(Good) Suggestion for newbies and even those members who've been here a while

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I've rarely seen this suggested in this section, so I thought I would:  To the bitcointalk newcomer especially, but really for anyone who hasn't done so, I'd strongly advise reading posts made years ago in whatever section you're a fan of.  One of the fantastic aspects of this forum is that everything is still here (that hasn't been deleted for one reason or another), right down to Satoshi's posts, Laszlo's pizza purchase, the post which introduced the concept of a signature campaign, and a hell of a lot more.

Note:  I apologize that I don't have links to the examples above except for the last one, and man I hope I'm not wrong on that one.

I was just browsing through the altcoin section circa 2017-18, and it didn't take long to find a post to make me roll my eyes to the heavens:

Personally, I think that the Ethereum project was one of the Altcoins that was really overpriced. Sure the project has the updates and things going on though there isn't that much people that want to use it other than Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency nerds.
The Ethereum Wallet is really complicated to use, someone new to Cryptocurrency won't know what he or she gotta press when they open the Wallet. I am not hating on ETH, the project seems good it’s just really overpriced.

And even back in 2018, discussions were being had about privacy coins as in https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2815174.0this thread (although if you read the responses it's so goddamn obvious most members were just writing any ol' thing as long as it met the character quota for their campaign or bounty, and then you get gems like this:

They say 2018 will be the year for the privacy coins and i like Turtlecoin (TRTL). Just over a month old and only started trading on its first exchange, tradeogre.com a few days ago. Current price on tradeogre is 6sats - was 1sat earlier this week when it got listed.

And also....1) Fact not widely known: I joined this forum to troll it.  2) I wish I could take this post back, but I don't believe in erasing posts to conceal ignorance:

So many shit suggestions in this thread, it's amazing.  But at least I got a few more suggestions about who to add to my ignore list, so there's that.

This thread is months old and it's interesting to see how everyone mentions the coin du jour, and lately that's been ETH.  And monero too.  But I suspect most of you people who've suggested coins never really made any money in any of them.  You're all just a bunch of hot air.

I suggest Dash and Doge, by the way.  Laugh all you want.

Anyway, look back in the past while you're here.  I guarantee you'll find a lot that's worth reading--a lot of it educational, and probably more of it just plain entertaining.

[Hatchy]

If I could remember then as a newbie I called the forum a time machine. Alot of people might not understand as they were either spending too much time scrolling the internet looking for the latest update on crypto to post on the forum or spam some discussions that they cooked out of gpt. Some of the best information I got from this forum was not even on the threads I created but those I went back to study. It helped me a lot on how I communicated and interacted with other members of the forum and learnt alot.

I'm not here to give a long speech though, the truth is as a newbie, if you really want to learn fast, take your time to study past discussions. Scroll down to the first page of the forum look for anything worth reading, it's actually fun. You get to know more about the creator of bitcoin, the early adopters and many other interesting discussions..

[Alpha Marine]

I always read old threads whenever I come across them. I usually stumble on them through links or profiles. Even reading the references of tags on different profiles takes you to a lot of old posts. I also stumble upon a lot of drama, and that gives a glimpse of various histories on the forum. I've read a lot of old threads on this forum,, which is why sometimes I struggle to understand why people always say there is more spam on the forum now. In old threads, I see more spam than they are today.

And even back in 2018, discussions were being had about privacy coins as in https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2815174.0 this thread[/url] (although if you read the responses it's so goddamn obvious most members were just writing any ol' thing as long as it met the character quota for their campaign or bounty, and then you get gems like this:

The link is not clickable. The link is attached to the words. I think you should edit it.

[Majestic-milf]

 Surprise!! Not everyone will take this advice. If they comment here its so they can either give their two cents or fulfill post quota( a crime of which I'm guilty of, sadly). The sad reality is that some of us (myself inclusive) just let good posts get swept under the carpet of other threads and rarely go back to visit or relearn from them. I won't lie, I find it hard to use the search button and except someone graciously drops a link to a said topic, I don't bother myself to look further.
 Suggestions like this are rare in this section as what's most rampant are complaints related to lack of merit flow, the loss or decline of quality posts, yada yada..

[tbct_mt2]

One of the fantastic aspects of this forum is that everything is still here (that hasn't been deleted for one reason or another), right down to Satoshi's posts, Laszlo's pizza purchase, the post which introduced the concept of a signature campaign, and a hell of a lot more.

theymos wrote a topic about Satoshi's lesson.
A topic about pizza trade. Pizzas for bitcoin?
About legend, I would like to mention a thread wrote by Hal Finney too.
Bitcoin and me (Hal Finney).

About signature campaign, there are topics about signature campaign history.
History - signature campaigns and bounties on Bitcointalk
EVOLUTION OF SIGNATURE AD CAMPAIGNS (BEGINNING DAYS TO THE PRESENT)

[(BTC)]

I've rarely seen this suggested in this section, so I thought I would:  To the bitcointalk newcomer especially, but really for anyone who hasn't done so, I'd strongly advise reading posts made years ago

One of the first things I did when I initially visited this forum, was sort all posts in any given board (major and child) by views and replies. I think newer members would be suprised by what fascinating things they can read by doing this. It's a shame the general perception of bitcoin is commonly mystified in terms of it's history, early adopters, etc. They could simply come to this forum and read up on stuff that has already been here for years, demystifying their perspective, and maybe learn something for a change, instead of listening to/following some bullshit crypto fin-fluencer on social media.

