for July 2021, this data will be much better compared to June. Hopefully. Can anyone explain how accurate the data on the number of active users on the bitcointalk forum is based on the data displayed by bpip? I think this can be used as a guideline to assess the active user base if the accuracy rate reaches 95%. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: LoyceV on July 18, 2021, 06:06:54 PM Can anyone explain how accurate the data on the number of active users on the bitcointalk forum is based on the data displayed by bpip? I think this can be used as a guideline to assess the active user base if the accuracy rate reaches 95%. Hover your mouse over the "?":Quote Profiles that have logged in within the last three months. I also made Active users, top posters and most active topics in the past 1h, 24h and 7d (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5178726.0) for a more recent overview: Active users and top posters in the past 1h, 24h and 7d Active users and top posters in the past 1 hour: loyce.club/active/1h.html (https://loyce.club/active/1h.html) (updated 5 times per hour). Active users and top posters in the past 24 hours: loyce.club/active (https://loyce.club/active/) (updated 4 times per day). Active users and top posters in the past 7 days: loyce.club/active/7d.html (https://loyce.club/active/7d.html) (updated 2 times per day). Active topics are much more discouraging: Quote Active topics in the past 1h, 24h and 7d Most of the Top 20 are only bounty spammers posting their Twitter links.Active topics in the past 1 hour: loyce.club/active/topics1h.html (https://loyce.club/active/topics1h.html) (updated 5 times per hour). Active topics in the past 24 hours: loyce.club/active/topics24h.html (https://loyce.club/active/topics24h.html) (updated 4 times per day). Active topics in the past 7 days: loyce.club/active/topics7d.html (https://loyce.club/active/topics7d.html) (updated 2 times per day). Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: KingsDen on July 18, 2021, 06:25:48 PM What do they expect when all we get from them this days is, 'I'm a newbie here, how do I earn, how to get merits or the funniest, newbie advising other newbie how to be a good newbie. I very much understand your point sir. Every legendary member here has witnessed upto or more than 10 generations of newbies. That has given rise to stack of experiences about behavioral method of newbies. But most times we should try to allow the behaviour of newbies slide and focus more on whatever the newbie has to offer. There is no how there won't be exceptions.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Charles-Tim on July 18, 2021, 06:51:54 PM Daniel91's personal experience confirms evil fees are damaging to the community, and many scammers/spammers have shown it doesn't stop them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but: can we go without evil fees for new users? I knew someone that registered on this forum that told me he paid 0.0012 BTC as fee (not evil fee but Bitcoin transaction fee on the exchange he used) before he could register on this forum. A true newbie may not know someone one this forum and just see this forum to be useful and want to register. Some will not even know how to make use of Bitcoin at the time, some will even be charged high fee by helpers because they do not know anything about Bitcoin and/or grin at the time of registration. These can discourage many people not to register. The spammers are acquainted to this forum, they know how to bypass the evil fee.There are active members on this forum, ones a newbie do something inappropriate, they do not hesitate to press on the report button and report the newbie. I believe the moderators work are reduced by many ranked members reporting unworthy posts. Although, the more the posts reported, the increase in the work of moderators if checked in the other way around. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: ScamViruS on July 18, 2021, 07:45:34 PM Since I joined Bitcointalk, I have seen many new members gain the highest rank. Again I saw some old members have left the forum. New members who are currently in a good position are contributing to this forum everyday. This means that newcomers are interested in joining this forum. But here fresh newbies have to face a problem while registering in this forum, and that is to send a fee to unlock their account from proxyban. When a normal newbie intends to learn about Bitcoin from this forum and later want to buy Bitcoin, it means that the user may not be able to pay the fee.
But the problem is that scammers and spammers are constantly looking for ways to use this forum to achieve their goals. So in some cases this fee is taken even to prevent them, because if they do not face any kind of obstacle then they will become reckless and that will definitely be risky for the community members. So I think this should be looked into, and new registrations should be made easier for newbie. When the registration process becomes easier, the number of new members will increase. This forum is moving forward as it has been for decade, and I think it's more important now to create a good environment for newcomers (free from scammers and spammers) than to make other changes. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: PrimeNumber7 on July 18, 2021, 08:00:50 PM Considering how many spammers we have, it's obvious the captcha and evil fee doesn't stop them. Since the Merit system now makes account farming pointless, would it be worth to try running the forum without evil fees for a while? The evil fees are designed to stop the serious spammers, not necessarily the sig spammers who are trying to make a few dollars making low-effort posts. The spammers the evil fee is designed to protect against are those who advertise services, spam links unrelated to the topic with the hope they will be seen by google when they index the forum, and other useless posts. These spammers typically use automation, so without the evil fee, there would be nothing to stop them from scaling their spam using an unlimited number of accounts. The spammers do not need their posts to remain on the forum for very long, usually only long enough for search engines to see their posts, and if they make enough posts, the search engines will eventually index a thread when the post is still up. There might be an argument to say that the evil fees are too high, and we should consider lowering them. I don't see any reason why someone should need to pay $20 or $30 to have the ability to post, and this is far above an amount that will deter the above described spammers. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: nelson4lov on July 18, 2021, 08:06:05 PM What do you think? Do you think forum is losing userbase and this is a bad thing? Are there other reasons this is happening and other solutions? From what other members have already said, It seems some of the biggest reasons why forum participation and engagement has been at a decline is: - Evil fee for new users (my friends had this issue and they didn't push through with the registration as Bitcoin tx fees are high compared to few years ago. - Merit/Rank up: I'm sure a lot of people would debate this but this has been a drawback especially for new users who are still learning how the forum works and working on improving post quality. It sucks to be at a position for a long, long time such that if you're not focused, you can just give up and try luck elsewhere. - Old forum software: SMF software is one of the oldest out there and while I like the forum software when I joined in early, it's time to move on. There are better softwares around that could aid user engagement, rich user interface and also provide solid user experience especially in times like this where having good user experience is a huge plus. Forum needs to upgrade and fast. - No hostile attitude go other members: A lot of people don't talk about this but if you're at a place where you're constantly getting the heat for participate in open discussions, then it'd be best to just leave the place all together. That said, I'm appealing to members to be more accommodating. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Saidasun on July 18, 2021, 08:33:21 PM We have come to the conclusion that Bitcointalk is losing its members slowly but what can we do about it as a community? All the suggestions on this thread have been aimed at theymos making a change which I am not sure will happen. Instead we should start brain storming on what we can do as a community to improve both the retention of members and getting more new members. We cannot keep relying on the dips and rises of the Bitcoin price for our main source of new members.
I think if we put a community fund together and a trusted member managed the funds we could look at advertising on other forums and other websites. I think there would be huge support in this as we all have a common interest and that is the survival of this forum. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: aoluain on July 18, 2021, 09:30:15 PM ~~~ But remember, you still won't get accurate data to judge the number of active users on a forum because the same member can post and be active on multiple board. What I've shown above is to see who and how many are active on a particular board and can't be used as a tool to assess the user base across forum.snip Understood, it just paints a picture of the number of users per board. The user base will actually be less than the sum of the users per board of course. Daniel91's personal experience confirms evil fees are damaging to the community, and many scammers/spammers have shown it doesn't stop them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but: can we go without evil fees for new users? I knew someone that registered on this forum that told me he paid 0.0012 BTC as fee (not evil fee but Bitcoin transaction fee on the exchange he used) before he could register on this forum. A true newbie may not know someone one this forum and just see this forum to be useful and want to register. Some will not even know how to make use of Bitcoin at the time, some will even be charged high fee by helpers because they do not know anything about Bitcoin and/or grin at the time of registration. These can discourage many people not to register. The spammers are acquainted to this forum, they know how to bypass the evil fee.snip Its funny, I came across something about this earlier today, I didnt post it because I thought it was spam and because I didnt believe what I was reading. There are a lot of reviews, positive and negative and some SCAM reports, some are obviously venting but others below are people who were scammed. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/bitcointalk.org?b=MTUzMzY0NTU3NTAwMHw1YjY5OTMwNzlkMmRlZjBiN2M4Yzk5MDc Quote Stay away They are really Dubious!!! They stole all my investment Scam!! Quote Run by scammers. Quote It looks like extortion After signing up I got message: "...Your account contains 21.13 units of evil. To atone, you must pay a total of 0.00001177 bitcoins (0.01177 mBTC; 1177 satoshi). Pay to the address 3LAbpiPNyUWMiG8P4RzVYghXNwt3yGJCZA. Once you have paid the full amount, wait a few seconds and then reload this page. If the fee is so small that your wallet is unable to send it, you can send any larger amount, though you will not be refunded the difference..." The site is immodestly extorting money. It is a pity that the impression of the site is spoiled the first time you use it. Quote Scam site Scam site, very hard to understand mostly people degrade you or discredit you, pay to unblock even if you new here , this is absurd bitcoin was not made for this. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: PrimeNumber7 on July 19, 2021, 02:08:57 AM https://i.imgur.com/ouQm1yB.png
https://i.imgur.com/4r6SJ6j.png In addition to the total number of users participating in the merit system, the number of users receiving their first merit is also declining. With the exception of the 10th-anniversary art contest (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.0), the number of accounts receiving their first merit has steadily declined until late last year. In October 2020, the price of bitcoin crossed $10k, and this may have attracted more users to the forum. This trend ended in January 2021, which correlated with meme stocks and related forums taking users' attention away from bitcoin and bitcointalk. It now looks like we are going to have two consecutive months of ATL number of accounts receiving their first merit. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: libert19 on July 19, 2021, 02:53:24 AM Isn't this something that happens every time bear market arrives? Plus why would this forum ask for evil fee during registration? People might not even know how to use btc and come to this forum to ask for help then the same forum asks for fee (and learning curve to use wallets) so they get registered? This is wtf moment imo.
