In 2015, faucets are bad for bitcoin

[ajareselde]

Faucets are not bad, imho, because they give option to newcomers that never has a chance to deal with bitcoin to explore how its like.
They're not hurting BTC reputation, since anyone who tries out faucet will see its dust money, and it isnt giving away money for free.

U can do the same with fiat, placing a faucet that gives away fiat money, and manage to finance the site with ad revenue, would it hurt fiat if u did that ? i think not.
(actually u cant do that because minimum send is 0,01 when dealing with fiat , btc wins with k.o. again)

cheers

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[futureofbitcoin]

There may be something even worse than faucets, and that's signature campaigns below posts on this forum. I'm using them, so I can't criticize much, but it's sad to see people writing new posts obviously without reading what's been said already.

Anyway, my case is solid. I gave 2 arguments why faucets are bad for BTC, and nobody so far have proved them wrong.

LOL. You have no idea what an argument is. You have no case at all, since you gave no argument. All you said was that faucets only give a very small amount of bitcoins.

How does that invalidate faucets in any way? We might as well get rid of all minimum wage jobs, since these people earn a lot less than CEOs and Bankers.

You have not logically shown how facuets are bad for bitcoin (and they aren't), thus you don't have an argument. Try again.

[jeffhuys]

Faucets give people bitcoin to experiment with.

This is everything that needs to be said. When I first started, did I get thousands of bitcoin? No. I got 0.0001, and immediately gambled it every time. One time, I won 0.01, and that was the start of my "bitcoin career". I got it up to 0.74 or something before "investing" in f'n LABCOIN. I quit bitcoin around then, I was too pissed off. Now I'm back again. Hi! 

[Bizmark13]

There may be something even worse than faucets, and that's signature campaigns below posts on this forum. I'm using them, so I can't criticize much, but it's sad to see people writing new posts obviously without reading what's been said already.

Anyway, my case is solid. I gave 2 arguments why faucets are bad for BTC, and nobody so far have proved them wrong.

The signature campaigns wouldn't be an issue if the people running them would actually evaluate posts. Instead, they promote this idea that everyone should spam as much as possible to earn the most they can.

What they should be doing is:

1) Evaluating posts for quality
2) Removing low-quality posts from the payouts
3) Increasing pay for legitimate posts

This would boost forum post quality, increase earnings for those that aren't abusing the system, and still result in savings for whoever is running the campaigns.

The sad part is nobody wants to do this, and the forums are degrading more and more daily because of it.

It's a bit off-topic but since the point was introduced by the OP, I'll chime in.

While your idea sounds nice, I would think that it would simply consume far too much time and energy to check each and every single post except for the smallest of campaigns. And it might not be enough to check just the post itself to see if it was constructive or not because sometimes you have to read the entire thread to see where exactly the post fits in and whether or not it actually adds to the discussion. That would require a full-time manager working several hours per day which would increase the expenses of the campaign considerably. In fact, the trend is now towards more automation - presumably since that cuts down on manager/escrow costs.

And I'm not sure if I agree with you that the forums are degrading more and more. The introduction of signature campaigns did degrade the quality of posts but we have had plenty of time to reach a plateau. Signature campaigns aren't a new thing, and even back in 2013-2014, people were spamming their PrimeDice sigs all over the forum.

[ranlo]

There may be something even worse than faucets, and that's signature campaigns below posts on this forum. I'm using them, so I can't criticize much, but it's sad to see people writing new posts obviously without reading what's been said already.

Anyway, my case is solid. I gave 2 arguments why faucets are bad for BTC, and nobody so far have proved them wrong.

The signature campaigns wouldn't be an issue if the people running them would actually evaluate posts. Instead, they promote this idea that everyone should spam as much as possible to earn the most they can.

What they should be doing is:

1) Evaluating posts for quality
2) Removing low-quality posts from the payouts
3) Increasing pay for legitimate posts

This would boost forum post quality, increase earnings for those that aren't abusing the system, and still result in savings for whoever is running the campaigns.

