Is this forum getting worse and worse?

[BlackHatCoiner]

I don't want to correlate this forum's comedown with the mixer ban, even though I've thought of it and it's likely one major factor, but what's the current picture of Bitcointalk according to you? To me, it's declining in genuine interest.

We're dealing with uninteresting topics. The "hottest" topic of discussion in the last months is Ordinals, followed by ETFs, and then an endless list of speculation-related threads, which were always a "thing" in the past, but gosh, that just seems like our sole concern nowadays.

Now, to that, add that we've lost valuable members, some of which were intellectually influential, and you have an Internet board filled with mostly crap. What's the problem?

[Abu-Naim]

Mixer ban actually contributes to all these; since the mixers were banned some active users stopped given the contributions they used to give in the forum, some of them went offline while some will be online and will not involve in the ongoing discussion which may be worthless according them.
Interesting topics are not more coming to the forum as it used to be in the past and we are losing valuable users: doses that mean that some of us are mainly for the signature campaigns?
And now that high paying campaigns are no more, some prominent members are also no more, what’s actually going on?

[_act_]

Now, to that, add that we've lost valuable members, some of which were intellectually influential, and you have an Internet board filled with mostly crap. What's the problem?

The only member that we lost recently is o_e_l_e_o, or who else? But I noticed that some members are not active like before on technical boards. Some people still see this forum educative and interesting. If mixers were not banned on this forum, many people will still later not post again. Be it as it may be now, there will surely be changes. Many people that were here in 2012 were not here in 2018 when Leo joined this forum. Many of us posting today also may no more be here in the next 5 to 10 years.

[Adbitco]

Well people are gradually losing interest in the forum I can't be 100 percent sure but to me it seems so, then next, people are always channeling their discussion based on the lastest happening on the forum and the general cryptocurrency space. For about mixer ban, well I think theymos did that to safe this forum and he wouldn't want any authority to clamp down this forum due to how mixers is regularly promoted here.

Most people are concerned with privacy that is why when you looked over the other forum that is allowing mixer promotion you would see most of our reputable members active there, and of a true the mixer ban has brought so much backwards to the forum even though theymos is trying to safeguard the forum.

[SmartGold01]

You are right at some point but to me I would say that as time goes interest began to decline especially when they have something more serious than being around forum to read and post here. Some of them could get personal job or have an office work where they are well paid and decided to abandoned this forum for that work, and for something more serious in their lives. I can also relates that people are passing through difficulties over the time since we don't regularly check on people to know how life is fairing with them, most of the people whom we knew then that was active and has gone could be a kind of live challenges such as o_e_l_e_o and Light_worrior if I am not misspelling the name. So overall, everyone must not remain active to keep posting, sometimes they could get occupied with real life cases and some of them are passing through hard time over the time being. Just as what @_act_ and next poster already said.

[bitzizzix]

Bitcointalk is the best and biggest forum in the world in my opinion. And as a result, many new members will appear and this will also cause the emergence of low quality topics. And the old members who really contributed and were qualified, who were previously very active in contributing and sharing knowledge, retired one by one, perhaps for several reasons.
And that might make us feel like we've lost them and also make this forum feel like something is missing, but that's the consequence of a forum where people come and go because not everyone thinks they'll last forever.
And whatever the reason, whether it's a ban on mixers or so on, don't let this forum experience setbacks and I'm sure it will lose great and influential people who have similar abilities and can make this forum continue to progress and develop. Because this is a good place where everyone can learn to increase their knowledge from people who have related qualities in this forum, and maybe the time will come when we too will go because in this world nothing is eternal.

[Amphenomenon]

Though there have not really been much hot topic while also  the Mixers banned has affected the traffic here, there are other hot topics Aside from the ETFs and Ordinals like the final Craig Weight drama and the US government fight against Mixers/privacy.

In as much as I'm disappointed also about the Mixers banned I think Bitcointalk may have suffered fate somehow similar to what we have see others suffered from the US government against Mixers and I guessed  this may be among the reason Theymos had to banned it since Bitcointalk as always been a privacy inclined platform and even him also.

