The Forum is Dying

[BitcoinDistributor]

If you look around you'll see the signs...

-currency exchange section is slower then ever.
-posts are becoming more and more spam-like
-people are selling their accounts left and right
-the overall mood just doesn't seem positive anymore

I know me personally, I haven't held bitcoin overnight in months and don't plan to anytime soon. As for forum use, I come on, but only for business-purposes to convert payments I've received in bitcoin to fiat. I got into bitcoin beginning of 2013 and once it hit $300 (on way up) is when I said overpriced and got out.

Its a good idea however the price fluctuations honestly I think are what makes bitcoin unable to sustain being a growing currency. No one wants to go to sleep at night and every morning worry "Did I just lose 10% or more of my money overnight?". My margins are 10% and overnight a couple weeks ago I said what the hell I'll just leave it in bitcoin and I woke up and down 10%+. I lost my profit on my sale + more...what business owner is ever going to want to take that risk? From then on I converted all payments to fiat on exchanges and then sell for fiat to people here and LBC (not converting back to bitcoin until I find a person willing to buy said bitcoin).

Its sad really - I had high hopes for this currency and when it was stable around $100 for a long time is when I truly believed in it. It was relative stable. We'll see if it ever revives, honestly I doubt it. Biggest problems by far: liquidity and price stability

I would be very interested in knowing if casinos or services using bitcoin have had a drop in the overall USD worth of the action / money spent over last couple months to support the above.

[1715659029]

1715659029

[Blazr]

This page here shows the number of new signups and new posts per month:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=stats

There has been a noticeable drop the past few months, but I guess it's due to the end of bubble-mania.

[Ume]

This page here shows the number of new signups and new posts per month:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=stats

There has been a noticeable drop the past few months, but I guess it's due to the end of bubble-mania.

Average 0f 237 users registeration from 237 37 or less are real users other are fake one .

[MaxDZ8]

Sounds like a good thing to me.

[Quickseller]

The number of new users registered this month is at it's highest rate since March 2014, when it was at a all time high. January 2015 saw more new user registrations then the preceding two months combined (although Nov and Dec 2014 were very low in terms of new user registrations - I am not sure if Nuked users are removed from new user registrations or not). January 2015 saw new user registrations of almost double of any money throughout the second half of last year.

The number of posts are down substantially however this is likely because of the closing of the Prime Dice signature campaign along with better anti-spam measures taken by BadBear that has weeded out spam substantially.

The number of posts however is still greatly above 2013 levels which is probably a better baseline to go off of as 2014 saw a lot of spam, and a lot of users were attracted to both bitcoin and the forum in late 2013/early-mid 2014 because of the massive price rally we saw in late 2013. The fact that the price of bitcoin has fallen substantially likely means that less people are interested in it (a lot of people who were attracted to it, were likely hoping to "get rick quickly" and when that did not pan out, lost interest - this is evidenced by how many manic posts there were in mid 2014 about the price going to ridiculous levels [outside the speculation/economics sections]).

-currency exchange section is slower then ever.

The currency exchange section is only one part of the marketplace, which is only a part of the overall forum. There are becoming more and more ways that people can easily and cheaply trade bitcoin via services like circle and coinbase which are generally safer then trading in a peer to peer fashion with escrow. Additionally I think there is some level of fear about having to comply with AML/KYC laws that are difficult to understand (these fears are probably mostly irrational, however they probably are there).

-posts are becoming more and more spam-like

Spam is up somewhat, however it really is not that bad now. Spammers will eventually get weeded out and will eventually go away. I would say that some of the spam is attributed to legitimately new users who may not understand 100% what is being discussed - they will likely eventually learn and their posts will appear more intelligent (less spammy) over time.

-people are selling their accounts left and right

There is no reason not to embrace the free market - that is what bitcoin is all about isn't it?

-the overall mood just doesn't seem positive anymore

That is very subjective. However there are a lot of scammers who are unhappy that it has become more difficult to scam for a number of reasons. Additionally I would say that people are generally not happy with the low price of bitcoin which may spill over into other sections.

