Open letter to Bruce Wagner

[Christian Pezza]

Matthew N. Wright
quote

+1 awesome and well writen thank you

[JeffK]

Matthew N. Wright
quote

+1 awesome and well writen thank you

Guy is smart and a good writer, he used to run an accredited* school in Korea.



*not actually accredited

[defxor]

It so saddens me to see the degradation.... nearly to the point of destruction.... of these forums.... by the concerted efforts of 1 or 2 children (from somethingaweful.com) who think it's humorous to pretend to be adults... with the sole intent of aggravating people... and disrupting real conversation... among real adults.

I don't really think they're children, just ignorant.

(I'm still waiting for the "conference expert" to come back to me in this thread)

[JeffK]

Matthew N. Wright
quote

+1 awesome and well writen thank you

Guy is smart and a good writer, he used to run an accredited* school in Korea.



*not actually accredited

Nice try. It was accredited in Korea by the Ministry of Education per legal requirement to open a school. Your group of arm chair comedians was right about my bad attitude. I'm working on it. You have however, understandably, been wrong about everything about me in Korea and my work. I don't blame you, most Americans think laws and regulations are all the same across the world. Most people who have never operated a school overseas haven't the faintest idea what it takes as far as working relationships. It's undeniable though that several US Department of Education recognized, regionally and nationally accredited (CITA, NCA, CSS-MSA and DETC) institutions (in North Dakota and Pennsylvania) seemed to think my little school had promise, enough to stake their combined 200+ years of institutional history in backing us.

It's also obvious not even TheBible (who is in Korea) has done much more than the bare minimum as far as working in Korea. You actually have to visit immigration, the tax office, Ministry of Education, speak fluent Korean and have a finite understanding of education law and regulations in both the US and Korea to do what I've done. You're welcome to keep trolling instead of asking questions, but as a follower of SomethingAwful for almost 10 years now, back when Jeff K was helping people get their toaster rebooted over AIM,and let me say you really don't do the group justice. Stick to the Bitcoin bashing and general speculation so that aren't consistantly off base. You're seldom wrong about Bitcoin, but you've been continuously wrong about me on everything but my attitude. Thanks for the wake up call btw.

As for this topic, it's obvious to me now that there are many people in this community interested in sharing their talents to either make Bitcoin work, or destroy it for being inferior. Either way, I learned my lesson. Bruce's position as the messiah of Bitcoin is not helping anyone. I'm sold on group efforts now. Going it alone is ridiculous and social suicide. Take a hint Bruce.

We've seen your website, you aren't convincing anyone

[makomk]

Not at all. For the first, most people gave Bruce the benefit of the doubt and still believed his hyping was a sign of something majoy going to happen. Whereas for the second, we all know exactly what to expect and we know only to expect about 2% of what Bruce is actually claiming.

Anyone that had been reading the SomethingAwful thread or that had even watched his show live - but I repeat myself - would already have had appropriate expectations. I'm not really convinced anyone from there could've stopped laughing long enough to finish writing half of these posts; they're skilled but not that skilled. Seriously, the SA thread is worth reading...

[smoothie]

To those who say that I should have asked people to help with the live streaming and recording of the events, breakout sessions, etc...    See this post -- where I did exactly that:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6150.msg465119#msg465119   

I also tweeted that to 12 or 13,000 followers on Twitter and Facebook.

To those who say that I should have asked for volunteers to help with Conference preparations and in general....   See this post -- where I did exactly that:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6150.msg464047#msg464047

That blast also went to 12 or 13,000 followers on Twitter and Facebook, in addition to here in the forum thread.

I would love to have seen attendees live stream more.    Almost every one of them has the technology to do so.... in their pocket.

However, I do NOT blame them.     They came to the Conference to experience it themselves.... and to have conversations (private conversations, in many cases) which they would not necessarily want broadcast to the world.

I am grateful for the few who did stream it.    We were able to make a decent recording of the speeches.   We had Only One (OnlyOne, get it) working laptop, unfortunately.    And that laptop was needed to process the constant flow of incoming registrations / admissions.

Yeah.... That's a lame excuse.   We need to buy more laptops.   And attendees need to stream more too.

But, all in all, it was an AMAZING Conference.

For the record, I think  ---  No, I KNOW  ---  that the value of this WORLD'S FIRST Bitcoin Conference came from the private conversations with the genius minds that were in attendance...    Those private conversations could not be streamed to the world.

Even if there had been 1000 times more media coverage....   The value would have mostly been the private conversations....   at the bar afterward....   in the restaurants.... etc.     That's where the REAL magic happened.

I may not check this thread frequently.   I've commented on this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6150.msg478104#msg478104

Yes lame it is. On more than one occasion both you and Manny had laptops on the bitcoin show. How is that any excuse at all?

[smoothie]

The cruise is actually a great Idea Bruce.

Advantages are:

Easy conference access for many who can't afford to fly and stay at a hotel.
Free food for the entire stay we are there. Huge savings on a typical expense.
Various different meeting facilities so that we can diversify our meetings ( assuming that we will indeed be renting out these facilities )
Comfortable rooms at much cheaper prices than we would pay at traditional hotels.

