Bitcoin Forum

Note -I posted about this once in collectibles and it was moved to off-topic. Cyrus and I chatted briefly about it, and they agreed it didn’t really deserve to be there. Kind of left it at that until now, and believe Meta is appropriate at this point. .

My issue..I promote the forum a good bit & one of the main places I do so is YouTube but the fcks and their censoring algorithm always delete my posts whether I type “bitcointalk” “bitcointalk.org” “physicalbitcoin.com” (this is currently down but used to link to collectibles) “bitcoin talk website” etc etc.

I’m first curious if anyone knows why they censor the hell out of this site (yet don’t censor any bot scam posts). But mainly I’m curious if anyone has a work around?  I often try to help btc coin collectors I randomly find on there, I’ve tried to teach people how to redeem paper wallets etc.. but most of the time its too hard to fool the algorithm well enough to relay my message clearly.  (Curious if the bitcoin talk show faced any of these issues).

My only idea was to try to create a “hidden” hyperlink like I do for work where I have a link in my email body that says “book an Appt with me” but directs to my scheduler site. Guessing the software would likely pick up the  underlying hyperlink?  Any suggestions appreciated.  

Google bot is fine to approve scammers adlink but when it's bitcointalk then they have panic LOL.
It must be some strategic movement to create obstacle for Bitcoin.
Anyway, have a custom domain and create a website, blog or service it does not matter. Promote that website and the website will be mainly referring to bitcointalk. It's gonna be a lot of work but once a hyperlink in banned then you have no other way except choosing the hard path.

This is a curious case. I'm aware of certain restrictions on crypto related words and projects on some platforms, but have not (till now) come across one targeting bitcointalk. It's more curious, considering that bitcointalk is not heavily promoted off the forum to be much of an issue.
The Bitcointalk Show (https://youtube.com/c/BitcoinTalkShow) by Cyrus has videos with "Bitcoin" and "Bitcointalk" in the title and they are still up, months after being posted.

Your guess is as good as mine that the software would pick up the underlying link. Google crawlers can read codes of websites and text associated with image tags.
The above suggestion although painstaking, is a good advice that could work.

I think it was an issue of things being hard to find and I don't think the bitcointalk show has been recommended to me even though many videos on cryptocurrency have - I'd be curious to see how many of their views come from subscribers or link clickers and how many come from the YouTube algorithm but I'm not sure if cyrus could get this data.

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@op, have you tried using url shorteners? You could put one of those in instead of directly linking to bitcointalk and then have clues in the video as to what the link is when you reference it - so you don't mention it in the description and have your video do badly.

Newbie welcome video - 3 videos complete (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5194117.msg52803618#msg52803618)

Having official Youtube account for Bitcointalk forum is good but if we don't have it, the community can contribute to make Bitcointalk forum great again by creating videos like above.

It helps newbies to understand more about forum rules and about Bitcoin, cryptoccurency. It will help to catch more people to join the forum if they have difficulty and find answer from videos made by Bitcointalk members.

Probably an unpopular opinion and I apologize that this is not the answer you're looking for:

Kudos to you for promoting this forum, but I don't think people that watch crypto videos on YouTube aren't the ones that would be interested in an online forum. There's a reason why the likes of "top 10 altcoins to buy this month!" are the ones that gets a lot of attention, not the actual informative/educative videos.

It's on their algo already, external links are more probably will be blocked on the comment section ^{(particularly crypto related stuffs)}. I remember crypto-related channels videos were removed ^{(But eventually recovered after some reviews)} due to some censorship update they did or whatever it is.

Might be better to use a link shortener like bitly but don't make it clickable when you comment, like anyone will just copy it or just type it since its shorter.

That's interesting (but more so disturbing) that Google's doing this.  I haven't a clue why they'd want to censor anything related to bitcointalk, but I do know they're on a serious censorship binge in general--at least if you want to get your videos monetized.  You may have noticed there's a blacklist of words, which include COVID, rape (and pretty much anything sexual), curse words, and some other ones that just perplex me.  I only know about them because I'm seeing them bleeped out of videos.

I was also wondering where the forum's Youtube channel had gone to, and whether it had been scrapped altogether, as the thread for it has died off.  I'm thinking it's probably because YT told the creator that they couldn't monetize it, perhaps?

Yep.  Amazing how YT allows all of those videos with idiots not giving financial advice but censors all of this other, non-hype stuff.  Actually, it's not amazing.  It's pathetic, as is Google.

