New users might be attracted to different media: Twitter, Telegram chats or Reddit.
Largely this.
Younger generations probably think this looks old. But this forum is a rich historical artefact, with a clean interface. It brings together experts that you will not see in other places.
Forum are more of a slow rhythm, deep tought, knowledge intensive conversations (yeah WO thread included), while other media look to me more like instant gut-feeling dominated brawls.
You probably have fewer trolls due to the way this forum is set up. In other media, you are contending with that you have single day accounts that can dominate conversations, which could be a normal user or paid by a corporation to do so.
It's nice to have a focused place. Focusing on too many new media interactions is hard to keep up, but the forum may have enough money to hire people for that.
- world class list of users. Not only satoshi, but also @gregmaxell, @achow101, @elwar or @theymos himself are the first came to my mind
For your list of users there, you could do a brief survey with them and ask them what sites they use the most -- and then why or what features cause that. It probably isn't bitcointalk, except when big news hits.
Why are reddit, twitter, etc attracting users away from forums? A large single account can be used to talk about many different topics with a large userbase. A bit like core, you can replicate software but you need to replicate that dynamic. I don't think replicating the reddit/twitter dynamic is doable as within this forum, because this forum has a narrowly defined topic.
Really to have a broader userbase and forum that doesn't 'die', you'd have to solve the social media issues. While this forum may still decline, it's active. It may come to an equilibrium level. There are regular posts every day. Perhaps it hasn't been advertised in a while -- but do you really want to do that? Would it help? I don't know?
As rikaflip pointed out, lack of alt coin discussion probably prevents those users from joining. The forum already allows things like politics, so enabling larger topics isn't an issue entirely. Many advanced users probably communicate within their own particular communities, such as devs on github, slack, etc, making a forum less important. Perhaps the reason for a forum decline is that people are communicating more rapidly with their immediate peers in things like slack, and with broader communities in reddit/twitter/etc. A forum is the middle ground, which knowledgeable experts, smaller but not entirely enclosed community, which makes it slow, but it's still moving.
- mobile theme. Allowing decent navigation from mobiles (something I already expressed in my interview
- ability to relaunch your posts on different social media. I have tried to “shill” Bitcointalk.org trough my Twitter @fillippone1. All I got are 51 followers, I suspect half of them are bots. Same on the Italian bitcoin TG chat, where I continuously mention Bitcointalk.org: same result, no apparent effect on the local board. Maybe it’s just the fact I suck at PR
- Do I really need to mention? New software?
I look at this forum on mobile, and it doesn't work perfectly. Ok to see interesting topics, but could be a lot slicker for browsing. A mobile app as well?
Ability to launch to other social media is ok, but social media will change. It's not a deal breaker IMO.
What would new software do? It seems fine as it is.
Could there be any particular issues with user inter personality conflicts? I forget when I'm visiting here that there are what may be considered 'battle hardened' individuals, that had schisms over time (BCH; GA; CSW). There is a certain charisma aspect to keeping communities alive, which seems ok here but I wouldn't exactly know.
I don't think it's a bad thing to lose userbase. This community should be preserved due to its historical information, and due to the consolidated expert knowledge that you cannot find in other locations. It's also nice to have a location that isn't controlled by the people who have bought the most stock in a public company and thereby influence it.
It's active and rich of knowledge, so I see no real issues other than enabling a better mobile experience.
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edit:
From a personal perspective, I do not seem to be encountering posts from newcomers that are as good as prior generations (i.e. years).
..my overall perception is that of less decent posters, and not as good as before (no offence).
This gives a hint. As bitcoin matures, long term experts and the most enthusiastic initial community tires or leaves, leaving behind newbies to keep up the energy.
The newbies need to transition into more mature roles within the community or the community dies. This is not specific to bitcointalk, but to any community that exists.
The difficulty is figuring out who will continue in energetic roles, versus who may have to leave such sooner.
New impactful news on bitcoin is rare. It occurs (e.g. all time highs as pointed out in the next user posts), which keeps people engaged. Yet, people find out more about these things on other sites.
There is also personal effects where a older user has seen the same topics repeated numerous times (a la "who is satoshi") with very little new, and so it would feel tiresome to rehash the same topics.
The mix of old, mature, and new can clash as people who have never discussed such things seriously discuss with people who have very formed ideas.
Both bring something to the table, but it is a clash that is easy to be blind to.
That’s why I mentioned the other day that a forum software change is not the golden nugget, lest it is accompanied by some strategy
Agreed...
Ideally, pushing Bitcointalk as a reference brand for bitcoin(/crypto?) information into the mind of newer generations further that it currently does.
Perhaps bitcointalk needs more branding? There isn't a logo, which is nice, but also means that it isn't pushed.
What sort of branding? It's a clean looking and relatively professional forum, so nothing too glittery.
What sort of new tools could be incorporated? Being honest, new bitcoiners are likely to be investors with a lot of technical knowledge, or political (dare I say libertarian leaning?) people who might stick to larger bitcoin sites. The forum as is doesn't differentiate between these two groups, but if you had tools that interacted with other forecasting tools? That may change the nature of bitcoin talk from a forum..
I guess the question is: who is it that you are intending to attract to the forum? and why? Are there groups that would be left out?
You never know who’s really new on the forum
I had an account a few years back. I think I got it to member, then stopped posting. It was a feeling of personal accomplishment to become a member, after which I felt satisfied and stopped. I also stopped partially because I felt the interactions a bit abrasive. I don't think there's anything to do about that off the top of my head.
It makes sense, as you have the 1) conspiracy (Satoshi Nakamoto was a pseudonym who started a trillion dollar economy), mixed with 2) tech (devs, new algorithms), 3) wealth (old and new alike), 4) antagonists (spam and scam), 5) alt-coiners, and 6) actual newbies to it all. Each of these has their own perception, priorities, and self-preservation to maintain with or against the other groups. The newbies to it all are the most sensitive group and don't have enough ties to fight against tides of other groups. All of it are perfectly natural reactions, if not somewhat predictable. Still, the question is - which do you want to cater to, and then how do you best cater to that group? Maybe not do anything too dramatic if the goal is a buffet, which is fine? The forum accomplishes its goal of bringing new and old people together to interact in relaxed and serious manners.[/list]