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: LoyceV on July 19, 2021, 07:40:07 AM There might be an argument to say that the evil fees are too high, and we should consider lowering them. I don't see any reason why someone should need to pay $20 or $30 to have the ability to post, and this is far above an amount that will deter the above described spammers. Theymos agrees:The fees actually paid (by people who are presumably not spammers) may be a bit high, though: I feel like it should be about a tenth of that. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Saidasun on July 19, 2021, 09:46:54 AM The evil fee could be reduced now that we have less account farmers and new members signing up. The workload might increase for the staff but at least we might get more people signing up that way. I know this is a Bitcoin forum and its kind of expected people would have Bitcoin before joining but I did not and I assume others wont and a lot of members will want to keep their privacy and will use a VPN and when they get rejected they probably won't understand the evil fee because they are new and will assume whatever connection they try to sign up with they will be required to pay it.
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: NeuroticFish on July 20, 2021, 12:30:15 PM you will read spam posts on cryptotalk and you will be tired Been there briefly on their beginnings and it was shitposting all over. Of course that since I knew Bitcointalk already I had higher standards, but I can't tell for others. People did spend time there and I can't really tell why. But if it went from bad to worse then yeah, sooner or later they went from potential competition to no competition at all. Oh well, if there aren't better sites then maybe it's the fact that forums are no longer a thing in 2021. And since the search engines may not send the users here.. the number of newcomers is lower than it could be. The evil fee may indeed have its role in all this. Something else that may worth mentioning is a possibly growing problem of group(s) ganging up and using DT and trust feedback for their own goals/benefit and may discourage people (especially on local boards, I guess) and make them leave the forum. But I don't actually know how big this problem is. I do see now and then "dubious" people ending up in DT, but I didn't pay that much attention (yet?). Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Jet Cash on July 20, 2021, 06:45:10 PM All of the points mentioned are valid, but the real issue is thge loss of many of the long term members, and the disappearance of the community spirit.I don't feel that I am part of a community any more, and that may be the result of a number of changes, some personal, and some political. I always hoed that we could have a vibrant information exchange amongst members from many nations, but that doesn't seen to have happened. I'm saddened by the majority of members who seem to accept the government and pharma propagfanda about covid for example. I also feel that many of the members are secret fans of the fiat systemn, and look on Bitcoin as a valueless token that they can use to earn a bit if their local fiat currency. That may be an unjustified opinion, and be the result of my reduced activity here.
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Saidasun on July 20, 2021, 09:59:13 PM All of the points mentioned are valid, but the real issue is thge loss of many of the long term members, and the disappearance of the community spirit.I don't feel that I am part of a community any more, and that may be the result of a number of changes, some personal, and some political. What has changed to make you feel not wanted or not a part of the community? You mention something about political changes but I am unsure what you mean by political changes. Political changes towards you or changes that have been made that effect you? I think most people just become bored and are not as passionate about Bitcoin or they tire of the spammers and that is when they do not feel a part of the community anymore but its probably all psychological because if you look back at the early days of the forum there was still people complaining about the same things unless you mean there has not been enough changes and everything stays about the same? Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: OutlawsGrandSon on July 21, 2021, 05:39:57 PM Bitcointalk is one of the biggest forums I've ever seen, with forums going out of style, im surprised to see the amount of activity bitcointalk still has
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: ShowOff on July 21, 2021, 06:07:45 PM Bitcointalk is one of the biggest forums I've ever seen, Yes, it has been almost 12 years since Satoshi introduced it to the community in November 2009 and I believe this forum is still the largest among the many forum discussing bitcoin.with forums going out of style, im surprised to see the amount of activity bitcointalk still has Perhap you shouldn't be surprised to find out the statistic of this forum that users keep on using all the time. Although people think this forum is outdated compared to other forum, but so far I'm still quite comfortable without any problem since 2015 because basically forum will never be the same as social media. The development project is ongoing and maybe one hope that this forum will be friendly with android users who tend to use apps as opposed to website.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Saidasun on July 21, 2021, 08:05:51 PM Perhap you shouldn't be surprised to find out the statistic of this forum that users keep on using all the time. Although people think this forum is outdated compared to other forum, but so far I'm still quite comfortable without any problem since 2015 because basically forum will never be the same as social media. The development project is ongoing and maybe one hope that this forum will be friendly with android users who tend to use apps as opposed to website. Forums are a dying platform and is been taken over by social medias like reddit Bitcointalk still existing is a achievement alone and eventually Bitcointalk is going to need to adapt to try and retain its members but at the moment I do not think we are close to it but I think another decade and we will be having a lot more problems than we are having today. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: ChuckBuck on July 21, 2021, 09:02:22 PM In fact, I have to admit that Bitcointalk is slowly losing its place in the crypto market, especially in terms of corporate advertising, there are more and more platforms promoting crypto projects out there, and a lot of big projects have succeeded there, and since then those platforms have become more popular, and it is slowly replacing bitcointalk. In fairness, this forum is still the best place to promote gambling platforms, but it is no longer the most attractive place to promote and develop new projects, especially are altcoins, right?
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: aoluain on July 22, 2021, 06:20:36 AM All of the points mentioned are valid, but the real issue is thge loss of many of the long term members, and the disappearance of the community spirit.I don't feel that I am part of a community any more, and that may be the result of a number of changes, some personal, and some political. I always hoed that we could have a vibrant information exchange amongst members from many nations, but that doesn't seen to have happened. I'm saddened by the majority of members who seem to accept the government and pharma propagfanda about covid for example. I also feel that many of the members are secret fans of the fiat systemn, and look on Bitcoin as a valueless token that they can use to earn a bit if their local fiat currency. That may be an unjustified opinion, and be the result of my reduced activity here. I kind of understand this, a lot of the time I have that impression too, yes we are all interested in Bitcoin but I rarely feel part of a community, or to put it another way I havent been able to connect with anyone, maybe that is down to the vastness of the forum and the amount of users. Maybe the local boards have a more community based feel or people are able to make connections there, also maybe on some of the Gambling Discussion threads too IDK although myself and @Timelord2067 seem to have the Rugby thread all to ourselves! Maybe this is something new users pick up on too, "its hard to make friends here" hard to make connections. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: darklus123 on July 22, 2021, 07:10:33 AM What do you think? Do you think forum is losing userbase and this is a bad thing? Are there other reasons this is happening and other solutions? How about the evil fee paid that spammers already know how to bypass with VPN and DPN. Real newbies do not know how to bypass the evil fee while many of them do not even know how to make use of Bitcoin at the time of registration. They just left the forum because even many of them think the transaction fee for Bitcoin is high like $20 because most of them are misled by the exchanges they are using. How many people will want to pay such high fee. It will be good if there is another solution instead of the evil fee paid.Also we need new forum software, we need forum app, especially the mobile app which will have beautiful UI. But about that charts, smerit were pre-generated for users at the start of merit system in accordance to individual rank, spammers were sending merit at the time even to each other. But there suppose to be an increase after the sometimes as users are increasing, this makes your post valid. 101% agrees to this. I've been inactively posting on the forum for quite some time because of my busy schedule. I have an eye problem and navigating the forum on my mobile phone really sucks a lot. And because of that and it somehow discourages me to visit the forum at all. I know there are still people who think that we don't need the app. But someone guys we are on the 21st generation already we need to adapt to these changes and we need to hurry up or it might get too late who knows Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: HaleyOccam on July 22, 2021, 07:52:43 AM As a newcomer, I want to talk about some of my feelings in the Bitcoin forum, which may express why forum members are losing or the number of quality posts is decreasing. I want to explain my point of view from the subjective and objective aspects: The subjective reasons of the Bitcoin forum itself:
The objective reasons are:
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on July 22, 2021, 09:34:24 AM I must admit I am quite surprised of the quality of this thread.
