RE: chainBB's path forward - a discussion on revenue
Great stuff, @jesta!
Maybe this is obvious, and sorry if I'm being stupid, but if I were to start a forum today for "cryptocurrency", would it have 0 posts but all the Steemit "users"? Or, like most forums, would users have to "sign up" before they would have permission to post in that forum? Would it only show posts that were created via ChainBB, not all the posts in the STEEM #cryptocurrency tag? Do you imagine there'd ever be a bidding war or name squatters who might want to snatch up all the "f/...whatever..." names?
I may be interested in launching a cryptocurrency forum. I think the siloed approaches today which focus on a single currency miss the future concept of currency as a form of language where we can all freely exchange between any coins we prefer. I love the idea of promoting a rock-solid place for great discussions about any and all cryptocurrencies.
More and more, as I look for various articles on cryptocurrency news and projects, I find myself landing on Steemit search results. That's pretty cool. :)
I wonder if it would make sense to build into the posting a standard header/footer so that posts viewed on Steemit would clearly indicate this post was designed to be viewed within the forum community which created it and encourage people to click over and use that site instead to help reward and maintain that community. Obviously, that header and footer could be stripped out before rendering on the "home" forum, but every where else that reads that blockchain data would then have a built in, consistent advertisement (with nice graphics, links, etc) pointing people to the source article on ChainBB.
Let's talk more about this, but I like the idea of building up a community, getting rewards for moderation and growth while also increasing the number of people posting and using the ChainBB ecosystem to reward you and encourage even more development and improvements in the future.
Luke and @jesta, I am also interested in developing a forum for cryptocurrency in Chinese (very possibly mainly focusing on out-side PRC Chinese population) and I think the structure for English or Chinese would be very similar if not identical. Or can even merge as one. So if Luke does develop this idea and is interested to take into account of this line, I am all ears.
[FYI - I, along with four other cn friends, created the #laodr-teahouse series post like half an year ago for facilitating general purpose chatting among cn users. So I know how a forum type platform can relieve the pain if there are really lots of comments.]
I am still thinking about the micro-incentives for moderators and forum users. You have provided sth for the former, but for the latter, it seems less obvious why would they come and post here. Discussing here is more likely due to the interface. I might have missed sth since I am not familiar with Chainbb.