A new Bitcointalk? Less nonsense, more bitcoin?

[crazy_rabbit]

I saw a post about this on another thread- maybe it's time to create a second bitcoin talk that would be more focused on productive discussion about Bitcoin itself. IE: no service discussion/scammer tags, no basic techsupport like, "where are my satoshi dice payouts", etc....

The community has seen such a huge influx of new people to the forum that, through no fault of their own, it's diluted the usefulness of the forum entirely. There are so many posts about extraneous stuff, trolling, nonsense, you name it, that it's hard to follow any productive discussion at all.

What about a new bitcoin talk, heavily moderated focused really on building bitcoin. The mods would have wide censorship abilities to keep name calling to a minimum and keep discussions on track. Freedom of speech is one thing, but the thousands and thousands of opinions that come now from left and right just drown out anything of value and building bitcoin requires more concentration then seems to be available here anymore.

[1714792226]

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[1714792226]

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[tcp_rst]

I'd support this and have been mulling over how to accomplish this for some time.  Unfortunately, I have few answers.  I'm eager to hear the reasoned, considerate ideas and opinions of others though.  I'm sad to say I find that unlikely to happen.  The "reasoned and considerate" part that is.

I'm very curious to see how the self-moderated thread feature evolves that Theymos just setup.  Few seems to be using yet.  It may hold promise in this regard.

[EnergyVampire]

I saw a post about this on another thread- maybe it's time to create a second bitcoin talk that would be more focused on productive discussion about Bitcoin itself. IE: no service discussion/scammer tags, no basic techsupport like, "where are my satoshi dice payouts", etc....

The community has seen such a huge influx of new people to the forum that, through no fault of their own, it's diluted the usefulness of the forum entirely. There are so many posts about extraneous stuff, trolling, nonsense, you name it, that it's hard to follow any productive discussion at all.

What about a new bitcoin talk, heavily moderated focused really on building bitcoin. The mods would have wide censorship abilities to keep name calling to a minimum and keep discussions on track. Freedom of speech is one thing, but the thousands and thousands of opinions that come now from left and right just drown out anything of value and building bitcoin requires more concentration then seems to be available here anymore.

I like this idea. In my case though, I only read certain sections. Maybe the Member Group tags could help reduce the nonsense on certain sections by restricting them from posting there? (i.e. scammer, troll, other) Sort of the same way newbies are restricted to posting in the "Newbies" section until X number of posts and time.

[Walter Rothbard]

I saw a post about this on another thread- maybe it's time to create a second bitcoin talk that would be more focused on productive discussion about Bitcoin itself. IE: no service discussion/scammer tags, no basic techsupport like, "where are my satoshi dice payouts", etc....

The community has seen such a huge influx of new people to the forum that, through no fault of their own, it's diluted the usefulness of the forum entirely. There are so many posts about extraneous stuff, trolling, nonsense, you name it, that it's hard to follow any productive discussion at all.

What about a new bitcoin talk, heavily moderated focused really on building bitcoin. The mods would have wide censorship abilities to keep name calling to a minimum and keep discussions on track. Freedom of speech is one thing, but the thousands and thousands of opinions that come now from left and right just drown out anything of value and building bitcoin requires more concentration then seems to be available here anymore.

I think to really make this work you would need to nail down a lot more specifics about what is and is not to be discussed.  No discussion of services at all?  So the discussion is centered just around the bitcoin protocol and clients?  Or am I misreading?

[Akka]

You know that you can just ignore Boards you are not intersted in: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile --> Ignore Boards Preferences

You wont even see them in "Show unread posts since last visit.". I "Ignore all Languages I don't speak.

If you Ignore Newbies & Off-Topic as well your experience should get a lot better.

I think if we build up more sub boards this could work even better. For example a sub board for every "bigger" Alt Currency, so I could Ignore the ones I'm not interested in.

[URSAY]

try Reddit

[muyuu]

I find it extremely easy to ignore the posts I'm not interested about.

I really can't see how a copycat site would gain traction and why would that effort be justified.

[maxmint]

I really would love to see a bitcoin forum using Discourse, this is just plain awesome forum software. Actually, it's much more than just a forum.
Test here: http://try.discourse.org/

[crazy_rabbit]

I find it extremely easy to ignore the posts I'm not interested about.

I really can't see how a copycat site would gain traction and why would that effort be justified.

Well it would be more like "splitting" bitcoin talk. Although I didn't know about the various ignore features, i dont' find it so helpful in terms of boards where I am interested but the volume of nonsense is hard to filter. I will check out the ignore features in greater depth however.

