Honestly, I want to be part of a forum that has buyers of all different types of currencies and actively discuss the pros and cons of investing/mining each. I've visited other sites that primarily promote one coin. The moment you point out something fishy, you get jumped by a horde of posters who seem to worship and defend their coin like brain-washed zealots. I'm looking for intelligent discussion and also to bolster my understanding of various currencies without the hype, propaganda, or what have you. I'm hoping bitcointalk is the place to be at this point in time.

I have a friend who started talking to me about bitcoins.  Although I consider myself to be informed on technology, I guess I never really paid any attention to bitcoins or really knew what they were.  At first when I read about them I laughed.  I thought they were a scam.  However, after reading more about the nature of bitcoins, how they were produced, how the blockchain keeps track of all of the transactions that ever occur with bitcoins and other things about them, I no longer thought of them as a scam and realized their potential to be a viable currency.  I invested a small amount of funds in bitcoin through Coinbase just to that I could say that I was a part of this idea that I now believe could alter the way that funds are transferred between parties.  I joined this forum so that I could talk to others about their experiences with bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.

I also think that if bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency) is going to succeed as a viable currency, two main things should happen:

1.  More businesses need to be open to the idea of accepting bitcoin.  I think that as more businesses are willing to accept bitcoins, more people will be open to the idea of using them as a currency.
2.  Just as businesses accepting bitcoins will help stimulate the bitcoin economy, there must be a willingness on the part of people who own bitcoins to spend some of them rather than keep them only as an investment.  Although it may be a good idea to keep some bitcoins as an investment (part of my bitcoin holding is as a speculative investment), I think that people need to be more willing to spend some of their bitcoins so that those businesses that are accepting will continue to accept them and possibly encourage more businesses to accept them.

There are probably many other things that could help to validate the currency as legitimate (recognition by governments and other financial institutions, having an open-minded public that is willing to recognize it as a legitimate currency).  I am hoping that this currency will succeed since I think it could solve some of the problems we have with fiat currencies.

This liberals are charitable thing is a myth. I suppose it probably comes from this fact that liberals are more inclined to advocate the use violence and threats of violence in order to compulsorily redistributing peoples property, but that is the furthest thing from charity. Conservatives for example donate, on average, a significantly higher proportion of their income to charity than liberals do.

Bitcointalk is the place to be. In fact even if you do not hold Bitcoin this forum could even be considered more important than the home forum for the cryptocurrency you do hold.

I am a web designer/developer and I plan on submitting some of my work for a cryptocurrency I hold. I also plan to try and balance out some of the trolls and deplorable community members who can potentially give the altcoin community a bad reputation.

I am not into cryptocurrencies for personal profit in the form of fiat debt money. I am into cryptocurrencies for personal (and communal) profit in the form of future prosperity by superseding the current monetary system.

For all of those who got into cryptocurrencies to hopefully become debt money millionaires then I suggest you rethink your position. A debt money millionaire has no guarantee of a prosperous future under the current monetary system. Our best bet is to forget about the current monetary system and commit to the new one we are all building together. A diverse crypto-monetary system where prosperity can be achieved by all who try.

Hopefully that gets me out of the newbie section.

See you all out there!