What did theymos do with 200K?

[abyrnes81]

Slickage = unknown startup which doesn't even have a website on its own. 4 developers, $375k per year per developer.

Well played

So, theymos is kind of a multi millionaire huh.

^^^ The first quote says it all.

Sorry, but it just doesn't make sense.....

I hate to quote my self but...

WTF happened to 1.5M dollars?

Have you read all the thread? 1.5 mln dollars for the new forum software 'open source'.

[S4VV4S]

Slickage = unknown startup which doesn't even have a website on its own. 4 developers, $375k per year per developer.

Well played

So, theymos is kind of a multi millionaire huh.

^^^ The first quote says it all.

Sorry, but it just doesn't make sense.....

I hate to quote my self but...

WTF happened to 1.5M dollars?

Have you read all the thread? 1.5 mln dollars for the new forum software 'open source'.

Are you shitting me?

1.5M for basically nothing?

Once again....
Why did 1.5M of users donations went to a "startup" company that Theymos chose?

[SaltySpitoon]

Slickage = unknown startup which doesn't even have a website on its own. 4 developers, $375k per year per developer.

Well played

So, theymos is kind of a multi millionaire huh.

^^^ The first quote says it all.

Sorry, but it just doesn't make sense.....

I hate to quote my self but...

WTF happened to 1.5M dollars?

Have you read all the thread? 1.5 mln dollars for the new forum software 'open source'.

Are you shitting me?

1.5M for basically nothing?

Once again....
Why did 1.5M of users donations went to a "startup" company that Theymos chose?

Because all donations (and advertising revenue which was the majority of what was used) was raised for the sole purpose of getting new forum software. I'd assume Theymos talked to Slickage and decided that they had the ability to get it done right.

[Pushtheghost]

What doesn't make sense in my mind is why Theymos and Bitcointalk want to pay $1,500,000 for a forum software that they are going to publish as an open source code for others to use. That's ridiculous! If you're paying millions of dollars to have a piece of software built, you sure as hell don't give it away for free! At least IMO.

To put things into perspective, Lithium software, which is the software used at most big company "support" forums, like answers.ea.com, Skype Support forums etc, was estimated to have a total cost of $2,300,000 to develop. This is slightly over 50% more than the new Bitcointalk forum software, however, Lithium has almost unlimited restrictions in terms of features, and they lease this software to companies from anywhere between $2,000-$20,000 per month.

Crazy, huh?

[hilariousandco]

What doesn't make sense in my mind is why Theymos and Bitcointalk want to pay $1,500,000 for a forum software that they are going to publish as an open source code for others to use. That's ridiculous! If you're paying millions of dollars to have a piece of software built, you sure as hell don't give it away for free! At least IMO.

Why not? Bitcoin is centered around open source software. Should satoshi have charged people to use bitcoin? Not everything has to have capitalistic motives as well, though if theymos wanted to make more money surely he would have planned to charge people to use the software?

To put things into perspective, Lithium software, which is the software used at most big company "support" forums, like answers.ea.com, Skype Support forums etc, was estimated to have a total cost of $2,300,000 to develop. This is slightly over 50% more than the new Bitcointalk forum software, however, Lithium has almost unlimited restrictions in terms of features, and they lease this software to companies from anywhere between $2,000-$20,000 per month.

Crazy, huh?

I don't know why anyone would pay this much to use forum software. Maybe in the future companies or organizations wont have to pay anything because of open source software like this one. That's the true beauty of it. 

[Pushtheghost]

Why not? Bitcoin is centered around open source software. Should satoshi have charged people to use bitcoin? Not everything has to have capitalistic motives as well, though if theymos wanted to make more money surely he would have planned to charge people to use the software?

You're correct. Open source software is great. However Satoshi didn't pay a development team $1,500,000 to create the bitcoin network & software. There's a big difference in those comparisons. Capitalistic motives aren't necessary, why not keep the software unique to this forum & don't allow others the chance to reap the rewards of a one and a half million dollar software package?

