No longer pursuing Epochtalk

[SamReomo]

I have visited the demo after reading this thread and I can say that the current version of software on this forum is 10x better than the one developed for that huge amount of money $5.9M USD isn't a joke, it's a huge amount of money but the expected outcome isn't that good at all. I guess the developers who worked on that project might weren't that good at doing their job or they weren't good enough to build SMF replacement for the forum.

[LoyceV]

The total amount spent was $5.9 million, spread across 11 years.

Could it be the developers didn't really want to finish Epochtalk, as that would mean they'd be out of a job?

I really don't know how BTT came to possess 1k+ BTC

Theymos literally posted about it a bit higher: 3116 BTC was donated, and there as advertising revenue.

This basically means that 5 people connected with the multisig signers can create 'long live crypto' nonprofit and walk away with 200+ BTC each. Really hope I'm wrong here.

The multisig treasurers are long gone. See Forum funds.

[cryptofrka]

I really don't know how BTT came to possess 1k+ BTC

Theymos literally posted about it a bit higher: 3116 BTC was donated, and there as advertising revenue.

This basically means that 5 people connected with the multisig signers can create 'long live crypto' nonprofit and walk away with 200+ BTC each. Really hope I'm wrong here.

The multisig treasurers are long gone. See Forum funds.

I misunderstood it, I thought that amount was donated for Epochtalk alone considering it was worth 68k$ at that time.

Thanks for the clarification about forum funds as well. I have to note that the posted explanation it is still vague though considering that we're talking about 100+ million dollars.

[Josefjix]

I glanced at the Epoctalk live demo you posted earlier last month, and the cooler scheme, and everything seemed odd to me; I like this one; the only bitter taste is all the money squandered all these years for nothing in the end.

My issue is why the forum did not withdraw from the agreement once the one-year period had expired. Why did the forum keep sending money when nothing was happening? 11 years is a long time for simple forum software development. It's a sad we lost so much, but it's also a huge relief for everyone.

Mobile interface is a must now on this one since we're not longer migrating to the promised land.

[suchmoon]

I was poking around in the github repos and it seems kinda messy. Master branches of (what I think are) the main repos had no commits in years. There are newer branches but I have no idea how I'm supposed to guess which one is the most up-to-date current beta. Basically trying to find the code that's running now on the demo site. I think they need to clean up git, remove old dead branches, merge what needs to be merged, etc.

[dkbit98]

It's unfortunate that so much was paid for nothing and developers like @PowerGlove was working for free.

I think PowerGlove receives payment in bitcoin for his work on fixing bugs or making improvements in forum, and he fully deserves it.
It is time for everyone to move away from talking what happened in the past, and as for money spent, I know Laszlo Hanyecz spent a lot more money on pizzas if we count it in USD

[Josefjix]

It's unfortunate that so much was paid for nothing and developers like @PowerGlove was working for free.

I think PowerGlove receives payment in bitcoin for his work on fixing bugs or making improvements in forum, and he fully deserves it.
It is time for everyone to move away from talking what happened in the past, and as for money spent, I know Laszlo Hanyecz spent a lot more money on pizzas if we count it in USD

The problem is that everyone takes the current rate into consideration, which is one of the downsides of using Bitcoin to make payments. The only remedy is to never think about it; sometimes I look at my old transactions for something I purchased in the past and have a restless night after looking at the current rate.

[chrysophylax]

It's unfortunate that so much was paid for nothing and developers like @PowerGlove was working for free.

I think PowerGlove receives payment in bitcoin for his work on fixing bugs or making improvements in forum, and he fully deserves it.
It is time for everyone to move away from talking what happened in the past, and as for money spent, I know Laszlo Hanyecz spent a lot more money on pizzas if we count it in USD

The problem is that everyone takes the current rate into consideration, which is one of the downsides of using Bitcoin to make payments. The only remedy is to never think about it; sometimes I look at my old transactions for something I purchased in the past and have a restless night after looking at the current rate.

Agreed ...

#crysx #cwi

[ABCbits]

I was poking around in the github repos and it seems kinda messy. Master branches of (what I think are) the main repos had no commits in years. There are newer branches but I have no idea how I'm supposed to guess which one is the most up-to-date current beta. Basically trying to find the code that's running now on the demo site. I think they need to clean up git, remove old dead branches, merge what needs to be merged, etc.

I don't remember the reason, but i recall they changed repository to https://github.com/epochtalk/epochtalk_server and https://github.com/epochtalk/epochtalk-vue. Although i do agree the branches and repository feel messy.

[suchmoon]

I don't remember the reason, but i recall they changed repository to https://github.com/epochtalk/epochtalk_server and https://github.com/epochtalk/epochtalk-vue. Although i do agree the branches and repository feel messy.

The above screenshot is from the epochtalk-vue repo, which I think they created when the project migrated to the vue framework from some prior no-longer-supported framework.

I was trying to locate any commits corresponding to the bug reports I made, just out of curiosity. Granted I don't have any visibility of my own reports and I forgot most of them so it's a doomed effort in any case.