Maybe you can ask Cyrus for potential solutions and workarounds for this problem.
If I remember correctly he or someone else created bitcointalk shorter links that worked at the time after Bitcointalk youtube channel was created.
We obviously need to speak and write in codes on yotube for many things to avoid bans and content deletion, or simply use some alternative video platform that is less restrictive.

What about an open hyperlink using a short URL? Would their algorithm censor it when left in a comments section?

That was also my suggestion. It might work if there is no reference attached, just a short URL.

I am sure I have seen Youtube links left in the comments section referencing to a different URL but I cannot recall seeing external URLs.

Maybe there is a method to the madness when it comes to their algorithms but I cannot see it right now. It does not make sense to me if they are blocking links/URLs but not removing the videos based on the same topics those links/URLs point to.

I blame the watchers more than I blame YouTube to be honest. The clickbait stuff gets algorithmically recommended a lot simply because people watch them more than the educative ones. Unfortunately this type of algorithm really works well when it comes to entertainment content, but mostly bad for education.

Yes, it's still possible. I checked crypto related vids on youtube and i can only seen external URLs in the comment are those exchange related like this two.

https://i.ibb.co/r3MVf1g/IMG-20220822-093842.jpg https://i.ibb.co/YZ81ns3/IMG-20220822-093826.jpg

I tried to search bitcointalk related vids and checked every comments made but unfortunately there is no bitcointalk URL posted even those old YT vids like 4-6 yrs ago.

Maybe bitcointalk is labeled as suspicious or whatever it is just like what wikipedia describes this forum.

Truth be told, many don't really care about the tech or fundamentals, rather on how to make stonks

Thank you for clearing up the issue. It means if these types of links are available and can be posted then maybe what is happening with the Youtube algorithm is related to the keyword "bitcointalk" otherwise how is it possible Kucoin and Blockchain links are not removed?

You might be surprised, but either way every bit of promotion helps.  Being an avid physical btc collector I will search for physical crypto videos every month or so. I’ve found a lot of videos of people who show their collections, I’ve seen quite a few videos of people who are asking how can they best sell thier Casascius coin, or how to redeem their Casascius coin etc.  I always reach out to these people and have gotten a few to sign up here, but then there’s others who don’t speak very good English who just can’t pick up on my hints trying to direct them here. Again, I think you might be surprised at how many people would be interested in this forum. YouTube , Twitter and Reddit are the number one places people go to for learning, and most have no clue at all who are actually legit educators. I mean there’s complete morons/scammers who have twice the followers of Andreas A, simply because he doesn’t do shit to promote like the others do.  At the very least you have to try imo.

@everyone else, thanks for the comments / suggestions. I will try to do the hidden hyperlinks / link shortners and see how it goes. Of course if anyone else has any other ideas please let me know ! (And a link to sites to do so would be greatly appreciated)

That is a very good advertisement and promotion of bitcoin but the question is how many user are watching bitcoin videos in youtube. Really and frankly speaking, I have not used youtube for bitcoin, but I always engage on article reading and online books. And also since you said you are using youtube to promote bitcoin why didn't you at least one of the youtube bitcoin video that has been created by you and drop the link here for users to see how it is. Now that you are saying the verbal aspect of the project but the practical aspect is still missing. Therefore, mods might still move it to off-topic because there is no fact about it.

There is nothing we can do about the Youtube algorithm. The only thing to bypass this censorship is to promote and talk about bitcointalk within those "Top 10 coins" videos  ???

Another option may be to promote bitcointalk on other video sharing platforms though the audience there may not be as large as on the youtube platform.

The best way to promote anything on youtube is to make videos.  I don't think commenting is a good use of time, as most people will just assume they're bots.  Look at MrBeast.  It took him years of making videos and some of them are impossible to sit through (try and watch his counting videos).  Now he has tens of millions of people watching him and anything he promoted would go crazy. 

Start making weekly videos or even daily videos about bitcointalk.  Mention users and make it entertaining.  Who knows what could happen.

I know, but it seems like nobody really makes strictly informational videos these days precisely because they know it's the videos with the super-hyped up thumbnails and with some guy nearly screaming at the top of his lungs about whatever the topic is that gets the views and hence the ad revenue.  And it's not just crypto videos, either; it applies to nearly every subject matter you could possibly think of.

Yeah well, that's like trying to sell things online without using eBay or Amazon or whatever's the most popular retailer in your country--the eyeballs are all on Youtube, so if you want to get your message across (and/or get paid for making videos), it's the only viable option.

