Quote from: Seth Otterstad on April 06, 2013, 05:42:06 PM

I constantly get questions about mining from people who have just heard about bitcoin. Is there a good post somewhere I can point them to? I think it should include the following points:

1) If they think the price is going to go up a lot, it is much better to buy coins than hardware
2) Info about what ASICs are currently doing to mining, how long it will take to get an ASIC, the risks of ordering an ASIC now, refund policies, and what the mining environment will be like once their ASIC finally arrives.
3) Electricity costs for running GPUs and CPUs and ASICs
4) General discouragement. They are two years late to the party. Newbies should be buying coins, encouraging merchant acceptance, and building the economy, not wasting time learning how to mine or giving money to semi-scam companies.

Have you ever considered that you may just be wrong?

1. At current hash rate a $2000 rig will make just over 4btc/month. At today's cost, that same amount would buy around 14 BTC. if everyday were like today, mining would have a BEP of <3 months. Even with network expansion, actual BEP will be <6 months. 14BTC will only ever be 14BTC, where the rig will keep chipping away.
2. (what the mining environment will be like once their ASIC finally arrives.) Sounds like the same game to me, just different hardware.
3. If anyone is smart enough to be able to put together a rig and not just run what they brung, I'm sure they're well aware.
4. Let adults make their own decisions, thank you.

It may sound noble to keep people from doing what you feel like is a waste of their time, electricity and money, but you just come off as an a-hole.

Oh, and just because I'm late to the party doesn't mean I'm not the life of it.