Huge donations to bitcointalk

[BlackHatCoiner]

This is the donation address of the forum: 17RTTUAiiPqUTKtEggJPec8RxLMi2n9EZ9

It right now has 1,7M$. If you check the recent transactions, there are people that send huge amounts. How is that happening?? Do admin(s) use it instead of donating?

[1715382595]

1715382595

[1715382595]

1715382595

[1715382595]

1715382595

[1715382595]

1715382595

[1715382595]

1715382595

[bL4nkcode]

How is that happening??

What kind of question is that? Of course, it's a donation address, anyone with good hearts can donate, it's not that anyone is asked to donate mandatorily.
 

Do admin(s) use it instead of donating?

As a forum and a website, obviously, donations were/will be used for the hosting, domain and other website expenses. Idk if the payments of mods came from there as well.

[BlackHatCoiner]

How many expensises does a super web hosting needs for 10 years? Half bitcoin?

[Botnake]

This is the donation address of the forum: 17RTTUAiiPqUTKtEggJPec8RxLMi2n9EZ9

It right now has 1,7M$. If you check the recent transactions, there are people that send huge amounts. How is that happening?? Do admin(s) use it instead of donating?

One thing we can confirm is that the address is the donation address of the forum.

https://bitcointalk.org/donate.html

However, we can't determine or tell where that donation is coming or for what purpose, only the admin can tell as they are the ones who are in control of that wallet, but I would not bother to ask because donations are mostly anonymous, unless you want to belong in the list which I think are coming from early stage donors.

just look at the btc figure from the wallet address so you'll not be confuse.

btc receive : 9839.23238496 BTC while the final balance is only 156.05024514 BTC.... that's only 1.5% of the total btc received in that address.

[suchmoon]

How many expensises does a super web hosting needs for 10 years? Half bitcoin?

You can't run a site like this on a $20 VPS.

[DdmrDdmr]

How many expensises does a super web hosting needs for 10 years? Half bitcoin?

I don't know if there is a more recent update on the information, but it has been publicly made available here:

Code:

2017
Income: $996,494 + $6257 donations
Expenses - Forum software project: $246,138
Expenses - Mods and others: $261,433
Expenses - Hosting etc: $49,726

2018
Income: $473,247 + $479 donations
Expenses - Forum software project: $272,250
Expenses - Mods and others: $204,547
Expenses - Hosting etc: $43,907

Tax is not included for 2017. Because bitcointalk.org is tax-wise a disregarded entity, it's difficult for me to calculate the tax costs attributable to forum activities. I'll do it some other day.

Check-out the donations readings over the last few years.

[tranthidung]

Bull markets can make some people feel superb happy with profits they get and big donations can be made consequently.

If you read the Stats on active & merit status of Donators & VIPs after 10 years you will know the latest VIP members (from 50 BTC donation is Claymore) and it happened during the bullish market in 2017. I believe Claymore earned lots of income from miners, especially from Ethereum miners and he love the forum too, then he donated 50 BTC.

Thanks to Claymore, the first Donator in quite some time.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Forum software?? Mods?? Why should both get paid? Isn't smf free? I haven't heard any other mod to get paid.

[Bttzed03]

Forum software?? Mods?? Why should both get paid? Isn't smf free? I haven't heard any other mod to get paid.

I think a lot has been spent on the development of new forum software (epochtalk).

Mods deserve to be paid too. It's not easy running a forum like bitcointalk. Imagine the number of reports they have to handle everyday. I'm not sure if payment to mods come from forum donations though. What I know is that it comes from forum ad revenue.

Edit: adding reference

Bruno, the mod payments started around April if I'm not wrong.

Ad revenue to mods, but not donations?

Awesome. And well deserved.

Yes, and about 20-30% is paid out from ad revenues. Of course, the donations aren't touched here.

[lucky80]

How many expensises does a super web hosting needs for 10 years? Half bitcoin?

According to this list, there are 36 officials admin staff and mods. Let's say their average wage is a grand a month, and that will cost 36K for a month and 432K for a year. They are human and need money to run and make this place civilized. They have full rights that don't need to be questioned, IMO.

[Yatsan]

Forum software?? Mods?? Why should both get paid? Isn't smf free? I haven't heard any other mod to get paid.

If some of the post and thread are getting deleted, some user's are getting ban or nuke that is Moderator's doings. They have a lot of job here and they are keeping the forum clean as possible, LOL. The forum software is the forum itself, so we are enjoying using this forum smoothly, There's no such thing as free on running a website/forum. 

[bL4nkcode]

Forum software??

