Request for Assistance on Article(s) About Bitcoin Forum

[CoinClarity]

Dear Members,

I am currently writing an article (probably a 3 part series) on the Bitcoin Forum (after reading xtraelv's thread on most iconic threads I learned that its actually called "Bitcoin Forum" and not Bitcointalk -- I never really looked at the words in the upper left hand corner before).

The first part will be about the history of the forum and its components.
The second part will consist of interviews with prominent members.
The third part will be about recent ongoings in the forum: most popular projects, and where things are possibly headed.

I'm looking for people (preferably early users and moderators) who would like to be part of a short interview -- I know who a lot of you are (not in real life but from the forum) so I could probably tailor some questions specifically to you, so as to avoid being too generic or boring. It would be good to get some unique insight that perhaps hasn't yet been shared and would be most grateful if you could shoot me a PM if you are interested.

I also have a few questions, if anybody could help me out I'd be greatly appreciative:

1. Is this the biggest forum on the internet? I mean "forum" in the classical sense, as in "biggest SMF forum".. An independent entity and not run by some corporation like AOL or Yahoo or something. It certainly seems like it from what I've researched.  

2. Can anybody take a guess as to the approximate monthly revenue raised by the site? If you feel its sensitive but want to discuss please PM me. Worth of Web estimates it to bring in about $193k a month. Its stats are also a bit more exaggerated than the general stats provided by the forum (at the bottom of the main page), so I have no idea what the actual income is.

3. Are there still plans to upgrade the forum at some point or have those been nixed entirely?

For what it is, I think the forum works great -- its so many things at the same time: a historical archive, a collection of "how to" manuals and instructional information, a site to discuss and launch crypto projects; not to mention a marketplace, "social network," and fully-fledged ecosystem. I don't want to sound like a suck-up but props to theymos and the moderators for keeping it functional and holding everything together over the years -- its a job that most of us probably take for granted.

Thanks for your help and contributions in advance, its greatly appreciated.

ps: if you want to get a sample of the kinds of stories I write, you can click here for a list of my most recent articles. A while back I did a 3 part series on Satoshi Nakamoto and even interviewed Bruno at one point.

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[mdayonliner]

1. Is this the biggest forum on the internet? I mean "forum" in the classical sense, as in "biggest SMF forum".. An independent entity and not run by some corporation like AOL or Yahoo or something. It certainly seems like it from what I've researched.  

This is the biggest forum for cryptocurrency. The main goal of the forum is to help the crypto community to understand Bitcoin technology.

2. Can anybody take a guess as to the approximate monthly revenue raised by the site? If you feel its sensitive but want to discuss please PM me. Worth of Web estimates it to bring in about $193k a month. Its stats are also a bit more exaggerated than the general stats provided by the forum (at the bottom of the main page), so I have no idea what the actual income is.

Only the forum admin can give you this stat.

3. Are there still plans to upgrade the forum at some point or have those been nixed entirely?

Yeah, the admin is working on the new forum software since March 2014 if I am not wrong and the budget was 5000BTC We have not seen any progress though  

Good luck with your article.

May be you want to move this topic to the bitcoin discussion board or Beginners & Help board.

[poptok1]

Questions 2 and 3 can only be answered correctly, without speculations by one person.
Why won't you try to invite theymos for the exclusive interview? Got a feeling it wont be cheap  
Then all those questions will be answered as honestly and truly as possible.
As to question 1, I think that bitcointalk is somewhere in the top 60, closer to 60th though.
But in crypto related world... it's another pair of wellingtons.

[jackg]

From advertising revenue the forum probably brings in only about 10-20k a month.

There is a lot of funds for the forum that are in cold storage though.

I don't think we're the biggest smf forum but I'm not sure. Stackoverflow and reddit are potentially the biggest forums but they won't use smf.

[CoinClarity]

From advertising revenue the forum probably brings in only about 10-20k a month.

There is a lot of funds for the forum that are in cold storage though.

I don't think we're the biggest smf forum but I'm not sure. Stackoverflow and reddit are potentially the biggest forums but they won't use smf.

I think its the largest SMF forum, just wanted some kind of confirmation. Reddit is a company that has a CEO, so I don't count them -- I'm looking more at sites that aren't really commercially developed.

Also, somebody might want to take it upon themselves to update the wikipedia entry for the forum; its pretty lacking:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcointalk

[Halab]

2. Can anybody take a guess as to the approximate monthly revenue raised by the site? If you feel its sensitive but want to discuss please PM me. Worth of Web estimates it to bring in about $193k a month. Its stats are also a bit more exaggerated than the general stats provided by the forum (at the bottom of the main page), so I have no idea what the actual income is.

