Should bitcointalk ban promotion of other forums?

[stadus]

I have not seen such members in this forum promoting other forums, except you because you admit it that you're actually into it. I guess this forum is not entertaining that kind of case anymore as it's obvious that bitcointalk is not threatened by other forums. And when I think of banning, that only happens if you are doing what is against the forum laws, and promoting another forum might not be included into its rule.

However, that's a matter of initiative and proper thinking already. You don't have to ask the forum but ask yourself if you are actually doing the right thing?

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[SatoPrincess]

The forum is structured so there is little or no censorship of any sort. AFAIK, the only rule that’s been added to the unofficial forum rules is the ban on sharing of mixer links or promoting a mixer in any way. The forum is not in competition with other forums, I don’t think you will find what you see on btt anywhere else.  

Banning is not necessary so long you are not promoting a scam project. From my experience on the forum, even when some user are scammers or promote scam projects , they are not banned most times but rather they are given multiple tags by forum members including DT members.

Scams are not moderated on Bitcointalk, that’s why accounts caught in the act do not get banned. The best we can do is to tag the accounts.

[holydarkness]

[...] One more thing, it is not my problem. I just gave a suggestion to forum owner. He may see this thread, the responses from members here and take some action if necessary.

Ah well, you can rest assured, then. The forum is quite confident with its position. It is the oldest and biggest forum, the "original" one, they don't mind someone talking about a forum or two. In fact, we even co-exist with some of them. For example, in scam accusations board [where one of the main purpose is to facilitate a dispute], we often refers people to other "forum", an arbitrator or two, when those sites offer a more efficient way to get a resolution for the case.

[xLays]

May I know which forum are you talking about? I saw such a limitation at least seven-eight years ago on a local forum where they did not allow us to discuss other online forums. But, I am not a member of too many forums except hack forums, nulled, cracked, Debian, altt, and this one. I don't remember if I have seen such limitations on those forums. I joined Altt very recently and I have mentioned the name of Bitcointalk a couple of times and no one asked me to stop discussing Bitcointalk forum.

Now, if you talk if this would be allowed or not. The answer is yes, it should be allowed. I don't think theymos want to censor the forum anymore. theymos is not afraid of the competitors. I don't consider any forum as a competitor of Bitcointalk.

Majority for sure its  altcointalks. They gained attention here in BitcoinTalk since Theymos started banning Bitcoin Mixers. BitcoinTalk users teleport their accounts to Altcointalk by placing their altcointalk profile in their BitcoinTalk ad space. This wouldn't have happened if Theymos hadn't banned Mixers. But for me allowing other forums to advertise here is a healthy competition, providing users with more choices. This competition often encourages forums to improve but it still need to maintain quality discussion.

[hilariousandco]

Why would we get involved in this? Seems pretty fascist and antithetical to the spirit of the forum.

[PytagoraZ]

What is the opinion of members about this? Is it fine allowing members here to promote or mention competing forums without paying this forum owner or taking his permission  ?

I just found out that bitcointalk has competitors, who are bitcointalk's competitors? Do you mean altcointalk? I think here many people are talking about altcointalk since mixers were banned in the forum but altcointalk is not a competitor to bitcointalk because its vision is different and I believe the level of altcointalk is still far from bitcointalk. Several times I visited altcointalk, although I have not joined there but the forum seems to be dedicated to money while bitcointalk is not, dedicated only to bitcoin, there is no money interest behind it. I'm sure if theymos want money then they will open an advertising slot on the forum and there will be lots of companies queuing to get that slot.

[skarais]

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I just found out that bitcointalk has competitors, who are bitcointalk's competitors? Do you mean altcointalk?

Altcointalk is not a competitor to bitcointalk, perhaps only some users think so.

OP, the bitcointalk forum admin does not prohibit you from promoting other forum here including altcointalk, so you can do it. You don't even need permission if you just refer someone to join altcointalk or something like that, that's fine as long as you don't post a referral link.

Please reading the forum rules to get the latest updates about what is prohibited and what is not, this will answer your question.

Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ

[BenCodie]

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I just found out that bitcointalk has competitors, who are bitcointalk's competitors? Do you mean altcointalk?

