What Happened to Bitcointalk? Honest Observations After Coming Back

[Marcus Richardson]

I just came back to Bitcointalk after years away, and honestly the change is quite noticeable.

It feels like the forum has shifted heavily toward paid activity, casino promotions, and spammy commercial posts. A lot of what used to be organic discussion now looks like monetized content everywhere.

At the same time, it seems that older accounts with high activity or reputation can dismiss or remove newer perspectives very easily, regardless of the actual content being posted.

I understand moderation and trust systems are important, but from an outside perspective it does feel like the environment has become much more closed and heavily commercialized compared to what it used to be.

Not everything new is bad, but the balance between discussion and advertising definitely feels off.

[TheUltraElite]

I just came back to Bitcointalk after years away, and honestly the change is quite noticeable.

SMF is still running.

It feels like the forum has shifted heavily toward paid activity, casino promotions, and spammy commercial posts. A lot of what used to be organic discussion now looks like monetized content everywhere.

It was the same in 2016 when I came here and 10 years later it still is.

At the same time, it seems that older accounts with high activity or reputation can dismiss or remove newer perspectives very easily, regardless of the actual content being posted.

Just your biased perception I would say. Something what is worth discussing does get importance and although some spammy replies might be there you need to filter out the Noise.

I understand moderation and trust systems are important, but from an outside perspective it does feel like the environment has become much more closed and heavily commercialized compared to what it used to be.

Which platform is not commercialized and is doing well?

Not everything new is bad, but the balance between discussion and advertising definitely feels off.

Then why bother coming back here? We love our cesspool.

[tbct_mt2]

It feels like the forum has shifted heavily toward paid activity, casino promotions, and spammy commercial posts. A lot of what used to be organic discussion now looks like monetized content everywhere.

It was the same in 2016 when I came here and 10 years later it still is.

Not sure when was the time Marcus Richarson left the forum, but the forum had signature campaign many years ago already.
This thread has information about signature campaign since 2013
Signature campaign: The lowest and highest payment BTC and USD in 2013-2022
while in fact the first ever signature campaign in this forum was in 2011.
[CLOSED] up to 50 people, get paid 0.10 BTC to change your signature.

Without a given year in Marcus Richardson's post, it's impossible to discuss further on this point.

[OgNasty]

I would say the toxic environment that has been allowed to grow here and even encouraged through lack of action has resulted in organic use of this site disappearing. I guess it got to the point where honest established members of this site had to be paid in order to continue dealing with the trolls here.

[nutildah]

It feels like the forum has shifted heavily toward paid activity, casino promotions, and spammy commercial posts. A lot of what used to be organic discussion now looks like monetized content everywhere.

It was the same in 2016 when I came here and 10 years later it still is.

This is true -- things have pretty much been the same since 2016, which was indeed 10 years ago. The introduction of the merit system and retooling of DT has had some impact since, but I think they both made things better instead of worse. So I don't really know what OP is complaining about. He might have been away from the forum for 1-10 years or zero years. Its impossible to know because its a brand new account.

[Vod]

Not everything new is bad, but the balance between discussion and advertising definitely feels off.

With some users claiming to make $10k a month, signature income is the way to go.  If you are able to post useless content like sports gossip and get paid, it would be stupid to not do so.   And like others have said in this thread, if I'm forced to post here, I might as well get paid, right?

For years I was unable to wear a signature and contributed to the community as a DT member for free.  If people are going to brag about eight figures in questionable income, why would I continue to do that?  I have needs that require money too.   

[Bitcoin_Arena]

I just came back to Bitcointalk after years away, and honestly the change is quite noticeable.

How long have you been away?

There have been some quite noticeable changes indeed. From the time I joined, there were ICOs, and they were everywhere. The altcoin discussion board was a hotspot for making it in life or getting scammed. Bounty campaigns were everywhere, and there were so many accounts bumping threads with one-liners so they could receive "free" airdrops or join in on the precious sats in the games and rounds board.

Not sure why you are feeling unhappy right now. Change is always happening.

[alegotardo]

Two very important points to consider:
1 - Casinos have taken over a lot of things, in any social media, websites, stadiums, television, etc... they are booming and so here at Bitcointalk it is no different... they are the ones who managed to sustain the subscription campaigns and prevent many people from simply abandoning the forum.

2 - I think Bitcoin has reached a lot of maturity, it is difficult to see people talking technically about new things, developing an improvement or discussing a bug... what exists are very specific things and the biggest project I believe is post-quantum development, which also seems to be progressing slowly.

So, what's left for us to discuss? I also confess that we talk a lot about politics, gambling, prediction markets, and Bitcoin itself has been left aside.... few things are really discussed.

[bitbollo]

It's pretty normal that number of users have grown and even the relative argument/argumentation.
You can't expect to have the same appeal likewise initial years without CEX (!) or even content/groups in local language.