Every single post contributed valuable ideas and proposal. Even if I might not agree I think everyone tought about what proposed. So I tried to sum up here the main points that emerged all over the thread. I also included some sort of “proponent” even if the idea was shared or proposed by multiple users. This is why I didn’t link to a specific post. So, here is the foor for thoughts that emerged on this thread According to some of the readers of this thread, Bitcointalk is losing steam because of the following reasons:
Suggestions:
This is only what has surfaced until now. Feel free of course continuing proposing or discussing everything proposed so far. I hope @theymos, even without commenting, is reading this. We talked about and analysed all the forum weakness. But I am sure what is the biggest driving force and asset behind during these last 12 years: the community. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Jazmin Leslie on July 22, 2021, 12:55:45 PM I must admit I am quite surprised of the quality of this thread. Every single post contributed valuable ideas and proposal. Even if I might not agree I think everyone tought about what proposed. So I tried to sum up here the main points that emerged all over the thread. I also included some sort of “proponent” even if the idea was shared or proposed by multiple users. This is why I didn’t link to a specific post. So, here is the foor for thoughts that emerged on this thread Suggestions:
This is only what has surfaced until now. Feel free of course continuing proposing or discussing everything proposed so far. I hope @theymos, even without commenting, is reading this. We talked about and analysed all the forum weakness. But I am sure what is the biggest driving force and asset behind during these last 12 years: the community. According to some of the readers of this thread, Bitcointalk is losing steam because of the following reasons:
As a newcomer to the community, I have also participated in the suggestions and imagination of a small partner built by the forum App;
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: ChuckBuck on July 22, 2021, 03:37:13 PM
I also want to add a little more, this forum used to explode between 2016-2018, what was the cause of that explode? It is the strong rise of Bitcoin along with a series of altcoins created, but it was in the last year that Bitcoin also surged again and rose higher than ever, is this forum really as explosive as before? Obviously we can see a difference, a big difference between the number of users at these two points in time, the answer we have above, but the real solution is still a difficult question :-\ Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: BITCOIN4X on July 22, 2021, 04:45:42 PM ~Snip It looks like you've summed it up pretty well from all the poster responses in this thread and all the point you've inferred are mostly real from this forum and we can't deny that. For newbie, I've made several attempt to encourage people I know to learn about bitcoin and more from this forum. Most of them are not interested in contributing due to strict rule that make it difficult for them to develop themselve and their account but they are only interested in trading and becoming bounty hunter. It is undeniable that most newbie are only seen as poster who just fill in all their post history with report on social media assignment in the bounty thread. They are interested in money compared to knowledge and in my opinion only 10 out of 100 or maybe lower than newbie it seem like people are willing to learn about bitcoin if we go through their post history. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: darklus123 on July 22, 2021, 11:01:10 PM It looks like you've summed it up pretty well from all the poster responses in this thread and all the point you've inferred are mostly real from this forum and we can't deny that. For newbie, I've made several attempt to encourage people I know to learn about bitcoin and more from this forum. Most of them are not interested in contributing due to strict rule that make it difficult for them to develop themselve and their account but they are only interested in trading and becoming bounty hunter. It is undeniable that most newbie are only seen as poster who just fill in all their post history with report on social media assignment in the bounty thread. They are interested in money compared to knowledge and in my opinion only 10 out of 100 or maybe lower than newbie it seem like people are willing to learn about bitcoin if we go through their post history. Has and always been the problem especially if you are in a country where people are less knowledgeable. Here are my common experiences when trying to convince the people around me of what needs to be done or to know before investing in crypto. Crypto is somehow being recognized more in my home country and a lot are trying to test their luck in this environment. I suggested visiting this forum so that they will be involved in a community where they can get a lot of information. Sadly 90% of those became less interested upon checking the forum for the first time and would prefer discussing things in social media (eg: FB). While the other 5% are swallowed in the bounty hunting section. The sad part of that 90% is that almost all got scammed because of the "ignorance" and focusing more on the "quick rich scheme". I ask some of them why they feel that being here is not worth their time. The response that I am getting is they think that most of the articles in here are crap (I can't somehow blame them tho). Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: PrimeNumber7 on July 23, 2021, 03:17:48 AM I must admit I am quite surprised of the quality of this thread. I think that most forum members who regularly hang out on the forum care about the forum community and want to see it flourish, even if everyone doesn’t get along with everyone else. Why else would people spend time here? Granted, there are some trolls, but they eventually leave and I think we are in a period in which we have few trolls trying to cause problems. Every single post contributed valuable ideas and proposal. I personally care about the forum community and want it to grow. I appreciate the freedom the forum gives its members. It is possible to criticize the administration with impunity, even if such criticism is frivolous. People can post their true opinions without fear of consequences from the administration. This is an increasingly rare feature of places of this world…. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: NeuroticFish on July 23, 2021, 12:14:18 PM Lack of SEO. Bitcointalk.org results are buried in tha back pages This is not necessarily my idea, it was discussed especially in Google partial blackholing of Bitcointalk? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5333838) Automated payment for posts on other platform[Citation needed] [@NeuroticFish] [/li][/list] It was discussed in this range (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5349708.msg57482148#msg57482148) that the competitors don't go well, hence they may be less relevant than I thought. However, here's the link you "asked for" ;) Code: h**ps://yobit[dot]net/en/paybyposts/ Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on July 24, 2021, 10:13:30 PM Funny that as I wrote this thread, someone else tried to poll the future platform for Bitcoin: apparently even the most advanced social media is too old for the bitcoin user.
https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/16/blobff8ad02ed2c5b875.jpeg Bitcoin community moved from bitcoin talk to Reddit, then Twitter and now is looking for a new platform. I had to I quote and answer that tweet : https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/16/blob63305638633b8fa8.jpeg Shilling Bitcointalk is my favourite pastime! EDIT: I got a like from some notable legendary before 2016! Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: FIFA worldcup on July 25, 2021, 02:51:57 AM Bitcoin community moved from bitcoin talk to Reddit, then Twitter and now is looking for a new platform. I never believe that bitcoin community is more strong on reddit or twitter as compare to this on the forum. I think the strongest bitcoin community exist on this forum. You will only find bitcoin trending on twitter when there is big pump in the market. In normal or bearish days, you will not find any tweets about bitcoin. However you won't find lack of activity in this forum even in the bear market. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: isaac_clarke22 on July 25, 2021, 12:18:23 PM ~ I steer clear of Twitter when it comes to crypto discussions. There are a lot of people there just claiming that they know a lot about crypto but are just purely spreading BS. I usually only read there when there are dramas happening. :DI cannot say the same for Reddit, because when it comes to crypto news I just usually read here instead on Reddit. Why look for a dedicated subreddit when there is an existing website/forum that is entirely focused on Bitcoin? ~ Same goes in Facebook. Though I would say it is far more worse there especially in those pages dedicated for crypto news due to these:You will only find bitcoin trending on twitter when there is big pump in the market. ~ https://i.ibb.co/4gprp5f/fb.png I know it is ETH, but the news was about Bitcoin and I just stumbled upon that comment. I covered the name of the fake page comment to avoid others being misled. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: NeuroticFish on July 25, 2021, 12:41:01 PM Bitcoin community moved from bitcoin talk to Reddit, then Twitter and now is looking for a new platform. Then I guess that I've done it wrong? :P I started with Reddit, although it was /r/dogecoin (where I was disappinted by their algo to bury older topics). Then I came to Bitcointalk and I'm still here. I do check twitter when I'm bored, but not much, since I find it more a place for shilling and shouting than discussing ideas; so I can't really say that Twitter has a chance to "get me". Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Westingcote on July 25, 2021, 02:50:21 PM I had to I quote and answer that tweet : Bitcointalk moved to Reddit? I do not believe that if you go to the sub reddit of bitcoin and type in Bitcointalk all the members there do is talk bad things about Bitcointalk I would see the subreddit as a competitor instead of where the old members of this forum went. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: EvieLannister on July 26, 2021, 02:01:00 AM I think I can learn a lot about bitcointalk. And there is no false information in this forum. I met many excellent members on this forum. It seems that how many members of legends or heroes have been added. The members are old friends. Many people may be on Twitter or Reddit, but I think forums are better than Reddit and Twitte
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Tina H on July 26, 2021, 03:24:04 AM Although I am a newbie to the forum, I feel that joining the forum has brought me a lot of value, and the discussion with everyone has improved a lot of knowledge that I have not participated in before, but I also found a lot of spam， and Did not bring value, this part may have reasons to make users lose interest.
But I also saw the patience and support of the old users of the forum. I have seen the arguments put forward by new users many times. The old user helped him answer the question verbatim and pointed out the problem. I am very grateful for the encouragement of the old user. Make me like this forum even more. The only thing I regret is why I didn't enter this forum earlier. As a crypto enthusiast, this is heaven. Rich in content and rich in output. Old users are our role models. I will not leave the forum. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Jet Cash on July 26, 2021, 06:00:59 PM Bitcoin Talk would expand and regain its old position as a leading forum if more established members were active and posted in discussions. Especially if they are prepared to enter into discussions, rather than resorting to personal attacks, or just pushing the mainstream narrative as if it was gospel.