Well, I guess it's for the new development software of the forum, Epochtalk, not smf.

Mods?? [...] I haven't heard any other mod to get paid.

Now you did.

Look at the quoted post of theymos above for the expenses paid to mods.

Code:

2017
Income: $996,494 + $6257 donations
Expenses - Forum software project: $246,138
Expenses - Mods and others: $261,433
Expenses - Hosting etc: $49,726

2018
Income: $473,247 + $479 donations
Expenses - Forum software project: $272,250
Expenses - Mods and others: $204,547
Expenses - Hosting etc: $43,907

Tax is not included for 2017. Because bitcointalk.org is tax-wise a disregarded entity, it's difficult for me to calculate the tax costs attributable to forum activities. I'll do it some other day.

[mk4]

Forum software?? Mods?? Why should both get paid? Isn't smf free? I haven't heard any other mod to get paid.

You're completely underestimating how difficult it is to run a successful forum or website in general; and remember that we're even talking about the #1 Bitcoin and cryptocurrency forum that's ranked at website #24,833 globally[1].

What's your point in the first place? That Theymos doesn't deserve what he got for all the hard work that he's done for the community?

[1] https://www.similarweb.com/website/bitcointalk.org/

[hilariousandco]

Forum software?? Mods?? Why should both get paid? Isn't smf free? I haven't heard any other mod to get paid.

The 'forum software project' is payment for development of a new forum.

How many expensises does a super web hosting needs for 10 years? Half bitcoin?

According to this list, there are 36 officials admin staff and mods. Let's say their average wage is a grand a month, and that will cost 36K for a month and 432K for a year. They are human and need money to run and make this place civilized. They have full rights that don't need to be questioned, IMO.

No mod is paid a wage per se (except for maybe Cyrus and co with his Cryptios company but I don't know the terms of that deal). It all depends on how much 'work' you do, but it's capped at a certain amount. If you do nothing you'll get nothing. If you do a little you'll get a little. Last month almost 1btc was paid out between 26 mods ($9157). Three of those received nothing. 8 of those received less than $100 or just a little bit more.

[BD Crypto]

How many expensises does a super web hosting needs for 10 years? Half bitcoin?

Your point is logical but not fully described.Bitcointalk forum donation isn't for only this forum moderators.
This is all for the development of Bitcoin.

[LoveUJack]

How many expensises does a super web hosting needs for 10 years? Half bitcoin?

Your point is logical but not fully described.Bitcointalk forum donation isn't for only this forum moderators.
This is all for the development of Bitcoin.

What? Do you have the slightest idea about what you are talking about? Donation to BitcoinTalk is used for Bitcoin development? How about you stop shit posting for your signature payment?

[Twentyonepaylots]

I guess you OP you though of the donation is only for the mods and upper devs, you just can't believe the huge amount it received not thinking about the expenses they need to manage the forum.  Besides that is where mods are getting paid, they have job and it's not easy to maintain the forum's quality and credibility so why not donate some? @theymos is presenting the website's expenses every year, you might just want to look for those. Thanks to those people who have donated  you guys are pretty awesome and supportive.

[Josefjix]

I guess you OP you though of the donation is only for the mods and upper devs, you just can't believe the huge amount it received not thinking about the expenses they need to manage the forum.  Besides that is where mods are getting paid, they have job and it's not easy to maintain the forum's quality and credibility so why not donate some? @theymos is presenting the website's expenses every year, you might just want to look for those. Thanks to those people who have donated  you guys are pretty awesome and supportive.

What if the donators get tired and do not donate anymore, how would the moderators be able to be paid?

[Lordhermes]

I guess you OP you though of the donation is only for the mods and upper devs, you just can't believe the huge amount it received not thinking about the expenses they need to manage the forum.  Besides that is where mods are getting paid, they have job and it's not easy to maintain the forum's quality and credibility so why not donate some? @theymos is presenting the website's expenses every year, you might just want to look for those. Thanks to those people who have donated  you guys are pretty awesome and supportive.

Good clarification, I have always thought why mods don't participate in signature campaigns, despite their eligible higher rank, mods are doing greater job on the forum keeping it clean and spam free. @theymos knew all reasons for it, everything in place, and therefore, donation is not mandatory but voluntarily at OP. 

[TryNinja]

What if the donators get tired and do not donate anymore, how would the moderators be able to be paid?

The forum doesn't live out of donations.

theymos does ad rounds almost bi-weekly (last one) for the ads you sometimes see under the threads. In the last one, he got 0.63 BTC (for ~12+ days).

And he probably has some spare amount saved.