Altcointalk is not a competitor to bitcointalk, perhaps only some users think so.

I was about to say the same thing.

Is there really a forum that is competing with Bitcointalk for discussion about Bitcoin?

Just because Bitcoin has an altcoin board, it does not mean that altcoin forums become competitors. Just like because there is a politics & society board, it doesn't mean that all discussion forums on this topic as competitors with Bitcointalk.

There are no forums truly competing with Bitcointalk for Bitcoin discussion, and even if so, that competition is healthy. It's not in the values of Bitcoin, the blockchain or cryotocurrency to censor competitors, instead, learn from them and grow accordingly.

[Ludmilla_rose1995]

I have seen that this forum does not consider it inappropriate when some member makes a post or thread about a competing forum. I am a member of other popular forums and they do not allow mention of competing forums as it is free advertising for them.

What is the opinion of members about this? Is it fine allowing members here to promote or mention competing forums without paying this forum owner or taking his permission  ?

Do theymos provide notification that advertising on other forums here is a prohibited act! As long as there is no such ban then in my opinion there is nothing wrong with advertising other forums here as long as the person doesn't do spamming which could disturb other members

Personally, if you are really annoyed by members who advertise other forums here, you can use the ignore button on that member's account so you won't see their posts

[Mrbluntzy]

What is the opinion of members about this? Is it fine allowing members here to promote or mention competing forums without paying this forum owner or taking his permission  ?

I doubt if this forum is in competition with any other forum. If bitcointalk.org is in competition with any other site, the moderators or admin of the forum would have create a new thread and ask people not to mention or promote the competing site.

If any serious issue surface, the admin of this forum usually create a new topic to warn users just like the thread that was created during December 2024, to warn the members of this forum that mixers would be ban and that there should be no kind of mixer promotion again on the forum.

[Saisher]

I have seen that this forum does not consider it inappropriate when some member makes a post or thread about a competing forum. I am a member of other popular forums and they do not allow mention of competing forums as it is free advertising for them.

What is the opinion of members about this? Is it fine allowing members here to promote or mention competing forums without paying this forum owner or taking his permission  ?

Every forum has its own rules and guidelines I don't think Bitcointalk will be concerned with that, Bitcointalk is just too huge and too popular to even think of competing against other forums, except for Mixers they are not banning any links, both forums should not be competing against each other as they are on the same niche and they are promoting the same technology, Bitcointalk will always remain the best and the number one forum when it comes to everything about Cryptocurrency, it will be forever attached to Bitcoin's creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

[Smartvirus]

What is the opinion of members about this? Is it fine allowing members here to promote or mention competing forums without paying this forum owner or taking his permission  ?

That would be some way to put a heavy weight on free speech and by some means promote censorship but, that’s not what Bitcoin is about.

For many, Bitcoin signifies freedom. What would that really mean should discussions and the least things such as freedom of expression be censored in this way just for monetary gains… nope, the forum remains free to air except when it comes to services that tends to bring it in headlocks with the law as we have it with mixers in recent times.

Bu the way, you don’t compete good by placing restrictions on users of a forum against other closely related competitors. It’s an undermining of what you’ve got or is capable of archiving in a highly competitive environment. The focus always should be on what you’re not doing right other than restrictions.
That’s why you can find users on this forum being more expressive and releasing their full potent every time.

[Yamane_Keto]

The only thing that has been banned is advertising mixing services. In the past, advertising anything illegal was prohibited, so this may happen in the future, but the most important thing is that discussion about anything is allowed, so if that forum turns into scam, it must be banned.

[robelneo]

Why would we get involved in this? Seems pretty fascist and antithetical to the spirit of the forum.

Agree when you're too big in your niche competition is out of your mind as members of other forums I'm just too glad that we have forums that promote Cryptocurrency because in the first place that's what we all want for this technology to grow If I will have a local forum I will promote all forums that deal with Cryptocurrency and let people decide the forum where they want to get active based on their preferences.

