Subforum request - "Physical Bitcoins / Collecting" subforum

[TheAnalogKid]

I assume Meta is the proper place for this, so here I go.

I'd like to bring up a request for a new subforum to be created surrounding physical incarnations of Bitcoins and other Altcoins.  I'm sure I'm not the first to come up with this idea, but I did do a search and didn't really see anything related to this in the cursory look I gave it. 

Right now most things related to physical coins and rounds for Bitcoin and other Alts are in the "Goods" subforum in the Marketplace.  This is fine for the threads that revolve around the sale of them.

However, I personally think there is way much more to the area of physical coins than just the sales.  There's really no good place for any discussion of the collecting of them, no centralized info on how to grade them for newbies or discussion on grades for particular coins or series, no showplace for your own pieces, etc.  There's no real good place for vendors to discuss upcoming plans or designs, except to announce a pre-order in the goods section.  There's no place to have threads to keep track of what's out there, though the threads do exist but they're hard to locate at times (yeah, I know such thing as a search button exists).  There's no real good collection of the history of physical bitcoins.

Finally, the threads of coins and rounds for sale make up a good majority of the Goods subforum, so I think there's both a good argument for being able to keep them in one place, as well as an argument that it's hard to sell things that aren't coins because those threads get bumped down so frequently.

As far as structure and where to put it, I think a main subforum should go under "Economics" I guess.  This top level should contain at least 3 sub-forums - "Vendor announcements and Discussions", "For Sale / Trade" (which could possibly be broken up into 2, one for vendors only, and one for private sales), and "Collecting Discussions".  Obviously Trust should extend into this section as the Marketplace currently has.

I realize creating and maintaining yet another subforum takes work so I'm not suggesting this on a whim, I really do believe there would be enough mass to make it worthwhile.  I'm willing to offer my time to help with anything related to this effort, including offering to be a moderator for this section.

Thank you for your time.

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I'm sure some staffs/admins said that they won't make a new sub board if there's going to be only a few topics inside. so you probably won't get (more than) one. 4 subsection are a lot for a single subject.

[Quickseller]

I would agree. In terms of BTC transacted, physical coins probably makes up a good amount of the trades in the marketplace sections, and probably would be an overwhelming majority of the trades if the currency exchange section was excluded.

I think there is a lot of interest in physical coins from collectors, traders, and people who neither collect nor trade physical coins.

Mining has it's own set of subs and I don't see any reason why there couldn't be a set of subs for physical coins

[RappelzReborn]

I'm sure some staffs/admins said that they won't wmake a new sub board if there's going to be only a few topics inside. so you probably on't get (more than) one. 4 subsection are a lot for a single subject.

Indeed .
OP Please open a poll so we can vote and staff members & administration can take their decision based on the vote results . I'am personally with the idea

[TheAnalogKid]

I'm sure some staffs/admins said that they won't make a new sub board if there's going to be only a few topics inside. so you probably won't get (more than) one. 4 subsection are a lot for a single subject.

I can see their point, but I think there's enough interest just in the for sale posts alone to fill 2-3 sections.  I've run forums before and creating the actual sub-boards is the easy part.  It's the moderation and maintenance part that is very time consuming, and it grows with each additional section for sure.  Hence I'm also volunteering to put my time where my mouth is.

First hurdle is agreeing that there's enough interest for at least one tho...

[TheAnalogKid]

I'm sure some staffs/admins said that they won't wmake a new sub board if there's going to be only a few topics inside. so you probably on't get (more than) one. 4 subsection are a lot for a single subject.

Indeed .
OP Please open a poll so we can vote and staff members & administration can take their decision based on the vote results . I'am personally with the idea

Added as requested.  Good idea, thank you.

[hilariousandco]

Been a few threads requesting it already:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1075673.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=342321.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=141568.0

I'm on the fence. Not sure there's enough threads to warrant their own section really.

[TheAnalogKid]

Been a few threads requesting it already:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1075673.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=342321.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=141568.0

Thanks, I was curious and honestly I didn't spend a ton of time searching.

I'm on the fence. Not sure there's enough threads to warrant their own section really.

