Is this forum getting worse and worse?

[blckhawk]

~

We can’t hold those people if they want to leave the forum and quit. There are still a lot of reputable members left that can contribute to the welfare of the forum. However, I also believe that the current problem is the lack of interest of learning new updates and news about cryptocurrency. It should be a necessity for all members in the forum to acquire knowledge every now and then and bring it into the forum since we all know learning should be taken everyday and not just when its only needed to, most especially that we are trying to retain the interest of the old and new members here, then let’s be responsible enough to do our part as a member in order to make this forum more alive and genuinely interesting.

You literally just said what I've said, so I'm right, that it's because of the lack of interest that's causing this problem, I do agree that we can't held people hostage for long if they want to quit but what part of my post did I say that we should hold them up because I don't see it being mentioned. Now you're forcing people to bring something to the table, just like leaving the forum, you really can't force other users here to be doing that, if they don't want to do it, they will not do it.

[Hopila]

For me, I don't really think its getting worse and worse like you rightly pointed out, instead it has actually done me good than harm, because it's has overtime helped me in terms of knowledge expansion and equally making me get involve in a serious discussion like this.

So by an large,I think it's not really getting "worse" like you think

[Accardo]

The only member that we lost recently is o_e_l_e_o, or who else?

Recently, yes, but there have been some very colorful members of the forum who've left in the past few years, members who made this place much less dull than it has been as of late.  Lauda, TMAN, TECSHARE, Vod (sort of), and some of the chronic trolls like cryptohunter even.  Right now when I look at new threads I don't see a hell of a lot of interesting ones--although that might be because I have a taste for juicy drama.

Besides that, I'd say the quality of the average post has remained more or less the same, i.e., people are making mediocre posts for whatever signature campaign they're in, making very general comments that don't add much to the threads they're in, and either displaying an utter lack of proficiency in writing or generally being dull and uninteresting.  So yeah, I'd say bitcointalk is asymptotically approaching, albeit very very slowly, what cryptotalk.org was when Yobit started that abomination of a forum a few years ago.

OK, that last sentence is too harsh but I've got a toothache and am ready to strangle the internet.

Most dramas always lose fun as time creeps by. Gradually have read some old dramas in the forum that actually intrigued me, regarding the change of the forum admin and cases where strangers seriously claimed to be Satoshi and demands ownership of the forums. Those threads will hardly show up, again, in the forum, due to the change in focus. Lots of users have other purposes behind their membership here other than becoming good forum members. Therefore limiting their post context.

Creating valuable threads reduces as the focus of members goes mainly to hit signature quota. Writing requires lots of work, especially for non-natives, which I'm a part of, so the interesting quality writing skills that actually lifts the fun or argument in a thread would be lacking.Those dramas if you may say, kept some members in the forum. Because the mentioned members above seemed to have left when all the troubles causing the drama got resolved. The forum is a kind of calm and lots of people who began during the early days may not be comfortable around here anymore. Nothing interests them well enough to stay in the forum, I guess.

[LTU_btc]

For me, I don't really think its getting worse and worse like you rightly pointed out, instead it has actually done me good than harm, because it's has overtime helped me in terms of knowledge expansion and equally making me get involve in a serious discussion like this.

So by an large,I think it's not really getting "worse" like you think

No offense, but how you can say such things when you been on forum just for one week as your account was registered just on 21st  of May. Most likely you don't know how forum looked and how things were going here 1, 2 or 5 years ago, you only see current situation which is quite different than we had in past. Well, unless it's not your first account here.

[Mate2237]

For me, I don't really think its getting worse and worse like you rightly pointed out, instead it has actually done me good than harm, because it's has overtime helped me in terms of knowledge expansion and equally making me get involve in a serious discussion like this.

So by an large,I think it's not really getting "worse" like you think

No offense, but how you can say such things when you been on forum just for one week as your account was registered just on 21st  of May. Most likely you don't know how forum looked and how things were going here 1, 2 or 5 years ago, you only see current situation which is quite different than we had in past. Well, unless it's not your first account here.

That is to clearly tell you that it is an alt account, how can a user who register for May 21st participating with old members in a thread like this without fear. That is too obvious. When I registered in the forum to make comments in the reputation, and Meta boards were problem to me. Because I always believed that those are the Senate House in the forum and even if I came I don't know anything to discuss so I was always clear for these boards.

