Digg/Reddit like News site. Voting is based on Bitcoins!

[FreeMoney]

The problem is that you will end up running an ads-only website. Companies will literally pay to put their brand on top and the interesting content will probably end up at the bottom.

The more interesting your ad/product/service is though the more that other people will choose to help spread the word. So there is probably not going to be a lot of "Buy Hanes Underwear" ads.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

We have a winner!

You have created a monster, robkohr.

If this doesn't win "Best Bitcoin Site" for 2012, I will lick Matthews balls! (I'm hoping nobody quotes me!)

I'll explain my thinking after I comment on FreeMoney's post.

The problem is that you will end up running an ads-only website. Companies will literally pay to put their brand on top and the interesting content will probably end up at the bottom.

The more interesting your ad/product/service is though the more that other people will choose to help spread the word. So there is probably not going to be a lot of "Buy Hanes Underwear" ads.

On the surface, you are exactly correct, FreeMoney. The system, as it stands now, can easily be gamed. Also, down the road, but not as easy. As the site matures, I believe that Rob (robkohr) will have steps put in place to make sure that doesn't occur. He can do this by not even changing the back end. What I mean is that once the site has categories in place, topics will be easily found, thereby allowing the top stories to gravitate naturally, opposed to monetarily.

The following is how I envision this site becoming successful.

It'll be a new way for people to earn Bitcoin. Moreover, it'll be a new way for people to learn about Bitcoin. I'll offer up an example to drive my reasoning home. CAUTION: Justin Bieber alert!

Not a day passes that JB is not a treading topic on Twitter. It's been that way going on two years now. Yes, some of his followers are kids without a dime in their pocket. But all of them are more or less tech savvy, and sometime in the future they will become consumers. These same "kids" have older brothers and sisters, not to mention parents. Therefore, it's not outside the realm of possibility that some of them, with dimes in their pockets, will join the Bitcoin bandwagon. But let's forget about whether they have money or not. The fact of the matter is that they have time on their hands. Time to tweet, and use the other social media sites. They would be the vehicle to bring awareness to http://coinsmack.com.

(forget what I said about they kids not having money for they're paying $1.99 for this APP and I'm sure thousands more like it: http://itunes.apple.com/app/id445478040)

or this!

Jen O'Dell @jenoradio
Watched #neversaynever last night. I can't f*cking believe it...I'm 29 yrs old and I've got the Bieber Fever. Lord help me. #JustinBieber

All it takes is one Bieber fan to post a story/link on http://coinsmack.com, then tweet his tribe to price it up. Now, you may be asking how the heck are they going to get their coins to do that. Answer: They'll figure it out! This is not a cop-out answer. They'll start figuring it out on their own, coupled with asking their tribe members. Before you know it, the best solution will manifest itself, whereupon that's what'll be passed on the twitterverse. Then they'll start asking themselves what else they could use this Bitcoin thingy for.

At any rate, I hope the above makes some sense, for I'm a tad tired but am excited about this site and felt a need to share with you all how I see it panning out. I have other ideas for this as well, but will refrain from sharing them, for fear of it getting lost in translation because of my tireness.

~Bruno~


"I've earned $1,294.57 so far tweeting your ass and posting your videos on CoinSmack."

[SgtSpike]

Agree that your take is too high.  It should be something like 80/20 author/you, or 90/10.  50/50 is greedy, IMO.

Also, ditch the serif font - it doesn't look good on the web!

Good call. Now 80/20. Site text will update tomorrow.

Cool, I think that's reasonable for now.  Later on, if you have a bunch of traffic, you might be called on to reduce it even more, but I don't think many will have a problem with 80/20.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Agree that your take is too high.  It should be something like 80/20 author/you, or 90/10.  50/50 is greedy, IMO.

Also, ditch the serif font - it doesn't look good on the web!

Good call. Now 80/20. Site text will update tomorrow.

Cool, I think that's reasonable for now.  Later on, if you have a bunch of traffic, you might be called on to reduce it even more, but I don't think many will have a problem with 80/20.

I think it's very fair for all parties. I hope Rob does will with this.