-other stuff that has zero to do with the forum-

Congrats

[Lethn]

There are often quiet moments on this forum, I don't think it has died at all, there just isn't anything very exciting going on, if you see any spam posts just report them and move on, if Bitcoin rises again or does something you can expect people to spam the fuck out of this place.

[yenzae0215]

i dont think the forum is dying, its just many people(kids included) registers and start spamming but that doesnt mean forum is now dying

[hilariousandco]

Op is actually right. This forum is dying of AIDS:

This forum has AIDS and its own immune system is eating it alive. 

So is bitcoin apparently.

I don't think the forum is dying and is as active as ever, but the overall mood will be up and down just like bitcoin.

[picolo]

There is changes but the number of messages and the acution results for advertising are still strong.

[Tschai]

I think the forum is following the graph of the Bitcoin sentiment.
I know my site did this also: The traffic spiked when Bitcoin's value spiked...and is currently kinda boring, relatively.

[NeuroticFish]

If you look around you'll see the signs...

-currency exchange section is slower then ever.
-posts are becoming more and more spam-like
-people are selling their accounts left and right
-the overall mood just doesn't seem positive anymore

My feeling:
* There are a few established currency exchanges that don't need much to do, all goes OK and their activity usually mean bad things: errors, hacks, or just maintenance. So silence is good and reassuring there.
* Yes, too many posts are scams or spam. Some sort of newbie jail could help.
* Accounts selling is fine - the mods explanation makes sense not to ban it - still, I agree, too many posts are in that direction. Maybe that should go to a contained area, which maybe is by default set on ignore for new users?
* The overall mood can't be good while some bought at 5-900$ and now it's.. less than 250$

3 simple solutions would be:
- newbie jail
- ban ponzis
- ban/moderate (OK, this is not simple) "sell now" "buy now" "dump is coming" threads - they are only simple daytrader FUD.

[newflesh]

Op is actually right. This forum is dying of AIDS:

This forum has AIDS and its own immune system is eating it alive. 

lol that's a classic quote, guess you can't please everyone. It's still a very active forum regardless of the influx of butt-coiners infesting the speculation board.

[Muhammed Zakir]

My feeling:
* There are a few established currency exchanges that don't need much to do, all goes OK and their activity usually mean bad things: errors, hacks, or just maintenance. So silence is good and reassuring there.

Everything can be hacked but the companies are distinguished on 'how they react to it and how they answer people'. Most of the people are using exchanges to trade.

* Yes, too many posts are scams or spam.

Not only new users, even Hero Members scam. It simple, "Scammers scam".

* Accounts selling is fine - the mods explanation makes sense not to ban it - still, I agree, too many posts are in that direction. Maybe that should go to a contained area, which maybe is by default set on ignore for new users?

New accounts are created to announce account sale for making their real account a secret. So blocking newbies from posting there is probably a bad idea.

* The overall mood can't be good while some bought at 5-900$ and now it's.. less than 250$

Many of them even bought at $0.1, maybe far lesser than it. I don't think it's a bad thing which affect users.

3 simple solutions would be:

There are many things which looks fine as solution but most of them won't fit in 'solutions'.

* Yes, too many posts are scams or spam. Some sort of newbie jail could help.
 =snip=
- newbie jail

Newbie jail is bad idea. There people who join this forum for asking doubt about technical things, to ask about companies, to announce/offer their service etc... The post and PM limitation currently is some sort of newbie jail and is working fine except for PMs - shouldn't allow newbies to send a PM without posting. A 20-30 seconds forced class about forum rules is probably better idea than newbie jail.

- ban ponzis

Bad and very hard idea. If you start banning, you will have to start banning cloud mining etc... It would be very hard for mods to investigate on every new cloud mining.

- ban/moderate (OK, this is not simple) "sell now" "buy now" "dump is coming" threads - they are only simple daytrader FUD.