The only problem I see with the cruise is Internet access. From previous cruises I have been on I can confirm that the prices for Wifi are ridiculous. Now if you can arrange a group Internet package for us and all of the above I think the cruise might be the most viable option for me and many other Bitcoiners who might be thinking about saving as their number one priority.

Thank you for the work that you do!

Since when is food free on a cruise that you HAVE to pay for?

[smoothie]

I think it was a success... 

I met some good people there.    Bruce did a decent job regarding it being the ALPHA / FIRST / bitcoin conference.

For some reason people believe that the first is going to be like the second... whereas in the second you learned from the first. I know Bruce will sort out any of the bugs in the first conference and apply that knowledge to the second.

I can say that the demand was high enough to justify a second conference...   this is something worth while.   Considering what the topic is...

You guys tend to forget that bitcoins were invented in 600 days ago....  and didn't even have mainstream media attention until 200 days ago.

If their ability to learn from past conferences is anything like how the bitcoin show had audio problems and how they learned from those mistakes, we may not get a smooth conference for about the 20th one.

I have watched all the bitcoin shows and it took about 20 shows for them to finally get the audio issue correct.

To me that is says enough to know what to expect from future conferences given the current one and how it went from an external point of view.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Bruce,

I and several thousand other people, forum members or not, were very exited and looking forward to this bitcoin conference. Mind you, bitcoin is the internet currency, so the "whole" internet was watching, or actually, not watching, because there was no live feed, no blog posts, no press release, no pictures, nothing.

I don't understand how you can make a bitcoin conference and lock out the whole world. Yes, I heard some lame excuses about a broken laptop, and expensive internet connections. This wouldn't even be an issue in some third world country, so I doubt that this could be an issue in the middle of NYC.

In hindsight this conference looks more like a secret meetup of some secret society. The only thing that was leaked out of the conference is that there will be a few more conferences in the future. Whoever will run this conferences, please don't be selfish - communicate about it, let the world know what is happening while it is happening. Use this past conference outside communication as an example how it should not be done.

If you would have done the publicity that such a conference does deserve, I am sure the exchange rate would have risen by at least 2 or 3 dollars, instead of fallen by almost 1 dollar. Now how to you explain your family and friends that you have just wasted this big opportunity to solidify their bitcoin wealth by 25%. Or do you no longer care, after the mybitcoin debacle? Do you think that after loosing 49% one doesn't want to gain some 25%?

I think it is also a lost opportunity for OnlyOneTV. In the short period of time when there was some sort of live feed, there were more than thousand viewers. Numbers that you never had before. I can only imagine how much more thousand viewers only got the "off air" message, and remember your business now as OnlyOffAirTV. Bit lost opportunity, better don't tell your sponsors about this.

BTW, to make this clear. This is no bashing on you, Bruce. I like and watch your "daily" shows, and as a long time viewer I know that you are exaggerate sometimes, like the fact that you call this a daily show, while in fact there can be a full week between shows. Same thing was you stating that some 15 media outlets will be there, I guessed that this will be not that much, but probably a few. Actually almost no one knows the truth, because there is no information about it.
In fact, you did with your bitcoin conference, what you said is the worst thing to do, stopping all public communication, going incommunicado. Sorry to say this, but this behavior reminds me of some guy named Tom Williams.

Someone claimed that some parts where recorded, so here is hope that you make at least this recording available. I and, I am sure, a few thousand other people would really like to watch this. But to quote you: a day in the bitcoin world is like a week, a week is like a month. So according to you, those recording are already some weeks late

Best regards,
aq

This: http://www.ted.com/talks/joseph_pine_on_what_consumers_want.html

[Bruce Wagner]

By the way, on the upcoming Bitcoin World Cruise....  Not only is all food is included....  but ALL ALCOHOL is free (included) as well.

[smoothie]

By the way, on the upcoming Bitcoin World Cruise....  Not only is all food is included....  but ALL ALCOHOL is free (included) as well.

What I'm trying to figure out is how a Bitcoin World Cruise is going to push bitcoin forward and address the major issues you listed earlier in this thread.

Alcohol being added to the mix may end up being a bad idea given that we don't want anymore negative attention. Imagine a bunch of drunk bitcoin pioneers on a boat on the ocean. How would that address the issues that bitcoin has?

That's like trying to entice people to join your event for the "free" alcohol.

I get it that great minds meeting is a must for Bitcoin to succeed in the development area, but how does that even require or justify people having to pay for a cruise to be a part of this?

This is starting to sound more like a series of parties rather than productive meetings.

Spending a lot of money and having good food and good drinks is not a requirement to have a successful conference or meeting among like-minded people.

What's next, the Bitcoin Blimpe Conference where we hover in the atmosphere and drink booze and talk about bitcoin until we are piss drunk off our asses?

Or maybe we'll have the Bitcoin Underground Expo in the tunnels of the Nevada Test Site.

Or maybe we can just meet at a public venue that is not pricey and meet there with a structured goal of why we are meeting, and not just to "have bitcoin buzz in the air".