Society is trifurcating, and Bitcoiners should be preparing themselves to be a part of the middle group. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: StanleyBoyle on July 27, 2021, 02:48:34 AM Bitcoin Talk would expand and regain its old position as a leading forum if more established members were active and posted in discussions. Especially if they are prepared to enter into discussions, rather than resorting to personal attacks, or just pushing the mainstream narrative as if it was gospel. Society is trifurcating, and Bitcoiners should be preparing themselves to be a part of the middle group. Thank this old man for his pertinent opinions.The author is a respected old man， It is indeed the case. More and more young people, born after the 1990s, have become a large number of Bitcoin fans. They need the guidance and guidance of old members. Helping should be more active to help them grow up, and they may make mistakes. More tolerance from old members is needed. I also think that old members should have a more positive performance, adapt to the development of the times and adapt to the thinking of young people and novices. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: ROSERTY on July 27, 2021, 08:20:22 AM
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Daniel91 on July 27, 2021, 11:23:28 AM Bitcoin community moved from bitcoin talk to Reddit, then Twitter and now is looking for a new platform. Then I guess that I've done it wrong? :P I started with Reddit, although it was /r/dogecoin (where I was disappinted by their algo to bury older topics). Then I came to Bitcointalk and I'm still here. I do check twitter when I'm bored, but not much, since I find it more a place for shilling and shouting than discussing ideas; so I can't really say that Twitter has a chance to "get me". Each of us is different and has different approaches. When I joined this forum it was almost the only place where bitcoin information could be found. Later, other forums appeared, telegram groups, social networks, discord etc. For a while I was a member of some telegram and social networks crypto groups but over time I gave up and devoted myself only to this forum. It is very difficult to find some old information on social networks and there are many more scams out there. In this forum it is much easier for me to communicate with people and find old information. However, I notice that some old members are no longer active on this forum and that younger members prefer Telegram groups and social networks. I guess it’s a trend that can’t be reversed anymore. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on July 27, 2021, 12:29:46 PM I guess it’s a trend that can’t be reversed anymore. Let me disagree on this. Otherwise I wouldn’t have created this thread. For sure there is some work to do, I don’t know still what, but this trend can be if not properly reversed, maybe mitigated. Or at least it’s worth trying. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Rikafip on July 27, 2021, 02:06:14 PM For sure there is some work to do, I don’t know still what, but this trend can be if not properly reversed, maybe mitigated. +1 Or at least it’s worth trying. This trend can be certainly slowed down (at least), and even that is worth trying. First step is to recognize that there is a problem, and I think that everyone now is well aware of that, (including the forum staff), given some of the recent measures like whitelisting those that got flagged for evil fee, and now there are even talks about bitcointalk YouTube channel. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on July 27, 2021, 02:16:55 PM <…> and now there are even talks about bitcointalk YouTube channel. I am not a Meta denizen, but I never heard of this. Can you point in the right direction? I would like the YT channel use my material/thread if needed! Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Rikafip on July 27, 2021, 02:22:11 PM I am not a Meta denizen, but I never heard of this. Can you point in the right direction? I would like the YT channel use my material/thread if needed! I was referring to a thread that Cyrus started yesterday, Bitcointalk Youtube channel - what would you like to see? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5351302.0). I know that you are active in Meta, so I am surpried that you somehow missed that. Great initiative I think, if properly done it might popularize bitcointalk and bring some people.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: KingsDen on July 27, 2021, 10:03:26 PM ...Feel free of course continuing proposing or discussing everything proposed so far. @Fillippone thanks sir. I was obliged to return to this thread when I discovered that even upto the 5th page this thread has not been abandoned. It's almost a norm in the forum that some vital topics would be raised, extensively discussed and finally abandoned. Your compilation of the proposals so far gave me a resounding hope to once again in my own little experience contribute in this thread.I hope @theymos, even without commenting, is reading this. Change is permanent. Dynamism is the key to embracing change and not staticness. I read your comment as you uploaded a social media conversation in agreement with the purpose of this thread. Imo, that user might have in one way or the other suggested things for the goodness of the forum but was not considered. When I was a newbie(zero experience), I created a topic "An Alternative To Merit". See link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5341366.msg57137455#msg57137455 People discussed extensively on it, but I discovered many established users though in agreement with the post were sure that the suggestions will not be granted. Because such suggestions or even better suggestions were raised in the past but were not considered, they don't see mine as an exception. What actually am driving at is, the forum needs to be dynamic as if it's still evolving and not as static as it has arrived. If there are new suggestions like "Alternative To Merit, New Themes, Mobile app, no evil fee" etc,Theymos should try to create a poll on them and afterward implement them temporarily, if it doesn't work well he can revert to the former. There is no harm in trying. By this, the system would be dynamic and upto date. There is an African adage that says "Better days ahead". But with what I read in the forum, it seems better days are gone and never to resurface. So, it is high time the admins feast on the experience of the noble users of the forum to sustain or resuscitate her legacy. Thank you! Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: famososMuertos on July 29, 2021, 05:15:29 AM forum:
intensity loyalty legate intension prowess permanency o n e (#1) It does not matter what type of user you are but some of that you start to receive and / or deliver, only time will tell. There are many adjectives to add but what is really important is to keep; forum: # 1. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on July 29, 2021, 09:11:49 AM I was referring to a thread that Cyrus started yesterday, Bitcointalk Youtube channel - what would you like to see? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5351302.0). I see on that thread that the YouTube channel is actually going to be launched shortly. That idea had been posted here on the thread, so forum administrators are maybe This gives hope also to other good ideas surfaced here. Keep contributing! Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Rikafip on July 29, 2021, 02:45:25 PM I see on that thread that the YouTube channel is actually going to be launched shortly. Yep, it looks like bitcointalk YouTube channel might go live very soon and I am really excited about it. People nowadays spend shit load of time on YT (not just kids/teenagers, but grown ups too) so this might be a way to attract more people to bitcontalk, and even more to bitcoin!That idea had been posted here on the thread, so forum administrators are maybe This gives hope also to other good ideas surfaced here. Keep contributing! Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: BITCOIN4X on July 29, 2021, 04:27:10 PM Yep, it looks like bitcointalk YouTube channel might go live very soon and I am really excited about it. People nowadays spend shit load of time on YT (not just kids/teenagers, but grown ups too) so this might be a way to attract more people to bitcontalk, and even more to bitcoin! Many people will find this forum if they are interested in bitcoin. YouTube can help its users to find this forum if the user has an interest in bitcoin investing and the bitcointalk.org forum become an advertisement relevant to it. So far there are many videos on other users' private YouTube channels discussing forum issues and how forum can make money for their users. Most of them are bounty hunter and maybe they have invited quite a number of new users to the forum because of money or because they want to know a lot about bitcoin. Bitcointalk.org in YouTube may not be new, but if this is an official channel, then it deserve more support.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: shield132 on July 29, 2021, 05:30:07 PM I think that the main reason why Bitcointalk is losing it's popularity is that Bitcoin went mainstream and other businesses/platforms used this opportunity very well.
1. Websites like Cointelegraph, Coindesk and others try to write and publish news as soon as possible, these websites are a great source of crypto-related news, they are the ones who search the information all the time and then show it to their audience. 2. Websites like Stackoverflow have an audience of developers and enthusiasts who are more likely to help each other and share the knowledge. 3. Reddit is one of the most popular social news website and it's not oriented on one task but there is a discussion and boards on almost every theme/subject and people prefer to use it because for that and also for the nice UI. There are some other reasons to say too along with them. Also, at the same time, don't want to look rude but Theymos doesn't really take care of this forum. I don't judge it, I really appreciate bitcointalk and its role in my life, it completely changed my life for better but truth is truth, this forum looks like abandoned and the major life-giving power is the signature campaign at the moment. Bitcointalk needs serious change, implementation of new features to make the website look like a comfortable all-in-one service. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Welsh on July 29, 2021, 08:31:53 PM 3. Reddit is one of the most popular social news website and it's not oriented on one task but there is a discussion and boards on almost every theme/subject and people prefer to use it because for that and also for the nice UI. This is really the only one that comes close to comparable to Bitcointalk. However, its success isn't based on its quality, in fact I would say that its popularity is because of its lack of quality. The platform is designed mainly for lower quality content, and has a visibility feature which is easily abused. However, out of the ones you listed its the closest one that comes to Bitcointalk's goal, and that's quality based discussion. Don't get me wrong Reddit can have quality discussion, but because of its nature it tends to encourage lower based quality. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: skarais on July 30, 2021, 05:19:13 AM This is really the only one that comes close to comparable to Bitcointalk. However, its success isn't based on its quality, in fact I would say that its popularity is because of its lack of quality. The platform is designed mainly for lower quality content, and has a visibility feature which is easily abused. However, out of the ones you listed its the closest one that comes to Bitcointalk's goal, and that's quality based discussion. Don't get me wrong Reddit can have quality discussion, but because of its nature it tends to encourage lower based quality. I don't use reddit, so I don't know if it's worth comparing to bitcointalk or not. For the best post quality, bitcointalk may still be at the top for online bitcoin forum compared to other forum. But in my opinion between Reddit and bitcointalk have a different rating system. A Reddit user doesn't need HQ quality post to earn karma, because fame and number of followers will have an impact on the amount of karma you get. I think the same post rating system applies in bitcointalk and that is a merit. There's an emphasis on post quality as a condition for getting merit, I think it's different on Reddit. If my assumption is wrong, please correct me.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: FIFA worldcup on July 30, 2021, 07:24:08 AM This is really the only one that comes close to comparable to Bitcointalk. However, its success isn't based on its quality, in fact I would say that its popularity is because of its lack of quality. The platform is designed mainly for lower quality content, and has a visibility feature which is easily abused. However, out of the ones you listed its the closest one that comes to Bitcointalk's goal, and that's quality based discussion. Don't get me wrong Reddit can have quality discussion, but because of its nature it tends to encourage lower based quality. I don't use reddit, so I don't know if it's worth comparing to bitcointalk or not. For the best post quality, bitcointalk may still be at the top for online bitcoin forum compared to other forum. But in my opinion between Reddit and bitcointalk have a different rating system. A Reddit user doesn't need HQ quality post to earn karma, because fame and number of followers will have an impact on the amount of karma you get. I think the same post rating system applies in bitcointalk and that is a merit. There's an emphasis on post quality as a condition for getting merit, I think it's different on Reddit. If my assumption is wrong, please correct me.We should compare Reddit or other social media platforms like Twitter with bitcointalk. The structure and nature of these platform is different when compared to bitcointalk forum. If you want to compare, the you compare it with other bitcoin forums and i can safely say that none of those forums is popular as bitcointalk. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: isaac_clarke22 on July 30, 2021, 07:38:52 AM ~ The Award system in Reddit is a better comparison than the rating/upvote system there. You can upvote every single post in Reddit without being restricted, however in Award you're limited to how much Award you can give to a post and you need to buy them using Reddit Coins. That is pretty much close to sMerits as well except you don't buy them obviously. They give free Award randomly sometimes and it is randomized on what Award they can let you give to a post. I commonly get the Bear Hug award, lol. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Jazmin Leslie on July 30, 2021, 08:30:22 AM I guess it’s a trend that can’t be reversed anymore. Let me disagree on this. Otherwise I wouldn’t have created this thread. For sure there is some work to do, I don’t know still what, but this trend can be if not properly reversed, maybe mitigated. Or at least it’s worth trying. This post is really valuable. I read them one by one. I was very pleasantly surprised.It turns out that the forum is still very active. I still feel that the content of the forum is more sincere than the content output of other forums. After all, the status of bitcointalk is the highest banner of the crypto community. Since there is no survival problem, we should really consider the development problem. Mr. Nakamoto built a home for us, and we should pass the spirit of Bitcoin to more people. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Welsh on July 30, 2021, 09:00:40 PM I don't use reddit, so I don't know if it's worth comparing to bitcointalk or not. For the best post quality, bitcointalk may still be at the top for online bitcoin forum compared to other forum. But in my opinion between Reddit and bitcointalk have a different rating system. A Reddit user doesn't need HQ quality post to earn karma, because fame and number of followers will have an impact on the amount of karma you get. I think the same post rating system applies in bitcointalk and that is a merit. There's an emphasis on post quality as a condition for getting merit, I think it's different on Reddit. If my assumption is wrong, please correct me. Nah, its a pretty bad idea to compare Reddit's upvotes to Merit here on the forum. Reddit's system is fundamentally broken, and is very easy to abuse. Basically, if someone wanted to they could control what is seen by others on the subreddit by creating hundreds of accounts, and down voting whatever they want. Merit here on the forum is only given to those that have earned merit or have been selected by theymos for their merit distribution, and eye for spotting posts that align to his goal on Bitcointalk, which is usually the higher quality posts. Upvoting isn't judging the posts quality, at least that's not its intended use. Its used to help upvote content that they think is relevant, and users should see, and down vote things that they shouldn't see. That's basically it, its not really tied to the quality of the post, at least not primarily, and is only loosely associated with it. However, its most definitely misused by many of the users over there. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Kiley33 on July 31, 2021, 03:00:33 AM I often mention this forum to my friends. I said that I learned a lot of useful knowledge in this forum. I recommended him to join the forum, but he had to pay when he registered, and then he gave up. Another friend entered our forum and thought it was a good place to learn about cryptocurrency, but he thought the forum was not as interesting as reddit. Maybe the things here are too "rigid", and the things that can be searched here can be searched on reddit. He said that reddit is now more suitable for young people because the content he discusses is richer and people are more interested. Compared with reddit, here can improve our encryption knowledge and let us know more about the cryptocurrency market. It is more suitable for calm people to read and think.
