Quote from: mccorvic on December 21, 2012, 03:59:13 PM

I agree. Mining is not something that newcomers need to know about. It'll either confuse them or turn them off from BTC.

Early last year when mining was still a relatively efficient way of generating BTC I told a few friends about it. Even now, nearly 1.5 years later, they are still fixated on mining and think that's the ONLY way of acquiring BTC. I have tried to explain to them that it is much easier to just buy them off the market or trade for them, but mining has gotten stuck in their head.

Even after my warnings one just recently bought a $200+ graphics card and got super pissed when he only got a measly amount of return. He now refuses to consider BTC anymore because he, in his words, "got ripped off".

Telling them about mining was my biggest mistake Sad

This anecdote is the point of this thread.

It's not about "should we encourage mining from new BTC users" and how it will impact the difficulty level. That's another story.

The question is: will bringing up the "mining" element actually hinder the popularity/spread of Bitcion, because of how the times, they have-a-changed?
Remember, GPU Mining isn't profitable anymore for the average person.

For it to be profitable, you have to have:
A) cheap electricity
B) knowledge of computer hardware (feel comfortable ordering Mobos, Cablesaurus extender cables, rigging cooling systems, setting up Linux, etc.)
C) desire/ability to pore over MH/J tables for the various GPUs, or at least pick decently efficient video cards
etc.

to make it work. Just popping in ONE card -- or even two, which is the most you can fit in the average motherboard, is not going to give a very good MH/J (efficiency).

Reading the miner's subforum, you'd swear that most motherboards come with 5 slots for PCI-X cards. Not true! I bought motherboards on purpose for mining, and the most I've seen is 2 PCI-X (full) and 3 PCI-X (small). Using a Cablesaurus extender cable, I manage to get most rigs up to THREE cards.