Bitcointalk has lasted a long time. Good job.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

But, how did you do it? How have the mods resolved issues? How have you avoided too many trolls, or kept interest (in moderating) this long?

Can't answer for the mod but since I'm a part of the community and have spent nearly or over 4years actively participating in discussion here, i can say the dedication that the community members have for the forum is what's keeping it alive, not the signature or bounty as others might say. Take those features out and the forum would still be functioning although there's no doubt it won't be as active as it's now but it'll still be functioning.

The mottos has always been 'Don't feed the trolls' and that have helped kept the conversation clean to some extend, some argument here and there but overall the community has always found a way to go pass the trolls that pop up every now and then. The moderators are also getting some kind of compensation for their service but overall their service is seen as a volunteering service to the community so I guess that's what is keeping them going.

We have active members here, doing something to help in the continuity of the forum either via their selfless service to the forum like spam, scam busting or quality contributions to the ongoing discussion on the forum.

[Pmalek]

NeuroticFish touched on the subject briefly, but I think we aren't giving enough credit to the members who spend every day browsing various threads and helping users who made mistakes or are in doubt about anything bitcoin. The sheer amount of knowledge and experience those people have is amazing and a pleasure to read. I often find myself thinking, how could they have possibly acquired all this knowledge and how long did it take? So if you ask me what is the heart of this community, I'll tell you it's the fact that you can get professional help and advice from patient individuals who will take on anything thrown at them, and most of the times, they'll find a solution. And it's free.

[UserU]

Indeed.  But as I've always said, just because someone is motivated by money to post, it doesn't mean that person's posts have to be garbage.  Look at the Chipmixer campaign (and *ahem* Foxpup's exclusive Merit Cycling Club); only members who know how to write and/or attract attention get into campaigns like that, and to be accepted you have to have an established history of making quality posts.  Sadly, a lot of other campaigns have much lower standards, and most token-paying bounties have almost no standards whatsoever.

Come to think of it, does every member get paid handsomely to join the campaign? I recalled Loyce's getting paid quite a sum every week based on some posts made by Foxpup, but that's all I know of.

For ChipMixer, that's the "laziest" campaign I ever come across that almost has near-zero chances to join. These two are one of a kind :p

If those campaign managers were to raise the bar, I reckon we'd see a handful of campaigns surviving for a few weeks tops. But after all, advertising has always been a mixed bag. You come across good posters as well as bad ones. As long as the advertisers gain the exposure and new clients, the posts quality don't really matter. Just like how spam works.

[notblox1]

Bitcointalk is a part of bitcoin history and it will last as long as bitcoin exists, or as long as theymos and moderators are alive to maintain everything.
Great work of everyone who contributed for years and keeping this place alive and surviving all the attacks..

[libert19]

It seems like this forum would attract more problems than most.

Can't speak to the problems most other forums face, because I'm not active in many others.  The ones I have belonged to have invariably had much tougher rules than bitcointalk, though.  Some of them don't allow even the hint of offensive posts--or foul language, or scamming.  So yeah, I'd imagine that this forum does attract far more bullshit than others since there seems to be much more freedom to write what you want here.  It's not out of control, however.  The moderators do a damn good job deleting any spam or garbage posts, bots, and whatever else turns up.

How have you avoided too many trolls, or kept interest (in moderating) this long?

Personally?  I created this thread a couple years ago when we had a member named cryptohunter constantly stirring up shit with thread after thread of the same crap for years.  It had gotten so bad by the time I made that thread that I felt I had to rally the community to stop feeding the monster troll.  

It didn't quite work, because cryptohunter had a nasty way of targeting members in his threads that would draw responses from them, which would then suck in other members....and it just went on and on.  And then we've had some outspoken, controversial members who've left the forum in the past two years or so: Vod, TECSHARE, Lauda, Phinnaeus Gage (Bruno), and TMAN, which has decreased the amount of drama here significantly.  Meta and Reputation used to be full of drama threads, but now it's relatively quiet.

Honestly, forums with too much restrictions suck. Little dramas also help keep forum feel alive.

[UserU]

Honestly, forums with too much restrictions suck. Little dramas also help keep forum feel alive.

Yeah, it's nice to see the bickering over small matters and the color-laden posts by TMAN.

On a side note, I wonder what happened to him.

[QueenVera]

Bitcointalk is a part of bitcoin history and it will last as long as bitcoin exists, or as long as theymos and moderators are alive to maintain everything.
Great work of everyone who contributed for years and keeping this place alive and surviving all the attacks..

Just curious though and not trying to wish bad on anyone most especially our forum owner at the moment but if something was to happen to theymos that resulted to him not having control to the admin panel of the forum. Are there already measure put in place to help keep the forum running.

It could be anything like death (not wishing for that) or illness (not also wishing for that) but if this were to happen, how will the forum continue functioning. I remember I read Satoshi gave the forum to theymos before disappearing which is why the forum continue functioning and not die off as someone else was in charge. How'll we function if theymos is no longer in charge and unfortunately the forum wasn't handled over to someone else before that happened.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…> Just curious though and not trying to wish bad on anyone most especially our forum owner at the moment but if something was to happen to theymos that resulted to him not having control to the admin panel of the forum. Are there already measure put in place to help keep the forum running.<…>

The scenario was briefly discussed at least here some years ago: if theymos die what happen ?.
 @Cyrus is also a forum Administrator, so the forum’s operative scenario should be covered. There’s likely some contingency plan drawn-up, although these have to be properly tested every now and then to asses that they cover all the required angles properly, and adapt to changes (i.e. admin access, backups, forum funds, etc.).