I don't know why anyone would pay this much to use forum software. Maybe in the future companies or organizations wont have to pay anything because of open source software like this one. That's the true beauty of it. 

Because they are companies and need massive control and functionality on their websites, and Lithium is the only software on the market right now that offers the extensive functionality that these companies require. People think vBulletin is functional and customizable... well I suggest you take a look at some of the moderation and administration tools on Lithium... simply flawless!

[AT101ET]

Well you can say that he found a way to have fun with the avatar system.
Even if that will be the only change, I'd say money well spent. 

[QuestionAuthority]

Why not? Bitcoin is centered around open source software. Should satoshi have charged people to use bitcoin? Not everything has to have capitalistic motives as well, though if theymos wanted to make more money surely he would have planned to charge people to use the software?

You're correct. Open source software is great. However Satoshi didn't pay a development team $1,500,000 to create the bitcoin network & software. There's a big difference in those comparisons. Capitalistic motives aren't necessary, why not keep the software unique to this forum & don't allow others the chance to reap the rewards of a one and a half million dollar software package?

I don't know why anyone would pay this much to use forum software. Maybe in the future companies or organizations wont have to pay anything because of open source software like this one. That's the true beauty of it. 

Because they are companies and need massive control and functionality on their websites, and Lithium is the only software on the market right now that offers the extensive functionality that these companies require. People think vBulletin is functional and customizable... well I suggest you take a look at some of the moderation and administration tools on Lithium... simply flawless!

Are you saying they are using Lithium which is closed source? Jive and Lithium are enterprise level platforms which have enterprise level complexities in implementation and cost which is not warranted for a small community forum. Even then Lithium has a starting price at $50k not $1.5m.

[Pushtheghost]

Are you saying they are using Lithium which is closed source? Jive and Lithium are enterprise level platforms which have enterprise level complexities in implementation and cost which is not warranted for a small community forum. Even then Lithium has a starting price at $50k not $1.5m.

But what relevance does that have to anything I said? Yes most of these companies are using Lithium. Yes, Lithium is closed source. Yes, they are using this platform because of the extensive capabilities and massive feature list.

You say it's not warranted for a small community forum, you're correct. Yet, this is no small community forum, in fact, it's in the top 25 forums in the world right now in terms of user activity. Probably much higher than that even.

Notice my reply was directed at the quote by "hilariousandco" which stated that he thinks that possibly in the future businesses who require these massive sites for their support infrastructure will turn to open source software. I was merely stating that isn't likely to be the case because no open source software is ever going to come close to what a licensed software can do.

[QuestionAuthority]

Are you saying they are using Lithium which is closed source? Jive and Lithium are enterprise level platforms which have enterprise level complexities in implementation and cost which is not warranted for a small community forum. Even then Lithium has a starting price at $50k not $1.5m.

But what relevance does that have to anything I said? Yes most of these companies are using Lithium. Yes, Lithium is closed source. Yes, they are using this platform because of the extensive capabilities and massive feature list.

You say it's not warranted for a small community forum, you're correct. Yet, this is no small community forum, in fact, it's in the top 25 forums in the world right now in terms of user activity. Probably much higher than that even.

Notice my reply was directed at the quote by "hilariousandco" which stated that he thinks that possibly in the future businesses who require these massive sites for their support infrastructure will turn to open source software. I was merely stating that isn't likely to be the case because no open source software is ever going to come close to what a licensed software can do.

Ah, sorry I misunderstood what you were talking about.

[SaltySpitoon]

You're correct. Open source software is great. However Satoshi didn't pay a development team $1,500,000 to create the bitcoin network & software. There's a big difference in those comparisons. Capitalistic motives aren't necessary, why not keep the software unique to this forum & don't allow others the chance to reap the rewards of a one and a half million dollar software package?

This is a forum, we dont have capitalistic motives either.