Though altcoinstalks may not have suffered anything from the US government, this maybe different case if it was Bitcointalk since it's much bigger and influencial and also because of it rich history.

[Filippo Spina]

I envision a beautiful and bright future for this forum.

I think we need a presence on other social media's or something. For example, if you YouTube search "bitcointalk.org" the views are pitiful! That means that there is room for a professional content creator to rise up and promote this place to a lot more people if they get traction.

As far as your question about "What's going on?", I can only attribute the decline in genuine interest because people gave up on the forum itself. Some guy called "Bulltard" had a freaking episode in text format, called out hilarousandco, and just said "ALRIGHT BYE LOSERS THIS FORUM STINKS". Like wtf? We don't want those people here anyway, but there's clearly a frustration/something that is caused, on a psychological standpoint, when certain people use this forum.

Some people have a problem with promoting casinos.
Some people have a problem with the fact this forum looks super old.
Some people have a problem with the fact that this forum feels "gatekept" in terms of account progression because of how much sheer work and typing it takes to rank up.

Me, honestly, don't care lol. I love typing on here, I love signature campaigns, and I love old school shit. I love it all, but I'm not like everyone else!

However, the people that we need to onboard (which, ideally is the whole world according to satoshi's vision), will not come to this place. It could be for any of the three reasons listed above, or another ten or twenty reasons. I've tried to get normal everyday people to come on here, and it's just hard, ya know?

The place designated to publicly discuss bitcoin is just as important as the bitcoin network itself.

It's sad to see even a full member user just up and leave...just like people sold all their bitcoin and gave up on satoshi himself. It's sad to see, and it's like losing a comrade in battle honestly.

[Sandra_hakeem]

I don't want to correlate this forum's comedown with the mixer ban, even though I've thought of it and it's likely one major factor, but what's the current picture of Bitcointalk according to you? To me, it's declining in genuine interest.

That's exactly what it is -- you don't wanna lookpast every single rationale, do you?. It could look to you like there are some other factors behind the deterioration but, practically, it's nothing more than what we've already known.
Meanwhile, we've got testimonies from people of the old times and, they're all dismayed by the new-era forum and its atrophy. Sometimes, I'm almost left with nothing to read - leaving me an option to either struck my wooly hair and cogitate or log off for the day!

We're only left with the thought that things would either get better or worse, just like you said... For "it's better to allow an ignorant man to roam the community selflessly forever, than incentivize him limitedly"

Now, to that, add that we've lost valuable members, some of which were intellectually influential, and you have an Internet board filled with mostly crap. What's the problem?

TIME!!
It's a major determinant for everything under the sun.

[Filippo Spina]

I don't want to correlate this forum's comedown with the mixer ban, even though I've thought of it and it's likely one major factor, but what's the current picture of Bitcointalk according to you? To me, it's declining in genuine interest.

That's exactly what it is -- you don't wanna lookpast every single rationale, do you?. It could look to you like there are some other factors behind the deterioration but, practically, it's nothing more than what we've already known.
Meanwhile, we've got testimonies from people of the old times and, they're all dismayed by the new-era forum and its atrophy. Sometimes, I'm almost left with nothing to read - leaving me an option to either struck my wooly hair and cogitate or log off for the day!

Now, to that, add that we've lost valuable members, some of which were intellectually influential, and you have an Internet board filled with mostly crap. What's the problem?

TIME!!
It's a major determinant for everything under the sun.

Your point about the dismay from the old times is one hundred percent accurate.

One time I PM'ed TheQuin asking him why he had a btc addy in his profile when I was a fresh newb. He said that it was for tipping "back in the good old days of the forum". You don't use that kind of language if you are happy with this place at all.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Can't say I've noticed any degradation. Then again, as a miner I mainly hang out in the BTC mining area and could care less about the alts areas nor 'privacy' issues related to holding/using BTC so mixers have always been a non-starter for me.

