Bitcointalk is not doing well in Alexa rank because of the Merit system

[NotATether]

I have been clarified that the forum doesn't care about their Alexa ranking.

And why should it? According to Google Trends, forum activity in 2015 and 2016 is roughly equal to activity right now. And that was way before there was a merit system. The interest is measured in percentage so we're at 5% of popularity the forum had in 2018.

As long as google search queries about bitcoin related things turn up with bitcointalk links in the first page of results, I don't see a problem with the way things are going now.

[masulum]

Alexa ranking does not affect the ups and downs of the number of users. after all, ranking on alexa does not reflect this forum abandoned by users. because, as far as I know, Alexa ranking will increase if more members are using the Alexa addon in the browser he uses. this is makes Alexa ranking accuracy does not reflect how many users are actually active.


On the other hand, this forum is well known to the crypto community and does not need alexa to get revenue from advertising. just look at how much money this forum has from donors and banners. This is very enough to support the forum without having to alexa tracking to get advertisers.

[ShowOff]

Alexa ranking does not affect the ups and downs of the number of users.

Of course thats true, because alexa ranking is not a site that promotes bitcoin forums but rather sites that analyze traffic from sites.

after all, ranking on alexa does not reflect this forum abandoned by users. because, as far as I know, Alexa ranking will increase if more members are using the Alexa addon in the browser he uses. this is makes Alexa ranking accuracy does not reflect how many users are actually active.

The level of accuracy that is not well indicated by the alexa ranking for the site bitcointalk.org is also not a reflect that the forum has lost many users, only the traffic measured by alexa ranking is a site search keyword or SEO. IMO

Of course, bitcoin forums have high search traffic from 2017 to 2018 because bitcoin is very popular among people because of the very high price jump of 20K usd. But after that, we can also monitor that there is a decrease in the number of active forum users during this time period due to several factors below:

• Merit system in January 2018
• Many ICOs end up scam
• Many bounty not worth it
• e.t.c

On the other hand, this forum is well known to the crypto community and does not need alexa to get revenue from advertising. just look at how much money this forum has from donors and banners. This is very enough to support the forum without having to alexa tracking to get advertisers.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have become popular assets and are already one decade old, we can find lots of news about it on social media and elsewhere. Increased adoption is also a determining factor that the forum is the right place to discuss a few of the problems in it without the need for promotion from other parties.

[Kakmakr]

The Alexa ranking might be important to advertisers who wants to advertise here, but I would much rather have a lower Alexa ranking than having a forum with millions of "newbie" accounts spamming the forum. We should also mention that the bot attacks and fake traffic that was generated by that, has been mostly neutralized with the introduction of the Captha system. 

I think advertisers would much rather be linked with a well organized forum with a good reputation for good moderation and genuine traffic and not the opposite of that. 

Bitcointalk.org have now struck a balance between offering a great advertising platform and also a fun experience for it's members, with the introduction of the sMerit system. 

[LTU_btc]

OP, I think your arguments is weak and your assumptions is wrong. Many people already said why you're wrong, I just want my 2 cents Satoshi. First, Alexa rank isn't main thing to determine popularity of website. Second, merit system isn't main factor why Bitcointalk Alexa rank decreased. It's probably insignificant factor at all. If you will check Bitcointalk traffic stats and charts of Bitcoin price, it has direct correlation. When Bitcoin goes up, Bitcointalk get more visitors and opposite. In the end of 2017, start of 2018, Bitcointalk had the most visitors, when Bitcoin price was ATH, there was peak of ICO projects.
And having less users isn't bad thing - I will pick quality over quantity. It's forum and main value of this forum is discussion. These people who came here here to earn easy money by spamming doesn't gives any benefits for this forum. Bitcointalk haven't lost anything after they left.
Why can argue about that Merit system isn't perfect, but in general I see only positive influence for Bitcointalk given by it.

[yazher]

To be honest, I'm one of the user who actually found this site in Alexa in the year 2017, it was the year of ICO. many users who are spamming in this community that year got banned or got rid now by the forum moderators for good. Some of them have stopped posting because they are no longer qualified to join a certain campaign because of the lack of merits or the highest rank requirements. The reason why our Rank is falling at Alexa is due to the activeness of the moderator to clean some out of topic posts made by those spammers. there are lots of reporters lately which really help to clean this forum. Our community has improved since then, there are less out of the topic post and constructive replies are being made to avoid being report or tagged by the DT.