Well that is not withstanding. Yes the forum is getting slow these days and most after the ban of mixers and I also noticed some of the unnecessary dramas and many people have no campaign to hang out so for them it is better for them find physical job and do. And most of them don't like promoting casinos. And the exchange campaigns were just two or three. And they are not inside.

[GbitG]

Hmm that's true, Boss!
This forum has not been the same as before, i.e., after me. We can clearly see that the unique status of the forum is no longer there and is gradually declining. Big-ranking members used to play a consistent role in the discussion of the topic, that is, they were active, but now the big-ranking members are not active in the same way on the forum due to staff carelessness, even though we lost some members and the rest Yes, they remain inactive due to some restrictions policy of the forum due to which they are not part of the members discussions and have not been able to attract others.
 
If i tell you the truth, there were demands from those who were the merit source that we should increase the merit allocation, but in fact, we did not get any response from Tymos, although these members are the most contributors to the forum and these are the members who are the members of the forum. They have created hope to remain active but now such a time has passed that these people (members) are not even given a replay. So if this lack of care continues, many more users may be away from this forum either in the form of being unactive or in the form of leaving the forum.

[Sexylizzy2813]

For me, I don't really think its getting worse and worse like you rightly pointed out, instead it has actually done me good than harm, because it's has overtime helped me in terms of knowledge expansion and equally making me get involve in a serious discussion like this.

So by an large,I think it's not really getting "worse" like you think

Coming from some who hasn't stayed too long here in the Forum it isn't get worse but for the OP who has enough experience, who have come in contact with some many legends (if mentioned you don't know of) who made the Forum what it is today (with their contributions) is saying the Forum isn't how it used to be, I think you should take it from him because you're just coming (base on when you registered, unless you have another account) and if the OP mention most of the event that took place during his time and how the Forum was back then I don't think you'd disagree with him. Fine is your opinion but coming from a member who started right from 2020 I think he knows what he's talking about, I agree with him and if you've observed many members are leaving the Forum due to one challenges or the other, let's just say change is taking place.

[apogio]

Hello my good friends.

Allow me to share my point of view on this topic.

You may (or may not) have noticed that I am writing a lot less than I used to.

This forum felt like a home to me, when I was struggling with understanding Bitcoin and how it works. Of course, I only consider myself to be a little more educated than I was when I joined the forum, but there is still lot to learn.

I have been a member in signature campaingns, I have developed some tools - just for extra knowledge - and I have always been interested in Bitcoin and almost nothing else.

I think that unfortunately this forum is occupied by:

1. people submiting poor answers just to earn some sats from signature campaigns.
2. people who try to scam, or promote fishing websites.
3. people who insult, swear and post death threats.
4. people who should moderate but they don't moderate at all!
5. people who are only interested in posting "will bitcoin reach 1 billion dollars per coin?" or even worse "will this shitcoin reach 1 quantillion dollars per token?".

Of course, there are some exceptions. There are some people who I have really been proud of exchanging ideas with. I will not name anyone, but of course, you all know who the valuable members are in this jungle.

I am not leaving the forum, I love it. But, I think it's simply because I am accustomed to loving it...

Don't forget: keep fighting the good fight! I will be here, for anyone who is genuinely interested in Bitcoin.

[JusticeSolus]

https://talkimg.com/images/2024/06/11/cVYGg.png

THIS GUY REALLY THINKS IM TALKING ABOUT ANOTHER GAMBLING BOARD.
NO. GAMING =/= GAMBLING.
JESUS CHRIST.

I meant gaming like CS:GO, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, etc...

You wanna know what's wrong with this place? It's been poisoned and consumed by gambling advertising. It's one of the largest sources of spam, nonsensical posts, and posts that feel like people are just shouting into the air instead of actually contributing to a goddamn fucking conversation.

It's so frustrating.

[Finestream]

For me, I don't really think its getting worse and worse like you rightly pointed out, instead it has actually done me good than harm, because it's has overtime helped me in terms of knowledge expansion and equally making me get involve in a serious discussion like this.

So by an large,I think it's not really getting "worse" like you think

No offense, but how you can say such things when you been on forum just for one week as your account was registered just on 21st  of May. Most likely you don't know how forum looked and how things were going here 1, 2 or 5 years ago, you only see current situation which is quite different than we had in past. Well, unless it's not your first account here.

