A Simple "About Bitcointalk" Page for New Users and Visitors

[KingsDen]

As someone who’s been around for a long time, I know most of us already understand what Bitcointalk is and this suggestion might not go down well with some of us, but chill and read why I came up with this suggestion.
I started a gig job with SirJohnVonSlotty recently and the nature of the job exposed me to different forums where I am totally a noob. It was then I realized why some newbies ask questions as; “I am new here, how do I grow”, “What is this forum about”, “Can I shill my project here”, “how do I earn merits” some don’t even ask and goes on posting links in different boards. I know some of the questions are daft but you will likely be in such a mess if you find yourself in a forum you don’t know its little background and current purpose.
For the sake of genuine newbies, journalists and researchers, I propose a simple About Bitcointalk page. This could serve the following purposes;

• Bitcointalk can be intimidating to new users because it’s very large and there's no centralized page explaining what the forum is, who created it, or how it's structured. A simple about page would set expectation and guide new users.
• Many people don’t realize Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcointalk or had messaged here. I think I got to the snr member rank before I stumbled on Satoshi’s profile, The famous Laszlo pizza transaction, the iconic HODL meme post and more. It was then I became more serious about the forum. Exposing such information to newbies could keep them on their toes or at their best behaviour.
• It will give the forum more credibility for journalism and as well preserve the history and mission of the forum.
• The implementation doesn’t need to change forum functionality, it could be a static page or a sticky thread at least.

So, I think it’s worth considering adding a simple "About" page to the forum.
Something brief that covers:

• Who created Bitcointalk
• Why it was created
• How the forum evolved
• What it is today (Bitcoin history archive, active crypto community)

BONUS READ:
I asked chatgpt to draft me a short about page for bitcointalk, including a little bit of its background : its history, its current purpose. If necessary it can include that the famous 10,000 BTC pizza transaction happened in the form. The famous HODL thread and more. And it came up with this;

🧾 About Bitcointalk
asktom.cf is the original and longest-running online forum dedicated to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency discussion. It was created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous inventor of Bitcoin.
🕰️ A Brief History
•   In the earliest days of Bitcoin, this forum served as the main hub for developers, miners, and curious users to discuss and build around the new technology.
•   Key early Bitcoin conversations happened right here — including contributions from Satoshi himself.
•   Some of Bitcoin’s most historic moments are rooted in this forum, such as:
o   The famous 10,000 BTC pizza transaction (the first real-world Bitcoin purchase) in May 2010
o   The iconic "HODL" post in 2013 — a drunk and heartfelt rant that became a global crypto meme
o   The early development of altcoins, including Litecoin, Ethereum, and many others
o   Ongoing discussions around scaling, forks, wallets, privacy, and decentralization
🎯 Purpose and Community Today
Today, Bitcointalk remains one of the most influential and decentralized platforms in the cryptocurrency world. It offers a place for:
•   Bitcoin and altcoin discussion
•   Technical development and innovation
•   Announcements from blockchain projects
•   Market talk and speculation
•   Campaigns, bounties, and service listings
•   Forum-based signature campaigns for earning crypto
Despite the rise of social media and chat apps, Bitcointalk stands apart for its archival value, community-driven governance, and uncensored discourse on all things crypto.
🤝 Who It's For
Bitcointalk is open to everyone:
•   Developers
•   Investors
•   Traders
•   Entrepreneurs
•   Historians
•   Meme lords
•   And newcomers alike
If you're looking for the raw, unfiltered heart of Bitcoin’s origin and evolution, you're in the right place.

[SmartGold01]

I support this idea but it shouldn't be a thing that would have to have its own section rather a post can be created and stick it to sign up menu or like, immediately an account is created this should served them as a welcome note either to their mail or before they move elsewhere or click any other place on this forum. Serving them as a welcome note could be more ideal to me than anything and or maybe, they can include it at the home menu where we have [ HOME | HELP | SEARCH| PROFILE| MY MESSAGES| MEMBERS| MORE | LOGOUT] It can be included at the help section as well so that before they post the system should redirect them to the help section to know more things about the forum before they could flex around the forum. Although there are people who are so lazy to read up instruction given by the forum, otherwise anyone who has interest in reading can likely navigate through this forum by pining their heads down to read instruction and post/comments of others on the forum before they could start asking question.. What I noticed again, the percentage of newbies that are signup this forum seems to have been introduced by friends whereby all their thinking boils down to merits earning or how to grow on the forum.. To me there is something very fishy to those question because how could a newbie signup and become more conversant on how to earn merits without at least spending 1 to 2 months on the forum before asking question about merits.

[Hatchy]

Though the idea looks convincing, but since my stay on the forum, I notice that most newbies who register on the forum found their way here through someone who already explained to them about some benefits they can enjoy as members of the forum .. so they may quite already know a bit of the details and won't be so kin wanting to read more. We have many pinned thread on the beginners and help including meta but I doubt a major percentage of newbies even cares to go through them.  Genuie newbies Marley stops by to seek answers for their questions as regards bitcoin technicals and you may not find them here for long..