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Magicalking on July 31, 2021, 11:21:42 AM The fact that I am typing in a huge textbox is one of the reasons why the forum is not famous amongst youngsters. Also networks like reddit and telegram are good for chatting. The icons on top are confusing and I haven't got used to them yet. I disagree with the notion that the rules are too strict and is the cause of the decline in new users. The rules is the only reason why the forum has order. Reedit, telegram and the other networks mention are easy target practice for scam.
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: LoyceV on July 31, 2021, 12:01:37 PM The fact that I am typing in a huge textbox is one of the reasons why the forum is not famous amongst youngsters. Why? Are they afraid of text?You can of course make it smaller. https://loyce.club/other/Magicalking.png Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: skarais on July 31, 2021, 12:10:36 PM Nah, its a pretty bad idea to compare Reddit's upvotes to Merit here on the forum. Reddit's system is fundamentally broken, and is very easy to abuse. Basically, if someone wanted to they could control what is seen by others on the subreddit by creating hundreds of accounts, and down voting whatever they want. Merit here on the forum is only given to those that have earned merit or have been selected by theymos for their merit distribution, and eye for spotting posts that align to his goal on Bitcointalk, which is usually the higher quality posts. That's why I hesitate to make a comparison between the two. Since 2017 I still really enjoy my time on this forum even when people say this forum is outdated and need to be upgraded asap if users don't want to leave it.Upvoting isn't judging the posts quality, at least that's not its intended use. Its used to help upvote content that they think is relevant, and users should see, and down vote things that they shouldn't see. That's basically it, its not really tied to the quality of the post, at least not primarily, and is only loosely associated with it. However, its most definitely misused by many of the users over there. As for the user base that looks down, I've actually had the same hunch since december 2019 so I created a special thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5209309.0) to find out why. As of December 3, 2019, this forum still has 133,934 active users according to bpip.org, but today we only have 98,669 logged-in profiles in the last 3 month. Obviously I can feel a lot of decline in term of the number of users. But if the orientation is on quality, I think this forum looks much better than before January 2018 or before the merit system was implemented. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: JohnBitCo on August 01, 2021, 10:28:36 AM The fact that I am typing in a huge textbox is one of the reasons why the forum is not famous amongst youngsters. Also networks like reddit and telegram are good for chatting. The icons on top are confusing and I haven't got used to them yet. I disagree with the notion that the rules are too strict and is the cause of the decline in new users. The rules is the only reason why the forum has order. Reedit, telegram and the other networks mention are easy target practice for scam. Bitcointalk may not be famous amoung the youngsters but it is famous for everyone who is involved in bitcoin and crypto. You need to understand that twitter , reddit, telegram are not made only for the bitcoin discussions. You can discuss anything there and there you find them more popular overall. For bitcoin and crytpo related stuff, you will not find any place more popular than bitcointalk. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: darklus123 on August 01, 2021, 01:45:15 PM As for the user base that looks down, I've actually had the same hunch since december 2019 so I created a special thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5209309.0) to find out why. As of December 3, 2019, this forum still has 133,934 active users according to bpip.org, but today we only have 98,669 logged-in profiles in the last 3 month. Obviously I can feel a lot of decline in term of the number of users. But if the orientation is on quality, I think this forum looks much better than before January 2018 or before the merit system was implemented. If you were saying that even if the numbers decline rapidly for the past years, but when the quality of posts increases does that mean that we are actually not using base users? If we are losing users who are actually not contributing with a single thing in this forum that is actually better for the community in the long run. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on August 06, 2021, 10:41:52 AM I guess this thread can be read in parallel to this one:
What Would Be Your Reason to Leave Bitcointalk? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5338254.0) Asking current members why they would leave the forum could hint us what led past users to walk the same path... Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: vapourminer on August 06, 2021, 01:18:06 PM I guess this thread can be read in parallel to this one: What Would Be Your Reason to Leave Bitcointalk? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5338254.0) Asking current members why they would leave the forum could hint us what led past users to walk the same path... as long as the WO exists i will never leave * * offer void where prohibited Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: The Sceptical Chymist on August 06, 2021, 02:59:11 PM Also, at the same time, don't want to look rude but Theymos doesn't really take care of this forum. I don't judge it, I really appreciate bitcointalk and its role in my life, it completely changed my life for better but truth is truth, this forum looks like abandoned and the major life-giving power is the signature campaign at the moment. It's OK, you can be rude on this forum (which is one of the reasons I love it), and you can also speak the truth as you see it without fear of censorship by the moderators. Sure, you might get flamed by other members, but that's the consequence of free speech. Other forums/platforms are much more restrictive in that sense, so bitcointalk has that advantage at least.Although I agree with you that Theymos doesn't seem to be giving much thought to improving the forum--or at least not showing any action to that effect--I happen to like it the way it is. Younger people who've grown up with social media platforms probably see the forum as antiquated, and I get that. But it serves its purpose as a place where people can just chat about bitcoin related topics, and it doesn't really need to be much more than that IMO. And you are completely on point about signature campaigns keeping the forum alive. If they ever went away, I have little doubt that it'd be like a ghost town around here. Just look at the forums for some of the more popular altcoins--they're active when the coin is hot, then they just die out. The truth is that most members here are incentivized to post, which accounts for why there are so many threads and posts within them. As long as they're around, I doubt the forum is in danger of dying. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Welsh on August 06, 2021, 03:19:09 PM There are some other reasons to say too along with them. Also, at the same time, don't want to look rude but Theymos doesn't really take care of this forum. I don't judge it, I really appreciate bitcointalk and its role in my life, it completely changed my life for better but truth is truth, this forum looks like abandoned and the major life-giving power is the signature campaign at the moment. Also, I'm not sure I agree with your opinion here. theymos isn't very public about his work put toward the forum, unless it needs to be public. I think he's done a rather good job over the years. A lot of users would have become overzealous with their perceived power, and I don't think that's the case here. Lack of changes doesn't necessarily mean inactivity. There's a lot more going on behind the scenes than just changes. If anyone has ever ran a website with moderate success, they'll understand that there's general maintenance that needs to be done. Also, I suspect that theymos has a fairly active life outside the forum, which is also understandable. Bitcointalk needs serious change, implementation of new features to make the website look like a comfortable all-in-one service. I do agree with your view of signature campaigns, no doubt they are attracting a rather large part of the community. Fortunately, theymos' has decided up until this point to allow them, since they have caused quite some trouble in the past with spamming, and I believe theymos' has likely considered altering it before, but acknowledged the importance of them, and the eco system that it brings to the forum. I think if signature campaigns were disallowed then there would likely only be those that are truly interested about discussing Bitcoin, and a few veterans users here. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: ShowOff on August 06, 2021, 03:57:12 PM I think if signature campaigns were disallowed then there would likely only be those that are truly interested about discussing Bitcoin, and a few veterans users here. This is justifiable as there are a lot of users who are willing to stay on the forum as long as they can make something out of it. Signature campaign and bounty campaign are one of the reasons why many users are using this forum and therefore the user base of the forum is increasing.We know most forum users have different goals to join this forum, there are only some users who are really interested in getting to know bitcoin technically while others are bounty hunters, traders, gamblers and spammers and other. If bounties and signature campaign are removed or banned, the user base will decline rapidly. I am very sure of that. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Welsh on August 06, 2021, 06:22:47 PM We know most forum users have different goals to join this forum, there are only some users who are really interested in getting to know bitcoin technically while others are bounty hunters, traders, gamblers and spammers and other. If bounties and signature campaign are removed or banned, the user base will decline rapidly. I am very sure of that. Whether or not that is a positive or negative thing is subjective. I'm sure there are users here hoping that the community rids of the spam issue that signature campaigns bring, and go back to a more tight knitted community, while others are probably hoping for more, and more active users so that there's more potential to earn. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: aysg76 on August 10, 2021, 07:56:32 AM I guess this thread can be read in parallel to this one: There maybe some reasons for members leaving this forum but as far i am concerned this forum is my top priority and best source of my learning and not going to leave it anytime soon and working to encourage my known persons to have a look on this forum which can open new doors for them to crypto world.What Would Be Your Reason to Leave Bitcointalk? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5338254.0) Asking current members why they would leave the forum could hint us what led past users to walk the same path... Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: skarais on August 11, 2021, 09:51:43 AM Intrigued by the number of merit distribution since several merit source were added, I took the time to make a little comparison from January to July 2021. Here's the graph.
