The reason people join bitcointalk forum

[Asiska02]

Some more numbers of people join bitcointalk forum for one or two reasons, to gain knowledge or for both the money and the knowledge. The zeal to make money has made many to learn more about bitcoin even if their main motive of joining the bitcointalk forum is to just make money to earn a living. They need to go on research and learn more about bitcoin in order to make qualitative and informative post to gain more merit in order to rank up and get higher pay in signatures they’re participating it. In other words, the knowledge gain can be shared with new members who come to the forum to ask about a particular thing they’re not so sure of.
Either ways, the motive of joining the forum has made many to still achieve the primary aim of why the group is created. To learn about the basics of bitcoin and how the market works plus mining.

[1714774304]

1714774304

[mocacinno]

In the good old days, i would have agreed 100%. Nowadays (well, the last several years), however, we do see an influx of so-called "bounty-hunters". People that spam twitter, facebook,... with promo for scam tokens just so the creator of said tokens gives them some of the total supply (if they're lucky).

Those people have 0 interest in participating and learning, they just need a space to spam their "bounty reports" so they can get 100 SHITTOKEN in the hope SHITTOKEN ever rises above 0.001 sat/SHITTOKEN.

If you open the patrol page, you can see for yourself that they represent a really big part of what is getting posted... Certainly more than 50% of all posts are made for the sole purpose of bounty hunting... On the other hand, it is very, very, rare to see a bounty hunter come over to the "good side". It is extremely rare that a bounty hunter ever participates in normal discussion, let alone learn something... It happens once in a blue moon, but those cases are really rare.

[NeuroticFish]

Some more numbers of people join bitcointalk forum for one or two reasons, to gain knowledge or for both the money and the knowledge. The zeal to make money

As said, many will join only for money not for "money and knowledge", not realizing that without knowledge they'll mostly hunt for empty promises, wasting their time and earning nothing.

Even more, even the previous post has missed one more category: those hunting for money to be earned outside of the forum, spamming with links to various weak news sites or blogs, ref links to various platforms (most of them being scam).

Unfortunately the new ones seeking knowledge - with or without the added money - are fewer and fewer.

[bakasabo]

I agree with mocacinno. At first people joined bitcointalk to get cryptocurrency related knowledge. Now, it has become a platform to test luck in "winning few dollars from a bounty".
If you open Show unread posts since last visit., hit CTRL+F and enter bounty, you would see that bounty topics are taking if not dominant part of new posts, but significant. Even merit system, new bounty rules, increased number of scam and decreased bounty pools wont help to reduce amount of bounty related posts on the forum. Bitcointalk is a Bitcoin forum and crypto forum that is a key source of information related to blockchain, cryptocurrency and Bitcoin turned into earning platform.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Unfortunately the new ones seeking knowledge - with or without the added money - are fewer and fewer.

That's true, and I can easily say that I was one of those. I came with many questions, grasped the concept, liked the idea and then saw there's this thing called "signature campaign" which attracted me. And it works. People are encouraged to help others learn, because they earn a few bucks by doing it. And newcomers do actually learn!

I haven't seen this happening elsewhere. Maybe this forum distinguishes somehow. Or perhaps the incentive of the network effect is one of the many key aspects of this ingenious technology.

[mocacinno]

--snip--
If you open Show unread posts since last visit., hit CTRL+F and enter bounty, you would see that bounty topics are taking if not dominant part of new posts, but significant.
--snip--

In number of posts, maybe they are not dominant... In absolute number of posts, i'm pretty sure they are.

It has been a long time since i actually counted, but for this post, i just opened the patrol page to see what new users are doing on bitcointalk:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=recent;patrol

1 complaint about a gambling deposit
1 job offer
1 question about escrow services
1 russian post i couldn't understand
1 discussion about crowfunding
1 post in snowshow's trolling thread
194 bounty reports


Now, these are newbie posts, but they do represent a big majority of bitcointalk's active population... So odds are that those posts are dominant, they are just located in a low number of bounty hunter threads, and most of these threads are located in subforum's mosts of us will probably have on ignore...

EDIT: i know this isn't 100% accurate, if we wanted to be sure we'd have to manually browse trough the last 100 new msg id's and tally.

[Doan9269]

Some more numbers of people join bitcointalk forum for one or two reasons, to gain knowledge or for both the money and the knowledge.

I think this dominate the major reasons we all are here except for little percentage of those that purposely come to give to the forum, such members never mind or care about joining any campaign but rather remained active and derived pleasure in seeing problems solved on the forum through their influence.