[Pablo-wood]

Serving them as a welcome note could be more ideal to me than anything and or maybe, they can include it at the home menu where we have [ HOME | HELP | SEARCH| PROFILE| MY MESSAGES| MEMBERS| MORE | LOGOUT] It can be included at the help section as well so that before they post the system should redirect them to the help section to know more things about the forum before they could flex around the forum.

A message sent to their emails will just be fine. Creating additional navigation menus will make the site unnecessarily busy. I would prefer it is send as a welcome message to newbie's PM. That way the will have quick access to the message for reference because mail box gets full easily and it will be harder to locate messages that has stayed for a period of time. The help section already has its function and additional additional text will forfeit its original purpose. In other to keep the keep everything in sync with the current forum structure a PM will do justice to the suggestion.

[Mia Chloe]

~snip

Yeah It's a fine idea but the problem is people especially newcomers would be too busy looking for the skip button to that page. People hardly  read startup and welcome pages they just skip. You can even tell by the number of times they eventually click the agree button during registration for rules and regulation without reading them or agree to wrong permissions on their device to an app , just because they want to be done with the startup process in a jiffy.
 
Every now and then newbies ask questions that literally most of the pinned threads on the forum answers and it's as time goes on they resort to reading more often. If it were ever implemented It would be more ethical and organic to have it written by a member with good English here.

[Churchillvv]

Firstly, can't we live without asking AI for it's opinion? because why use AI to generate a sample of the Page you suggested?

BTW, most of the newbies back then that created post like "I am new here" were never newbies, some were farmed accounts while pretending to be newbies.

Additionally, the HELP button is basically serving this purpose that you proposed a different page for, because if any newbie with his or her right senses will firstly read the manuals of anything before asking questions and the manual of this forum is the help section, it guides you around.

For historical events, i think there is a mega thread that has all of the historical events recorded in it.
IMHO, this thread is only just well arranged and looks convincing but the idea isn't!

[lovesmayfamilis]

Firstly, can't we live without asking AI for it's opinion? because why use AI to generate a sample of the Page you suggested?

In the same way, you can say that today's newcomers, on the contrary, are very active users of AI. Only, therefore, if they are interested in finding out what our forum is, the first tool they will use will be AI. I think that AI will tell them everything that interests them, and they will also bring this interesting information with them, not forgetting to share it with all of us.

[BlackBoss_]

Did you know about BPIP extension which has something similar to your idea.

Quote locked threads, 120-day merit total, custom themes, and other good stuff.

You can ask theymos and Cyrus for doing this, or you can ask PowerGlove for a SMF patch if you don't satisfy with what given by BPIP team.

[KingsDen]

Firstly, can't we live without asking AI for it's opinion? because why use AI to generate a sample of the Page you suggested?

It seems that someone is being left behind lol. Why struggle to write that if I can prompt AI to do it for me. There's nothing wrong in using AI the right way. Wake up, take a few courses in AI, a simple "AI prompt course" could save your ass. AI is one of my closest friends of 2025.

Did you know about BPIP extension which has something similar to your idea.

You seem to not understand the purpose of the thread. How many old users are even aware and use Bpip, let alone an absolute newbie or a guest user. The ideas is not for me and you, maybe for a clueless newbie. But I don't worry much again because Lovesmafamilis has cracked the nut above 

[TheUltraElite]

I would support this idea. This page can be shown to newbie when they are registering on this forum and also as a new tab on the "More" section if you dont want to clutter the current tablist.

Often people come to this forum while searching about bitcoin and not from someone who told them about it, just like I did when I was skeptical about a new payment system that certain (ahem!) websites were using.

[Mrbluntzy]

@KingsDen, your suggestion would be very helpful to newbies and guest visitors if admin can consider to add it. Some people come to the forum and leave because of how large it is and they can not quickly comprehend everything easily. It was a bit difficult for me, when I joined the forum newly but as I persistently continue to explore it, that was when I realized that there are some sticky topics on some boards.



Looking at the image I shared above, the forum has an option called "Help" If the "About" Option can still be placed among those options there, it will be good. If it can also be placed in the second green rectangular before Bitcoin discussion, it would also make sense.

[Bitcoin Smith]

If we ever to create an about page for bitcointalk then it should contain information as

"Bitcointalk - Created by Satoshi"


This alone tells the whole story, isn't it? Even if we have one then I doubt newbies will ever read them, all they will do is just go to B&H section and create a thread like "I am new here, help to to learn more"!

[CryptSafe]

This is a good idea, I believe this would be very educational for newbies and other members who have no idea what they are into. The talk of creating an About page with bitcoin information, which includes the history, founder, and notable events in the circle of bitcoin existence, would mean a lot, and that would further get more traffic because when one types about bitcoin on Google search engine, they would see amongst the options Bitcointalk platform, and the About would flash up for them to click and view what it entails.

