It's Time For Theymos To Kill The Alt Section

[Moebius327]

Alt Coin innovations should not be hindered, but newbies should be protected from 90% scams coins. The dilemma...

[SaltySpitoon]

There is no such thing as a scam coin, its all a matter of perception. Some coins have specs that seem unreasonable, and they die. If it is not a good coin for whatever reason it will die on its own. We aren't here to protect the newbies, we aren't here to protect people from making their own judgements about a new coin. Its just a matter of space and resources, the forums has compiled a huge database of Bitcoin information, we can't also store huge databases of information for 600 other coins.

Unless something goes horribly wrong, I don't see the Alt Coin section being removed in its entirety, because while spammy, it does do a job, and thats to keep Alt Coin posts out of the rest of the forum. Quite frankly we don't host the Alt Coin section because its good for their economy, or we feel it is necessary to have alt coins, its just there for people that want to discuss alt coins, so they don't post in the rest of the forums. The forum's position on a whole doesn't really care if Alt Coins succeed or fail, it is not in our agenda to effect alt coins in one way or another. If attempting to cut down spam on this individual forum effects the price of an alt coin, that isn't our problem, that means that coin needs more infrastructure or sucks in general. If you look at the more established alt coins, they have their own forums and haven't been effected by the giveaway change at all. Your community needs its own place to store its own information, just like our community needs space to store its own information, primarily about Bitcoins. If people are mad that this isn't an equal opportunity forum between Bitcoins and Altcoins, they can get over it. We treat all Alt Coins alike and Bitcoins ahead of them all.

[bitsta]

This Alt Sub Forum has out lived its usefulness and needs to go.

Just look at the seriously unappreciative threads trashing Theymos and BCT for banning "Give Away" threads.

Hint:They want Alt coin people to go elsewhere!

It's time for Theymos to give them the nudge out the door by shutting down this section.


~BCX~

No-one needs your opinion. STFU.

+1

[Holliday]

Does the Alternate cryptocurrencies section of the forum add more signal or more noise?

I would promote it if it adds more signal, I would remove it if it adds more noise.

[Akka]

Well, something needs to be done for sure.

Not only the alcoin section but other thing as well. If I would come here as a totally new user that had no Idea about Bitcoin.

The first thing I would see are endless coins trying to convince me to invest in them. As soon as I enter a Thread, I see countless People advertising in bright red colours some gambling sites, dodgy investments or again useless coins in their sig.

This whole place looks like a site for HYIPs and not for a developing currency that wants to be taken seriously.

If I had no Idea about Bitcoin and the first thing I would find where this forum, I would very quickly come to the conclusion that Bitcoin is some kind of ponzi sheme and would immediately leave and never come back.

[Singlebyte]

Does the Alternate cryptocurrencies section of the forum add more signal or more noise?

I would promote it if it adds more signal, I would remove it if it adds more noise.

Way more noise.  Out of 85 alts, how many coins do you think will be successful?  5-10 possibly?

[Wipeout2097]

Look, I'm not sure if this post adds anything to the discussion, but imho the core issue is not Bitcoin vs alts. It's rather the old issue of ASICs that put mining out of reach of the majority. People that flock to alts don't necessarily do so because they love alts. They do it because they love money (like Bitcoin miners do) and because they have access to video cards.

I say this from experience. In late summer of 2013 during a heated round of Unreal Tournament 3   I finally killed my venerable Nvidia 8800 card and so started looking on the internet for reviews. Somewhere I came across with Bitcoin GPU mining and therefore choose to buy an ATI videocard, namely a 7870 Tahiti LE. I went: wait, my ATI will pay for itself doing this Bitcoin mining !?  

Nope, it did not and it would never, thanks to Bitcoin ASICs.

With a mix of frustration and enthusiasm, I searched more and almost pre-ordered a Japaleno. Throwing money into a pit, didn't look wise though. Searching more, I found out about litecoin.

Fast forward, I'm pointing 2.7 Mh/s at middlecoin.com and looking into more, to get BTC. I don't hold alts. I don't "mine" alts. I want the mining hardware to shit out BTC.

