So they are hoping their work catches on
In order for something to catch on, it needs a marketing strategy, not hope.
This is the biggest problem with every coin.
Whomever comes up with the right marketing strategies wins. Not all marketing strategies cost money, some just take time and effort.
Anyone have any solid ideas?
I agree with this, marketing and spreading the word is huge. I think OPAL is doing a great job spreading itself out. By that I mean, most crypto-currencies despite being decentralized are actually pretty centralized. They are centered around a single bitcointalk thread (and as we have experienced this causes problems). Thanks in big part to being a part of SuperNet, Opal has spread out and I see Opal discussion on the SuperNet forums (and in the slack logs), the IRC (I encourage people who haven't to go chat sometime!), Opaltalk.org (underutilized), and here in the Bitcointalk thread (and of course Facebook/twitter/G+). Like any young coin though, the community is still relatively small, but growing. So the infrastructure in place is not nearly being utilized to its fullest, but it is there as the community expands.
First suggestion right now that I feel is important... Because Opal's conversation/development/ideas are spread out, we should make sure to keep all these linked. I see development being posted in the slack logs that does not make its way over here. I think making sure all of these activity points are being updated equally is a good idea. Especially this btctalk thread, since this is currently the central point for alt-coin activity.
Second, building on that,
Keeping this thread active is a must as well (something we should all work on) because CONSTANT activity brings
interest, and it is the cheapest and easiest way to do so in my opinion. We don't always have to discuss opal developments, but just having a talkative friendly and welcoming community is free and easy.
I'd be willing to assume coins like Dark/Dash, Burst, Shadow, Monero etc, gain followers/investors in part because of constant forum and community activity which people see and think "hmmm why is this so popular here?".
A big peeve of mine, is that currently in the alt-coin scene market activity appears to be what gets the most (albeit short term) attention. You can have releases, great ideas, great plans, great devs, or you can be another crap coin with nothing new to offer but also be getting good volume on a site like bittrex, and thus 'praise' and attention. Even with bitcoin, a flood of new people appear during bull trends; they don't necessarily know about bitcoin's development and technical side, but they know the price is rising and are thus drawn in. Opal isn't much different in this regard. When we saw a rise in price in November, this thread was very active, probably 30-40 posts per day for a brief period, now the price has been fairly stable, development continues, devs are still here working away, we got some promising teasers of whats to come and yet the posts in here have dwindled to a few per day.
Then I think a question becomes, how do we keep a large portion of people that move from coin to coin, and how do we keep growing our community at an efficient rate? That is where I feel keeping and active and engaging community is key. It doesn't help any to let this thread sink to 6-7 pages, then post about the lack of discussion that is taking place. Help create the discussion, and build on it. Share idea's, discuss crypto, finance, hobbies, your dog, whatever, it keeps activity steady and gives people a chance to join in. (Shout-out to
CryptoNick for creating some discussion building posts.).
Back in mid/late October, I heard about Opal because there were others in the forum talking about it in other threads. I came to the thread to see a flurry of ideas and discussion and a join in. I stayed because I enjoyed the atmosphere (of course the development is great as well
).
So to make a long post short, I think a good place to start is just create discussion, participate in discussion, give share ideas, thoughts, it doesn't even have to be solely about Opal. Keep this thread active and welcoming, this way we can attract, introduce, and build a community when people stay to take part. This is simply what WE can do for free. Articles, and professional marketing all another ballgame which is also important. But it is less effective to attempt to draw people into OPAL when there isn't activity to keep them drawn in. That is where community comes in.
That's my 2 Opals for now.
Poll