You can have a look at these topics to have an idea :
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=780707.msg8798606#msg8798606
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2659454.msg27122179#msg27122179

3. Are there still plans to upgrade the forum at some point or have those been nixed entirely?

In 2017, given the expenses, this seemed to be the case.

[CoinClarity]

2. Can anybody take a guess as to the approximate monthly revenue raised by the site? If you feel its sensitive but want to discuss please PM me. Worth of Web estimates it to bring in about $193k a month. Its stats are also a bit more exaggerated than the general stats provided by the forum (at the bottom of the main page), so I have no idea what the actual income is.

You can have a look at these topics to have an idea :
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=780707.msg8798606#msg8798606
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2659454.msg27122179#msg27122179

3. Are there still plans to upgrade the forum at some point or have those been nixed entirely?

In 2017, given the expenses, this seemed to be the case.

Cool, thanks for the info, much appreciated.

[fronti]

3. Are there still plans to upgrade the forum at some point or have those been nixed entirely?

Yeah, the admin is working on the new forum software since March 2014 if I am not wrong and the budget was 5000BTC We have not seen any progress though  

there is progress..
slowly but there is.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=167.0
and here:
https://github.com/epochtalk/epochtalk

but as this forum work for me (and may others i guess) this is ok that its slow.

[CoinClarity]

Here's the first article, its kind of a whopper, though I gotta admit most forum fanatics probably know all (or most of) this stuff.

https://coinclarity.com/the-bitcoin-forum-part-1-of-3/

If I got anything blatantly wrong, please let me know so I can change it!

I would like to credit xtraelv for his Most Iconic Bitcointalk Threads compilation. I spent literally HOURS reading through this stuff, getting sidetracked on tangent threads, then caught up in tangent tangent threads. There's some really amazing stuff in there that could probably fill the script of a movie some day.

Next up: the interview portion. I have 2 volunteers so far, both (pretty darn) prominent members of the forum. Should be a good one.

[lobcmt2]

This part is great, and you definitely can do it well.

The first part will be about the history of the forum and its components.

This part is harder to finish, and difficult to make blueprints of those interviews (ideas, contents, questions, and so on).

The second part will consist of interviews with prominent members.

This part is almost unrealistic one.
There are abundant new projects in the forum that launched each day, and even when you want to focus on top projects, it is unrealistic too.
Why?
It might cause massive discussions and/ or arguments on which ones are the best ones and should be included.
It will be something like never-ending debate.

The third part will be about recent ongoings in the forum: most popular projects, and where things are possibly headed.

[CoinClarity]

This part is great, and you definitely can do it well.

The first part will be about the history of the forum and its components.

This part is harder to finish, and difficult to make blueprints of those interviews (ideas, contents, questions, and so on).

The second part will consist of interviews with prominent members.

This part is almost unrealistic one.
There are abundant new projects in the forum that launched each day, and even when you want to focus on top projects, it is unrealistic too.
Why?
It might cause massive discussions and/ or arguments on which ones are the best ones and should be included.
It will be something like never-ending debate.

The third part will be about recent ongoings in the forum: most popular projects, and where things are possibly headed.

I've actually reorganized it a bit. Am currently working on #2, which is more of a "how to find what you're looking for" section (its going to be pretty long), and #3 is going to be interviews. Thanks for your feedback.

[CoinClarity]

Part 2 is now up:

https://coinclarity.com/the-bitcoin-forum-part-2-of-3/

Again most of you guys know about all this stuff already.

I tried to concise everything by divvying it up into the 4 main reasons why people come to the forum:

- to educate themselves or share ideas about bitcoin, altcoins and the blockchain
- to buy or sell goods and services for bitcoin or an altcoin
- to promote a bitcoin, blockchain or ICO related project or product
- to participate in a signature campaign or bounty program

and dedicated sections to each one

I was pretty hard on bounty hunters, perhaps too much so.

After the last part is up I will make a thread in the Beginners section... I think these will be somewhat informative for people just getting started with the forum.

[CoinClarity]

Today I published part 3 of the series on Bitcointalk. It contains interviews with Flying Hellfish and Phinnaeus Gage, please feel free to check it out if you're interested!

All About Satoshi's Bitcoin Forum - Part 3: the interviews

Thanks!

[Hellmouth42]

With the kind permission of CoinClarity, a French translation of the 3rd part of its investigation for the local community:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5113214.0

Thank for his work!

[CoinClarity]

With the kind permission of CoinClarity, a French translation of the 3rd part of its investigation for the local community:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5113214.0

Thank for his work!

Awesome! I don't speak French but it must have been fun trying to translate Bruno's prose in a tangible fashion.