Before you ask why didn't I buy BTC ASICs during all this time? Well, because they aren't for sale at any store in Portugal. I go to the store and bring a videocard in hand. If a videocard malfunctions I go back and the money is returned. I don't have to throw money to the internet and pray that the hardware is delivered on the date and working condition advertised. Even more, I was scammed here at the forum on some "cloud" Bitcoin mining garbage.

I'm not going to insult people's intelligence and claim I can generalize from my anedoctal episode. But how many people are into alts just to get BTC?

[the_poet]

Well, something needs to be done for sure.

Not only the alcoin section but other thing as well. If I would come here as a totally new user that had no Idea about Bitcoin.

The first thing I would see are endless coins trying to convince me to invest in them. As soon as I enter a Thread, I see countless People advertising in bright red colours some gambling sites, dodgy investments or again useless coins in their sig.

This whole place looks like a site for HYIPs and not for a developing currency that wants to be taken seriously.

If I had no Idea about Bitcoin and the first thing I would find where this forum, I would very quickly come to the conclusion that Bitcoin is some kind of ponzi sheme and would immediately leave and never come back.

I couldn't agree more. Bitcointalk.org does absolutely NOT convey the image of the 'official' forum for a currency that aspires to revolutionize the way people look at money. It looks just like another spammy place.

[casascius]

I agree that alts should start their own forums and move out of here.  As the number of alts tends to infinity, so must the resource burden dedicated to them.  I don't think providing space to every indiscriminate offshoot from the Bitcoin source code is the mission of the BitcoinTalk forum.

I think there's limited subject matter pertaining to alts that are totally relevant for this forum (e.g. debating scrypt vs sha256, proof of stake, coins that purport to solve problems of academic interest to Bitcoin such as "premine coin" etc).  They however may not even merit their own subforum, as they appear to me to fall under the same umbrella as the categories we already have.

It's my opinion that all discussion beyond what's relevant to Bitcoin proper, especially promotion and announcement of new "coins", has got to go.

[Gcr0n]

i see it like this:

Bitcoin is gold, and alts are searching for other precious metals.
some will be bronze, some alluminium, some will be just sand..and if others choose to mine endless mountains of sand let them do it.
there's even a market for sand..

bitcoin is gold, but you know there will be diamonds.. wether or not this will be ethereum time will tell.

i agree to a point that maybe, a mod should select and view alt coins before they are added to the new announcements.
instant ban for anyone posting a trojan or keylogger or whatever.
i wish i had the balls 2 years ago to invest in btc, but like many others even old members discussing btc to the fullest i did not..

alt-coins give many people like me atleast the idea to be part of it, and yes we thank bitcoin for showing us the way.

[nrhs05]

Perhaps if the Altcoin section was divided into a few sections with subsections for bigger coins restriced to posts about those coins

"Established Altcoins" - LTC, PPC, XPM, FTC, NMC etc
"Up and Coming" - DOGE, STR, TIPS, QRK, WDC
"New Coins - anything most likely a scam or newely released.

Do not pay attention to the exact above list, I just picked a few established coins, and a few with higher trade volumes on exchanges.  My biggest hatred of the Altcoin section is how 9 of every 10 threads are filled with crap, and they amount of alts created is crazy!  Its more work in moderation, and perhaps out of the scope of the mods here... but just my thoughts if they wanted to do something.

The Announcments, Market Place, and mining sub-sections were a good start. 

[r3wt]

i vote yes to this thread.

Perhaps if the Altcoin section was divided into a few sections with subsections for bigger coins restriced to posts about those coins

"Established Altcoins" - LTC, PPC, XPM, FTC, NMC etc
"Up and Coming" - DOGE, STR, TIPS, QRK, WDC
"New Coins - anything most likely a scam or newely released.