The sad part is nobody wants to do this, and the forums are degrading more and more daily because of it.

It's a bit off-topic but since the point was introduced by the OP, I'll chime in.

While your idea sounds nice, I would think that it would simply consume far too much time and energy to check each and every single post except for the smallest of campaigns. And it might not be enough to check just the post itself to see if it was constructive or not because sometimes you have to read the entire thread to see where exactly the post fits in and whether or not it actually adds to the discussion. That would require a full-time manager working several hours per day which would increase the expenses of the campaign considerably. In fact, the trend is now towards more automation - presumably since that cuts down on manager/escrow costs.

And I'm not sure if I agree with you that the forums are degrading more and more. The introduction of signature campaigns did degrade the quality of posts but we have had plenty of time to reach a plateau. Signature campaigns aren't a new thing, and even back in 2013-2014, people were spamming their PrimeDice sigs all over the forum.

An alternative would be to have a few moderators (or even one, really) that actually bans spammers. It's pretty obvious who is spamming and who isn't. I can't count the number of times there will be a thread about, for example, a new dice site, and someone will post a message like "i like cars." These things are obvious, yet always go unpunished.

[needFREElunch]

I think fauctes are a waste of time for most people other than spreading the word of bit-coin and teaching new users they don't do much else.

[steven.G999]

I think fauctes are a waste of time for most people other than spreading the word of bit-coin and teaching new users they don't do much else.

yes it is a huge waste of time, but it's not for a master faucet, he could make a great income, from playing a lot faucet and have many referrals every faucet.

but I am not sure it will last a long referral, because he does not get a lot like a master faucet

[RedhatCAT]

Faucet is not worth time & enegry, but it needed to introduce newbie to understand bitcoin
But, after they realize faucet is not worth. They would search better way to earn bitcoin like gambling with faucet / do signature campaign

You are correct in saying that faucets are a very good way to get people to become knowledgeable about bitcoin as several faucets do contain good information about bitcoin and how bitcoin works. However faucets quickly become something that causes someone to make very little BTC - well under the amount that one would expect to earn in a minimum wage job

I think only owner of faucet & miner are the one who get profit from faucet

I am not quite sure what you are saying here, but I think it is safe to say that I disagree

[calci]

I think faucets are even more important now.  New users need some bitcoins to experiment with and encourage them to learn about how to use it.  Early on they could get some coins by mining but now that is impossible.

It is unfortunate that bots can exploit the faucets as I think they help our community grow.

Thats actually the case with anything, including free giveaways etc.
Its impossible or rather very hard to exclude the bots from taking advantage as there are always way around, and other than the IP, almost impossible to know its the same user who claimed the faucet just a minute back

[BTC_123]

When BTC started, nobody had any and it was worthless, so it was right to give away thousands of BTC to make it popular. All that has changed. Now that BTC's worth something, now that companies are building on BTC, now that serious business transactions are made with bitcoin, it's about time for faucets to adapt.

BTC is real. It's money, and you've got to work to earn some. I hope all faucets will disappear in 2015. Faucets are hurting bitcoin by making some people believing you can get it while doing nothing sitting in your home. No, BTC isn't like that, and it shouldn't be any easier to get than any fiat currency. Even for small amounts.

I think BTCmust have good future

[Ingatqhvq]

 faucets is just waste people's time.
You can't even pay the transaction fee for many  faucet time.

[Berau]

faucets is just waste people's time.

But some people just have too much time, they would rather waste it for a small amount of money.

[Bizmark13]

I think faucets are even more important now.  New users need some bitcoins to experiment with and encourage them to learn about how to use it.  Early on they could get some coins by mining but now that is impossible.

It is unfortunate that bots can exploit the faucets as I think they help our community grow.

