Why bitcointalk.org is so popular?

[DdmrDdmr]

And yet, besides its ties to Bitcoin origins, the campaigns, it’s members, the historical content, and so forth, there are local regions where Bitcointalk possibly surpassed in popularity by other more local forums.
For example, the Spanish local forum "competes" with forobits.com – a Spanish based forum that has a poor yet simple design, lacks campaigns, but generates more content in Spanish that our local forum on Bitcointalk. We’re really talking different demographic dimensions here, since the Spanish section on Bitcointalk is participated by people both in Spain and LATAM, whilst Forobits is mainly participated only by Spaniards.

Bitcointalk could be thrashing Forobits, but for some reason it lags behind a bit in interest (at least that’s what it looks like if we take a look at the number of posts created on both forums (local Spanish), and the comparative results on Google Trends – taking the latter with a bit of scepticism).


The image above is in relation to the last two years, in order to narrow down the peak 100 reference.

[LoyceV]

I'm sorry to say it but probably 85-90% of the traffic is because of greed.
All those signature campaigns, giveaways, airdrops some sort of "free money", attract more and more people who have come here to "work hard" and make as more as possible.

Although I can (proudly) say I didn't have any paid signature until I was at least Full Member, but that's mainly because I didn't bother to check how it works back then, and I didn't know it can actually pay a decent amount.
There's a good side to it though: signature campaigns mean people are actually willing to do things for Bitcoin, which adds to it's acceptance.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Basically, most anything goes.   He allows members to police themselves and that gives pride and purpose

That was one of the most important things that attracted me to this forum--I'd lurked around here way before I ever joined, and I noticed that members were allowed to say pretty much whatever they wanted to say.  Other forums I'd been a part of were almost prudish in terms of what they allowed, and that's a turnoff.

But as to OP's question about why bitcointalk is so popular: it's the signature campaigns and bounties.  There are a lot of money-making opportunities here, which many people take full advantage of.  The secondary reason is the popularity of bitcoin itself, IMO.  When bitcoin starts heating up, it seems like there are newbies flooding in with new topics about the price.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, though some of the posts are complete garbage.

[eternalgloom]

I'm sorry to say it but probably 85-90% of the traffic is because of greed.
All those signature campaigns, giveaways, airdrops some sort of "free money", attract more and more people who have come here to "work hard" and make as more as possible.

Although I can (proudly) say I didn't have any paid signature until I was at least Full Member, but that's mainly because I didn't bother to check how it works back then, and I didn't know it can actually pay a decent amount.
There's a good side to it though: signature campaigns mean people are actually willing to do things for Bitcoin, which adds to it's acceptance.

Not to be rude or anything, but joining a campaign when you have a rank lower than Full Member wasn't really worth it, right?
Well, maybe back then it was. I think I joined my first campaign when I was Sr. Member.

I do agree that those campaigns have a good side, but it's also good to think about whether it's worth the spam.
Well, it definitely keeps the place alive, that's for sure.

[LoyceV]

Not to be rude or anything, but joining a campaign when you have a rank lower than Full Member wasn't really worth it, right?

Probably, but my main reason to join was because I liked the site at the time. I guess that's different for most users.

[Joel_Jantsen]

Hey guys. I'm a talkative person and participate in a lot of chats and forums. And I noticed that this forum is the most popular one. Can you explain to me how it happened and why? What's their success story?

There is no one such success story. I could say it was founded by the Bitcoin creators and used for all technical discussions at one point of time but that's merely the reason behind its popularity.

"Do you know a forum you get money to write simple comments?" - This is the main reason for its popularity I guess. That brings shit loads of traffic to the website which attracts service providers like gambling sites, freelancers and etc. Also, one place spot for shit-coins and shit-coin bounty campaigns.

Gone are the days where there were actually very intelligent members active on the forum like DannyH, TracePilot, etc. Recently, Lauda, Lutpin, and others have stopped participating in the discussions which make this place less friendly for people like me who have been here for a few years. I remember I was literally coached on a number of things via private messages by those members.

[Coyster]

I think at the initial stage, the forum was popular because it provided an avenue for enthusiasts to discuss really technical issues about the bitcoin, as well as giving trading strategies and techniques to support others, it was indeed a forum then and more so why it was popular then.

But really at this stage now, I think it's popular because it has an option to earn, if you remove that option, I think the forum would lose popularity as well as a lot of plastic members.

[Artemis3]

Hey guys. I'm a talkative person and participate in a lot of chats and forums. And I noticed that this forum is the most popular one. Can you explain to me how it happened and why? What's their success story?

The creator of Bitcoin made it... Satoshi is the founder of Bitcointalk.

[AB de Royse777]

I'm sorry to say it but probably 85-90% of the traffic is because of greed.
All those signature campaigns, giveaways, airdrops some sort of "free money", attract more and more people who have come here to "work hard" and make as more as possible.

Spot on, and the conversation ends here :-)

[Welsh]

There's a good side to it though: signature campaigns mean people are actually willing to do things for Bitcoin, which adds to it's acceptance.

It has become its own little thing within the economy of the forum, and isn't necessarily a bad thing with good users overseeing the campaign. It only ever really becomes a problem when poorly managed campaigns are allowed to advertise on the forum. Especially, the altcoin related ones as there is so many of them. At least the ones paying in Bitcoin are somewhat managed or at least appear to be.

[royalfestus]

Its over 9 years with the forum and has served many of these great crypto enthusiasts such as Tony vay, Vitalik etc.  It has been a sole mover of the space and help the advent of Altcoins until lately that telegram, twitter,reddit etc are engaged. Most ICOs usually start their announcement thread here, followed by campaign.