Like you said it isn't simple but I didn't understand fully about your statement "they are only simple daytrader FUD".

   -MZ

[redsn0w]

No I don't think this forum is dying (but this is only my personal opinion). However if you think that it is dying, what is the "real & unique" problem which causes this thing will happen? I think the scammers and spammers.

[NeuroticFish]

I guess that I was far from clear....

My feeling:
* There are a few established currency exchanges that don't need much to do, all goes OK and their activity usually mean bad things: errors, hacks, or just maintenance. So silence is good and reassuring there.

Everything can be hacked but the companies are distinguished on 'how they react to it and how they answer people'. Most of the people are using exchanges to trade.

That's obvious. Just imho it's rather normal/good to have pretty "silent" threads about exchanges: not too many still come out and the big ones don't really have good news to share.
I use exchanges as well and I find them OK. But just seeing their threads with "we are still here" would be .. odd.
So imho silence there is fine.

* Yes, too many posts are scams or spam.

Not only new users, even Hero Members scam. It simple, "Scammers scam".

True. But a Hero member may be more careful to not get negative trust, while there are a lot of brand new accounts with 1-2 posts, only for a ponzi or a ref link to a faucet....
These are in the scam or spam area which can easily reduced.

* Accounts selling is fine - the mods explanation makes sense not to ban it - still, I agree, too many posts are in that direction. Maybe that should go to a contained area, which maybe is by default set on ignore for new users?

New accounts are created to announce account sale for making their real account a secret. So blocking newbies from posting there is probably a bad idea.

I don't want to forbid that for newbies. I want only to hide it by default, until they will get "old enough" to find the checkbox to uncheck.
But I just realized that people also come here without an account and then it will actually be visible....so my idea is actually not really useful 

* The overall mood can't be good while some bought at 5-900$ and now it's.. less than 250$

Many of them even bought at $0.1, maybe far lesser than it. I don't think it's a bad thing which affect users.

I wish I were around those days...
However, I think the "noisier" ones are the ones losing, and that makes the forum look somehow "depressed".

* Yes, too many posts are scams or spam. Some sort of newbie jail could help.
 =snip=
- newbie jail

Newbie jail is bad idea. There people who join this forum for asking doubt about technical things, to ask about companies, to announce/offer their service etc... The post and PM limitation currently is some sort of newbie jail and is working fine except for PMs - shouldn't allow newbies to send a PM without posting. A 20-30 seconds forced class about forum rules is probably better idea than newbie jail.

- ban ponzis

Bad and very hard idea. If you start banning, you will have to start banning cloud mining etc... It would be very hard for mods to investigate on every new cloud mining.

*sigh* you are right with both. I overlooked all the implications.

- ban/moderate (OK, this is not simple) "sell now" "buy now" "dump is coming" threads - they are only simple daytrader FUD.

Like you said it isn't simple but I didn't understand fully about your statement "they are only simple daytrader FUD".

   -MZ

By "daytrader FUD" I wanted to say that there only (weak) attempts (by spreading "news", usually FUD) made by some traders to affect the market in a way to make (more) profit.

There was another place where I used to hang around about one year ago. The FUD was always deleted by the mods promptly. (It didn't help the price of that coin, but that's a different story.) At least the place was "cleaner"... 

[Lauda]

You do realize that this is one of the bigger forums out there? We don't need it to have the same number of users as Facebook you know.

[Welsh]

I don't think the forum is dying, but rather your love for Bitcoin dying. The forum had less users, less active in 2011 and that was some of the best discussion we've had. Of course this is  to be expected as there is only a limited amount to speak about. To be quite honest at this moment in time I would rather a close knitted set of individuals. I don't think many people are panicking about the price, I haven't checked the price directly for many many months.

I don't know what you mean by the 'mood'. It depends what you read, something recently which I consider pretty positive is Elwar getting paid in Bitcoin, he doesn't seem to care about the relation with USD or any other fiat currency. Now if that isn't positive then I don't know what is. If only that was available outside of the US I'd be set.