 

[rainingbitcoins]

By the way, on the upcoming Bitcoin World Cruise....  Not only is all food is included....  but ALL ALCOHOL is free (included) as well.

Will the homeless underage prostitutes be included in Pattaya?

What I'm trying to figure out is how a Bitcoin World Cruise is going to push bitcoin forward and address the major issues you listed earlier in this thread.

No dude, you don't understand - ALCOHOL! Free alcohol! Every time you find yourself asking a question like that, just take a shot! Nothing engenders a POSITIVE ATTITUDE like high-proof vodka!

All of these conferences and cruises sound less about Bitcoins, and more about Bruce wanting an excuse for a vacation or a party or, in the case of Pattaya, I don't even want to know.

[Anonymous]

To those who say that I should have asked people to help with the live streaming and recording of the events, breakout sessions, etc...    See this post -- where I did exactly that:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6150.msg465119#msg465119  

I also tweeted that to 12 or 13,000 followers on Twitter and Facebook.

To those who say that I should have asked for volunteers to help with Conference preparations and in general....   See this post -- where I did exactly that:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6150.msg464047#msg464047

That blast also went to 12 or 13,000 followers on Twitter and Facebook, in addition to here in the forum thread.

I would love to have seen attendees live stream more.    Almost every one of them has the technology to do so.... in their pocket.

However, I do NOT blame them.     They came to the Conference to experience it themselves.... and to have conversations (private conversations, in many cases) which they would not necessarily want broadcast to the world.

I am grateful for the few who did stream it.    We were able to make a decent recording of the speeches.   We had Only One (OnlyOne, get it) working laptop, unfortunately.    And that laptop was needed to process the constant flow of incoming registrations / admissions.

Yeah.... That's a lame excuse.   We need to buy more laptops.   And attendees need to stream more too.

But, all in all, it was an AMAZING Conference.

For the record, I think  ---  No, I KNOW  ---  that the value of this WORLD'S FIRST Bitcoin Conference came from the private conversations with the genius minds that were in attendance...    Those private conversations could not be streamed to the world.

Even if there had been 1000 times more media coverage....   The value would have mostly been the private conversations....   at the bar afterward....   in the restaurants.... etc.     That's where the REAL magic happened.

I may not check this thread frequently.   I've commented on this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6150.msg478104#msg478104

Yes lame it is. On more than one occasion both you and Manny had laptops on the bitcoin show. How is that any excuse at all?

Have you seen diggnation ?  Its two guys mucking around with laptops in front of a camera.

Maybe Bruce should start drinking beer and cracking adolescent jokes  

[The_Duke]

By the way, on the upcoming Bitcoin World Cruise....  Not only is all food is included....  but ALL ALCOHOL is free (included) as well.

And I'm serious. I am not sure if you are sincerely naive and really think you are doing bitcoin a favor with statements like this or if you are just trolling and deliberately trying to upset people who try to or hope for bitcoin to get a better reputation.

A bitcoin meetup in a place that is known to be a pedophile resort, talking about a bitcoin cruise and then putting emphasis on FREE ALCOHOL... I am anxiously awaiting your announcement that the amsterdam meetup will be held in a coffeshop with free weed for everyone.

Seriously. You are just making it worse and worse.  

[smoothie]

By the way, on the upcoming Bitcoin World Cruise....  Not only is all food is included....  but ALL ALCOHOL is free (included) as well.

And I'm serious. I am not sure if you are sincerely naive and really think you are doing bitcoin a favor with statements like this or if you are just trolling and deliberately trying to upset people who try to or hope for bitcoin to get a better reputation.

A bitcoin meetup in a place that is known to be a pedophile resort, talking about a bitcoin cruise and then putting emphasis on FREE ALCOHOL... I am anxiously awaiting your announcement that the amsterdam meetup will be held in a coffeshop with free weed for everyone.

Seriously. You are just making it worse and worse.  

lol free weed?

[Nagle]

Almost every week, there is a major financial conference. I doubt that Bitcoin businesses could get into the High Growth Markets Summit (UK), now that the bubble has popped.  The Alternative Asset Summit (Las Vegas) might be a possibility. Anyone with a serious Bitcoin-related business should be attending and presenting at conferences like that, not a low-rent Wagner event.

Tradehill and Dwolla might be able to play in that league. Maybe Mt. Gox. (Probably not Mt. Gox - people who go to conferences like those want to see audited financial statements.)

[terrytibbs]

By the way, on the upcoming Bitcoin World Cruise....  Not only is all food is included....  but ALL ALCOHOL is free (included) as well.

Still waiting, my man.

[rjk]

By the way, on the upcoming Bitcoin World Cruise....  Not only is all food is included....  but ALL ALCOHOL is free (included) as well.

Still waiting, my man.

Good necro, would read again.

[terrytibbs]

By the way, on the upcoming Bitcoin World Cruise....  Not only is all food is included....  but ALL ALCOHOL is free (included) as well.

Still waiting, my man.

Good necro, would read again.

This Hawaiian T-shirt has an expiration date on it, you know...