That’s why this forum is filled with made up stories and speculations because of these newbies who jump to conclusion even without having seeing or experienced the real events just to ride with the discussion. Although not all but I observed a lot of them have resort doing like this.

However, this forum only gets worse if majority of the newbies do not come here to acquire learning and establish concrete knowledge, but focus more on how to be profitable even at an early time without even being aware on the do’s  and dont’s in the forum.

[shield132]

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?

We lost some amazing forum members who had a big positive impact and influence on this forum. Their loss will definitely affect this forum and the nostalgia will only make our feelings worse. My personal opinion is that our early, young ages are always good and we always think about that part of the past and call those moments golden times.

This forum is not getting worse but things change. During the early years, the attention was on the development of good crypto products, but now things have changed. NFTs, Ordinals, Runes, Memecoins, these are mainstream today. Is it bad? I personally think that yes, they are bad because I value innovation and development over stupidity but this forum and members should remain in touch with what's mainstream today.

It's really hard for to live without this forum, I just like it, I love members of Bitcointalk and the vibe they carry.

[Catenaccio]

It's really hard for to live without this forum, I just like it, I love members of Bitcointalk and the vibe they carry.

Things change but people in blockchain industry will not forget Bitcoin forum. This forum might continue to lively operate or stop its operation but whatever happens to this forum in future, it will be considered as a museum of Blockchain industry and Bitcoin enthusiasts. Either a live museum or historic museum, it will be marked in Bitcoin history.

I love this forum and don't think it will stop any time in future. Bitcoin is here with us and Bitcoin talk for is here with us too.

[NotATether]

It's really hard for to live without this forum, I just like it, I love members of Bitcointalk and the vibe they carry.

Hard? I wouldn't take it that far. As far as I'm concerned, you are able to detach from here whenever you want just like you would any other website.

THIS GUY REALLY THINKS IM TALKING ABOUT ANOTHER GAMBLING BOARD.
NO. GAMING =/= GAMBLING.
JESUS CHRIST.

I meant gaming like CS:GO, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, etc...

You wanna know what's wrong with this place? It's been poisoned and consumed by gambling advertising. It's one of the largest sources of spam, nonsensical posts, and posts that feel like people are just shouting into the air instead of actually contributing to a goddamn fucking conversation.

It's so frustrating.

You could say the same about the Altcoins board, Economics, Trading discussion and Bitcoin discussion, though. Pretty much everywhere you look is plagued with spammers bar the technical boards, this board, and the marketplace.

[AVE5]

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?

Maybe I'd say I came after the mixer ban or I haven't been this knowledgeable in the forum before the mixer was banned. I don't have an ideal of the significant changes in the forum all these while otherwise I've always commend the state of discussions with the intellectual users in the forum.

Don't get me wrong please, you could be right but having the view on my own perspective as a forum member who haven't been here for long experiences now, I've reputable honours to those who have effectively been contributing to the welfare of the forum in providing solutions and expanding the obligations of bitcoin discussion at large.
Hopefully there must had been exited of much intellectual forum members as a course of the mixer ban and while I've also been in the forum for a quite time now, I understand that there had been shilling posts and similar topic of discussions revolving around he forum which makes it feel like there's no creativity as the discussions goes on.

[Viscore]

It doesn't seem to me that the forum is any worse than it was a few years ago - although we have to admit that we lost some members who were very important for the forum (regardless of whether someone liked them or not). Perhaps I could describe it in a way that everyone can imagine - so let's say you have your favorite dish that you have been eating for years, but then over time you notice that the dish is no longer the same, but you cannot say with certainty what the problem actually is.

I think that people are what make a forum good or bad, and a forum without some people is simply like your favorite dish without a few key spices. Of course, some people think that sig campaigns are to blame for everything, but if someone left because he was not satisfied with the profit, then we shouldn't feel sorry for him too much.

Getting worse is probably an exaggeration. The forum may be a lot different today than it was before but all I can see is that there are still positive developments that continue to build in the forum, despite of the fact that some reputable members have already leave the forum due to some personal reasons.

Bitcointalk forum has never got worse or has eventually turned into superb. It just serves its own purpose right, to consistently educate all members and create a harmonious discussion that bind us more to be more attached with the forum members and the forum itself.