[Mike Christ]

I'm not sure if there would be any downside or benefit to splitting the BTC user base between two forums.  There is a lot going on at this forum, I agree, but most of us have our own categories we like to proliferate   Plus, the trolling and scamming is the spice of life!  Honestly, I can see how it can get annoying, however.

So, what do you have in mind specifically on productive BTC discussion?  As in, raising BTC awareness, promoting development, ideas on new altcoins...that sort of thing?  I imagine it might be an empty forum

[SgtSpike]

I tried starting a new Bitcoin forum, and it was really a nice change (due to lack of trolls and scammers), but it didn't take off at all.  Had maybe a couple hundred people registered, and a dozen or so regular posters.  I eventually sold it, and the new owners haven't done a thing with it.  I own bitcoin-forum.net, and have been considering starting something up again there, but it would definitely need to differentiate itself from bitcointalk and the other largely unsuccessful offerings out there.

I think a forum focused on keeping trolls, scammers, and newbies out would make for an excellent alternative to bitcointalk, and I think it would be easy to do.
- Only allow WTB/WTS posts from people with 100+ posts and 10+ reputation points or "likes".
- Heavy moderating for abusive language.  Those who berate others or fail to have mature discussions are kicked out with little recourse.
- Charge a small fee for registration (say, 0.1 BTC) to keep spammers and newbies at bay.  Of course, guests can read, but not post.

The hardest part is accomplishing substantial enough growth to make it self-sustaining.  Last time I checked in to this, there wasn't enough interest to make it happen.  But it WOULD make for a nice forum full of intelligent and mature discussions, and mostly free of scammers.

[TECSHARE]

I need help developing a p2p reputation system that would enable users to not only have discussions but build feedback profiles independent of any site, yet still be able to be integrated easily into sites if they wish. This would also include the ability to become a local exchange. I have done extensive research into this and am convinced it is possible and have a plan to do so. I need Litecoin developers, and anyone who can code mobile apps. I am willing to pay out of pocket in BTC/LTC for this development. Please PM me.

[Logik]

Almost every online community reaches this same conclusion as it grows large enough. New forums never happen; they won't get the traffic. It's the same with social networks. You can start new ones but most people won't be on them. Online communities are messy and organic and it's difficult to alter the tone of the conversation without heavy moderation.

If anything the newbie restrictions could be adjusted?

[Walter Rothbard]

I find it extremely easy to ignore the posts I'm not interested about.

I really can't see how a copycat site would gain traction and why would that effort be justified.

Well it would be more like "splitting" bitcoin talk. Although I didn't know about the various ignore features, i dont' find it so helpful in terms of boards where I am interested but the volume of nonsense is hard to filter. I will check out the ignore features in greater depth however.

I have a pretty healthy list of people ignored, and that helps some I think.  I think I'm going to try ignoring the newbie board as well, at least for awhile.

[Lethn]

I'd like people stop trying to enforce their utopian visions on internet communities all the time myself.

[tysat]

I'd like people stop trying to enforce their utopian visions on internet communities all the time myself.

I don't see any enforcing going on here, just suggestions.

@OP
The only way something like that will happen is if you make it happen, then get people to use it.  As others have stated it's unlikely that people will switch, but you can try.

[Mike Christ]

I'd like people stop trying to enforce their utopian visions on internet communities all the time myself.

I don't see any enforcing going on here, just suggestions.

I think he's referencing the following:

...heavily moderated focused really on building bitcoin. The mods would have wide censorship abilities to keep name calling to a minimum and keep discussions on track. Freedom of speech is one thing, but the thousands and thousands of opinions that come now from left and right just drown out anything of value and building bitcoin requires more concentration then seems to be available here anymore.

Which I noticed myself.  Heavily moderated is a little scary if your mod decides to go on a power trip

[Lethn]

Note how I said 'trying' and for the most part, moderators almost always go on a power trip if they get pissed off enough, it's depressing to watch.

[Mike Christ]

Community moderation?  X amount of "flags" means user's post gets removed?  More flags means the user is muted for some time?

Well, maybe it's open to abuse...  But it works in TF2   When it's not being abused, that is.

[globalvillage]

You know that you can just ignore Boards you are not intersted in: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile --> Ignore Boards Preferences

You wont even see them in "Show unread posts since last visit.". I "Ignore all Languages I don't speak.

If you Ignore Newbies & Off-Topic as well your experience should get a lot better.

I think if we build up more sub boards this could work even better. For example a sub board for every "bigger" Alt Currency, so I could Ignore the ones I'm not interested in.

Guys, Newbies are not always newbies with BTC, sometimes they can be just new in the forum :-)