Coinosphere.com - The Google of Bitcoin

[Lamalicious]

what is going to happen if you won't reach 4 btc ? Are still going to launch a project ? :O

[1715020325]

1715020325

[1715020325]

1715020325

[1715020325]

1715020325

[successquik]

Wow!  I haven't been on the forum for awhile and was pleased to see that my simple question about filtering scams generated such response. 

Glad to see it being discussed as it's so very sad to see that so many people seeking to earn online are so mathematically illiterate. It's really scary.

Any old site can pop up and say, "We have a unique algorithm to trade forex, it's secret, Bill Gates doesn't know" so invest with us and we'll pay you 1% a day!

And the money pours in! Sad, so very sad.

For those of you who aren't aware there are forums that specialize on ponzi schemes, think Silk Road for the the scam world, like moneymakergroup, talkgold, etc.   These sites make money selling advertising to ponzi programs who feast on the gullibility of the financially ignorant.

And, with rise of bitcoin you'll see more and more of these scams using bitcoin. 

I don't know what the answer is, other than education (ugh, good luck with THAT) and the hope that those that control the power (search engines, advertisers, etc.) have the gumption and expertise to weed that crap out.

You can't legislate morality but you can cordon off the perpetrators of fraud (in my idyllic world anyway, LOL)

Best of luck to you BTCluke, your project is fascinating and I'll be watching with keen interest!

SQ

 

[BTCLuke]

Hi Lamalicious and successquik,

Thanks for your kind words.

Yes, I am opening the doors to Coinosphere.com rain or shine on Tuesday, even though that means we won't have many results filtered and readily displayed yet. The site will officially be launched as a "beta" site, because some things will be slower and with less functionality too... But just a little bit. The main problem will be the lack of all those juicy listings that Sauron has indexed already.

As for the Bitcoinstarter campaign, I have opted to push back the ending date a week so that it ends after you guys have access to Coinosphere.com and can see the promise of it for yourself, first-hand, before making a pledge on Bitcoinstarter.com.

Thanks for your patience everyone! See you tomorrow afternoon on Coinosphere.com!

[XFox]

What's the state of this project?
According to BTCLuke, site should already be online now.
Moreover, as of today it is still showing "This site will not be revealed until January 28th 2014."…

[BTCLuke]

Hi XFox, the site has been live since Jan 28th, please try refreshing your browser.

Unfortunately, we did not meet our goals for the Bitcoinstarter campaign (We only got to 40%, and you need to raise 100% to receive any of it) and therefore have fallen short on the funding we need to launch Coinosphere as originally intended.

But I'm not deterred! My solution was to open up in "Beta" status, with fewer listings and no marketing yet, to work any remaining bugs out while we get our listings in the directory slowly but surely. My search engine is popping out hundreds of new Bitcoin-accepting merchant sites every single night, but there is just no way to get them cleaned, sorted, categorized and loaded into the Coinosphere directory fast enough.

As you can see there are 2,500+ listings at this time, but before I take it out of beta status I would like to see over 10,000 listings there, and it's a matter of improving my automation processes now in order to deliver this.

[XFox]

Thanks BTCLuke, it is actually working now, don't know why I was seeing the old page before.
I'll pass the word along to my bitcoin-enabled friends!

[BTCLuke]

Game on!

As of today, Feb 27th, Coinosphere Beta is officially launched with almost 4,000 Bitcoin-accepting merchants and charities!

I do believe that makes us the largest listing of bitcoin merchants online already, but if someone knows of a larger listing please let me know.

Some of the people in this thread have inspired my next addition to Coinosphere: The ultimate bitcoin scammers list... With public voting for the biggest scammers. (Here's hoping Gox doesn't just sit at the top of that list forever. )

As always, let me know if you have any questions.

[MPOE-PR]

public voting for the biggest scammers

::headdesk::

THERE IS NO REPLACEMENT FOR INTELLIGENT ANALYSIS.

Not "looking to see if they have graphics". Not "some random schmoe says so". Not "I feel like it". Not "I'm wearing yellow shoes today."

Not anything, not now, not ever. Regardless of how many people have tried to make a replacement before (are you even the least bit aware of how many wannabe scammer lists comprised of public voting buttons are out there?). Regardless of how good your intentions are.

[BTCLuke]

THERE IS NO REPLACEMENT FOR INTELLIGENT ANALYSIS.

Are you volunteering for the job?

Try to look at this from a business perspective here. We are spending all our time cleaning large lists of indexed websites down to a few that pass incrementally stricter tests until we have something that looks decent enough to take the time to categorize & publish. I've got over 4,000 such results now, but I suspect that there are about 50,000 merchants out there taking bitcoin in total so far. (Of course that number grows daily too.)

We need to get Faster, not much slower at this if we're ever going to get anywhere near letting the world see all of the bitcoin-accepting merchants in one place.

There is already a link on each listing that lets the public report a scammer, and of course comments on the page too where I've already had two people point out scammers and I've removed them by hand.

Crowdsourcing scam-spotting is the only option I have open to me, at least while I'm not profitable yet. Unless some expert at analysis steps up to volunteer his or her time, such a position is simply going to have to wait until I far surpass being profitable and actually can afford a medium-sized business staff.

I'm all ears to your constructive criticsm, but what would really help right now is what I could do in the realm of crowdsourcing the scam-spotting. What could I provide on my site that would make hunting down these bastards fun or at least easy enough that everyone would be happy to do it?

[ThickAsThieves]

THERE IS NO REPLACEMENT FOR INTELLIGENT ANALYSIS.

Are you volunteering for the job?

Try to look at this from a business perspective here. We are spending all our time cleaning large lists of indexed websites down to a few that pass incrementally stricter tests until we have something that looks decent enough to take the time to categorize & publish. I've got over 4,000 such results now, but I suspect that there are about 50,000 merchants out there taking bitcoin in total so far. (Of course that number grows daily too.)

We need to get Faster, not much slower at this if we're ever going to get anywhere near letting the world see all of the bitcoin-accepting merchants in one place.

There is already a link on each listing that lets the public report a scammer, and of course comments on the page too where I've already had two people point out scammers and I've removed them by hand.

Crowdsourcing scam-spotting is the only option I have open to me, at least while I'm not profitable yet. Unless some expert at analysis steps up to volunteer his or her time, such a position is simply going to have to wait until I far surpass being profitable and actually can afford a medium-sized business staff.

I'm all ears to your constructive criticsm, but what would really help right now is what I could do in the realm of crowdsourcing the scam-spotting. What could I provide on my site that would make hunting down these bastards fun or at least easy enough that everyone would be happy to do it?

Speed over Quality, does it ever work when the Price is free?