Based on the data I obtained from the Merit Dashboard (https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/ddmrddmr/viz/BitcointalkMeritDashboard/MeritSendersReceivers), it can be seen that since the addition of merit sources and merit bank, the distribution of merit throughout July has increased by almost 100% compared to June. Of course this is quite good even though the percentage increase in senders is still below 16%. I'm not really sure if the user base is growing any further because of this increase, but what matters most is that more users are involved in the merit distribution cycle. The user base may be able to grow given the rise in bitcoin's price so far could have an impact on it. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: paulsonnumismatics on August 11, 2021, 11:57:49 AM Interesting, I just sorta came back. Any link that can explain the whole system? ty
Intrigued by the number of merit distribution since several merit source were added, I took the time to make a little comparison from January to July 2021. Here's the graph. Based on the data I obtained from the Merit Dashboard (https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/ddmrddmr/viz/BitcointalkMeritDashboard/MeritSendersReceivers), it can be seen that since the addition of merit sources and merit bank, the distribution of merit throughout July has increased by almost 100% compared to June. Of course this is quite good even though the percentage increase in senders is still below 16%. I'm not really sure if the user base is growing any further because of this increase, but what matters most is that more users are involved in the merit distribution cycle. The user base may be able to grow given the rise in bitcoin's price so far could have an impact on it. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: skarais on August 12, 2021, 04:09:16 AM Interesting, I just sorta came back. Any link that can explain the whole system? ty YEPS, you can search for something about merit statistics on the Merit Dashboard (https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/ddmrddmr/viz/BitcointalkMeritDashboard/CorrelationMatrix) or you can also use the merit statistics (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats). I use the Merit Dashboard (https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/ddmrddmr/viz/BitcointalkMeritDashboard/CorrelationMatrix) more often to find data on merit statistics, including post statistics per local board. Use whichever you think is appropriate, I still use the first option.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Findingnemo on August 12, 2021, 08:56:03 AM Intrigued by the number of merit distribution since several merit source were added, I took the time to make a little comparison from January to July 2021. Here's the graph. Recently we can witness more and more newbies are entering the forum and trying to bring some contribution in the race if merit earning which is good to some extent because they are trying to bring something new but surely there is a drop in the real discussion lately especially after the people who can't run with the merit system, probably most of them were account farmers.Based on the data I obtained from the Merit Dashboard (https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/ddmrddmr/viz/BitcointalkMeritDashboard/MeritSendersReceivers), it can be seen that since the addition of merit sources and merit bank, the distribution of merit throughout July has increased by almost 100% compared to June. Of course this is quite good even though the percentage increase in senders is still below 16%. I'm not really sure if the user base is growing any further because of this increase, but what matters most is that more users are involved in the merit distribution cycle. The user base may be able to grow given the rise in bitcoin's price so far could have an impact on it. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Welsh on August 13, 2021, 12:35:36 PM Recently we can witness more and more newbies are entering the forum and trying to bring some contribution in the race if merit earning which is good to some extent because they are trying to bring something new but surely there is a drop in the real discussion lately especially after the people who can't run with the merit system, probably most of them were account farmers. Loss of quantity that is replaced by quality isn't a bad thing in my opinion. Users come, and go, but we all stick around for the discussions. I would prefer to have less quality discussions, than having the place drowned out because of the abundance of poor quality discussions. At the moment, I think the forum is somewhat in between that metric, since there's definitely discussions here which aren't particularly of good quality. I'm not really sure if the user base is growing any further because of this increase, but what matters most is that more users are involved in the merit distribution cycle. The user base may be able to grow given the rise in bitcoin's price so far could have an impact on it. While you might not see immediate effects, I do believe it's quite clear that the easier it is for users to rank up, and progress the more likely they'll stick around. Ignoring the account farmers which have an incentive to rank up, ranking up is progression, and as we know progression is a motivating factor, so if merit distribution increases, so will the likelihood of users sticking around.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pmalek on August 13, 2021, 01:46:00 PM but what matters most is that more users are involved in the merit distribution cycle. And even more users should get involved. I still come across members who insist on hoarding and not distributing merits to others. I found a merit-worthy post a few hours ago. I did my usual check to see if that member gives out merits, and I discovered that he has received over 80 merits, but he hasn't sent a single one! I didn't give him anything after that.I suggested recently that we could remind those who don't give out merits that the system wasn't created for people to only be on the receiving end. If other users stopped giving merits to such users, I am sure some of them would change their behavior. What I am suggesting might be controversial, but let's compare the forum to an island with limited resources. Every time someone says or does something the community likes, the other inhabitants award that person with a piece of that limited resource. The only problem is that two inhabitants keep getting their share of the rewards, but they never give anyone else the same even if they could. The resource becomes rarer and rarer while two pricks keep bags of it in their cellar. Do you think the community should keep rewarding them even if their contributions deserve it if the resource will never again enter the economy? I would say no. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: LoyceV on August 13, 2021, 04:31:32 PM I still come across members who insist on hoarding and not distributing merits to others. I found a merit-worthy post a few hours ago. I did my usual check to see if that member gives out merits, and I discovered that he has received over 80 merits, but he hasn't sent a single one! I didn't give him anything after that. And here I am, hoarding more than 1000 sMerit :oIf a user doesn't send sMerit, that doesn't stop me from Meriting them when it's deserved. Hoarding still beats sending it to the wrong posts. Quote let's compare the forum to an island with limited resources. Merit can be as limited or abundant as theymos wants.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pmalek on August 14, 2021, 06:42:00 AM And here I am, hoarding more than 1000 sMerit :o You know very well that's not the same thing ;DYou have more than 1000 sMerits because you are a merit source and your monthly allocation is probably a few hundreds source merits. It takes you a long time to empty that bag and get to your personal sMerits. That's because you have so much, not because you aren't giving it out regularly. You are also the most merited member on the forum, which keeps the stash always high. Not to mention the fact that you are part human and part alien tech posting miracle. :o Merit can be as limited or abundant as theymos wants. True, but unless things change, we are stuck to having to receive 2 merits to be able to have 1 sMerit to give out. Everyone should chip in to keep the engine rolling. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: KingsDen on August 15, 2021, 12:18:26 AM If a user doesn't send sMerit, that doesn't stop me from Meriting them when it's deserved. Hoarding still beats sending it to the wrong posts. Imo, hoarding merits is not a good practice and will not promote the healthiness of the forum. Merit hoarding defeats two laws; 1. The natural law of giving: This law believes that "a giver never lacks", he that gives should recieve, vice versa. 2. The law of saturation: If a user keeps receiving merits without giving out, there should be a limit to which he/she will no longer recieve merits unless he begins to give out. If this law is applied by Theymos, the talk of merit hoarding will be a past. I found a merit-worthy post a few hours ago. I did my usual check to see if that member gives out merits, and I discovered that he has received over 80 merits, but he hasn't sent a single one! I didn't give him anything after that. You know humans are good at predicting the unpredictable. Maybe the hoarder might be thinking that in the future, the merits might not be what it is today, maybe it can turn to something like a token that will have monetary value, hence the essence of hoarding ;D ;D ;D However, the practice of merit hoarding is a form of merit abuse which can result to misuse of merit in the future (merit selling, meriting alts). So, it should be frowned at especially when a non merit source does it. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pmalek on August 15, 2021, 07:26:46 AM 2. The law of saturation: If a user keeps receiving merits without giving out, there should be a limit to which he/she will no longer recieve merits unless he begins to give out. If this law is applied by Theymos, the talk of merit hoarding will be a past. I don't believe theymos will make any significant changes to the merit system. Limiting someone on how much they can receive would be a drastic measure in my opinion. Instead, the community can do their part just like they do with scammers or account sellers. There are no rules that forces users to award posts with merits, but there are also no rules to selling Bitcointalk accounts or scamming someone and we know what happens with those people and their accounts if they are discovered. The sanction for those who don't send sMerits could be simple. You aren't going to get any because it's a waste of sMerits giving it to you when all you do is keep them for yourself. You know humans are good at predicting the unpredictable. Maybe the hoarder might be thinking that in the future, the merits might not be what it is today, maybe it can turn to something like a token that will have monetary value, hence the essence of hoarding ;D ;D ;D That's just another reason not to award them with more if you ask me. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: DdmrDdmr on August 15, 2021, 09:25:38 AM I tend to award merits regardless of their meriting habits/hoarding. I know a case or two on my local board that have a ratio of sent/generated below 10%, having received over 100 merits, but I prefer to merit their posts if they are worthy, even if it is just to mark something that might be interesting for others to read.