<edit>
re:

Some people have a problem with promoting casinos.
Some people have a problem with the fact this forum looks super old.
Some people have a problem with the fact that this forum feels "gatekept" in terms of account progression because of how much sheer work and typing it takes to rank up.

Don't care about the online casinos and ads for them did not bother me. If some long standing members were here mainly just for the signature campaigns, oh well. Can't say I miss them leaving *see last paragraph...
 Looks 'super old' - thank god for that!
   1. much lower bandwidth needed
   2. no live ads means no JAVA required so no 3rd parties gathering data on you (which the 'privacy' folks do not seem to care about?)
  Ranking up/Merit: This started as a technical forum - not a social media circle jerk like Twitter et al. I think at its core it should remain a technical forum. Merit is EARNED by posting useful information. Earning Merit should not be ones main goal here -- that should be learning about BTC and these days also alts and sharing useful knowledge with others who are looking to learn about it.

[Dave1]

Now, to that, add that we've lost valuable members, some of which were intellectually influential, and you have an Internet board filled with mostly crap. What's the problem?

The only member that we lost recently is o_e_l_e_o, or who else? But I noticed that some members are not active like before on technical boards. Some people still see this forum educative and interesting. If mixers were not banned on this forum, many people will still later not post again. Be it as it may be now, there will surely be changes. Many people that were here in 2012 were not here in 2018 when Leo joined this forum. Many of us posting today also may no more be here in the next 5 to 10 years.

Yeah, there could be some members are not that active unlike before, and we all know that mixer campaigns participants or at least being accepted on that campaign are somewhat more technical than the majority of us.

And since they are banned, majority are not interested although they could have been absorbed on some campaign as well. And we are in the bull run, so we should expect more members and more discussions.

Or do we need more drama to get the forum going again,  

[Filippo Spina]

Can't say I've noticed any degradation. Then again, as a miner I mainly hang out in the BTC mining area and could care less about the alts areas nor 'privacy' issues related to holding/using BTC so mixers have always been a non-starter for me.

And there's another thing. There's people that are newbs to bitcoin that think they need to involve themselves with literally every part of the forum. I'm just like you @NotFuzzyWarm, except I like to hang out in Beginners and Help, Meta, and Project Development. I don't go near mining because I don't need to right now in my journey lol. Explaining that part about BTC to people is so hard. It's a journey.

I know this because I've fucking tried. I've tried with so many people peer to peer IRL style to try and onboard them to this place and it just never fails to intimidate them for some reason! Now, every time I teach someone bitcoin, I like to hone in on their strengths and hyperfocus on one or two forum areas they might be interested in.

When my therapist asked me if I had any hobbies, I told her "bitcoin", she said "Oh! Are you a miner or a trader?",

I said neither, I am an educator and promote mass adoption efforts. She gave me a surprised look like, "Oh shit never heard that before".

There is so much room for education and mass adoption efforts, and I feel that mass adoption efforts start on this forum.

[EL MOHA]

I don't want to correlate this forum's comedown with the mixer ban, even though I've thought of it and it's likely one major factor, but what's the current picture of Bitcointalk according to you? To me, it's declining in genuine interest.

I wouldn’t say mixers directly but some signature campaigns that weren’t about mixers too ended and the forum is filled with Gambling signatures which you know requires participants to post more on gambling board and that has actually reduced the participation of members most especially reputable ones in the forum, so yeah the signature campaign actually did have its effect on the traffic here.

The few boards that you will see getting busy this days is the gambling board and also the speculation board when there is a huge pump or heavy dump. This days people just come online to meet campaign post quota and pass on to the other places. Seriously the forum is at a decline when compare to last year

[Churchillvv]

For about mixer ban, well I think theymos did that to safe this forum and he wouldn't want any authority to clamp down this forum due to how mixers is regularly promoted here.

Perhaps OP is fully aware of that, but he's concerned with the well being of the forum as it the forum traffic reduced drastically since the ban of mixers unlike before when the forum was with mixer campaigns.