[FinneysTrueVision]

I don't really consider altcointalk a competitor because its quality is still very inferior. They do have a kind of parasitic relationship with this forum where they are getting lots of backlinks and traffic from here. They do have their own token and their admins get easily accepted into signature campaigns. They are benefitting economically without giving much back. I hope they are at least investing some of their profits into improvements and maintenance of their forum.

At this moment it doesn't seem like a big enough deal where I think a ban is necessary. They aren't doing anything illegal. They might benefit from having their links here but that was done to accommodate users with established reputations who wanted to migrate their rank.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

There's no need, simply because traditional forums such as Bitcointalk are mostly a thing of the past already and a traditional forum alternative is very unlikely to overtake Bitcointalk. I'm pretty sure Bitcointalk would have very few active users today if it weren't for bounty campaigns anyway.

I think you are wrong my friend, I don't know what kind of forums you think about but in my country there is a very famous one and it is full of young people: forocoches.com.

According to https://www.semrush.com/website/forocoches.com/overview/ it has 130 million views a month it's 605 global rank worldwide and 16 in country rank. Bitcointalk has much worse data by comparison. And I don't know what you mean by 'traditional forums' but that one is for sure, as it was launched even before bitcointalk, in 2003.

But to address the OP's question, I don't think bitcointalk should ban talking about forums either (I haven't seen 'promotion'), and I think it goes against the philosophy of theymos.

[mk4]

I think you are wrong my friend, I don't know what kind of forums you think about but in my country there is a very famous one and it is full of young people: forocoches.com.

According to https://www.semrush.com/website/forocoches.com/overview/ it has 130 million views a month it's 605 global rank worldwide and 16 in country rank. Bitcointalk has much worse data by comparison. And I don't know what you mean by 'traditional forums' but that one is for sure, as it was launched even before bitcointalk, in 2003.

But to address the OP's question, I don't think bitcointalk should ban talking about forums either (I haven't seen 'promotion'), and I think it goes against the philosophy of theymos.

Oh I never said forums are totally dead; there will still be decent amounts activity for sure(especially niche stuff, like tech/programming), but if stretch it out in a longer timespan, they've been easily dying to modern equivalents(modern social media sites, Reddit, etc).

[crwth]

I think if those forums are being promoted in a way that is intrusive or using referral links, that's understandable because we all know that it's not that welcome here. But if it's just mentioning, it's a great way to add to conversation or knowledge on the niche of that forum. Maybe someone could add more value to both. If it's okay for them, I think it's okay for this forum as well. It shouldn't really be banned for me.

[Helena Yu]

No, that's the beauty of bitcointalk since theymos is trying to make the forum as free as possible, unlike other sites that tend to restrict or ban someone when they talk about the competitors or something bad on the forum.

Altcoinstalks was the example, they don't want other people to criticize their forum.

The only thing that has been banned is advertising mixing services. In the past, advertising anything illegal was prohibited, so this may happen in the future, but the most important thing is that discussion about anything is allowed, so if that forum turns into scam, it must be banned.

It's related to bad PR or legal risks.

Scam is different, it's not moderated by the forum, so they won't ban the forum.

It was removed.

Eliminating all bad PR and legal risks is a good idea - drug people can always go elsewhere. I'll remove the Silk Road thread if that's the consensus.

[Learn Bitcoin]

Majority for sure its  altcointalks. They gained attention here in BitcoinTalk since Theymos started banning Bitcoin Mixers. BitcoinTalk users teleport their accounts to Altcointalk by placing their altcointalk profile in their BitcoinTalk ad space. This wouldn't have happened if Theymos hadn't banned Mixers. But for me allowing other forums to advertise here is a healthy competition, providing users with more choices. This competition often encourages forums to improve but it still need to maintain quality discussion.

I don't know if OP was talking about altcoinstalks or not. I have joined that forum for over a month now and I have discussed Bitcointalk a couple of times. Even some moderators and admins were on those threads. They never said that I should not talk about other forums. So, I believe it is not altcoinstalks who tried to limit users from talking about other forums.

I know why people moved to Altcoinstalks. The word "moved" isn't correct. Because nobody left Bitcointalk. It's just like we are here and there as well. A person could be in several forums. There is nothing bad in it.