The currency exchange section is going to drop off more when there are easier ways to purchase and sell Bitcoin. Spammers get dealt with if you report them, if there aren't any mods on it only takes a few hours at most for one to pop on. There's going to be scammers where ever you go, there's no stopping that.

[picolo]

I think the forum is following the graph of the Bitcoin sentiment.
I know my site did this also: The traffic spiked when Bitcoin's value spiked...and is currently kinda boring, relatively.

A big bank failing in Europe or the States, big riots, the price of BTC at 1000$ and we will have many new users and momentum.

[ajareselde]

If you look around you'll see the signs...
-currency exchange section is slower then ever.

There are increasing number of scams with person to person trades, so users may choose exchange as a better option

-posts are becoming more and more spam-like

well since there are such volatile moments lately, people tend to change their opinions with change of the wind blowing, thus creating spam mess
they get ignored or their posts deleted anyways, mods are doing a nice job with that

-people are selling their accounts left and right

yup, im also against that, because in the end u dont know with who you are talking to in the end, but as forum rules seam to allow it, theres nothing much that can be done.

-the overall mood just doesn't seem positive anymore

Bitcoin isnt rallying anymore at this time, and this is bitcoin forum, so many users have a loss, or small profit on their tradings..

I would be very interested in knowing if casinos or services using bitcoin have had a drop in the overall USD worth of the action / money spent over last couple months to support the above.

i dont thing they do if u count in bitcoins, but if u count in fiat value, they probably do. But markets tend to change, and it will pass..
as per https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions , number of transactions is rising, so you could interpret that as a very good thing.

Dont know what to say enymore, there are rainy days everywhere, why not here also? Its not like it was promised to be milk and honey all the time..

cheers

[bitgeek]

I know me personally, I haven't held bitcoin overnight in months and don't plan to anytime soon. As for forum use, I come on, but only for business-purposes to convert payments I've received in bitcoin to fiat. I got into bitcoin beginning of 2013 and once it hit $300 (on way up) is when I said overpriced and got out.

This nicely shows your bearish attitude. You don't hold bitcoin and immediately get rid of the ones you come upon. If you sold all you had for $300 you missed about 12 months of higher prices. No wonder you became bitter. There's a lot of people like you in here, especially in the speculation subforum. Maybe they can comfort you 

[BitcoinEXpress]

The only thing more predicted than the death of this forum has been the death of bitcoin itself.

This has to be thread #99 on this subject I know of since 2010 in these forums.


~BCX~

[freedomno1]

There are often quiet moments on this forum, I don't think it has died at all, there just isn't anything very exciting going on, if you see any spam posts just report them and move on, if Bitcoin rises again or does something you can expect people to spam the fuck out of this place.

Sounds about right could call this a tranquil period in the forum where a declining Bitcoin price and a ton of altcoin chatter has shifted the chat a bit, the influx of new users and their tech levels is also dropping a bit due to mainstream effects but it's a good thing overall.

This has to be thread #99 on this subject I know of since 2010 in these forums.
~BCX~

True enough but not often do we see it in meta

[BitcoinDistributor]

I know me personally, I haven't held bitcoin overnight in months and don't plan to anytime soon. As for forum use, I come on, but only for business-purposes to convert payments I've received in bitcoin to fiat. I got into bitcoin beginning of 2013 and once it hit $300 (on way up) is when I said overpriced and got out.

This nicely shows your bearish attitude. You don't hold bitcoin and immediately get rid of the ones you come upon. If you sold all you had for $300 you missed about 12 months of higher prices. No wonder you became bitter. There's a lot of people like you in here, especially in the speculation subforum. Maybe they can comfort you  

It is not that I am bearish or bullish, my problem is the liquidity issue and price variance this currency has now. No longer can someone sell 10,000 BTC at once and only move the currency 1% or whatever. Now if someone were to try to sell that much it would instantly drop all 13,000,000 or however many bitcoin are around now down at least 10%. I can't be in something where less then 1% of the total population being sold causes at least a 10% drop in the overall value of the entire population.

