Do we have current forum financial records?

[SuperBitMan]

I saw a post by the forum Admin where he gave a financial record of this forum from 2011 to 2013 after seeing the post I tried to check if I can see current financial record of this forum and the only ones I saw was for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Here’s the record for 2017 to 2018.

Code:

2017
Income: $996,494 + $6257 donations
Expenses - Forum software project: $246,138
Expenses - Mods and others: $261,433
Expenses - Hosting etc: $49,726

2018
Income: $473,247 + $479 donations
Expenses - Forum software project: $272,250
Expenses - Mods and others: $204,547
Expenses - Hosting etc: $43,907

Tax is not included for 2017. Because bitcointalk.org is tax-wise a disregarded entity, it's difficult for me to calculate the tax costs attributable to forum activities. I'll do it some other day.

Do we have current records?

[notocactus]

Do we have current records?

You can be curious about that and you can ask for records of recent years but the forum admins have no responsibility to give you such details.

If theymos feels good, he will release it for you but honestly I am not sure about that chance. I knew of his posts about it in the past but did not care to ask for updates recent years.

Lastly, the thread is not locked, it's good to post there with your question rather than create this thread.

[libert19]

Lastly, the thread is not locked, it's good to post there with your question rather than create this thread.

Reminds me of this meme. I am not sure how it would turn out tbh since these days you can get tagged for necro bumps too; there should be a clear rule regarding when to necro bump and when not to. Though, personally, I don't find anything wrong with op since the thread you mentioned is really old.

[notocactus]

Reminds me of this meme. I am not sure how it would turn out tbh, there should be clear rule regarding when to necro bump and when not to. Though, personally, I don't find anything wrong with op since the thread you mentioned is really old.

If it is a need of update, asking in that thread would be a better choice. It has only 2 pages, not a big thread, and it's more easily to read backwards for details of  past years and discussion too.

Everyone has rights to create thread, there is no prohibition on this action, I agree, but creating a new thread because that thread is old is not a convincing reason. There were proposals and discussions like auto lock old threads or after threads reach to # of pages but community mostly are against such ideas.

[Nwada001]

While you await the admin to update you on the forum spending, you know you can always track and know the amount that’s left on the forum reserve by just checking the publicly made available bitcoin address.

and


Edit: One forum fund address corrected as per notocactus correction below.
  

[notocactus]

While you await the admin to update you on the forum spending, you know you can always track and know the amount that’s left on the forum reserve by just checking the publicly made available bitcoin address.
bc1qj33689f6edzjst72w6nzs02qd0w68spw49qgcv and bc1q9md45gnwykdkf2r79fdzxyrs96rwejq5nkpca6

Check there.
Forum funds.

The cold-storage addresses are bc1qyya7dyql06nkkpcx486qdlq4nvq5rsvdv33pnl and bc1q9md45gnwykdkf2r79fdzxyrs96rwejq5nkpca6

[SuperBitMan]

Lastly, the thread is not locked, it's good to post there with your question rather than create this thread.

If you check the financial record from 2011 to 2013 it was posted on a thread created by theymos but the financial record of 2015 to 2018 was posted on another thread were someone asked for it.
All the financial records are not posted on a particular thread and I still suspect maybe from 2019 till date may have been posted in another thread that I may not have seen, so creating a new thread to ask is not wrong.

[Stalker22]

I still cant believe how much money got wasted on new forum software, and we have literally nothing to show for it.  Such a shame.

How hard would it be to use only a small part of that budget to modernize what we already have?

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Yeah. It hurt so much that a lot of money was burnt trying to develop the new forum software that took over 10 years and never materialized even after some tests were already done. It was like a boat capsizing a few miles off the coast after a very long, rough journey through the sea

How hard would it be to use only a small part of that budget to modernize what we already have?

I think the forum administrator is one of the people who highly believe in the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" so good luck trying to convince him otherwise 

[Stalker22]

How hard would it be to use only a small part of that budget to modernize what we already have?

I think the forum administrator is one of the people who highly believe in the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" so good luck trying to convince him otherwise 

Yeah, well... feels like we are looking at this as a black-or-white choice: either build the whole thing from scratch or do nothing at all.  But the best fix is almost always somewhere in between.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Not sure what it has to do with the OP who has only been here since 2024. theymos has looked after forum funds for many years and never gone rogue, nor will he ever so I’m not sure what’s perked OP’s curiosity.

New forum software was planned but never materialised but does anybody really care? I like the forum the way it is. Let’s also remember that the forum does have operating costs plus there are a large number of staff who get paid.

I guess the only issue is what happens to the funds if something awful happens to theymos? He is a young man so hopefully we don’t have to worrY about that (touches wood).

In the past there were forum treasurers who held some Bitcoin each on behalf of the forum fund. If I remember correctly one guy sadly died. I can’t remember if funds were recovered. The likes of OgNasty have successfully held coins for theymos over a  number of years (for a monthly fee).

Maybe theymos needs to diversify and trust a number of DT1 members to each hold forum funds to spread the risk. Obviously full KYC and full dox would be required to satisfy the level of trust required for that kind of role.

[KingsDen]

Not sure what it has to do with the OP who has only been here since 2024. theymos has looked after forum funds for many years and never gone rogue, nor will he ever so I’m not sure what’s perked OP’s curiosity.

