If it takes a steep dip, and you believe in it, that's when you buy more. It's just like stocks. You get it when it goes down for when it goes back up.

Honestly, this is not an invalid issue. However, I think a lot of this is the demeanor of folks, not the technical issues. Just taking a patient attitude with people who are interested but confused. Occasionally, some ppl in the Bitcoin community can sound like cultists when explaining bitcoin to people, so I think telling people it's a financial opportunity that you can get on the ground floor of, while not trying to say it's going to replace the US dollar (even if it eventually might), is a better way to go about it, for a lot of ppl. You've got to play to the audience your talking to.

I guess I'm rambling here, but not everyone out there is a libertarian, but bitcoin is a currency that ideally should be for everyone, so sometimes you just have to play up the strengths of Bitcoin differently.

In general, this is good advice, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Sometimes you have to take a small risk.

To be fair, you could say the same about the New York Stock Exchange right now.

Um... that might be taking it a bit far to say that the fiat currencies are crashing against Bitcoin, but right now BTC seems more solid than anything Fiat by far.

What exactly would you propose people do? If competition for Bitcoins wasn't a motivating factor then the BTC economy would be a lot less robust. The people who found BTCs first were the ones who helped Bitcoin grow in the first place. It's also not like they "stole" anything or ripped anyone off by being the first to mine Bitcoin.

I dipped my toe in at $12, thought I was probably gonna get hosed, saw it skyrocket, then bought 25 BTC at $43 and just knew I was probably making a mistake, but now it's at $65. In theory, it should probably dip a little before the next time it shoots up, but it could also just keep rising to $100. If you have the time, I'd just watch the markets closely to see if it starts dipping a bit and get in if it goes down to $57 or so. If it goes above $68 tho, I wouldn't wait any longer. If you don't have the time to keep an eye on bitcoinity for hours in the background, you might as well take the plunge now.

Just don't invest more than you can afford to lose, in case things sour.

Maybe a bit off-topic, but I get an email from Nigerian royalty specifically asking me to loan him Bitcoins, is that a good sign for the community?

If anything, I'd probably up the minimum time a bit before newbies can go elsewhere. "Lurk and learn" is always a good philosophy.

Been lurking for far too long, thought I might as well participate. Hello people!