Why No One Uses The Forum (Yet)

[psztorc]

( In my opinion... )

Forums have network-effects, of course, dead forums will stay dead...why start a post if no one will read or comment on it?

If that were the only issue, however, then no forum would ever get off the ground. In reality, forums can have "fundamental health" or "seed activity", as users agree to meet and talk there to learn about and discuss a project and coordinate around it.

With Truthcoin, as of Feb 2015, everyone involved is being very secretive about what they're up to. Most chat is private (particularly in Slack groups), and (although I prefer use of the forum) I can't resist answering questions via email. Everyone knows to ask me, (or to ask someone else they already know), so there's really no reason to hang out here (yet).

My expectation is that, after the first version is created, there will not only be more interest (actual, specific, changes to discuss and a need for a place to discuss them) but also less secrecy and private chat.

So, although forum.truthcoin.info does get just under 100 hits per day (according to my interpretation of Google Analytics, and almost all of which seem to be referrals from BitcoinTalk.org or Vitalik's Blog Posts), I wouldn't use the forum at the moment. Instead, just register your favorite username (so you can brag about having it "before it was cool"), and then follow me on Twitter, and just wait another couple of weeks.

[joeykrug]

I think this is right.  Although the reason most of us use Slack is because things are in so much flux that it's easier to just have a chat rather than a forum thread about something.  Although the Augur slack is open (our IRC currently says "send joey@augur.net or jack@augur.net an email to join our slack where most of our conversations take place"). 

After our alpha's out I think more talk will move to the forums as you said above.  Right now most of the changes just aren't really controversial things, so they happen over a few messages on Slack (e.g. "are we implementing x correctly?" "no, per pg. x of the whitepaper it should be done this way."  "does that make sense?" "yes, because x, y, and z").  More substantial conversations, e.g. "How exactly should the proof of work be done to mitigate front-running?" will be had on the forums once we get to making those sorts of decisions (should be in a few weeks, although UI work for the alpha may push it back a bit). 

[rossini00]

it could be because I have to type in letters that are difficult to read, and do math problems each time I post. 

[psztorc]

it could be because I have to type in letters that are difficult to read, and do math problems each time I post. 

Only your first 5 times. You're already more than halfway there!

[rossini00]

Let's know this out right now then!