Another point =
Bitcoin is a decentralized currency but it can involve many arguments.  We can't talk about "detailed tech" applied to our coins all days all the time.
It would be boring. It would also not profitable since bitcoin isn't just math but it involves ALL arguments in the same time.
It would be an impressive restricted forum with just few people able to argue... it's a public forum. Menawhile some discussion have find passionate. This is a forum.
If you just think on the impact of predictive market in economy / politics = you can understand how it is GREAT the impact of technology like bitcoin.

I am not sure you're "really old" from this forum, unless you come like from 2010?  
Signatures and promotion of casinos have been here since 2014 at least (the year I start to use the forum). In general there is also a real explanation why gambling has been much appreciated, has becoming part of the history of bitcoin. (Satoshibones - Gambling should be legal - Bitcoin = money! ---> its a long story...)

Spammy commercial post...
I had the worst idea to write on REDDIT the URL of the forum. I have been likewise blocked, you CANNOT TALK of the forum. You cannot post even the URL
If you read some post, there are Ai and bot, posting crappy content like there is no future in many sections, with comment masked by promotion.
What is worst, in some "financial section" if you mention bitcoin you get -25 downvote in a matter of minutes
Isn't a commercial move to downvote post that promote bitcoin in  a "personal finance" space?
[I am doing good investing buyng (ETF/STOCK) XXXX ? LOL ] You read the worst crap, you can't write BTC
---
Even for signature there is a long explanation. But these are exactly the opposite of what you said... if people spamming they will just get banned.
These have always been here. There is another explanation similar to gambling section.

I am one of the first that has seen a clear change of the forum but I wouldn't see as completely negative. More people joined the space.
There is less spam than other places. There is an approach where you have to use your brain and not just be guided like a sheep.
Users try to keep a kind of etiquette, even intellectual honesty. At the end, the hours involved and the effort to read some useful post are ... priceless!
You get free info, you get valuable info, free support, free share of idea.
Of course there is a "Balance", we can't remain like a group of old man talking about "a mistery innovation".
But for sure its evident we as community, as bitcoiners, as honest humans, we must keep our attention "ON" to avoid any potential problem.

[Majestic-milf]

It feels like the forum has shifted heavily toward paid activity, casino promotions, and spammy commercial posts. A lot of what used to be organic discussion now looks like monetized content everywhere.

It was the same in 2016 when I came here and 10 years later it still is.

Not sure when was the time Marcus Richarson left the forum, but the forum had signature campaign many years ago already.
This thread has information about signature campaign since 2013
Signature campaign: The lowest and highest payment BTC and USD in 2013-2022
while in fact the first ever signature campaign in this forum was in 2011.
[CLOSED] up to 50 people, get paid 0.10 BTC to change your signature.

Without a given year in Marcus Richardson's post, it's impossible to discuss further on this point.

Yeah, I also figured that Marcus should have used the account with which he registered to make that observation because you can't tell me you you got registered yesterday yet you could wrap up things that happened over a long period of time. It looks suspicious.
Definitely, you can't expect something to maintain the same style and pattern from the time of it's inception till now without noticing changes, both good and bad, so calling out the forum's new style as though it's free of being touched by times and change, it will make it seem as though there are no humans occupying the space. Even a platform that's occupied by bots will still experience setbacks.

[Free Market Capitalist]

This is Groundhog Day.

A new account that claims to have been on the forum for years has so far earned 16 merits for complaining about how bad the forum is. You don't have to be very observant to see that these kinds of threads tend to get lots of merits in this section: complaining about how much spam there is, complaining that AI is ruining the forum, complaining that people get paid to post, stuff like that.

If the forum is really that bad, I don't know what you're doing here, you whiners—you're such whiners.

[hugeblack]

A new account that claims to have been on the forum for years has so far earned 16 merits for complaining about how bad the forum is.x

I'd like to add that the reason @Marcus Richardson is upset is that his first three topics^[1][2][3] were deleted, in which he was trying to "teach" forum beginners about privacy and non-KYC crypto exchanges.

I politely asked him to tell us what made him an "expert" before "teaching" others, and all we got was this topic.
+ I received a PM with the same content. 

[1] https://bitlist.co/topic/5583382
[2] https://bitlist.co/topic/5583384
[3] https://bitlist.co/topic/5583386

[Mia Chloe]

~snip

Congratulations on noticing the obvious. Well now that you've been able to highlight the said problems and changes why don't you suggest fixes. When I see people complaining about signatures here and promotions etc... especially the ranked ones wearing signatures, all I see is straight up hypocrisy.

The fact is promotions and a lot of the other stuff you guys whine about are actually a keen aspect of traffic generation in this forum. The forum was created for indirect promotion and I don't see how it has changed totally.

[FinneysTrueVision]

I'd like to add that the reason @Marcus Richardson is upset is that his first three topics^[1][2][3] were deleted, in which he was trying to "teach" forum beginners about privacy and non-KYC crypto exchanges.

I politely asked him to tell us what made him an "expert" before "teaching" others, and all we got was this topic.
+ I received a PM with the same content. 