Thats actually the case with anything, including free giveaways etc.
Its impossible or rather very hard to exclude the bots from taking advantage as there are always way around, and other than the IP, almost impossible to know its the same user who claimed the faucet just a minute back

Actually not even IP addresses are sufficient proof that two accounts are separate or that an account isn't a bot. There are bitcoin faucet bots being advertised (e.g. link) which use proxies and various other techniques to evade detection:

The bot is using highly anonymous proxies, different user agents (browser signatures), advanced techniques to create the illusion that all the accounts managed by the auto-collecting bot are in fact different accounts signed up and managed by different people.

[steven.G999]

faucets is just waste people's time.

But some people just have too much time, they would rather waste it for a small amount of money.

yes true, because most bitcoin users who play faucet she always had many a time, he could be unemployed. ya like me this his example

[neoneros]

There may be something even worse than faucets, and that's signature campaigns below posts on this forum. I'm using them, so I can't criticize much, but it's sad to see people writing new posts obviously without reading what's been said already.

Anyway, my case is solid. I gave 2 arguments why faucets are bad for BTC, and nobody so far have proved them wrong.

The signature campaigns wouldn't be an issue if the people running them would actually evaluate posts. Instead, they promote this idea that everyone should spam as much as possible to earn the most they can.

What they should be doing is:

1) Evaluating posts for quality
2) Removing low-quality posts from the payouts
3) Increasing pay for legitimate posts

This would boost forum post quality, increase earnings for those that aren't abusing the system, and still result in savings for whoever is running the campaigns.

The sad part is nobody wants to do this, and the forums are degrading more and more daily because of it.

It's a slipping slide(slope), forum moderators could use this in every thread, but who decides what is low quality? Bad english because someone is not a native speaker? Non sig campaign bad posts? There are plenty of tolling posts and topics started without the incentive being a sig campaign.

1) Quality is too personal, obvious trolls and spammer might be easily spotted, but when does a post meets certain criteria it is 'quality'. This is not measurable.
2) This is for the campaing managers, that could be done, based on their personal insight and does sometimes happen, BUT:
3) Most is automated and not doable and too time consuming. Often sig campagains only count one reply per topic, so spamming a topic is not profitable.

Your points are all ok in an ideal world where everyone thinks the same and time is a plenty. But is not maintainable in the real world.

[erpbridge]

I would agree faucets aren't the best of things for now. When I got introduced to bitcoin in 2011-2012, I definitely used to think that they acutally are good for a new person being introduced to bitcoin like me.
But now it doesn't really feel worth it.

[true-asset]

The problem is that most faucets will not let you withdraw until you reach 0.001, which can take over a week of viewing ads, clicking around and wasting lots of time in general.

[j.jaymes]

I tried using faucets when I started, but they took too much time and/or never really payed out. While the concept is nice to get people started, long term seems like not so much so. Its easier to just buy some instead of waiting for handouts that never come.

[neoneros]

The problem is that most faucets will not let you withdraw until you reach 0.001, which can take over a week of viewing ads, clicking around and wasting lots of time in general.

It is not a problem, though 0.001 is a  bit much, it contributes to downing the amount of dust in your wallet, which is a good thing! Wasting time is how you percieve it, if it is, stop wasting. I use faucets without wasting time, on my commute I visit some, if I need to clear my mind at work or at home, when I am waiting for an install or download.. it is not wasted, it is pennies for time, but it kills time more easily, I have other means of 'wasting' time, I play some games, doodle or stare out of the window, but they do not give me any pennies

[countryfree]

The problem is that most faucets will not let you withdraw until you reach 0.001, which can take over a week of viewing ads, clicking around and wasting lots of time in general.

Very true!

This is my point. I haven't said that faucets give very little money. I said faucets give users a bad experience, and that they're bad for image.

You may also note that all the original faucets are gone. I believe the original faucet, the one managed by Gavin Andresen shut down in Summer 2013.