[Thirdspace]

All those signature campaigns, giveaways, airdrops some sort of "free money", attract more and more people who have come here to "work hard" and make as more as possible.

this! this is the main reason for newcomers to join forum in the last few years (since ~2016 I think)
in the very early time, people see the big opportunity for free money from claiming airdrops
then later on doing sig camps and bounties are more lucrative than working in certain countries
they leave their day jobs (or simple was unemployed) and concentrate on "working" in this forum
the surge of the newcomers probably happened when the price suddenly spike high in 2016-2017

[FlyingDrozd]

I'm sorry to say it but probably 85-90% of the traffic is because of greed.
All those signature campaigns, giveaways, airdrops some sort of "free money", attract more and more people who have come here to "work hard" and make as more as possible.

Although I can (proudly) say I didn't have any paid signature until I was at least Full Member, but that's mainly because I didn't bother to check how it works back then, and I didn't know it can actually pay a decent amount.
There's a good side to it though: signature campaigns mean people are actually willing to do things for Bitcoin, which adds to it's acceptance.

Not to be rude or anything, but joining a campaign when you have a rank lower than Full Member wasn't really worth it, right?
Well, maybe back then it was. I think I joined my first campaign when I was Sr. Member.

I do agree that those campaigns have a good side, but it's also good to think about whether it's worth the spam.
Well, it definitely keeps the place alive, that's for sure.

Can you tell me more about these campaigns? I didn't really get it. As you can see I'm a newbie here

[FlyingDrozd]

I'm sorry to say it but probably 85-90% of the traffic is because of greed.
All those signature campaigns, giveaways, airdrops some sort of "free money", attract more and more people who have come here to "work hard" and make as more as possible.
Then comes the bots, alts and scammers, together with the FOMO-ed newbies trying to invest now and be rich in a year, because someone told them so but got fooled very easy and then shouting around that bitcoin is only for criminals, it's scam, ponzi, bubble etc...

At the end we are all here only for the technology :
https://cryptocoinsmarket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Bitcoin-Meme-In-it-for-the-Technology-283x300.jpg

I'm here for money  And communication

[LoyceV]

Can you tell me more about these campaigns? I didn't really get it. As you can see I'm a newbie here

See Overview of Bitcointalk Signature-Ad Campaigns.

I'm here for money 

You may want to read the rules first. You just broke rule #32 for instance.

[TheBeardedBaby]

~
Can you tell me more about these campaigns? I didn't really get it. As you can see I'm a newbie here

Well, when you reach a certain rank you have the possibility to add a signature under every post.
Some projects are willing to pay for to advertise them in your signature space, like I do with ChipMixer. Then you have a certain amount of posts you have to do each week in order to get paid which is logical, because the project want to have some exposure (this does not apply for ChipMixer).
You have to follow the forum rules and not spam the forum with bullshit.
The better reputation you have the better campaigns you can join. You can check the Service section for campaigns paying in Bitcoin.
There are also bounties for the social medias. See the Bounty Section.

~
I'm here for money  And communication

Try to focus on Communication.. and learning before that, many tried to come only for the money and ended up banned - here the ban is personal and forever.

[PrimeNumber7]

I'm sorry to say it but probably 85-90% of the traffic is because of greed.
All those signature campaigns, giveaways, airdrops some sort of "free money", attract more and more people who have come here to "work hard" and make as more as possible.

I don't disagree that greed is a serious problem.

I think the signature campaigns, giveaways, airdrops, and other similar forms of "free money" happen on this forum because of the traffic it receives, and its popularity. It might be that there is a never ending cycle of high traffic causing "free money" opportunities, causing higher traffic, causing more "free money" opportunities, and so on.

[FlyingDrozd]

You may want to read the rules first. You just broke rule #32 for instance.

Omg didn't even realize that, was just joking around and thought it was obvious

UPD. Just read the rule and didn't really get what exactly I broke tbh

[FlyingDrozd]

Well, when you reach a certain rank you have the possibility to add a signature under every post.
Some projects are willing to pay for to advertise them in your signature space, like I do with ChipMixer. Then you have a certain amount of posts you have to do each week in order to get paid which is logical, because the project want to have some exposure (this does not apply for ChipMixer).
You have to follow the forum rules and not spam the forum with bullshit.
The better reputation you have the better campaigns you can join. You can check the Service section for campaigns paying in Bitcoin.
There are also bounties for the social medias. See the Bounty Section.

That sounds interesting, nice idea. Never seen such a system before.

Try to focus on Communication.. and learning before that, many tried to come only for the money and ended up banned - here the ban is personal and forever.

I was joking

[Daniel91]

I'm sorry to say it but probably 85-90% of the traffic is because of greed.
All those signature campaigns, giveaways, airdrops some sort of "free money", attract more and more people who have come here to "work hard" and make as more as possible.

I don't disagree that greed is a serious problem.

I think the signature campaigns, giveaways, airdrops, and other similar forms of "free money" happen on this forum because of the traffic it receives, and its popularity. It might be that there is a never ending cycle of high traffic causing "free money" opportunities, causing higher traffic, causing more "free money" opportunities, and so on.

Bitcointalk is so famous in the btc community also because of many different ways to learn about btc and crypto.
Many users like forum because of free ways to earn bitcoin or altcoins, or because of opportunity to be paid for something they do any way, writing on this forum.
In such ways this forum becomes more popular, more users coming, more traffic, more advertisers etc.
I don't see anything wrong here, everybody wins