I do not think that Op's curiosity is driven by the idea that theymos will go rogue. It could be that he was surprised to see such reports made in the past and wanted to know why such records are not readily available anymore, I am just guessing...

Maybe theymos needs to diversify and trust a number of DT1 members to each hold forum funds to spread the risk. Obviously full KYC and full dox would be required to satisfy the level of trust required for that kind of role.

Instead of trusting a DT1 member, thereby creating two possible points of failure, how about having a multi signature arrangement for some portion of the funds while theymos still keep some portion.

[libert19]

How hard would it be to use only a small part of that budget to modernize what we already have?

I think the forum administrator is one of the people who highly believe in the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" so good luck trying to convince him otherwise 

Yeah, well... feels like we are looking at this as a black-or-white choice: either build the whole thing from scratch or do nothing at all.  But the best fix is almost always somewhere in between.

I don't want this forum, 'modernized' as it's not broken to begin with (as, Bitcoin_Arena implied), also I feel 'modernized version' will likely destroy the forum. Moreover, I kinda want forum to continue with face satoshi left it with, the best is middle ground indeed which is to continue improving the forum with patches, as it's being done.

[Mia Chloe]

I don't want this forum, 'modernized' as it's not broken to begin with (as, Bitcoin_Arena implied), also I feel 'modernized version' will likely destroy the forum. Moreover, I kinda want forum to continue with face satoshi left it with, the best is middle ground indeed which is to continue improving the forum with patches, as it's being done.

Last time I checked modernization hasn't really worked well for the forum.. the said new website was just wasted money in the end. This is just one of the very few platforms that still holds the representation of what early internet browsing actually looks like UI UX will only mees it up.

~snip

I guess the whole financial record isn't that popular  because there's no real use case at the moment. Constant public update may bring the opposite of what admins are probably trying to maintain.

[Livingleged]

New forum software was planned but never materialised but does anybody really care? I like the forum the way it is. Let’s also remember that the forum does have operating costs plus there are a large number of staff who get paid.

I guess the only issue is what happens to the funds if something awful happens to theymos? He is a young man so hopefully we don’t have to worrY about that (touches wood).

In the past there were forum treasurers who held some Bitcoin each on behalf of the forum fund. If I remember correctly one guy sadly died. I can’t remember if funds were recovered. The likes of OgNasty have successfully held coins for theymos over a  number of years (for a monthly fee).

Maybe theymos needs to diversify and trust a number of DT1 members to each hold forum funds to spread the risk. Obviously full KYC and full dox would be required to satisfy the level of trust required for that kind of role.

Although I’ve also not being here on the forum for long, but I also had this thought of the forum interface looking really old fashioned. I didn’t even know there was some proposal to modernize it until I saw your reply. It would really make a lot of sense if it’s being actualized. The forum current interface is giving that caprice browser we use to use in the old days.

I also don’t know the fate of the forum being in it actually functionality if let say they Theymos isn’t active anymore, is there a possibility that the forum might just die down? I really want to know!

[PX-Z]

How hard would it be to use only a small part of that budget to modernize what we already have?

I think the forum administrator is one of the people who highly believe in the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" so good luck trying to convince him otherwise 

Yeah, well... feels like we are looking at this as a black-or-white choice: either build the whole thing from scratch or do nothing at all.  But the best fix is almost always somewhere in between.

Well, it doesn't have to be a complete rewrite of the forum. Even gradually modernizing the existing software, fixing outdated stuff, and/or adding some quality improvements would already make a big difference. Well, it was done by some with Powerglove. But still, it's a bit frustrating when money was spent developing a new forum software for so many years that ultimately wasn't even used.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

New forum software was planned but never materialised but does anybody really care?

Some people would really want to enjoy browsing the forum using their mobile phones, something that is currently not possible/smooth since the forum is not fully optimized for that.
Also, the fact that so many third-party user scripts and bots have been created in the past few years to ease the user experience in the forum really speaks volumes about the changing time

As years go by, we have a younger generation joining the forum, so just because we the old are used to the current layout or available features does not mean we have to keep up with this for good.

I guess the only issue is what happens to the funds if something awful happens to theymos? He is a young man so hopefully we don’t have to worrY about that (touches wood).

I think this was discussed before, though I don't remember how exactly they plan to have it handled just in case

[hilariousandco]

About tree fiddy.

[Jessie2121]

I still cant believe how much money got wasted on new forum software, and we have literally nothing to show for it.  Such a shame.

How hard would it be to use only a small part of that budget to modernize what we already have?

That's unforseen circumstances for you. I bet if they knew the creation of a new software will not work, they won't have spent or wasted funds.

How hard would it be to use only a small part of that budget to modernize what we already have

I dunno and it would have saved time, money and saved them from unnecessary stress but maybe creating a new forum software, despite the cost it will incur seemed like a better idea as the old software was hard to modify and even had limited moderation tools.

[alani123]

The forum probably doesn't have any notable income source to state at the moment given that ads have been suspended.

The finances aren't interesting anymore. The bitcoin from early donations had appreciated a ton. Some financial reporting standards require appreciating assets to be stated as income, but this is some sort of BS if you ask me.

Practically the forum could run itself for decades under the current expense model and given the BTC reserve. It doesn't sound like something concerning to me. The more recent financial data would just be a curiosity if anything.