The liquidity isn't there anymore and neither is the stability. Although I will say for the last week this has been the most stable bitcoin has been in a long time. If there was higher volume instead of much much lower then usual volume then I'd actually consider buying a short-term call option in this situation.

Anyways, just my thoughts on bitcoin. I do need to make a purchase though so right now even with my bearish attitude as you say I am trying to acquire ~$650 of the currency (at whatever current market price is whether it be $1 or $1000).

[bitgeek]

People are afraid to keep money on exchanges after all the hacks and thefts. This means there's less open orders and a dump can move the price deeper, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. The coins are still being held, but instead of making fake walls they rest safely in their owners' wallets.
It's good to hear you're buying, maybe you're not so bearish after all

[RodeoX]

Hopefully people are realizing that coming here and asking "What computer buttons do I press to get rich?" is a useless exercise. If we are lucky the price will creep up slowly enough to stay out of the news. 

[TECSHARE]

The number of new users registered this month is at it's highest rate since March 2014, when it was at a all time high.

This couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Theymos removed the newbie jail now could it? Nah.

[Muhammed Zakir]

The number of new users registered this month is at it's highest rate since March 2014, when it was at a all time high.

This couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Theymos removed the newbie jail now could it? Nah.

What is the point of 'newbie jail' here? Are you making some sort of ironic sentence? IMHO theymos did right thing.

   -MZ

[carlosiness]

forum activity is related to cryptocurencies popularity/power..

[TECSHARE]

The number of new users registered this month is at it's highest rate since March 2014, when it was at a all time high.

This couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Theymos removed the newbie jail now could it? Nah.

What is the point of 'newbie jail' here? Are you making some sort of ironic sentence? IMHO theymos did right thing.

   -MZ

Not really sure what you are getting at. I am not even trying to debate whether it was a good or bad idea. My point is that increased registrations are a result of the removal of "newbie jail" and the corresponding farming of accounts, not because of genuine forum activity picking up.

[Quickseller]

The number of new users registered this month is at it's highest rate since March 2014, when it was at a all time high.

This couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Theymos removed the newbie jail now could it? Nah.

I am sure it does have to do with the lack of newbie jail but that was removed a long time ago, over a year (?) now.

[Muhammed Zakir]

Not really sure what you are getting at. I am not even trying to debate whether it was a good or bad idea. My point is that increased registrations are a result of the removal of "newbie jail" and the corresponding farming of accounts, not because of genuine forum activity picking up.

I am sure it does have to do with the lack of newbie jail but that was removed a long time ago, over a year (?) now.

I am not in a debate too. Yes, you both are right but IMHO now newbies can go straight into the thing they want, Technical Support, Dev & Tech Discussion, Services etc... and yes they can start a scam too. They are like a coin with two sides, almost everything has both advantage and disadvantage.

    -MZ

[dogie]

Not really sure what you are getting at. I am not even trying to debate whether it was a good or bad idea. My point is that increased registrations are a result of the removal of "newbie jail" and the corresponding farming of accounts, not because of genuine forum activity picking up.

I am sure it does have to do with the lack of newbie jail but that was removed a long time ago, over a year (?) now.

I am not in a debate too. Yes, you both are right but IMHO now newbies can go straight into the thing they want, Technical Support, Dev & Tech Discussion, Services etc... and yes they can start a scam too. They are like a coin with two sides, almost everything has both advantage and disadvantage.

    -MZ

And newbie jail didn't protect against that, it just delayed them a few days. I remember I graduated newbie jail pretty quickly.

