do you think there is any chance of using an off-the shelf software platform?
I would say it is far, far more likely to have success with adding plugins/extensions to off-the-shelf software than to have new forum software programmed from scratch. I haven't seen any features yet that would require programming from scratch, so why reinvent the wheel?
I think new software should be programmed from scratch. No off the shelf software is going to be designed with cryptocurrencies in mind. You could do micropayments and all that with off the shelf software but the level of control would be limited. What about escrow for instance? I don't think it's a big deal to code a forum from scratch so why not do that and make that design open source so other forums can easily integrate cryptocurrencies into them to build up the economic eco-system? If you're trying to build up market cap this is how you have to do it, you have to give people an excuse to earn and spend coins even if it's for stuff like accessing certain threads or parts of a forum or purchasing special features. This allows the programmers to actually get paid for adding these features in cryptocoins.
Like for instance you have VIP features and you let forum members purchase them. Or maybe make it so anyone can write a plugin and let people buy the ability to access those features and then give a percentage of the coins to whomever developed it. The wallet could even be built into the forum itself if it's build from scratch.
We all started at "Four legs good, two legs bad!"
Sort of like a two tier society where we can keep those who have and those who don't have, separated. An apartheid if you will. That way people who have Bitcoin can air their more valuable opinions.
It should be left up to whoever made the thread. If I make a thread and decide to make people pay to access it then I should get a percentage of the revenue and the forum should get a percentage allowing me and the forum to make money. This tread could be technical analysis, the launch of a new alt-coin or whatever. This would make it so that people will pay for access to the latest news on the topics they really want but it also would allow people to get paid for providing that service.
You forget we are talking about money here and not charity. I thought Bitcoin was about people working to earn them and spend them? I thought Bitcoin is supposed to be a currency? When are we going to start treating it like a currency and using it like one?
Don't people pay for newspapers and magazine articles?
The scammers that cause the most damage are the ones that are successful. I.e. the ones that already have Bitcoin or find it trivial to obtain some.
Your barrier to entry is going to hurt more people than it helps.
What barrier for entry? The whole point of creating the barrier is to create an economy around the forum so that the market cap grows. How exactly will anyone be able to earn Bitcoins if no one ever thinks to try to earn them because the trend is trading USD for them or trying to mine them? Until we get out of that attitude of having to buy Bitcoins or mine Bitcoins it will never be a currency and remain nothing more than a speculator toy commodity. If it's not used on forums with hundreds of thousands of users then why have Bitcoin exist in the first place if it's politically incorrect even among so called supporters?
I say let the thread owner decide if it's a free thread or a fee based thread. Let the thread owner set the fee to the thread. This way you wont have any spammers in certain threads at all. In fact I'd say you probably wont have spammers on the forum except in the newbie section.
Yes, the rabble should have their own section.
Now you're onto politics. But what is the point of anyone working if we all have the exact same privileges in the end? And if you don't give people anything to work for why do they want to use Bitcoins? Isn't the idea to get people to use Bitcoins the way other currencies are used? So you gotta give people stuff to buy on the forum and stuff to earn even if to you it seems trivial. The forum can use fees to make money from all this in addition to ad revenue and forum users like yourself could make money from starting threads, making good posts, or doing the bounties on the job board.
I don't see why we shouldn't encourage a culture where people want to earn Bitcoins and actually contribute to the community.
A 'VIP' section would be ok as it's optional.
Everything I suggest should be optional. It should be if me and others decide to create a VIP section and you wont pay the fee then you just can't access it. No trolls, no spam, no sockpuppets, no newbies, because we created the thread or that section and agreed by consensus to put a fee for access. Some people would greatly appreciate this feature enough to pay the fee.
You're going to make it annoying for genuine users and only make the cost to a scammer $1? Downloading of Pirate Bay or ripping a DVD is simple too but you'll find most home users buy DVDs and sit through the FBI warning and adverts time and time again. To a determined scammer/spammer your barrier to entry is too low. To an ordinary user, the barrier to entry is too high.
Most people are newbies who don't really want to dig deep into Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency and they should be in the newbie section. Why should they be allowed to access sections where people have invested their life savings into Bitcoin, or who are working on projects, or who are legitimately trying to learn about technical analysis?
If you just want to chat about the weather or talk to other newbies that part of the forum should always be open. The VIP areas shouldn't be open. If you want to know the most valuable technical analysis report then perhaps you should pay to access it. Why expect good trading advice to be given to you for free or expect anything to be given to you at all? Doesn't that go against the whole point of Bitcoin?
Sure, you might have eliminated all but the most harmless of scammers (which aren't the ones you need to worry about) and a large chunk of new users who decided to go elsewhere.
New users will just stay on the newbie section just like new users are in the newbie section on this site. What is the difference? You earned your way out of the newbie section on this site did you not?
You'll have a lot of issues like people currently do here where they want to participate in a discussion immediately but can't.
I don't have a problem with your suggestions - I just think it doesn't solve any problems. It just seems to exclude newbies and very low end scammers.
It reduces noise. It removes the sockpuppets. It increases the quality of posts. It allows all users to make a profit from the forum. It allows for lotteries, bounties, access control, per click fees, pay per view, VIP accounts and privileges and more. Basically if you earn your way up then you wont be a newbie but if you want a free ride you won't get far.
Tell me why it's good to give everyone a free ride when we know that wont grow the economy for Bitcoin or altcoins? We can't all be miners expecting to just plug in an asic and generate unlimited coins. Some of us have to work on projects, start businesses, do the bounties and other kinds of work. There are threads on this site where people are writing stories for Devcoins, there are people trading for all kinds of stuff, there are people starting projects or businesses and that is what Bitcoin is about. In my opinion it's not about people just talking about Bitcoin but never really trying to earn any and it's not all about speculation (buying and selling Bitcoins like it's a commodity).
So what I'm saying is the forum should be more about doing business and less about uninformed speculation, pump and dump, trolling and all that crap.