Do not pay attention to the exact above list, I just picked a few established coins, and a few with higher trade volumes on exchanges.  My biggest hatred of the Altcoin section is how 9 of every 10 threads are filled with crap, and they amount of alts created is crazy!  Its more work in moderation, and perhaps out of the scope of the mods here... but just my thoughts if they wanted to do something.

The Announcments, Market Place, and mining sub-sections were a good start. 

The problem is, everything in your "up and coming" list is a scam/hypefest with little justification to be considered "up and coming".

[nrhs05]

Do not pay attention to the exact above list, I just picked a few established coins, and a few with higher trade volumes on exchanges.

Im not saying those are good or arent, as i stated....

[cthulu1]

The day when a bunch of fucking crybabies whine about what can and can't be posted in their internet forums is the day you have to start really wondering what you're doing with your life. Entitlement and delusions of granduer.....hoooooooooo!!!!!!!

[Holliday]

The day when a bunch of fucking crybabies whine about what can and can't be posted in their internet forums is the day you have to start really wondering what you're doing with your life. Entitlement and delusions of granduer.....hoooooooooo!!!!!!!

A great example of lots of noise and no signal.

[cthulu1]

Really though...this goes beyond saving a site's functionality and more and more leans towards personal vendettas and a variety of other trivial bullshit. If the last 7 pages aren't considered "noise", starting with the first post, then what would you call it? Oh wait...the only people complaining are elitists. And there's no way they could ever be wrong, right?

You're probably going to be pretty pissed off when I tell you that "noise" isn't contained solely to a singular section of an internet forum. And if discussion boards bother you then I would highly suggest unplugging yourself.

[BawsyBoss]

The day when a bunch of fucking crybabies whine about what can and can't be posted in their internet forums is the day you have to start really wondering what you're doing with your life. Entitlement and delusions of granduer.....hoooooooooo!!!!!!!

Where exactly is he "whining"?  I take his opinion just as valid as anyone else's whether or not I agree with it.

[AltorXP]

Why not just impose a series of stricter rules?
How about letting it be ONLY announcements and discussions - no giveaways or trading until the coin has gained lots of popularity.
People could perhaps add important features, and make an excellent alt-coin, suppressing these ideas wouldn't make sense.
Rules could be:
• Coin must have an innovative feature, something that makes it stand out amongst other coins
• Coin must be reviewed by a mod before the thread is seen (it's pending until reviewed)
• Coin must not be a complete copy of another - no clones

Adding these rules could effectively get rid of the spam, and make a clean section with innovative coins rather than get rich schemes.

[Starlightbreaker]

Why not just impose a series of stricter rules?
How about letting it be ONLY announcements and discussions - no giveaways or trading until the coin has gained lots of popularity.
People could perhaps add important features, and make an excellent alt-coin, suppressing these ideas wouldn't make sense.
Rules could be:
• Coin must have an innovative feature, something that makes it stand out amongst other coins
• Coin must be reviewed by a mod before the thread is seen (it's pending until reviewed)
• Coin must not be a complete copy of another - no clones

Adding these rules could effectively get rid of the spam, and make a clean section with innovative coins rather than get rich schemes.

lel

you're basically killing 99% of it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

[cthulu1]

The day when a bunch of fucking crybabies whine about what can and can't be posted in their internet forums is the day you have to start really wondering what you're doing with your life. Entitlement and delusions of granduer.....hoooooooooo!!!!!!!

Where exactly is he "whining"?  I take his opinion just as valid as anyone else's whether or not I agree with it.

That's exactly the point I'm making. It's just his opinion. Someone blowing smoke because (it seems anyway) like someone pissed in the OPs wheaties, every day, for 20-30 consecutive years. If the admins think the section should go, they'll say something. In the meantime, making threads about it, especially taking the time to go to said alt forums despite the fact you explicitly state you do not like it, is not only ironic but laughable. Because owning bitcoin and alt coins and talking about them is a pissing contest. Right?

Don't get me wrong, I am so glad the give aways were banned. And I am getting tired of people generating stupid coins with no value, intrinsic or monetary. But there's better ways to fix those problems rather than be a Nazi about it.