However, the option of receiving a welcome mail with About upon registration is alright, but I doubt if any newbie would have the time and patience to read it, as they would skip it and may not even bother to open it, and off they go to the platform to continue with their registration.

Another idea I could think of is that About to be able to get the attention of newbies upon registration and visit to the website. Once one clicks on registration, the new welcome page should be the About page, which would be clickable by everyone to open and read, having a little hint and knowledge on what they are signing up for. This would enable them to read through, and this page can only be closed after 5 minutes, count before registration, and there should be no skip or ignore page for it.
Maybe this could help.

[hd49728]

This is a good idea, I believe this would be very educational for newbies and other members who have no idea what they are into. The talk of creating an About page with bitcoin information, which includes the history, founder, and notable events in the circle of bitcoin existence, would mean a lot, and that would further get more traffic because when one types about bitcoin on Google search engine, they would see amongst the options Bitcointalk platform, and the About would flash up for them to click and view what it entails.

Newbies if want to learn, can find necessary information, threads for their learning. If they don't want to learn, they will not care about BIP extension, forum's official welcome message, welcome page (that is in this proposal) or anything similar.

Newbies - Read before posting.
Welcome message.
[Mega resources for newbies] Check here, find most of your need, before asking.
[GUIDES] on Bitcointalk. Index thread (until there is a dedicated subforum?)

If they want to learn and have an approach like reading before posting and asking, they would find many things to learn and it's kind of enough resources for not only their beginnings.

[348Judah]

• Bitcointalk can be intimidating to new users because it’s very large and there's no centralized page explaining what the forum is, who created it, or how it's structured. A simple about page would set expectation and guide new users.

Everything a newbie needed has been provided already in the forum, starting from welcoming them to the very tips and the threads needed for them to start learning from about the forum, Bitcoin and crypto at large, but what you don't search for you may not get, as precious stones are only given to those who knows it's values, if you're told about these threads, then you're lucky, you can also choose to explore by going through sections of the forum to discover for one, it may only require time, but you will get there.

Here's an example, of a welcome message.

Welcome message.

The more we have some pinned threads as well to serve as guides for the newbies.

[Majestic-milf]

 This is a good idea because it would add as a guide for those who know next to nothing about not just the forum but a little more about Bitcoin in general and it may save some of these newbies the stress of needing to post "I'm a newbie, I need guidance" since this page would have covered for that but I fear that some will still ignore it and choose to do what they want to.
It's not a matter of creating such a page, what we need to know is that some of these guys are lazy and even if the page stares them right in the face, they may want to ignore it. So instead of creating a manual-like page, why not just make do with the other guides and information about this place and hope they work with that?

[Peanutswar]

Seems its a good idea too because many newbies still until now having a lot of question related to the forum I guess adding a welcome message for the new comers is a good idea at the same time like a background and history of the forum or lets say having a basic navigation about the forum itself so they can more appreciate the community. People nowadays are getting lazy to read the pinned post just my cents so its a good head start to them have that.

[CryptSafe]

This is a good idea, I believe this would be very educational for newbies and other members who have no idea what they are into. The talk of creating an About page with bitcoin information, which includes the history, founder, and notable events in the circle of bitcoin existence, would mean a lot, and that would further get more traffic because when one types about bitcoin on Google search engine, they would see amongst the options Bitcointalk platform, and the About would flash up for them to click and view what it entails.

Newbies if want to learn, can find necessary information, threads for their learning. If they don't want to learn, they will not care about BIP extension, forum's official welcome message, welcome page (that is in this proposal) or anything similar.

Newbies - Read before posting.
Welcome message.
[Mega resources for newbies] Check here, find most of your need, before asking.
[GUIDES] on Bitcointalk. Index thread (until there is a dedicated subforum?)

If they want to learn and have an approach like reading before posting and asking, they would find many things to learn and it's kind of enough resources for not only their beginnings.

It is good that you have put up this post here for newbies to see. Maybe newbies who have spent a little time here would be able to navigate through to get information as it pleases them if they want to, but as for the new prospects who are about to register, I think About option should be available for them to have a glance at first what they are signing up for so they could have a little knowledge and be able to access some links as it regards to some important events, that occurred here so they could know that this forum is not just an ordinary forum but a reputable forum that was created by the bitcoin founder himself before he handed over to the admin to oversee the platform activities and engagements.

[Obim34]

• Who created Bitcointalk
• Why it was created
• How the forum evolved
• What it is today (Bitcoin history archive, active crypto community)

A thread that covers all the details you outlined can be prepared and pinned alongside Newbies - Read before posting in Beginners & Help Board.

New users are meant to be captured with the beginners and help section when surfing, if they come across both topics and still go ahead with the regularly created topic (I"m New Here), then it tells a reason for the motive behind.

[LoyceV]

Welcome message.

Since this never happened: what if someone sets up a bot that sends a friendly PM to every new user? It needs Admin approval so the bot won't get banned, but other than that it doesn't require any work from Admin's end.