[Wardrick]

This made me think of the rise and fall in popularity of Texas Hold Em'. I remember a few years back it was taking off because of all the hype and then it slowly started dying down until now where it's stayed pretty stable. People realized that you couldn't just start playing and make a bunch of money. Hopefully BTC won't suffer the same fate, however I think if the price fluctuation of Bitcoin continues that it eventually will. It would be interesting to see the percentages of what people are actually using Bitcoin for.

[Gleb Gamow]

This page here shows the number of new signups and new posts per month:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=stats

There has been a noticeable drop the past few months, but I guess it's due to the end of bubble-mania.

As stated, I stumbled upon this fact by accident, unrelated to anything I've read on this forum: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=970562.0

[hilariousandco]

And newbie jail didn't protect against that, it just delayed them a few days. I remember I graduated newbie jail pretty quickly.

A few days? I think it was initially four hours browsing time and few posts but then was reduced to just one post I think before being removed completely. There are pros and cons to it but it probably turned many users away instantly and only confined the spam to beginners and help for a short while before they quickly broke free.

[freedomno1]

And newbie jail didn't protect against that, it just delayed them a few days. I remember I graduated newbie jail pretty quickly.

A few days? I think it was initially four hours browsing time and few posts but then was reduced to just one post I think before being removed completely. There are pros and cons to it but it probably turned many users away instantly and only confined the spam to beginners and help for a short while before they quickly broke free.

Newbie jail was a long hell
Remembers it was a four hour accumulated browsing time, with post limitations directly related to the accumulated browsing time
It took a while to get out of that status too  (Although Dogie might have lurked a lot so it was fast as heck to get out of if you were reading topics XD)
Anyways it held back a lot of users at the same time it was a damn effective spam filter, the effect might be less now though considering how many accounts have broken through newbie jail since it was last implemented.
(Aka past it a while ago and are on standby)

The main benefit was that the conversations were usually of a higher level since people had to read and learn, then after a while gain the experience and knowledge to actually participate in conversations.
Also lot less stupid questions since people learned how to use the quick search since they couldn't just ask away

[PenguinFire]

I am a newbie and I didn't go straight for the buying/selling/services board.   

[chaosknight]

i agree that forum is getting more spam and scammers, admin should add extra security for new registration and enable limitation for newbies
if possible then stop the new registration for few months as changing avatar is stopped

[BitCoinNutJob]

If you look around you'll see the signs...

-currency exchange section is slower then ever.
-posts are becoming more and more spam-like
-people are selling their accounts left and right
-the overall mood just doesn't seem positive anymore

To address some points:

The posts in certain sections are still high quality, even on reddit bitcoin you get a ton of BS posts.

More people have acounts with higher activity then ever before so the supply is up as time has gone by.

The mood is a little low overall due to the biggest bear market in bitcoin history lets not forget.

Another point would be the eco system has spread out so perhaps a certain % communicate about bitcoin on other platforms.

[medUSA]

The Forum is Dying

I admit their are too many FUD/spam posts everyday, the forum is not dying. There are still good quality posts and discussions going on, you need to dig deep and look for them.

I am sure it does have to do with the lack of newbie jail but that was removed a long time ago, over a year (?) now.

I agree. I went through newbie jail, hated it at the time, it was useful. The lack of newbie jail makes it so easy to register an army of alts and make the whole forum a spamming playground.

[haploid23]

And newbie jail didn't protect against that, it just delayed them a few days. I remember I graduated newbie jail pretty quickly.

A few days? I think it was initially four hours browsing time and few posts but then was reduced to just one post I think before being removed completely. There are pros and cons to it but it probably turned many users away instantly and only confined the spam to beginners and help for a short while before they quickly broke free.

You guys think newbie jail during your times was bad? When I registered, they didn't even have newbie jail yet and I was free to post anywhere. Then it was implemented a few weeks later, and I got thrown in newb jail. The worst part was that we had to request to get out, and the rule was to give a reason why you deserve to be let out lol. You can tell the truth, or just BS anything. Mods had to whitelist people manually, and were slow to do it.