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

Going forward, we will continue to make improvements to the current software. One of the most requested features is improving the forum's usability on mobile devices, and that is already being worked on.

Donate a good amount of money to the SMF team, ask them the improvements you have in mind, ask them to assign a dedicated team for our version of SMF. I don't think you will require even a $100k investment.

It's good to know that you finally decided to break the loop.

[promise444c5]

I think they need to clean up git, remove old dead branches, merge what needs to be merged, etc.

There are currently only five(5) active branches,  the most recent which has commit from yesterday(I believe it's the "proxy" branch). The rest are stale, with the most recent dating back 3 years. Most of these stale branch have PRs which already got merged into the master branch, only 3 branches are left with 1 ~ 2 commits ahead of the master including main but the "Vuex" branch seem to be 33  ahead, probably they got no use for the commits anymore ( given it's 5 years already) and the same may be true for the  remaining two branches ...

[igebotz]

Going forward, we will continue to make improvements to the current software. One of the most requested features is improving the forum's usability on mobile devices, and that is already being worked on.

Donate a good amount of money to the SMF team, ask them the improvements you have in mind, ask them to assign a dedicated team for our version of SMF. I don't think you will require even a $100k investment.

It's good to know that you finally decided to break the loop.

Why spend more Bitcoin on third-party developers when we already have our own wizard, PowerGlove, doing everything for free? If anyone needed to be paid to enhance the forum, it would be him. He made significant patches for free; imagine what he'd do if paid.

Make the forum mobile friendly and maybe some changes in DT voting system that's all.

[LoyceV]

maybe some changes in DT voting system that's all.

Yes please: require 2 DT1-inclusions to reach DT2 (to avoid self-scratching).

[notblox1]

I am used to current bitcointalk forum style so I am not sad at all to hear the news about epochtalk death.
But now I want to see real improvements and updates made to the forum, make a simple roadmap with possible updates.
Everyone can send top 3 things they want to see improved in forum, so devs can focus more on that.

[NeuroticFish]

Therefore, I've decided that the forum will no longer pursue Epochtalk.

Wow, this is quite a step...!


Somehow I expected for an end of this saga, especially and I've read here and there that our Epochtalk is... underperforming....
But I'm still greatly surprised...

Although it's a huge shame for the immense waste of money, I'm more relieved than angry.

* currently, especially after BPIP, loyce.club, ninjastic.space and some fixes/updates made by PowerGlove, we pretty much have all I need, no big minuses (maybe one: forum search, but I've switched to Ninjastic long ago) - maybe an official "integration" would be an idea

* I like more the look and feel of this forum than what I've seen at Epochtalk

* investing the time and money into what we know it works well, to maintain and improve it, makes more sense (maybe you should have taken this step long ago, but yeah, better late than never)


All in all, thanks for taking a decision in the matter. I am sure it was not easy.

[Stalker22]

The problem is that everyone takes the current rate into consideration, which is one of the downsides of using Bitcoin to make payments. The only remedy is to never think about it; sometimes I look at my old transactions for something I purchased in the past and have a restless night after looking at the current rate.

I dont think theymos took the current exchange rate into account. He said $5.9 million spread across 11 years. He also mentioned $100k a month that he was sending to the development team.... so I assume that was the dollar value at the exchange rate at the time.  Thats an awful lot of money IMHO and Im really sorry that the project ended in such a disgraceful way.

[Zoomic]

I am used to current bitcointalk forum style so I am not sad at all to hear the news about epochtalk death.
But now I want to see real improvements and updates made to the forum, make a simple roadmap with possible updates.
Everyone can send top 3 things they want to see improved in forum, so devs can focus more on that.

I was actually not expecting any new forum software from the admin. I am surprised that many people were actually expecting it. I don't have issues with this site even if I am a mobile user. Many people complain that the site is not mobile friendly. To me, what that means is that the desktop version is better because when the site was created, majority of internet users used laptops and desktops. I can only say that with what people say, desktop version is better.

For your suggestion about what should be added, there is a thread created by PowerGlove for that reason. But if anyone doesn't want to post there, they could raise a topic here in meta anytime.

[Welsh]

I'd like to extend my personal thanks to PowerGlove for the recent implementations to the current forum software, as well as theymos who has continually contributed their own time towards improvement. As well as some third party projects which I think have contributed positively to the average users forum experience. I'm sure there's others behind the scenes that have also helped, as theymos hinted.

I'm absolutely sure it took theymos a lot of time, and frustration to pull the plug, which ultimately I believe started as a ambitious passion project, come heavily invested project.

Ultimately thank you to the community for continuing to contribute, and keep the ol' heart running around this place.

[Churchillvv]

It seems to me that I haven't been on this forum for too long to know all about the happenings that took place before the initiation of the new forum software however Theymos and PowerGlove has always earned my respect and for successful putting the forum software together even though it's not totally ready, I appreciate your efforts.

Edit: Had a glance but the orange colour is so colourful I guess that's from the BTC logo