Besides, I've tried to find alternatives to Youtube and nothing even comes close.  They might be censoring fucks, but they've got the widest variety of content by far, and the easiest site to navigate and use IMO.

That's technically true. But as a dude who does marketing, trust me when I say that it's really not worth the effort. Blogs/articles are a far better medium for promoting an online forum.


Unfortunately they're really just hard to find; usually you find them through personal recommendations. Kinda unlikely for people to stumble upon those via the YouTube algorithm.

Those comments are pinned and most likely made by the video creator. So yes, they can leave links in the comments. Users can't ! Due to spam, possible viruses but the most important reason is driving traffic away from youtube ! Why would they want that ?

The most you can do is use hashtags. Not sure how much they help or not but: #bitcointalk (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/bitcointalk) 

Personally, I don't see many forum links on YouTube, so perhaps this is the company's policy.

Try this service --> BTA.lk - Official unofficial Bitcointalk short links (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5384663.msg59254601#msg59254601), it redirects links to the forum and make it shorter.

You might not see any kind of links in YT comments. All the link spammers moved to Twitter :D bta.lk (https://bta.lk) links are also deleted from what I tested

As a dude who watches more YouTube than anything else on my TV, I can also say to trust me that nobody is looking at the comments for links to click.  On my TV, I can't even see the comments.  Even if I could and there was an amazing link, I wouldn't click it because I don't use my TV to browse the internet.  I can honestly say that I've been making and watching YouTube videos for more than 15 years now and I've never read a single comment outside of those made on my own videos (which I sometimes skim through).

I searched "bitcointalk.org" on youtube and its mostly videos to teach bounty hunters how to use the forum..
How to barely use the forum..

I appreciate all the discourse everyone! To be clear when I meant I promote the forum often, I didn’t necessarily mean I try and do so on YouTube. I do, but mainly it’s to try and help other physical bitcoin collectors find our collectibles section to buy/sell/trade collectibles. Also I often find collectors who try and redeem their coins and ask how to do so. Krogothmanhatten has a great write up on here on the safest/most efficient way of doing so, but of course if I post the btalk link it gets removed. I still do think it’s a way to promote the forum, but realize this is not going to drive a massive amount of people here. Though I still think there are other ways of doing so like you @OGNasty suggested in making actual videos talking about the site ( I made a few suggestions on the bitcointalk show thread explaining how I think this can be achieved).

The only way to do this is that we and the video creators should make videos on bitcointalk (or any other idea/topic) and post on other platforms. When people will watch those good videos on other platforms, those platforms will grow automatically.

With the current approach that if the platform is close to the popularity of youtube then we will go there, we can never be able to find alternatives to Youtube. Specially I am more interested to have a  decentralized video sharing platform so that there will be no central control and no censorship.

Man, you're telling me--there's so many videos on Youtube that it's nearly impossible to find exactly what you want (and I could almost guarantee that whatever it is exists) because of their algorithm.  I'm assuming that videos aren't deleted for no reason and that there must be 14 years' worth of content on the site.  Yet when I search for X, I find the X influencers and only the most recent videos.  If I filter by upload date, everything's in Asian languages that just frustrate me.

I came across this guy's channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAlmightyLoli/videos) (maybe NSFW but nothing pornographic), which blew my head off because of how freely he talks about things, often including language that the typical professional Youtuber who's trying to be family friendly wouldn't dream of using.

And those "influencers" have the script down to a mothafukkin' science.  On top of that, there's just so many of them.  Makes me want to take long breaks from the internet.

I am someone who is now watching a lot more Youtube on my television than before but am still watching more television in the conventional sense over streaming/videos, anyway I also noted the fact I cannot see comments when using the Youtube app on my television.

You are right, a lot of people choose to not read or simply ignore the comments left in videos but they are visible by default when using a computer or phone however when it comes to television the comments simply do not appear. Maybe I have to go in to some sort of options in the television settings to make the comments visible but I have not seen any when using a Youtube app on my television and for convenience sake I prefer to not see them when using the television.

Keeping that in mind it will be difficult to assess the impact of not having clickable links or visible text in comments when a large growing portion of the audience they are intended for simply cannot see them when using a television.

I think an alternative to another platform that is currently very popular... is tiktok but our can't describe it at length.... except with a serialized scenario....
 Youtube has a very significant role in any case, but maybe a bit allergic to a link, especially bitcointalk.org   ??? ??? ???
And promote this forum well, it's very important,
actually most of them are youtubers and others, linking bitcointalk links because for personal interests, and making public opinion to generate income instantly and easily, which of course is not good