[uchegod-21]

Back to the topic, the forum for me is the same as it has been since I joined. For earlier users who may have formed a very good bond with the great posters of that time, they will miss them more and that will give the impression that the quality has dropped here. Everything else will look repeated and tiring

I am not a forum og and I was not here in early years but sometimes, I look at very old threads and see that people did not actually make quality posts in early years.

You know the difference is, in the past, there was no signature campaign and people wrote short posts, funny ones and used forum like a chit chat place. They post naturally, did not post for money and it's different than spamming nowadays because of money incentives.

Calling forum early users and their short, funny posts as spammers or not, people will argue but I don't consider them as spammers.

theymos wrote that forum ogs mean a lot for this forum, for Bitcoin because they belong to history with unmeasurable contributions as early adopters.

This is also my stance on this and I have been saying same. The early users of this forum didn't actually dish out quality posts as they have been described. Rather they gave natural and uninfluenced posts.
Nowadays people allow the signature they promote influence what they post;
Some signature participants are encouraged to post in the Ann threads of the project they are promoting. They'll definitely not go their to be negative but positive and loyal to their employers.
The early posters could make a post how they performed CPFP in bitcoin and that will be considered as high quality post. But make same today, it will not be regarded as a high quality post.
It is normal that the initial excitement of a new technology drop at some points, there's nothing strange about it.

[Russlenat]

For me, I don't really think its getting worse and worse like you rightly pointed out, instead it has actually done me good than harm, because it's has overtime helped me in terms of knowledge expansion and equally making me get involve in a serious discussion like this.

So by an large,I think it's not really getting "worse" like you think

No offense, but how you can say such things when you been on forum just for one week as your account was registered just on 21st  of May. Most likely you don't know how forum looked and how things were going here 1, 2 or 5 years ago, you only see current situation which is quite different than we had in past. Well, unless it's not your first account here.

I have to agree. There's no way a newbie can tell the progress of the forum if his stay is just a couple of days or months. Either way, he might actually not a real newbie.

However in my own point of view, this forum is quite different already from it was before but it's not actually full of negative criticism as I'm still seeing it as good and productive forum the way it was originally designed. Maybe we just have different opinions when it comes to this and I have to respect others if they don't see the forum the way I did see it.

[vjudeu]

what's the current picture of Bitcointalk according to you?

Pretty much the same, as it was.

We're dealing with uninteresting topics.

Then ignore them. There are many interesting things to explore. I don't know, play chess, read some old topics, try to create your own topic, whatever. Don't expect a new great posts, coming at regular intervals. Sometimes, there is no interesting post for a month, and then suddenly something, which could be worth 50 merits. It is unpredictable, and it is normal. It always was.

Also note, that some things are still "in progress". It is Open Source: things are published, when they are ready. So, don't expect a topic about DLEQ proofs between secp224k1 and secp256k1, because of the same x-value in half of the generator, because it is not yet ready. Many interesting things are baked under the hood: testnet4, weak blocks, scanners for Silent Payments, OP_CAT, and so on. They arrive, when they arrive. The only way to push them faster, is to join some group, working on some proposal, and support it with your code, your test cases, your translations, your new bitcointalk topic about it, etc.

The "hottest" topic of discussion in the last months is Ordinals

And it will be in the future as well. You know why? Because it is that kind of spam attack, which was still not yet fixed. There is no clear winner yet. So, people will talk about it, until someone will kill Ordinals, or until Bitcoin will officially become some kind of P2P cloud storage (but then, it will be worth as much as testnets are, because the only purpose of testnet is to push transaction data publicly).

So, I expect people will discuss about Ordinals forever, unless the network rules will be fixed, or unless people will be encouraged to try something else. Or: maybe some spammers will eventually run out of coins, and then regular payments will take their place.

and then an endless list of speculation-related threads

That's why some people just stick to some boards, where there is no speculation (or the topic is moved somewhere else, if it is mentioned). I heard about things like Wall Observer, but I never read it. And you also have the same choice: just ignore topics you don't like, and produce more topics you want to read about, and everything will be fine.

we've lost valuable members, some of which were intellectually influential

1. Some of them are still there, hidden behind different accounts.
2. There are also some new valuable members, who woke up recently, after falling asleep in 2020.

What's the problem?

Human emotions, as usual. Things are not getting better or worse, the only shifting thing is your way of looking at them.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Thanks for bumping with a nice reply. Appreciated.

