Quote from: elggawf on July 12, 2011, 07:28:43 PM

Quote from: Shinobi on July 12, 2011, 05:11:31 PM

I'm impressed that you see exactly what's going on, but then somehow believe that its simply a PR issue?

I'm calling it a "PR problem" because despite the threads on the subject we still don't really have any sort of PR strategy. People are letting the things that individually attracted them to Bitcoin become representative of the entire idea despite the fact that many others (who simply aren't as loud in public) didn't get into it for the same reason, and that those reasons are unlikely to ever attract a large population at all.

It becomes an issue of slippery slopes because the more people soap-box about the evils of government and whatnot here, the less people like me want to talk about Bitcoin to others for fear of being lumped into the same category as these people whom I disagree with politically.

The political forum should, IMHO, absolutely be done away with - if you want to have an anarcho-capitalist or Randian circle-jerk there is absolutely no shortage of places on the internet you can do it. You may even be able to espouse the wonders of Bitcoin over there, if you can do it without being run out by the rabid precious-metals fetishists.

Turning away everyone who's not an extreme incarnation of libertarianism, turning away perfectly good business owners who are interested in the currency, turning away "crybabies" is not going to grow this thing outside the realm of a small, irrelevant niche. If that's all the majority here wants, that's fine - but understand that there's probably still vast amounts of investment in this market from people who are waiting for it to blow up, so if you want to cut that possibility off, those people are probably going to want what's left of their investment back.

If you want any decent level of worldwide adoption from Bitcoin, people are going to have to realize that politics are irrelevant unless it relates directly to Bitcoin - not everyone is going to agree with your minority political opinion, nor do they have to for the idea to work.

I agree. It used to be my policy to loudly and vocally challenge Anarcho-Cap/Libertarianism on the forum whenever possible so that new-comers and perusers would know that not all bitcoiners were... y'know, fraggles.

However the campaign soon proved exhausting and impractical. And anyway I always felt a little dirty afterward and not in a good way, more like I'd just wasted two hours of my life arguing with the smelly guy on the street corner who's always shouting at the space beside the street-light.

Now I just don't talk about bitcoin anymore to people I know.