Some minor stats on the matter: In general, there are 316 profiles that currently (as of last Friday) have: - Generated over (or equal to) 10 sMerits - Have been active or semi-active (logged-in over the past 90 days – that excludes Satoshi, Hal, etc.) - Have a ratio of sent/generated <= 10% On aggregate, those 316 profiles have generated 10.470 sMerits (besides whatever airdropped amount they had), and given out only 234 sMerits. 236 of those profiles have never sent any sMerits. There top cases have generated over 500 sMerits, and sent under 40 sMerits each. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Daniel91 on August 15, 2021, 09:59:37 AM I tend to award merits regardless of their meriting habits/hoarding. I know a case or two on my local board that have a ratio of sent/generated below 10%, having received over 100 merits, but I prefer to merit their posts if they are worthy, even if it is just to mark something that might be interesting for others to read. Some minor stats on the matter: In general, there are 316 profiles that currently (as of last Friday) have: - Generated over 10 sMerits - Have been active or semi-active (logged-in over the past 90 days – that excludes Satoshi, Hal, etc.) - Have a ratio of sent/generated <= 10% On aggregate, those 316 profiles have generated 10.470 sMerits (besides whatever airdropped amount they had), and given out only 234 sMerits. 236 of those profiles have never sent any sMerits. There top cases have generated over 500 sMerits, and sent under 40 sMerits each. Very interesting statistics, I wasn't aware of it. I guess some members just don't have the habit of using the merits on this forum, which is a shame because it's the perfect tool to show some forum member an appreciation for the quality of the post he wrote. In this way, new members are further motivated to work harder and write better. Nevertheless, no one can of course be forced to use all the functionalities of this forum. On the Croatian part of the forum until recently we had a problem that we had a limited number of available merits for quality local posts, which has now finally changed after the promotion of new merit sources. I also give the merits for quality posts, which contribute to the forum. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: _BlackStar on August 15, 2021, 10:47:51 AM 236 of those profiles have never sent any sMerits. If I belong to one of the 236 profiles you mentioned then right in this thread I just spent 4 sMerits for 4 different users including you and it's because of the posts I think they deserve. Based on some opinion posts I've read, none of the users have said that hoarding sMerit is good and I can also clearly read when trying to send sMerit that "There is no point in hoarding sMerit; keeping it yourself does not benefit you, and we reserve the right to decay unused sMerit in the future.". Supposedly when users get merit, they should also issue it on other users' posts that they think are worthy. I don't think it's too difficult to find a suitable post, but due to differences in perception and knowledge between users, it is still possible for the desired quality standard to be different. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: DdmrDdmr on August 15, 2021, 12:42:33 PM <…> If I belong to one of the 236 profiles you mentioned <…>. Nope. One of the criteria I used was having generated over (or equal to) 10 sMerits. I figure that some people are really not that interested in the Merit System, which is understandable, and therefore barely award sMerits. That doesn’t mean that their posts are not merit worthy providing the content is good enough. After all, the idea is to merit the post based on its content (although the poster himself may also influence the outcome). Both positions are probably fine though (taking into account whether the merited-to-be merits others or hoards). Sometimes the amount of available sMerits may bring in other factors into consideration when meriting, and the one being discussed is one of them. Others may take into consideration rank, personal likes/grudges, affinity, and so forth. These lateral criteria, which surpass the post’s content itself, are part of each one’s subjectivity, and diversity in criteria is what’s to be expected. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Arvin01 on August 16, 2021, 07:56:49 AM The merit mechanism is to encourage everyone to communicate more and express their inner thoughts. No matter if your idea is right or wrong, if you express your opinion and are useful to others, others will give you merit.
In this forum, you have to have the courage to express your thoughts. Maybe what you are talking about is the answer that others are looking for. Have some tolerance for others. Why are there fewer newcomers in the forum because the forum is not popular? No, newcomers will be severely criticized for saying wrong ideas. We can't make everyone think the same. So be tolerant. The advantage of forums better than other software is that you can really learn some knowledge. There will not be many ads, scams. I like to learn on the forum, I can relax and immerse myself in the forum. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: anotherdayyyy on August 16, 2021, 08:55:17 AM I have a question, that is, when I replied to a post, then if someone quoted my message, how could I know it without checking the original thread? I've been bothered by the question for some time and it makes me feel kind of lonely here since I cannot feel others' feedback on my words except by merits or deleted notice.
one of my friends quit because she envied others for their merit coz she had zero. Though I do think her words really don't deserve merit, her confidence wasn't satisfied anyway. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: LoyceV on August 16, 2021, 09:51:39 AM if someone quoted my message, how could I know it without checking the original thread? If you don't want to use the Watchlist (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=121853.msg1311529#msg1311529), you can choose from 2 external services:[TELEGRAM] Yet Another BitcoinTalk Notification BOT (merits, mentions, topics,+) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5248878.0) [new topic] LoyceV's notification bot (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5331343.0) Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: KingsDen on August 16, 2021, 10:02:12 AM I have a question, that is, when I replied to a post, then if someone quoted my message, how could I know it without checking the original thread? I've been bothered by the question for some time and it makes me feel kind of lonely here since I cannot feel others' feedback on my words except by merits or deleted notice. When you login, at the left top corner, there are three options; Show unread posts since last visit, Show new replies to your post and Watchlist. . These three options will help you, while the second option notifies you when there is a reply on the thread you are following; the watch list allows you to customise how you see them. I had same issue when I was a newbie, but these options solved it for me. However, some users also subscribe to telegram notification bot for same purpose. one of my friends quit because she envied others for their merit coz she had zero. Though I do think her words really don't deserve merit, her confidence wasn't satisfied anyway. If her purpose of coming to the forum is to be merited, she is right to leave since she was not recieveing them. There was actually when I was making posts to gain merits, if such posts didn't get merited, I became less human to myself. But after I took my time to read threads and understand the purpose of the forum, I automatically changed my own purpose. Then, merits started coming naturally, even on some posts I least expected them. Advice her to return, if getting merits is her problems, she should not coward-away, she should return and face her problems by learning, then earning (merits). Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pmalek on August 16, 2021, 01:16:08 PM <Snip> I have heard lots of good things about TryNinja's and LoyceV's bots. I personally use LoyceV's. The only reason I opted for that one is because I don't feel like using Telegram. TryNinja's bot (just like most other alternatives) sends notifications over Telegram. Having a notification system is another feature that the forum needs to change and improve with the release of the new forum software. Such solutions should be made in-house I think. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Upgrade00 on August 16, 2021, 01:48:49 PM one of my friends quit because she envied others for their merit coz she had zero. Though I do think her words really don't deserve merit, her confidence wasn't satisfied anyway. With such mindset, it's little wonder she found it difficult to get merits. Merits are of little value besides forum rank, a lot of members got airdropped lots of merit during the merit launch but have very little knowledge about the forum or Bitcoin.The merit mechanism is to encourage everyone to communicate more and express their inner thoughts. No matter if your idea is right or wrong, if you express your opinion and are useful to others, others will give you merit. Merits were implemented to ensure only those contributing quality content rank up, thereby discouraging spam content all over the forum, it was later followed by the newbie restriction, which was implemented for the same purpose.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: actmyname on August 16, 2021, 08:40:54 PM Such solutions should be made in-house I think. Searching "quote [name]" works perfectly fine as a forum alternative.Is it better? No. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: anotherdayyyy on August 17, 2021, 07:07:57 AM ~ Thank you, KingsDen and LoyceV, I appreciate you help. having stayed in this forum for almost one year but just got to know how to check responses quickly.~ I'll take your advice and use LoyceV's.~ sure, my friend is a little utilitarian, vain and ambitious. She loves Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency field. sometimes she deems her posts profound and helpful but gets no merit, I know she had thought about the topic seriously...maybe that upset her. She said she felt ignored and her voice wasn't heard. personally, her work really preoccupied her and stripped her of the time spent in here. As far as I know, she's still skimming this forum nearly every week, the best place to get a glimpse of what is happening in crypto world!Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on August 17, 2021, 10:38:34 AM <Snip> I have heard lots of good things about TryNinja's and LoyceV's bots. I personally use LoyceV's. The only reason I opted for that one is because I don't feel like using Telegram. TryNinja's bot (just like most other alternatives) sends notifications over Telegram. Having a notification system is another feature that the forum needs to change and improve with the release of the new forum software. Such solutions should be made in-house I think. On the other hand, using @tryninja bot could lead you to the infamous "hairy wrist gallery": #meritislife: how to be notified on a smartband of merits and mentions (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5229697) We are open for new members! Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pmalek on August 17, 2021, 10:39:32 AM She said she felt ignored and her voice wasn't heard. That can happen, but people don't ignore or overlook people intentionally unless there is a good reason for that. If you or she feel like she has good posts that haven't been merited, tell her to take a look at the Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5093271.0). She can report her own content or you can do it for her. Merit sources often browse look there in search for posts that deserve to be merited. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: skarais on August 21, 2021, 08:10:46 AM She said she felt ignored and her voice wasn't heard. personally, her work really preoccupied her and stripped her of the time spent in here. As far as I know, she's still skimming this forum nearly every week, the best place to get a glimpse of what is happening in crypto world! Merit source are not blind or deaf to see and hear the sound quality of post made by forum users. So far there are 111 merit source on the forum and it would be hard to accept if he said he was ignored. There are several reason why he feel neglected by the merit source are: 1. He doesn't have a habit of posting on thread or board that interest the merit source. 2. Post quality is not appropriate. 3. His post was buried by thousand of other users' post. 4. There is no automatic detection to judge the quality of forum users' post, and 5. The merit system is not moderated. pmalek's advice will be very useful to him and you can also take part if your friend is not brave enough to do it himself. So, of the many other reason why the forum's user base is declining, the merit system is also one of the reason. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Pokapoka124 on August 21, 2021, 04:13:40 PM sure, my friend is a little utilitarian, vain and ambitious. She loves Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency field. sometimes she deems her posts profound and helpful but gets no merit, I know she had thought about the topic seriously...maybe that upset her. She said she felt ignored and her voice wasn't heard. personally, her work really preoccupied her and stripped her of the time spent in here. As far as I know, she's still skimming this forum nearly every week, the best place to get a glimpse of what is happening in crypto world! Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: aysg76 on August 26, 2021, 07:42:05 AM sure, my friend is a little utilitarian, vain and ambitious. She loves Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency field. sometimes she deems her posts profound and helpful but gets no merit, I know she had thought about the topic seriously...maybe that upset her. She said she felt ignored and her voice wasn't heard. personally, her work really preoccupied her and stripped her of the time spent in here. As far as I know, she's still skimming this forum nearly every week, the best place to get a glimpse of what is happening in crypto world! See this forum still has huge user base and many posts and threads are being made on daily basis.For example i made a post in B&H section just one or two days ago and if there is no reply to that post it will automatically shift towards the next page and get burried under the piles of other posts and your chances of getting merits get reduced.The other thing is sometimes we like our own posts and that why we have made the same post but other members or merit sources don't find it suitable for merit worthy or similar threads have made multiple times so she won't get any benefit for the same.She is enthusiastic and contributing to the forum which is good thing but your post quality should also be matched with that dedication and sincerity.But if she feels ignored then what you or she can do is :Report the quality posts in Re: [self-moderated] Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5093271.msg56430959#msg56430959) On page 31 you could find that @mv1986 report the post of @RainbowKun in this thread and merit sources and other likes his philosophical ideas about bitcoin and now he has gained 224 merits in total.Sometimes member don't notice such posts and you can't say you are on ignore list so this type of thread can help her. You can pm any merit source to have history check of your posts and if they find any worthy or quality posts made by you merits will be delivered to you. Made more posts in some more sections like B&H along with local sub-boards so that your post can be noticed by more members. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: skarais on August 29, 2021, 07:19:29 PM Hello everyone, I'm quite curious about the decline in the forum's user base so far. I'd like to get a little idea to find out the specific forum user base for the 11 most active local boards right now. Thank you Tryninja for providing a great resource for collecting this data from Ninjastic.space (https://ninjastic.space/). I think all this data is not 100% accurate as some users from other local boards may be able to post on other local boards due to their language needs and skills. This is just an illustration to find out some user base in the selected board locale from 1 January 2021 - 31 July 2021. There are many untracked users because they are not active in the local board, so the accuracy of the forum's user base currently experiencing decline is not fully reflected in the data this.