Are you saying they are using Lithium which is closed source? Jive and Lithium are enterprise level platforms which have enterprise level complexities in implementation and cost which is not warranted for a small community forum. Even then Lithium has a starting price at $50k not $1.5m.

But what relevance does that have to anything I said? Yes most of these companies are using Lithium. Yes, Lithium is closed source. Yes, they are using this platform because of the extensive capabilities and massive feature list.

You say it's not warranted for a small community forum, you're correct. Yet, this is no small community forum, in fact, it's in the top 25 forums in the world right now in terms of user activity. Probably much higher than that even.

Notice my reply was directed at the quote by "hilariousandco" which stated that he thinks that possibly in the future businesses who require these massive sites for their support infrastructure will turn to open source software. I was merely stating that isn't likely to be the case because no open source software is ever going to come close to what a licensed software can do.

We will see, wont we? 

[Pushtheghost]

We will see, wont we? 

Indeed, I guess. I take the above statement from this post made by theymos himself:

I expect that (especially after all this time) most people will be disappointed when the switchover happens because there won't be any major feature improvements over the current forum. My huge list of requirements will be met, but there's nothing groundbreaking in there. Building something (a little more than) feature-equal to SMF (which has been in development for over 10 years) isn't easy. But the new forum software is much more extensible and secure, so any future enhancements should be much easier to do.

I simply wouldn't want people to get too overexcited about the change. It does stun me slightly that the site would pay $1,500,000 for a software package that won't (at least immediately) offer any real feature improvements. However, each to their own, and as previously stated, the funds need to be used somewhere, so why not upgrade the forum software to the best available.

[dogie]

Why not? Bitcoin is centered around open source software. Should satoshi have charged people to use bitcoin? Not everything has to have capitalistic motives as well, though if theymos wanted to make more money surely he would have planned to charge people to use the software?

Lets be honest, Satoshi probably did have some capitalistic motives when he put out the white-paper. He imagined it could be a future payment network and put himself in a position that if it did take off, he'd be well seated.

Notice my reply was directed at the quote by "hilariousandco" which stated that he thinks that possibly in the future businesses who require these massive sites for their support infrastructure will turn to open source software. I was merely stating that isn't likely to be the case because no open source software is ever going to come close to what a licensed software can do.

We will see, wont we? 

I for one am very much looking forward to breaking the hell out of the formatting side of things. And hopefully we will finally get tables that don't have to be ghetto modded to do anything useful.

[hilariousandco]

Why not? Bitcoin is centered around open source software. Should satoshi have charged people to use bitcoin? Not everything has to have capitalistic motives as well, though if theymos wanted to make more money surely he would have planned to charge people to use the software?

You're correct. Open source software is great. However Satoshi didn't pay a development team $1,500,000 to create the bitcoin network & software. There's a big difference in those comparisons. Capitalistic motives aren't necessary, why not keep the software unique to this forum & don't allow others the chance to reap the rewards of a one and a half million dollar software package?

Sounds pretty greedy and still seems to be coming from a capitalist mentality that if they can't make money from it then it should be kept exclusive. Why should it be kept so? The money that paid for it all came from donations so it's development has already been pretty altruistic.

Why not? Bitcoin is centered around open source software. Should satoshi have charged people to use bitcoin? Not everything has to have capitalistic motives as well, though if theymos wanted to make more money surely he would have planned to charge people to use the software?

Lets be honest, Satoshi probably did have some capitalistic motives when he put out the white-paper. He imagined it could be a future payment network and put himself in a position that if it did take off, he'd be well seated.

I think if he was just wanting to get rich quick he would have dumped his coins long ago but maybe he is bitcoins biggest believer and hodler? I think we've best hope he isn't  .

[dothebeats]

man are they reinventing the wheel? This forum (SMF) is free to use, why the hell would anyone spend that much money on new forum code? Why not donate it to smf and work with the devs there to make it better?
Obviously it has held up quite well for the last 5 years too; which seems like a pretty good testament to the code.