~Bruno~

Headline 2014: Twitter Buys CoinSmack for $20M

Headline late 2012: Justin Bieber Fan First to Earn $10K on CoinSmack

Headline 2015: Atlas Still Banned from BitcoinTalk

CoinSmack: If it ain't trending here, it ain't trending!

[Anth0n]

Isn't this just like https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Witcoin?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Isn't this just like https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Witcoin?

I guess you could say it's like that, but that was before my time. If I was around back then, perhaps it would have done better. Now that it's gone, there's a new kid on the block. I think CoinSmack's name is highly marketable, not to take away from the name of Witcoin which isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination.

~Bruno~

[Bitcoin Oz]

Isn't this just like https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Witcoin?

Its similar yes, and I have different plans for witcoin 2.0

Nice site robkohr and we might even be in contact later to integrate certain things into witcoin 2.0 lol.

One of the issues we had with the first generation of witcoin was the percentage of generated income which goes to posters and or voters. If its overbalanced it becomes a pyramid of sorts unfairly benefitting different members. I hope it has a lot more success than witcoin did.

[PrintCoins]

The number one post right now is godzilla vs t-rex. I guess it won't just be used for self promotion.

Thank you all for your support. I have some other features I am developing:

* Top category list (sorted by the sum of btc in each category)
* Filtering by link domain - this will make it so all stuff posted to say youtube.com can be seen in one sorted list.
* Widget to add the coinsmack.com thumbs up to external websites
* Automated daily payouts (currently it is pretty manual and not daily).
* RSS feeds
* Creating a simple icon for the site (I am thinking someone smacking a coin down on a table). Designers are welcome to offer whatever they like.
* Hiding (but with the ability to reveal) hot posts after 30 items. I don't think I will do paging, and all lists will get cut off after maybe 100 items.
* Adding no-follow to any posts that have zero BTC to keep spammers from getting any google love.
* Hidden service on tor


I think that is it. You won't see coinsmack forums, chat rooms, or other bloat. I haven't decided if user accounts will ever be added. I was thinking that users with a history of getting more btc for their posts would automatically get more weight, and this might keep users more involved for their reputation. Does anyone have any desire for this feature?

[OgNasty]

This site is awesome.  Nice work.

I'd also like to throw out the idea that you can use www.dailybitcoins.org to send coins to 1 article per day that you would like to vote up.

[cunicula]

I can't stand all this liking and tweeting bullshit. Everyone knows that the internets feed on hate. Research shows that common hates produce stronger social bonds than common likes. But where is hate monetized on the internets. Like if I suggest something and gamble that everyone will think it is worth hating on. If they hate on it in sufficient number I get paid. If not I lose my deposit. Then a great repository of hate can be built. Sort of like the library of Alexandria.

If trolling could be monetized that would be good too.

[rjk]

I can't stand all this liking and tweeting bullshit. Everyone knows that the internets feed on hate. Research shows that common hates produce stronger social bonds than common likes. But where is hate monetized on the internets. Like if I suggest something and gamble that everyone will think it is worth hating on. If they hate on it in sufficient number I get paid. If not I lose my deposit. Then a great repository of hate can be built. Sort of like the library of Alexandria.

If trolling could be monetized that would be good too.

Hm. How about a site that allows you to pay to drive the item DOWN instead of up? Then you can monetize in both directions!

[SgtSpike]

I can't stand all this liking and tweeting bullshit. Everyone knows that the internets feed on hate. Research shows that common hates produce stronger social bonds than common likes. But where is hate monetized on the internets. Like if I suggest something and gamble that everyone will think it is worth hating on. If they hate on it in sufficient number I get paid. If not I lose my deposit. Then a great repository of hate can be built. Sort of like the library of Alexandria.

If trolling could be monetized that would be good too.

Hm. How about a site that allows you to pay to drive the item DOWN instead of up? Then you can monetize in both directions!

Haha, I like that idea!

[OgNasty]

I can't stand all this liking and tweeting bullshit. Everyone knows that the internets feed on hate. Research shows that common hates produce stronger social bonds than common likes. But where is hate monetized on the internets. Like if I suggest something and gamble that everyone will think it is worth hating on. If they hate on it in sufficient number I get paid. If not I lose my deposit. Then a great repository of hate can be built. Sort of like the library of Alexandria.