Calculation time format. Code: Local Board Pyccкий (Russian) & Child Board with 2806 user active I'm not displaying the names and number of posts they made because I have to post 3 or 4 lines in a row because the characters are limited at 64K. So I only count the active user base on the local board for the last 7 months. What do you think, should we be responsible for on the decline of that user base? Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: ccFOUND on August 29, 2021, 08:50:49 PM This forum may have lost users but those were the ones who didn't have the appetite to handle the merits earning pressure with good mindset. Other users either left crypto completely because they got banned here or couldn't earn through their accounts, or some left this forum as they became too much busy in their life. All left here are a part of a very low number of people who are active among the total users here. When we see armies (farms) of people who do it just for the sake of money and when they get busted, the number goes very big so there are many more alt accounts to be exposed, and we believe some of them have already left this forum.
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: DdmrDdmr on August 30, 2021, 08:23:52 AM <…> The thing is, just looking at that data, we cannot conclude if there is indeed a decline in the user base on those local boards. We’d really need to be able to compare the numbers in that timeframe to the numbers in the prior semester (although there may be some stationality). Ideally though, it would be better to see the monthly evolution in those numbers.Another thing to bear in mind is that "active" is a relative concept here. By active, I believe we are seeing here the number of distinct users that have posted on a given local board in a certain timeframe. I’ve checked a couple of boards, and the detailed data displays that over half of those accounted for have either 1 or 2 posts only. It could be interesting to separate those above a certain threshold per unit of time frame (i.e. month) to those below. For example, above or below or less than 2 posts per month. I don’t expect anyone to draw the above complete set of data and chart it, but it would provide a more detailed insight into the local board situation (I follow post a basic post count , but not the number of distinct posters, which is rather interesting to see). Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: skarais on August 30, 2021, 11:29:18 AM ~~~ True, it would probably be much more accurate if this calculation was done for a monthly timeframe as opposed to 6-12 months. The local poster data overview above is only to find out which local board has the most user base in the last 7 months. My current focus is the Indonesian Local Board which I update every month. I don't see it as something that should be our responsibility to maintain and increase the user base, but we really have to support them to stay as far as they are interested in using this forum.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on September 03, 2021, 02:50:35 PM @ddmrddmr has just updated his dashboard with the now complete August data.
We can now look at how the user count evolved over this last month: https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/16/blobf3e7bd5c63e090ae.jpeg Again, I am using users involved in the merit system as a proxy of "active users" worth of consideration. Trolls/bot/alts not gaining a single merit in a month are not worth considering as a "userbase". We have a small correction in the trend. Of course August is a summer month, with many people still on holiday, a situation of course is not favourable to posting on an internet forum! Hope we can revert the trend! Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on January 08, 2022, 08:36:07 AM Jameson Lopp noticed something about Bitcointalk on his 2021 review:
Bitcoin 2021 Annual Review (https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-2021-annual-review/) https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/15/blob8bbb3c36ae553076.jpeg (https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-2021-annual-review/) He also stated: Quote I myself abandoned BitcoinTalk many years ago because I felt it was hard to find signal through the noise. It looks like user growth on that site continues to be modest. It might be time to advertise him to give the forum another try after the introduction of the merit system? Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: PrimeNumber7 on January 08, 2022, 10:38:00 AM Per his numbers, the number of users increased by ~17% last year. This is compared to ~10% in the preceding year, and is the highest since 2018 when the number of users increased by ~83%.
He described user growth as "continuing to be modest". I am not sure I would agree with that statement. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: BITCOIN4X on January 08, 2022, 10:48:25 AM It might be time to advertise him to give the forum another try after the introduction of the merit system? The merit system has managed to grow a quality user base on forum with much higher quality discussion. Unlike the years before the merit system was introduced or maybe, but now we can find hundreds of quality users more easily engaging in interesting discussion. I agree on this, he just needs to review bitcointalk after the merit system was introduced since 2018.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: fillippone on January 08, 2022, 10:51:40 AM He described user growth as "continuing to be modest". I am not sure I would agree with that statement. He’s probably comparing the growth ratio with the one registered on other social media as Reddit, for example, where user growth has been 100% on r/bitcoin. I tweeted to him saying to give our forum a second chance. I doubt he will change his mind. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: LoyceV on January 08, 2022, 11:15:21 AM It might be time to advertise him to give the forum another try after the introduction of the merit system? I have no idea who this is, but his logic has a flaw: the total number of registered users doesn't mean anything.Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: IadixDev on January 08, 2022, 02:57:35 PM I would easily agree with him here :) i always been avid forum / irc / mailing user, in itself the forum format is ok for me, wouldnt mind a few bigger buttons for mobile but its still useable. But yeah few years back there used to be deep conversation about fondementals of economic laws, bitcoin openned the way to radically rethink the economy of internet, bring up so many discussion on distributed network, privacy, cryptography, economic flow etc that were really interesting mind blowing and revolutionary. Now mostly what you see is people with adverstising everywhere racing to get some coin by shilling some online casinos. Let say you come into a meeting and everyone is wearing an hat or t shirt with some adverstising on it trying to compete to be the most visible only to gain some monney.. who has any intererst in reading that ??? Its the kind of content that has a direct flow from my letter box to the trash bin usually no ??? Only about investment which bitcoin was never about to begin with chasing the golden goose eventually stabbing each others. I mostly left the forum when shelby was banned, he surely had some issues but was still very good at bringing level headed discussions. Now surely i miss this sort of discussion compared to which one to invest, when moon, shilling online casinos. For me it seems fairly obvious this policy of making the forum this way is not going to make it very attractive. Other than for people seeking to make a few bucks out of each others back which can only last for so long. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: dkbit98 on January 08, 2022, 09:35:53 PM Jameson Lopp noticed something about Bitcointalk on his 2021 review I like all the work Jameson Lopp is doing for Bitcoin, but I didn't notice he tweeted about bitcointalk.It's real question how many of this new registered users are real genuine users, and how many are bots, spammers and trolls. That number should probably be reduced with number of banned users to get a better picture of stats, including number of active and inactive users. It might be time to advertise him to give the forum another try after the introduction of the merit system? Here is one idea for contemplation, why not make one interesting interview with Jameson Lopp, and who better to do the job than our very own BitcoinTalkShow, who just released second episode few days ago.I have no idea who this is, but his logic has a flaw: the total number of registered users doesn't mean anything. omg... Have you been living under the rock, or maybe you have been drinking a lot (alcoholic beverages) again? Only around 40% this time :P :DType Jameson Lopp in search engine and you will find his website, most famous for stress testing metal backup plates, and collecting Bitcoin resources for years. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: PrimeNumber7 on January 09, 2022, 09:02:47 AM He described user growth as "continuing to be modest". I am not sure I would agree with that statement. He’s probably comparing the growth ratio with the one registered on other social media as Reddit, for example, where user growth has been 100% on r/bitcoin. In any event, theymos is in charge of both r/bitcoin and bitcointalk. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: LoyceV on January 09, 2022, 09:31:18 AM I have no idea who this is, but his logic has a flaw: the total number of registered users doesn't mean anything. omg... Have you been living under the rock, or maybe you have been drinking a lot (alcoholic beverages) again? Only around 40% this time :P :DType Jameson Lopp in search engine and you will find his website, most famous for stress testing metal backup plates, and collecting Bitcoin resources for years. It's kinda funny that he complains on Twitter about "signal to noise" on Bitcointalk. That means he prefers an algorithm that decides what he gets to read, instead of making that choice for himself. Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: Magicalking on January 10, 2022, 03:41:01 AM I haven't looked at the stats to see how much we have increased or reduced in terms of newbies joining the forum. Bitcointalk social media pages online aren't really active that could be a reason for a decline. Some of the old members who were here from day one aren't posting much anymore. With the Bitcointalk Show on YouTube I'm sure we will be blowing waves soon. I just watched the second episode. I'm eager to see what's next
Title: Re: Is Bitcointalk.org losing user base? Post by: skarais on January 10, 2022, 05:04:45 AM I haven't looked at the stats to see how much we have increased or reduced in terms of newbies joining the forum. Bitcointalk social media pages online aren't really active that could be a reason for a decline. Some of the old members who were here from day one aren't posting much anymore. With the Bitcointalk Show on YouTube I'm sure we will be blowing waves soon. I just watched the second episode. I'm eager to see what's next Let's see what has changed from July 2021 to now. You can compare this data from bpip.org to find out some.There has been an increase in the number of users who registered their accounts on the forum from July 18, 2021 to today where there have been around 75,244 new profiles registered since then. Meanwhile, the active user base in the last 3 months has decreased from 122,470 in July 2021 to 93,906 users. Decreasing the base like this depends on the user's own interest in using the forum, they can be active at any time which affects the number without or doing activities. I think the addition of new users can be expected to continue to happen with or without bitcointalk social media like youtube. |