Yes, we are creating a completely new forum software to compete with SMF. SMF has a lot of issues, it just isn't suitable for our needs. As far as how much money it costs, I hope that it will be well worth it, but frankly, creating new forum software is pretty much the only thing that the donated coins are to be used for. What else do we need? Might as well go all out.

Those donations are for the forum, though, so might as well spend all of those for the development of the forum rather than any other nonsense and useless crap. The $1.5m dollar should be good, because I can't stand it if ever the new forum software is almost identical to what we have right now. Hoping for the best out of that pretty good sum.

[LiteCoinGuy]

He was most likely using those funds to pay slickage, the company that is designing the new forum.

That was my first guess. But 200K for a website? Holy Crap, this is going to be amazing  

Well they have been in development for several months so we can expect something good. My hopes are high.

any news when this forum will launch? before 2020   ?

"Slickage = unknown startup which doesn't even have a website on its own. 4 developers, $375k per year per developer."

maybe the Slickage guys and themos are good friends and share some money...? honestly: it is a little bit strange to choose an unknown startup and give them so much money. there are better companies for that job.

[Lauda]

Well they have been in development for several months so we can expect something good. My hopes are high.

any news when this forum will launch? before 2020   ?

You do realize that 'after February 2015' could also mean the year 2100?  
I guess we should just be patient, although an update would be nice. It is better to wait and get a proper forum than some half baked one.

[Xialla]

any news when this forum will launch? before 2020   ?

"Slickage = unknown startup which doesn't even have a website on its own. 4 developers, $375k per year per developer."

maybe the Slickage guys and themos are good friends and share some money...? honestly: it is a little bit strange to choose an unknown startup and give them so much money. there are better companies for that job.

it is his decision, but I agree with you on this..

~10 minutes back, I didn't even know, that something called Slickage from Honolulu exists.) website is empty, copyright from 2014, twitter with 90 followers and 4devs on github - 100k$ income each month. I didn't find any reference or realized projects...nothing.

well, maybe I'm just wrong at it will be amazed by new forum, but for now, I'm gently said little bit skeptical..

[ajareselde]

it is his decision, but I agree with you on this..
~10 minutes back, I didn't even know, that something called Slickage from Honolulu exists.) website is empty, copyright from 2014, twitter with 90 followers and 4devs on github - 100k$ income each month. I didn't find any reference or realized projects...nothing.
well, maybe I'm just wrong at it will be amazed by new forum, but for now, I'm gently said little bit skeptical..

I agree with you. Although it's not up to us, i think the funds could have been much better spent (or saved, for that matter)
If it was someone else who paid that sum of forum money to unknown company, there would be hell raised with accusations. Sure hope they know what they're doing.
cheers

[iopq]

Why not? Bitcoin is centered around open source software. Should satoshi have charged people to use bitcoin? Not everything has to have capitalistic motives as well, though if theymos wanted to make more money surely he would have planned to charge people to use the software?

You're correct. Open source software is great. However Satoshi didn't pay a development team $1,500,000 to create the bitcoin network & software. There's a big difference in those comparisons. Capitalistic motives aren't necessary, why not keep the software unique to this forum & don't allow others the chance to reap the rewards of a one and a half million dollar software package?

I don't know why anyone would pay this much to use forum software. Maybe in the future companies or organizations wont have to pay anything because of open source software like this one. That's the true beauty of it. 

Because they are companies and need massive control and functionality on their websites, and Lithium is the only software on the market right now that offers the extensive functionality that these companies require. People think vBulletin is functional and customizable... well I suggest you take a look at some of the moderation and administration tools on Lithium... simply flawless!

There has been more than $1,500,000 in developer hours/effort put into bitcoin already, the only difference is not all of those people got paid for their contributions

Anyone know how much has been spent on BTC development?