One of the most inefficient systems implemented right after registration.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=15911.msg251582#msg251582

[Muhammed Zakir]

And newbie jail didn't protect against that, it just delayed them a few days. I remember I graduated newbie jail pretty quickly.

A few days? I think it was initially four hours browsing time and few posts but then was reduced to just one post I think before being removed completely. There are pros and cons to it but it probably turned many users away instantly and only confined the spam to beginners and help for a short while before they quickly broke free.

You guys think newbie jail during your times was bad? When I registered, they didn't even have newbie jail yet and I was free to post anywhere. Then it was implemented a few weeks later, and I got thrown in newb jail. The worst part was that we had to request to get out, and the rule was to give a reason why you deserve to be let out lol. You can tell the truth, or just BS anything. Mods had to whitelist people manually, and were slow to do it.

One of the most inefficient systems implemented right after registration.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=15911.msg251582#msg251582

Were you whitelisted?

P.S. I like your request in that post! +1.

   -MZ

[Amph]

If you look around you'll see the signs...

-currency exchange section is slower then ever.
-posts are becoming more and more spam-like
-people are selling their accounts left and right
-the overall mood just doesn't seem positive anymore

I know me personally, I haven't held bitcoin overnight in months and don't plan to anytime soon. As for forum use, I come on, but only for business-purposes to convert payments I've received in bitcoin to fiat. I got into bitcoin beginning of 2013 and once it hit $300 (on way up) is when I said overpriced and got out.

Its a good idea however the price fluctuations honestly I think are what makes bitcoin unable to sustain being a growing currency. No one wants to go to sleep at night and every morning worry "Did I just lose 10% or more of my money overnight?". My margins are 10% and overnight a couple weeks ago I said what the hell I'll just leave it in bitcoin and I woke up and down 10%+. I lost my profit on my sale + more...what business owner is ever going to want to take that risk? From then on I converted all payments to fiat on exchanges and then sell for fiat to people here and LBC (not converting back to bitcoin until I find a person willing to buy said bitcoin).

Its sad really - I had high hopes for this currency and when it was stable around $100 for a long time is when I truly believed in it. It was relative stable. We'll see if it ever revives, honestly I doubt it. Biggest problems by far: liquidity and price stability

I would be very interested in knowing if casinos or services using bitcoin have had a drop in the overall USD worth of the action / money spent over last couple months to support the above.

the bitcoin fall caused that, along with the dead scene of the altcoin section, which turned in a bunch of faggot devs who try to scam only, via malicious code, also too many of them turned the market in a far west with a high dilution in price

[freedomno1]

And newbie jail didn't protect against that, it just delayed them a few days. I remember I graduated newbie jail pretty quickly.

A few days? I think it was initially four hours browsing time and few posts but then was reduced to just one post I think before being removed completely. There are pros and cons to it but it probably turned many users away instantly and only confined the spam to beginners and help for a short while before they quickly broke free.

You guys think newbie jail during your times was bad? When I registered, they didn't even have newbie jail yet and I was free to post anywhere. Then it was implemented a few weeks later, and I got thrown in newb jail. The worst part was that we had to request to get out, and the rule was to give a reason why you deserve to be let out lol. You can tell the truth, or just BS anything. Mods had to whitelist people manually, and were slow to do it.

One of the most inefficient systems implemented right after registration.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=15911.msg251582#msg251582

But the whitelist worked fine
Just had to post a technical question in that section and you got whistled right on through since I did that lol.

You have been manually whitelisted by a moderator. You can now post in the regular sections.

(This is an automated message.)

[SaltySpitoon]

But the whitelist worked fine
Just had to post a technical question in that section and you got whistled right on through since I did that lol.

You have been manually whitelisted by a moderator. You can now post in the regular sections.

(This is an automated message.)

