Spam may be the cause of forum decline but it’s very likely that the forums life has just run its course. There may simply be nothing new to add to a discussion. It’s all been said, done and tried before.
Although some subjects have been discussed to the death and shouldn't be addressed any further. I don't agree that there's nothing else to discuss even things related to Bitcoin. There's always ongoing developments with Bitcoin whether that's market related, adoption or software related questions.
It's only fair to assume that people will continue asking questions about software even if it's been asked before because they want an up to date answer. If they look at older threads about their problems and the solution is still the solution they can still ask the question because it might bring up new information. For example: Bitcoin wallet corrupted and the solution was to use pywallet but maybe now there's a solution built into the bitcoin software to fix it rather than using a third party tool. Of course this is all made up to further my point but I think you get the idea from that example.
Then there's adoption. There's always something to be said when a new company has started trading in Bitcoin. You'll get the generic replies such as: "This is great for Bitcoin and it will boom because of this" but you'll also see some good replies that outline why this is a bad idea for Bitcoin; For example; x company may have adopted Bitcoin but they have been involved in shady business before"
There should always be enough recurrent news to be able to formulate a unique opinion/reply on the subject. I don't agree at all that everything that's worth saying has been said already. If this was the attitude of people in every day life we would never see progression in medical discoveries or technology.
I see the frustration of the forum and it's one of the reasons why I only post in certain sub forums and signature campaigns aren't helping the longevity of the forum or it's view ability. But there's ways of dealing with this whether that's restrictions or boycotting signature campaigns.
I've also been a member on several different forums in the past and I wouldn't say Bitcoin is any different other than it pays for posting. If this was removed it would show the general decline of other forums. Also the forum is subject to more spam some months due to the news brought about by Bitcoin. If we see a massive increase/decrease of the price then there's going to be a new influx of people coming and spamming it up either with panic or intrigue because the price shot up. Many forums aren't subject to this sort of thing.
I think you misunderstood my response. Of course, discussions about advances in ANY technology will need to continue until that technology is completely dead. That discussion and brainstorming will happen within and between the businesses and developer employees of those businesses.
Average Joe T. Idiot doesn’t have anything useful to add to those discussions. It’s not necessary to have those discussions on a public forum. Everything the average Joe can add that’s even moderately useful has been said, done and tried before.
How many people currently visiting this forum actually go to developer conferences around the world, attended the last major mining conference in China, or can even tell you in what country the next conference will take place? I suspect not many, if any at all. Real discussions are happening elsewhere. If you want to see a discussion take place in real time try IRC. If you what to know what’s happening in bitcoin or contribute to development in a meaning way try GitHub.
This forum was a valuable asset necessary to springboard bitcoin into the public consciousness. You needed everyone, regardless of technical expertise, to discuss bitcoin and recognize its value. That’s not the case anymore. There’s more than 100 sites that can teach you how bitcoin works. Bitcoin is in the mainstream media almost every day.
It’s good that this forum is now unnecessary to teach the finer points of using bitcoin because 99 out of 100 people I talk to here don’t understand how it works anyway and couldn’t help anyone if their life depended on it. The Stephen Gornick’s, Gavin Andresen’s and DeathNTaxes that would belabor bitcoin discussions until everyone understood are gone now. But that’s ok because they’re unnecessary today.