[1] https://bitlist.co/topic/5583382
[2] https://bitlist.co/topic/5583384
[3] https://bitlist.co/topic/5583386

All of their deleted posts, just like the one they made here appear to be AI generated. Their purpose, like any newbie making educational threads is probably to farm some merit. Being so lazy as to copy and paste chatbot content will probably get them nuked before they are able to rank up and join a signature campaign.

[The Cryptovator]

A new account that claims to have been on the forum for years has so far earned 16 merits for complaining about how bad the forum is. You don't have to be very observant to see that these kinds of threads tend to get lots of merits in this section: complaining about how much spam there is, complaining that AI is ruining the forum, complaining that people get paid to post, stuff like that.

If the forum is really that bad, I don't know what you're doing here, you whiners—you're such whiners.

Well said; I agree with you. Don't feed them; I usually don't feed such users when seeking merits through their posts. According to him, he back to the forum but with a new account. Don't know really if he's back or created an alt account to build another account. It looks quite interesting to me when a newbie account posts about spam, signatures and AI plagiarism. I assume they either want to build another account or they lost or damaged old accounts.

However, come to the topic. It's true the forum changed a lot over time, and it has to change to stay updated with the world. But spam has always existed, and it still exists, whether there are campaigns or not. Very rarely are spammers getting in on the Bitcoin campaign; probably they are on altcoins or the bounty section. It doesn't look only commercial but also helps the forum to keep active. It's true people post more for getting paid, but that doesn't mean all posts are spam.

[examplens]

Let's ignore the fact that signature campaigns and paid promotions are mostly always complained about by newbies, who lack ~1000 merit and 800-1000 activities to participate in campaigns. 
Currently, signature campaigns alone pay out around $42k per week to forum members. To me, it seems like a sufficient reason for them to be a frequent topic of discussion. When something is discussed a lot, at first glance, it may seem that it is a hot topic on the forum.

[marrcelo]

I am new here but in my opinion bitcointalk is still one of the few places where people can freely talk about bitcoin and crypto. there are still good discussions here even with some spam and low quality posts

[osasshem]

I just came back to Bitcointalk after years away, and honestly the change is quite noticeable.

No doubts about that, the changes are positively noticeable from my perspective, cause at the early stage of the forum, the use of merit system and the whole lots of different forum tools created by co-forum members where all for the growth and betterment of the forum. Bitcointalk remains number one crypto forum that I know of, and for that, the right of making some rules to maintain its standard and promotion of old forum users who has made their efforts count is not a bad thing, cause if you and I had been in the forum all these while, we could have been in some position worthwhile in the forum by now.

[Floczy]

Well to be honest, in general any community, organisation, group etc you leave like few years back and then you come in observation of advertisements and stuffs like that, it can also indicate that there is a good level of engagement which can somehow be also considered as growth if you look from a particular perspective

But I understand you saying that it needs balance between advertising and discussion, but I honestly do not notice a serious imbalance, discussion still hold effectively, there are boards for advertising, the others are for Bitcoin and other discussion, and discussion are really interesting, I don't know how better it could be more than this

The advertisements as well are stable, and it's actually a good thing that jobs, services and cool opportunities are still created out of this same forum, I honestly see a balanced forum ecosystem
Anything that becomes too wild or excessive has always and will always be banned ,
Things changed yes, but you didn't expect the forum to be the same after years

[GhostOfBitcoin]

Congratulations on noticing the obvious. Well now that you've been able to highlight the said problems and changes why don't you suggest fixes.

I don't think @Marcus Richardson can suggest solutions or changes to the problems mentioned here. Because the problems he mentioned were only created by an AI chatbot. Even though he can suggest solutions to the problems, he must also take help from the AI ​​chatbot for that. Because, as @hugeblck pointed out, his first 3 posts were deleted  in which he tried to teach new users of the forum about privacy and non-KYC crypto exchanges. And those teaching topics were also created by AI chatbots. (It's worth mentioning that I checked all his deleted posts and found them to be created by AI chatbots. I also ran a test where all AI detectors identified 100% AI content).

All of their deleted posts, just like the one they made here appear to be AI generated.
https://i.bitlist.co/4BnXu27n.png

@FinneysTrueVision, I assure you that the OP did not apply his basic intelligence to this post; rather, he used an artificial intelligence AI Chatbot to create this post. (This post was identified as 100% AI content by Copyleaks, ZeroGPT, Sapling AI, and Originality AI  all of which are 100% AI content.)


I think that spending 20–30 minutes responding to an AI chatbot spammer's post is a waste of time. Because he is posting content generated by AI without using his own original thinking. Therefore, it is better to spend your valuable time on more important and useful things than having a constructive discussion with such a person.

You should not copy/paste text written by an AI into a post, with these exceptions:
 - If you clearly mention that something you're posting is AI-generated, and you only occasionally and appropriately post such AI-generated text, then that's OK.

OP does post AI often; he's made a total of 4 posts so far, and all four were created by AI. Of those, 3 have already been deleted.