Ehh, I was a moderator luckily only for a few months with the whitelist system, and it was not fun. I remember going through newbie jail, I dont think it had a post requirement at the time, I just left Bitcointalk open for 4 hours and just went and did something else. I also delayed signing up for a few months, using a friends account because I didn't feel like going through newbie jail. People don't seem to realize that getting rid of newbie jail doesn't really change much, it just delays spammers/bots by 4 hours, so essentially after 4 hours of changing the newbie jail system, things would go back to normal. Anyway, report bots/spammers/account farmers if you see them. There are a few staff members who are really good at purging large numbers of spammers at once. Report one, and 20 will go away quickly.

[Lorenzo]

If you look around you'll see the signs...

-currency exchange section is slower then ever.
-posts are becoming more and more spam-like
-people are selling their accounts left and right
-the overall mood just doesn't seem positive anymore

I know me personally, I haven't held bitcoin overnight in months and don't plan to anytime soon. As for forum use, I come on, but only for business-purposes to convert payments I've received in bitcoin to fiat. I got into bitcoin beginning of 2013 and once it hit $300 (on way up) is when I said overpriced and got out.

Its a good idea however the price fluctuations honestly I think are what makes bitcoin unable to sustain being a growing currency. No one wants to go to sleep at night and every morning worry "Did I just lose 10% or more of my money overnight?". My margins are 10% and overnight a couple weeks ago I said what the hell I'll just leave it in bitcoin and I woke up and down 10%+. I lost my profit on my sale + more...what business owner is ever going to want to take that risk? From then on I converted all payments to fiat on exchanges and then sell for fiat to people here and LBC (not converting back to bitcoin until I find a person willing to buy said bitcoin).

Its sad really - I had high hopes for this currency and when it was stable around $100 for a long time is when I truly believed in it. It was relative stable. We'll see if it ever revives, honestly I doubt it. Biggest problems by far: liquidity and price stability

I would be very interested in knowing if casinos or services using bitcoin have had a drop in the overall USD worth of the action / money spent over last couple months to support the above.

I take it you weren't on these forums in late 2011?

The spike in November attracted a huge amount of new users to these forums. Same thing happened in 2011 when the world found out about Bitcoin for the first time. After the price skyrocketed to over $33 in June 2011 and then crashed and continued falling all the way down to $3, the tone of the posts in the forums suddenly went all gloomy and negative and activity went down. Well, the same thing is happening right now.

Some examples:

At what pricepoint is bitcoin dead?

At present difficulty levels, for me personally, anything below $8-$10/BTC is mostly a waste of time mining wise.  The video cards are paid for, but at 0.50 BTC a day, I'm getting what, $60 a month so basically just covering electric.

As the price continues to fall like the last month or two, at what point should we consider it "dead"?

Link: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47480

Bitcoin will never reach $20 again

This is why I have liquidated my position in Bitcoins.  There is very little upside going forward.  No forward moves of late have any traction whatsoever and demand continues to lag.  Way too little upside for such a risky proposition so my advice is to move into dollars.  Only a significant change in the economy could alter this forecast.

Link: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=27348

[Raize]

I take it you weren't on these forums in late 2011?

I don't think he was. The sentiment was really poor as you noted. I even made the argument that miners would start purchasing coins if difficulty fell too low in late 2011 and people thought I was insane back then. I could make a similar statement today and people would similarly disagree that there are both people willing to mine at a loss and former miners willing to buy to support the price.

On the topic of newbie jail, when did it first start? I don't seem to remember it and I've only been around maybe just a little bit longer than the rest of you, I thought.

[picolo]

I take it you weren't on these forums in late 2011?

I don't think he was. The sentiment was really poor as you noted. I even made the argument that miners would start purchasing coins if difficulty fell too low in late 2011 and people thought I was insane back then. I could make a similar statement today and people would similarly disagree that there are both people willing to mine at a loss and former miners willing to buy to support the price.

On the topic of newbie jail, when did it first start? I don't seem to remember it and I've only been around maybe just a little bit longer than the rest of you, I thought.

The forum is up and running fine. The price is recovering slowly but steadily. The near future looks bright.