Many interesting things are baked under the hood: testnet4, weak blocks, scanners for Silent Payments, OP_CAT, and so on. They arrive, when they arrive.

Open source means "take your time doing it". More of a bless than a curse, hopefully. Wishful thinking.

And it will be in the future as well. You know why? Because it is that kind of spam attack, which was still not yet fixed. There is no clear winner yet. So, people will talk about it, until someone will kill Ordinals, or until Bitcoin will officially become some kind of P2P cloud storage (but then, it will be worth as much as testnets are, because the only purpose of testnet is to push transaction data publicly).

What's your problem, exactly? A Bitcoin transaction is information. It has always been possible to use it as a cloud storage. There's nothing to be "fixed". Due to the way the network is designed, even if you softfork and disable this "malicious" use, then Ordinals can appear again, in just another shape. For example, in UTXO.

And I'd absolutely disagree with the testnet analogy. A testnet blockchain is not an immune piece of data, which is guaranteed to be stored indefinitely. We already notice people migrating from testnet3 to testnet4. It's crystal clear that the best selling point of Ordinals is that they're stored on Bitcoin, which will probably operate for a very long time.

[garlonicon]

Open source means "take your time doing it". More of a bless than a curse, hopefully. Wishful thinking.

It was always the case. If you are a software engineer, then you will handle Bitcoin easier, than if you are not. I can clearly see that in case of test networks, where by CPU mining I can get around 10% of all mined blocks, which is insane, if you note, that all of my blocks have the minimal difficulty, and there are many ASICs around. And it is even more surprising, when I can achieve similar results on both testnet3 and testnet4.

There's nothing to be "fixed".

One of many possible outcomes, is to move those transactions into test networks. I can happily confirm a lot of Ordinals on testnet3 or testnet4, if it will decrease the load on the mainnet, and will allow regular payments to be processed faster.

Due to the way the network is designed, even if you softfork and disable this "malicious" use, then Ordinals can appear again, in just another shape. For example, in UTXO.

This problem can be also fixed, but I am trying to postpone that kind of code, for as long, as I can. Fixing UTXO flood should happen after batching regular payments, not before them. Ordinals should fall into the trap of their current design, get themselves locked in their present flaws, and then, crushing that market will be easier, because then they will face the same problems as Bitcoin Core developers: you cannot change things, if they are grandfathered in.

A testnet blockchain is not an immune piece of data, which is guaranteed to be stored indefinitely.

The same is true for mainnet, but many people didn't realize it yet. And it is good to keep Ordinals' users in their blissful ignorance, for as long as possible, to then wake them up with a cold shower. If you want to know more, then read about "assume UTXO", and note, that Ordinals are completely unprepared for those kinds of things.

We already notice people migrating from testnet3 to testnet4.

1. It will be hard to kill testnet3. In the best case, it will be slowly dying altcoin. But I guess, that network will be maintained for a while, even if it will no longer be supported by Bitcoin Core, and even if existing seed nodes will be disabled. Some users will just not upgrade, and their local list of peers will be sufficient to keep it running, even without hard-coded seeders. And as usual, they will use addnode to connect to nodes, maintained by centralized exchanges. There were altcoins, which stopped working, and trading was not affected. This situation may also repeat there.
2. Getting the same outcome on testnet4 will take a lot of time. If you want to test things after many halvings, then testnet3 is your only choice, there is no alternative, because testnet4 started from 50 tBTC. Also, because testnet4 will have no blockstorms, then doing some tricks will be easier than on testnet3. Another thing is the new rule of 600 seconds, which will help CPU miners to mine more blocks than before, because it will push the time forward, and lower the network difficulty. I can also see that now, because I can mine more testnet4 blocks than testnet3 blocks, with the same CPU power.

It's crystal clear that the best selling point of Ordinals is that they're stored on Bitcoin, which will probably operate for a very long time.

Not that long, as you may think. They annoyed a lot of people. They abused the network to the point, where some big mining pools started censoring them. And they created way more UTXOs, than they should, so they forced some developers to deploy their code way faster, than they planned. They basically forced people to start spinning up new "utreexo nodes" to avoid being sued. And if they will abuse the chain further than today, then you will see block explorers, showing proofs, instead of sharing full transaction data, when their operators will start receiving letters from courts.