The zeal to make money has made many to learn more about bitcoin even if their main motive of joining the bitcointalk forum is to just make money to earn a living.

Yes that's true, no one want to invest or waste money on what really don't worth it, take a look at the social media chats people engage doing on a daily basis where freedom has been abused as everyone talk about what he likes with any guiding etiquettes to caution, and you can see that no cognate incentive coming out from it except on few cases which can be tasking enough.

People derived pleasure in value and can go extra miles in paying for such while appreciating quality efforts, same is applicable here on the forum, you can't post anyhow here because here is not a playing ground but rather a community known for professional qualities and standard.

[Jawhead999]

The zeal to make money has made many to learn more about bitcoin even if their main motive of joining the bitcointalk forum is to just make money to earn a living.

I don't think if their main motive just to earn money they're learn about Bitcoin, instead they're learn how to join bounties, how to hide using alt to cheat the bounties and how to fulfill the requirements with less effort. It's really wrong motive to think this forum only to earn money, they wouldn't care with forum... that's why altcoin discussion is messed up.

I see most people who joined signature campaign with Bitcoin payment aren't thought this forum is for money, but they're also care with forum and like to learn about Bitcoin, money is just a bonus for them.

[n0nce]

Unfortunately the new ones seeking knowledge - with or without the added money - are fewer and fewer.

That's true, and I can easily say that I was one of those. I came with many questions, grasped the concept, liked the idea and then saw there's this thing called "signature campaign" which attracted me. And it works. People are encouraged to help others learn, because they earn a few bucks by doing it. And newcomers do actually learn!

I've been wondering about the forum software / database size, though. If it's really filled 50% by spam that has no other use than earning someone a fraction of a penny and advertising someone else's 10,000th 'next Bitcoin' token, it means theymos could cut his server costs by half if those posts were deleted, right?
Does the forum just have so many BTC in reserve that it doesn't matter?
I think there is a distinction to be made between signature campaigns and bounties, because signatures don't add extra bloat 'per se', while bounties require people to actively campaign / advertise on here and on other platforms (if I understand them correctly). There could also be rules in place like 'signature campaigns have to be paid in BTC' or something similar, to prevent the obvious rip-off campaigns that don't even intend to pay people, which probably do 'spam' the most, though (need multiple posts to get $1 worth).
What are your thoughts on this? I just don't know enough about all these campaigns and bounties and whatnot, because every time I click a subforum that is filled with emojis, all caps and exclamation marks in the titles, I close it right away.

[BlackHatCoiner]

If it's really filled 50% by spam that has no other use than earning someone a fraction of a penny and advertising someone else's 10,000th 'next Bitcoin' token, it means theymos could cut his server costs by half if those posts were deleted, right?

Loycev.club and Ninjastic.space would certainly. As you said, I have no worries judging by the forum's reserves.

What are your thoughts on this?

That opens up a long discussion. I was also interesting in tackling the spam, but this forum is known for the freedom it seeks. Cutting off the bounties must have been one of the most much-discussed topics in Meta.

In summary, that's why:

The things on the forum which encourage spam are allowed mainly because it's part of the forum's mission to be as free as possible. Eg. banning bounties would undoubtedly reduce spam, but that'd be destroying an entire economy/population/culture which has been able to develop due to the forum's freedom.

[Leviathan.007]

Cannot be sure if the reason is the same for anyone who joins the forum, bitcointalk is the most famous and oldest bitcoin ralted forum and sure anyone whos active in this market and field probably joined this forum and at least visited this forum, a few years ago people were joining this forum for their technical questions and getting familiar with bitcoin, also that's a good place for bitcoiners to stay in one place and discuss bitcoin-related news together, but for some other people, they join the forum to earn some money from the county campaigns.

[stompix]

Some more numbers of people join bitcointalk forum for one or two reasons, to gain knowledge or for both the money and the knowledge.

Actually, it is more like money than knowledge on how to make money, a bit of trolling and scamming, and then right at the back just knowledge and completely disinterested in money, and unfortunately the last group is also inmost cases made out of people who are already well off financially or they would be included in the first two groups. Let's just not fool ourselves anymore, it's not healthy!

I've been wondering about the forum software / database size, though. If it's really filled 50% by spam that has no other use than earning someone a fraction of a penny and advertising someone else's 10,000th 'next Bitcoin' token, it means theymos could cut his server costs by half if those posts were deleted, right?
Does the forum just have so many BTC in reserve that it doesn't matter?

