Published on: 2011-08-12T17:32:06+00:00
Vladimir is preparing to launch a Bitcoin community portal at https://bitcoin.org.uk. The website will feature advanced forum functionality, a blogging platform, a community calendar, and chat capabilities. It will be hosted on high-end dedicated servers running FreeBSD in a data center located in Amsterdam, NL. There will also be a "by invitation only" section suitable for Bitcoin developers. Bitcoin businesses can have their support forums set up on the website, retaining moderatorial control over them. The soft launch is scheduled for August 15th, but the site is already functional and open for registration. Users can register and contact Vladimir for setting up appropriate permissions for private forums.In an email dated July 18, 2011, Chris Acheson proposed using Bitcoin Stack-Exchange as the main user and merchant support site. He believed that the Stack Exchange format was ideal due to its predefined acceptable/unacceptable topics and user moderation/reputation system. The site would be for technical and conceptual questions only and would not allow politics, philosophy, buying, or selling, making it unattractive to trolls and hucksters. At the time of writing, 64 more people needed to commit to using the site before it would launch, with 48 of those needing to be established Stack Exchange users.Douglas Huff and Matt Corallo had a discussion about forums. Corallo expressed his negative opinion about forums, calling them a "cesspool." However, Huff disagreed and suggested having a dedicated help forum for the client software and protocol. He acknowledged that forums could be difficult to maintain given the type of people that Bitcoin attracts, but suggested sending problematic users to the bitcointalk forums. The current forums will be moved to another domain due to their growth into a monstrosity.John Smith suggested that the development project of Bitcoin should move to a new URL, but others disagreed due to the recognition and confusion it could cause among users. The conversation also clarified the importance of distinguishing between the implementation and the network itself.In a forum discussion, it was suggested that the development project should move to a new URL. Jeff Garzik hoped that Sirius would handle moving the forum.bitcoin.org to forum.bitcointalk.org, but he was the only one with keys to bitcoin.org DNS. The issue with the forums was not that people disliked them or having them, but rather that they were giving Bitcoin a bad name by containing illegal content. It was suggested to mark the forums as unofficial and not part of Bitcoin proper.In another discussion, Douglas Huff suggests killing the DNS entry for forum.bitcoin.org, and Jeff Garzik hopes that sirius will do this when the forum is moved to forum.bitcointalk.org. However, Garzik notes that sirius is the only one with the keys to the bitcoin.org DNS, creating a potential obstacle in making the change.John Smith expressed concerns about the perception of Bitcoin and its developers by some users of the Bitcoin forum. He argued that newcomers might assume that the most vocal members of the forum had significant influence over the direction of the project, which could make the developers appear as if they were trying to undermine governments and create chaos. Jeff Garzik agreed with Smith's concerns and suggested that the forum should ideally be used as a way for developers to communicate with actual users and solicit feedback on user interface features. However, due to the owner of the forums and bitcoin.org being absent and unresponsive to emails, Garzik proposed de-linking the current forum or killing the forum.bitcoin.org DNS entry altogether. Douglas Huff supported Garzik's suggestion to kill the forum.Matt Corallo proposed that a simpler forum would be easier to moderate if there were enough people with moderation power. The main criteria for a helpful forum is its usefulness to users, and if it doesn't meet this criterion, then the forum should be locked or removed. Two categories could be created: Technical Support and Development. The Development category could be split up between client work and other software/websites integrating bitcoin. If there is a large enough group in a certain country that is also willing to maintain order, then these categories can be replicated per language. John Smith believes that removing the link and coming up with an alternative medium to address user issues, such as a moderated mailing list, would solve the capacity issue. However, he doesn't believe that capacity is the root of the problem.Overall, there have been discussions and proposals regarding the Bitcoin community portal, forums, and support sites. Some individuals have expressed negative opinions about forums, while others have suggested alternative mediums for addressing user issues. There have also been discussions about the perception of Bitcoin and its developers by forum users, as well as suggestions for improving the usefulness and moderation of forums.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T02:08:13.567416+00:00