If trolling could be monetized that would be good too.

Hm. How about a site that allows you to pay to drive the item DOWN instead of up? Then you can monetize in both directions!

Haha, I like that idea!

+1

A 2nd address should be added to vote down the topic.

[cunicula]

Perhaps something like a hate ponzi would be good. I propose something to be hated, and people wishing to support the hatred can contribute to the hate pot. It works just like a regular ponzi, except that there is an associated news item, article, picture, etc. which acts as a signaling device. If I put up an effective signal which marshals mega-hate then my ponzi will do well and payoff. If my signal fails to mobilize hate then I will lose the money.

[PrintCoins]

I can't stand all this liking and tweeting bullshit. Everyone knows that the internets feed on hate. Research shows that common hates produce stronger social bonds than common likes. But where is hate monetized on the internets. Like if I suggest something and gamble that everyone will think it is worth hating on. If they hate on it in sufficient number I get paid. If not I lose my deposit. Then a great repository of hate can be built. Sort of like the library of Alexandria.

If trolling could be monetized that would be good too.

Hm. How about a site that allows you to pay to drive the item DOWN instead of up? Then you can monetize in both directions!

There was in the original design a down button. Down votes were counted twice what up votes were counted, and nothing went to the poster. The down vote would be another address for the post.

Some of the code is still there, and I may institute it if people start voting up hateful stuff.

I took it out out of optimism. I would rather assume that people are just going to post positive stuff and let them prove me right.

Otherwise I reserve the right to lay the algorithmic smack down.

I am not sure what I would do with the 80% for downvotes (I don't think it is right for me to take all of it). I might just have it credited to the current hotest poster (but it wouldn't effect their post's ranking or points).

So much stuff to grit your teeth over.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I can't stand all this liking and tweeting bullshit. Everyone knows that the internets feed on hate. Research shows that common hates produce stronger social bonds than common likes. But where is hate monetized on the internets. Like if I suggest something and gamble that everyone will think it is worth hating on. If they hate on it in sufficient number I get paid. If not I lose my deposit. Then a great repository of hate can be built. Sort of like the library of Alexandria.

If trolling could be monetized that would be good too.

Hm. How about a site that allows you to pay to drive the item DOWN instead of up? Then you can monetize in both directions!

Haha, I like that idea!

Take it one step further. Vote a premium to have the story forked to the feature page. May have to implement restrictions like a story must have X votes prior to being allowed to fork.

I can't stand all this liking and tweeting bullshit. Everyone knows that the internets feed on hate. Research shows that common hates produce stronger social bonds than common likes. But where is hate monetized on the internets. Like if I suggest something and gamble that everyone will think it is worth hating on. If they hate on it in sufficient number I get paid. If not I lose my deposit. Then a great repository of hate can be built. Sort of like the library of Alexandria.

If trolling could be monetized that would be good too.

I think this article may be related to your post, cunicula: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9034883/McDonalds-McDStories-Twitter-campaign-backfires.html

[FreeMoney]

Widget to add the coinsmack.com thumbs up to external websites

This would be great, but it seems like a huge security risk. Is there some way to make sure the site hosting the widget doesn't switch out addresses? It wouldn't seem so.

[FreeMoney]

With up only you'll get things that a small subset really like no matter what other people think. This is good for exposing people to new stuff instead of just stuff that a good number already know and like and no one really objects to. It seems bad to have things that a lot of people love and a lot of people hate get lost in the middle.

A neat way to not have to decide would be to Have "most up", "most down", "net" categories. I actually think I'd look at "most down" quite a lot.

[PrintCoins]

Widget to add the coinsmack.com thumbs up to external websites

This would be great, but it seems like a huge security risk. Is there some way to make sure the site hosting the widget doesn't switch out addresses? It wouldn't seem so.

I plan on giving them a cut of the action as well. Also, the widget would be to vote up their stuff, and make it more popular on coinsmack. This would benefit them (probably more than being a scammer).

I think it would be more of a reputation risk for them rather than a security risk for myself (I wouldn't lose much because of them BSing on their website).

[Transisto]

isn't Reddit open-source or something ?

The comments have to be branched to make it look like reddit.