Well, for argument's sake I could also say that counting existing threads isn't the total picture.  How many threads aren't started because there's really no good place to put them in, and also how many threads go unseen or with very little views because they're in odd places and keep getting bumped down.  Sections like Bitcoin Discussion and even general Economics have so much activity, I could argue threads lose traction there because of getting pushed down.  Meanwhile if they were on their own, they'd get more eyes and activity.

That aside, at the moment slightly more than 1/3 the threads just on the first page in the Marketplace -> Goods section are coin-related sales threads (13 out of 37 by my quick count).  To me, that seems like a high enough number to at the very least warrant a separate section for them under there, just like computer hardware has.

I could see maybe 2 sections - "General Coin Discussion" and "For Sale" which I think would sustain enough use to justify them.  My opinion tho...

[Blazed]

I voted no...physical coins are stupid.



Just kidding!

I think maybe just a sub section under market place named "physical cryptos" or something like that. The physical market is pretty big and has a lot of very involved traders/enthusiasts.

While we are at it...how about a domains section also?

Marketplace -> Goods ->

-digital goods
-computer hardware
-physical cryptos
-domains

[TheAnalogKid]

Let's bring this back up and see if we can get some more interest.  Bueller?

[Lesbian Cow]

It makes sense   Currently there is no place to discuss physicals   The only option is to derail another thread   I think, and I am just a humble cow, there are a lot of us interested in discussing physical coins  

Edit to  add:  not just Cas coins but others as well.

[snarlpill]

I totally agree with TheAnalogKid and everyone else, physical Bitcoin sales (Casascius and many others) make up a huge sum of money and are without a doubt the greatest percentage of items sold in the Goods section. And I think pretty much everyone here can agree that BitcoinTalk is the greatest place to find what the general consensus is regarding price and many other factors with the Casascius market, which is a pretty big market now and should continue to grow higher in the future; in my opinion probably regardless of what Bitcoin does. I could def. picture a 1000 BTC 1 oz. Gold Casascius coin being auctioned off at Sotheby's or similar in the future.    That would be sweet.


I'll copy/paste part of my post that I made in OgNasty's thread just to have it here, and this seems to be a more targeted thread than Og's which was working towards a few different points (though good points):

Definitely agree about the physical crypto "economy" having it's own sub-section from Goods. There are a great many of us that check the Goods section all the time mainly just for the physical crypto content (new coin sales, discussions, etc.). The same reasoning I said above for Services applies: the majority of Goods 'For Sale' threads are physical crypto related and this could potentially make it harder for other types of vendors or purchasers to market their goods for BTC.

I think if physical crypto products (coins, notes, etc.) had their own Goods sub-category, we could do quite nicely with something like:
-Announcements/News/Market Discussion
-Goods
-Auctions

I think the discussion one would definitely be a good idea; there are no specific areas of the forum for us physical crypto nuts to talk coins (besides 'Off Topic'), and as a result we often end up discussing in sales threads, which in turn continuously keeps those threads on the front page which further obscures other Goods for sale.

[wheelz1200]

Agree, if there was a section for more than just sale then the goods section can turn back into a sale section.  Often times im looking to discuss further on a topic but dont want to derail the OP.  Im sure that there are many new faces with questions as well with no centralized place to ask and get answered.  Im all for it

[Dogedigital]

I'd like to support this notion as well.

[OgNasty]

Physical Bitcoin section on a Bitcoin forum is a no brainer...

[bithalo]

I agree with this.  I see a lot of interest in physical coins in the goods section.

[Panthers52]

If you don't create a special subforum then I will be forced to show off my pictures of my shiny silver coins

There is so much discussion possible about physical cryptos, and most of it takes place on sales thread, which is technically off topic

[Blazed]

Come on Theymos and BadBear hook us up!

[BadBear]

Haven't really thought about it much, and not sure it's needed, but a more general PM (precious metals) board would make more sense, and would likely gain more support. Lot of overlap there.

[Panthers52]

Haven't really thought about it much, and not sure it's needed, but a more general PM (precious metals) board would make more sense, and would likely gain more support. Lot of overlap there.

I would support a precious metals coins sub. The discussion would be centered around physical crypto coins, however we would probably see the occasional gold or silver buff trying to discuss Pandas, or Lunar coins.

There should defiantly be something where physical crypto coins in general can be specifically discussed as a nod to casascius and other similar coins.