Cough cough, million-dollar forum software to be released, 1250 BTC in forum funds still untouched, server costs won't be a problem for a while. 

[mk4]

I can't for the life of me understand how a lot of people still join Bitcointalk solely for "bounty hunting" a.k.a. spamming on social media despite the fact that it's pretty much a total waste of time now. I'd understand if it was in 2017 where every obvious crap token pumped, but today? Nah.

[n0nce]

Cough cough, million-dollar forum software to be released, 1250 BTC in forum funds still untouched, server costs won't be a problem for a while. 

Wow, 1250BTC, still untouched. Makes me wonder how he pays for the infrastructure.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155000.0

For real, people are advertising even on the T19 Multisig wallet.
Theymos has been spared, though!

[lovesmayfamilis]

Today, many have learned to recognize real beginners who are interested in bitcoin, and they came to the forum to replenish their knowledge, or as beginners seeking money.
Tell me, why is a beginner who is interested in knowledge, merits, and ranks? But we regularly see those who teach from the first day, create "useful" topics, and seek merit. These people very foolishly decipher themselves and pretend to be sincerely seeking knowledge at a time when their motives are far from learning.
And the second point, we are sincerely surprised when people appear on the forum who hear for the first time that here you can not only communicate on topics about cryptocurrencies but also earn something. Here they can really become valuable for the forum.

[stompix]

For real, people are advertising even on the T19 Multisig wallet.
Theymos has been spared, though!

I was curious about why that would be, but no, he just moved the coins to a new one last year when that topic was edited, seems like the multisig participants have been changed too.
This is the old one:
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/19XTo6BHpPHSkW5cm183VrgEYpGjVJmQEt
same nonsense spam there too.

Wow, 1250BTC, still untouched. Makes me wonder how he pays for the infrastructure.

Ads probably, I know theymos banned ICO a while ago when they were offering huge amounts for ad space so judging by the sums he refused the current one sare still enough to keep the forum running and the mods paid.

[Awwal08]

Reason why people join Bitcointalk it's all about money and knowledge, in this life some people have money but  they don't know how to invest to make profit, joining bitcointalk give them knowledge of how to make profit with what they have. Well on the other hand some people join bitcointalk to make money and to start investment.

[LoyceV]

I've been wondering about the forum software / database size, though.

It's probably not that much. My inefficient collection of all kinds of data on loyce.club fills 250 GB now, with 17 million files. 211 GB of that is online. My posts archive fills 142 GB, and I know it would take up less disk space if I would use a database instead of millions of files.

Does the forum just have so many BTC in reserve that it doesn't matter?

With 1250BTC, I don't think a couple hundred GB server storage matters much. The Bitcoin blockchain is bigger.

[Rikafip]

I can't for the life of me understand how a lot of people still join Bitcointalk solely for "bounty hunting" a.k.a. spamming on social media despite the fact that it's pretty much a total waste of time now. I'd understand if it was in 2017 where every obvious crap token pumped, but today? Nah.

You have to look at it from the point of view of someone who has no skills, has no clue really about crypto,(other than moving tokens around) most likely comes from the country with low income and it's here solely for the purpose of making money. After all, bounty hunting is very low effort kind of "work" so why not, if you don't have any skills and you have some free time on your hands. And who knows, maybe they hit the mother lode, as they probably heard stories of some bounty hunters getting rich.

The thing that surprises me is how those managers talk all those altcoin projects into having bounty campaign. I would really like to be on a call when they persuade them that it is a must have and that thousands of illiterate lemmings will make the project look attractive to potential investors.

[Falconer]

The thing that surprises me is how those managers talk all those altcoin projects into having bounty campaign. I would really like to be on a call when they persuade them that it is a must have and that thousands of illiterate lemmings will make the project look attractive to potential investors.

Potential investors don't seem swayed by the thousands of spam promotions on social media for new altcoin as they actually have their own reasons to invest private sale or initial sale when they are convinced about the great potential of the project. Many of them get information about the initial sale on other platforms outside bitcointalk, not social media and usually it's like coinlist or something.

So I think we all know what the real purpose of bounty hunters in this forum is and that's generally for money. It would be nice if they also care about the quality of the posts and are willing to contribute to the forum rather than just wanting to make money, so that they can get a double benefit where their knowledge can also increase about bitcoin or crypto in general.