For the forum's 10^th anniversary, forum members could submit and vote on captions for notable historical posts. Here are all of the top captions:

^ This post is also a great index that I've got enjoyably lost in for hours.

There will be many forums and many places to discuss Bitcoin, many social media sites and many Facebook groups. But how many of those will have been something Satoshi created? A hundred years from now, nobody will give a shit about Twitter, Facebook or Reddit. But there's a good chance they will give a shit about Bitcoin (and one can hope they will be using it). You can be sure this forum will be in the history books. Little kids will look over archives of our threads as they dream of one day owning 1 BTC. Threads like "we are the new wealthy elite" will be discussed in classrooms. Homework assignments will ask kids to go and research how the HODL meme originated. If Bitcoin does take over the world, you can tell your grandkids you were in the place where it all began. We have something that can't be replicated elsewhere: history.

^ Relevant.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Surprise!! Not everyone will take this advice. If they comment here its so they can either give their two cents or fulfill post quota( a crime of which I'm guilty of, sadly). The sad reality is that some of us (myself inclusive) just let good posts get swept under the carpet of other threads and rarely go back to visit or relearn from them. I won't lie, I find it hard to use the search button and except someone graciously drops a link to a said topic, I don't bother myself to look further.
 Suggestions like this are rare in this section as what's most rampant are complaints related to lack of merit flow, the loss or decline of quality posts, yada yada..

You don't need to read intentionally looking for something famous or historical. I usually look through old profiles, and one way or another I see posts by other people who didn't know where to put bitcoin (for example) or, on the contrary, expected great success from it but left the forum before we saw its huge growth. Of course you're right; many people don't read because the forum is for them to earn, and those who spend time long enough will always find something interesting in the past.


Just check the total time logged in on the users' forum, and you will see how much time everyone allocates to reading.

[aoluain]

Thanks The Sceptical Chymist for the post about the invitation to rent signature space!

The downside of a global forum of popularity as this is the sheer volume of information
(helpful, factual or otherwise).

The nearest I get to your suggestion is visiting some of my own past comments, sometimes
I get to re-quote them which is nice to think that "I think" they are still relevant

[Upgrade00]

I sometimes start out searching for something in particular, find it, but still end up reading the entire thread it was shared in and some linked in the thread too cause it was very educative.
Finding your way to old gems will make the forum more innovative and the search function can help lead you there. It's difficult to just start picking old pages of replies and looking for good posts, but if you make it a habit of searching out things you're curious about, by happenstance you can find some really good old posts.

[dzungmobile]

I sometimes start out searching for something in particular, find it, but still end up reading the entire thread it was shared in and some linked in the thread too cause it was very educative.

Not all but many things historically about this forum are collected in Bitcointalk's important historic changes as well as in Bitcointalk history of hacks and vandalisms.

Also, another topic Bitcointalk history - index to first 200 topics.

Finding your way to old gems will make the forum more innovative and the search function can help lead you there. It's difficult to just start picking old pages of replies and looking for good posts, but if you make it a habit of searching out things you're curious about, by happenstance you can find some really good old posts.

This [Guide] Searching effectively can be helpful for newbies who want to learn about searching in this forum.

[The Cryptovator]

Anyway, look back in the past while you're here.  I guarantee you'll find a lot that's worth reading--a lot of it educational, and probably more of it just plain entertaining.

Not often, but sometimes I do it. I have read Ethereum announcement threads and, out of curiosity, read Satoshi & Hal Finney posts as well. If we spend time reading some old threads and posting, then we can learn a lot of things related to crypto as well as about the forum also. So yes, the suggestion or idea is good for us, not only for newbies.

We could realize the sentiment of the people who have contributed to the crypto industry, like Satoshi and more, when we spend time to read old posts. However, curiosity should work for reading such posts; we should have an intention to learn. Then we may spend time to do that.

[Vod]

And also....1) Fact not widely known: I joined this forum to troll it. 

Wait, what?   In my 15 years here I never saw you as a troll.  I guess we posted in different areas. 

[Zoomic]

Anyway, look back in the past while you're here.  I guarantee you'll find a lot that's worth reading--a lot of it educational, and probably more of it just plain entertaining.

Anyone who doesn't look back at older posts and see how OGs used this forum is actually missing out a huge part of the forum.
For old members, it could be very fun doing it, but to newbies, I think it's a necessity as recommended by Op. A lot of wisdom, lessons and intelligence were left behind. The majority of what we see today is the quest to completing the weekly post quota.

If anyone re-visits the famous I AM HODLING thread, they will discover how concise and natural conversation flowed, unlike what we have today.

Although, we have new trends today, such as the war and friendship with AI which OGs didn't witness, but I still believe that a better part of this forum was not transferred to the present.

[Btcdeybodi]

Good suggestion from you @The Sceptical Chymist, every platform has a history and it is always necessary for newcomers to read old posts of some knowledgeable individuals in the forum so that it will give them an edge and guide on how to navigate through the forum. However, some information and posts that was made in the past are outdated and doesn't contain the ideology of the recent, which means that while we take a look at some posts made in the past, it is also important to compare with posts made in the present. Perhaps, we still have people who are active in this forum who are experienced, even though their knowledge may not be close to that of Satoshi and other past heroes of this forum.