He's saying indirectly that a lot of users we have nowadays are merely here for the campaign rewards and not a genuine bitcoin lover or a privacy Oriented people, but to you Blackhatcoiner, I can say that your observations are correct but at least in a 100% 20- 25 percent might at least genuine posters.

But in conclusion we are gradually reducing from even from my observations too but when I check the WO thread I see a lot of old and genuine posters who are only focused in conversations regarding the bitcoin accumulations and not the welfare of the forum generally.

[Rikafip]

What's the problem?

Forums are simply not as popular as they used to be and what's going on bitcointalk (lack of interest and new members) is going on every other forum that I have been part of and are generally in decline for at least 10 years and probably even more. And even if mixers stayed on bitcointalk they wouldn't stop the decline, maybe only slowed it down.

Another thing to keep in mind is that vast majority of new people that get into crypto are mainly interested in altcoins since they think its too late to buy bitcoin. Problem is that if you are altcoiner, there's really no reason to come here and I think that this is a missed opportunity to turn some of those altcoiners into bitcoiners.

[Filippo Spina]

Lets think hypothetically,

and since I have nothing to lose I'll ask the question. Idc if I get heat for it but,

How would everyone react if casinos were banned on the forum?

The youth is the key to the adoption of bitcoin. The youth, and casinos, don't mix well together that's all I'm saying. I've taken care of far too many suicidal young adults whose biggest driver of their mental illness being financial stress from gambling. They got their whole life ahead of them, and they want to die because they blew 5k on stake.com. Because Drake made it look cool.

I don't think it will be GG, but it might cause the forum to go kaboom. And I don't mean the forum itself, but it's users will go kaboom mentally because of how important casino's have become to modern forum culture, lifestyle, making money, buisness, etc.

What u guys think? It's a crazy question I know.

Casino's are in every single one of our signatures, and it's why half of us type on here in the first place. I get that.

It's so obvious what would make the world more willing to come here and be social. It's right in front of us, but do we have the willpower to do it?

[decodx]

I wouldn't fully blame the mixer ban for all this, even if it likely contributed.  But, you're completely right, Bitcointalk feels like it has lost its excitement.

The talks just dont grab attention like they once did.  My feeling is that genuine development and debate over real projects is lacking these days. The Altcoins section is mostly full of scams and shitcoins and Bitcoin technical discussion rarely touches on anything new.

[examplens]

We're dealing with uninteresting topics. The "hottest" topic of discussion in the last months is Ordinals, followed by ETFs, and then an endless list of speculation-related threads, which were always a "thing" in the past, but gosh, that just seems like our sole concern nowadays.

It seems that most of the topics from the technical side have already been discussed enough times, someone could think that everything has already been said. New projects (Bitcoin-based) do not appear that often or at least they do not consider it important to have a presence on Bitcointalk.
The activity is dominated by casinos and instant exchangers for which, this forum is a solid source for marketing activities. None of these branches require activity in technical discussions, it is more a matter of presence.

[Sandra_hakeem]

Can't say I've noticed any degradation. Then again, as a miner I mainly hang out in the BTC mining area and could care less about the alts areas nor 'privacy' issues related to holding/using BTC so mixers have always been a non-starter for me.

NotFuzz, sorry to sound a little bit stupid but -- do you really wanna make your own analysis on how we could basically improve (ofcourse, this is about creating pathways for improvement) based off of your daily routine? I'm one a hundred percent certain that atleast 89% of users in here aren't miners, which doesn't correlate with that fact that privacy orientation doesn't bother you at all. It could definitely be a fair plan for you as a miner.

Don't care about the online casinos and ads for them did not bother me. If some long standing members where here mainly just for the signature campaigns, oh well. Can't say I miss them leaving

Signature campaigns were introduced way back 2014 right? Lemme get this straight: how populated was the forum compared to the recent times? Has there been very much differences between the early days and the new-era?

Ranking up/Merit: This started as a technical forum - not a social media circle jerk like Twitter et al. I think at its core it should remain a technical forum

There's never a time that these hasn't been an issue... I think we gotta let it out!