[Cryptojurnalist]

The forum is the oldest of all forum simply because the users and community moderators have maintain the let down rules for this community and everyone of them has been diligent in doing their various task

[Welsh]

So if you ask me what is the heart of this community, I'll tell you it's the fact that you can get professional help and advice from patient individuals who will take on anything thrown at them, and most of the times, they'll find a solution. And it's free.

I wouldn't just limit it to that. I'd say why this forum has been so successful would be a combination of Satoshi being a fundamental part of the draw, even after he became inactive. The fact that there's been multiple big occurrences on the forum that have embedded itself in history, the 50 btc pizza springs to mind. However, the absolute reason its so successful is because of the community. This forum has been fragmented at times, with various users squaring up against each other, but there's always been a collective mentality to discuss all things Bitcoin, while primarily focusing on quality discussion around it.

Simply put; This forum has lasted so long, because of its community. Right from the newbies asking the questions, right up to theymos making the decisions.

[hichamito37]

Forums associated with bitcoin since its infancy. So happy to be a part of the forum.Thanks to Satoshi who created and bitcoin and bitcointalk.In addition to the bounty campaign has maintained the forum existence.The forum is also a place full of knowledge for people when they start getting involved in cryptocurrency.

[Kittygalore]

If there's a daily activity and constant increase in those activity, the website will be able to do the good and can possibly sustain their presence online since their site is constantly used. I was doubtful that this site will last long at first but seeing how active each board is, I slowly changed my mind saw that this forum is probably here to stay. I think the great work of mods and the people who report trolls to the mods did a pretty good job at keeping the trolls at bay even though there's a season when there's just too many.

[Pmalek]

On a side note, I wonder what happened to him.

Considering how active TMAN was during January and February 2020 and that he didn't mention anything about leaving, taking a break, or doing something else, one can only fear the worst. His last post dates back to the end of February. February-March is the time when the pandemic really started breaking out all around Europe and the US. He might have gotten caught up in it.

It doesn't have to be COVID at all. Maybe he just got fed up with the forum, or he is in jail, or he is spending his crypto fortunes on an exotic island somewhere.

I wouldn't just limit it to that. I'd say why this forum has been so successful would be a combination of Satoshi being a fundamental part of the draw, even after he became inactive.

Satoshi might have something to do with it, but I don't think that him having been here is that big of a deal. New users who come and register on Bitcointalk mostly due so for two reasons:

• They are looking for help and a Google search or friendly advice led them to Bitcointalk.
• They are looking to profit from bounty/signature campaigns and heard they can do that here.

[Welsh]

Satoshi might have something to do with it, but I don't think that him having been here is that big of a deal. New users who come and register on Bitcointalk mostly due so for two reasons:

Its likely not that big of a draw anymore, as I'm assuming a lot of users probably don't even know about Satoshi's involvement with the forum early on. However, the initial success of it being the only one, and the creator was posting exclusively here, must have been a draw, and probably contributed to why Bitcointalk remained on top.

It potentially does play a factor with users looking up what Satoshi has said, since multiple news sources link to his posts here.

[UserU]

Considering how active TMAN was during January and February 2020 and that he didn't mention anything about leaving, taking a break, or doing something else, one can only fear the worst. His last post dates back to the end of February. February-March is the time when the pandemic really started breaking out all around Europe and the US. He might have gotten caught up in it.

It doesn't have to be COVID at all. Maybe he just got fed up with the forum, or he is in jail, or he is spending his crypto fortunes on an exotic island somewhere.

Not sure how would COVID cause him to be fed up, but you might be right about the island thing... he realized his profits and settled there, riding off into the sunset :p

[Pmalek]

Not sure how would COVID cause him to be fed up, but you might be right about the island thing...

No, no. Go back to the beginning of my post when I said "one can only fear the worst". He might no longer be with us (deceased). That's what I meant. The second part about him getting fed up with Bitcointalk or being in jail, or on an exotic island somewhere are just other possibilities why he is missing.

[UserU]

No, no. Go back to the beginning of my post when I said "one can only fear the worst". He might no longer be with us (deceased). That's what I meant. The second part about him getting fed up with Bitcointalk or being in jail, or on an exotic island somewhere are just other possibilities why he is missing.

I know, I was kidding about the last sentence.

To be frank, I do have some suspicions about what you said (death) ever since he went off the radar. Especially with COVID taking the lives of many people including prominent ones...

[ScamViruS]

The forum is the oldest of all forum simply because the users and community moderators have maintain the let down rules for this community and everyone of them has been diligent in doing their various task

The moderators of this forum are trying their best to keep this forum clean and they are doing their job successfully. There are some members in this forum whose contribution is adding more new things so that it is beneficial for everyone. Bitcointalk is a place to learn more about cryptocurrency, and to gain knowledge. So the contribution of admins, moderators, members, this forum will spread to more people in the coming days.

[posi]

Hi, long time reader..

I'm impressed that this website has lasted for such a long time. Eleven years! Certainly that time must have passed with occasional drama, not just with Satoshi leaving. It seems like this forum would attract more problems than most. (Although anything interesting and worthwhile attracts trolls these days..)   The increase of bitcoin's worth has no doubt helped.

But, how did you do it? How have the mods resolved issues? How have you avoided too many trolls, or kept interest (in moderating) this long?

Anything man get or did out of desperation, he will loose it.
This forum was not a product of desperation but a product of the future and we are bound together with the same goal which is pushing cryptocurrency forward with the respect of each other privacy this are the force kept forum operation till now.

[kaggie]

Honestly, forums with too much restrictions suck. Little dramas also help keep forum feel alive.

These two reasons are why I don't visit Facebook or reddit much these days!

Too many restrictions on people who don't go with their admin think.