Quote from: defxor on August 29, 2011, 09:45:23 AM

Quote from: wolftaur on August 29, 2011, 09:39:37 AM

most of us are more worried

There's still not a single tangible fact to back up those worries posted in this thread. I can only assume a lot of people aren't used to having to base their opinions on facts.

Anyone can claim anything. It's how you support your claims that makes a difference. Trolls cannot usually back up their claims.

I was referring to much of the commentary in this thread itself, not saying "most of the community." Local reference, not global.

Some of the posts in this thread had specifically stated concern about Pattaya's reputation being associated with Bitcoin if a conference is held there. And honestly, even if that's the minority view...

Minority viewpoints are equally entitled to recognition and consideration. If one in 100 people worry about whether hosting a Bitcoin conference in a place that has a reputation for child prostitution and other things that make many average people squeamish, hell, if one in a thousand worry about that...

No, I am not trolling. I mean, seriously. I became a grown man multiple decades ago and my mother still warns me that I'd better be careful on the internet because "that's how people get raped." Considering that my mother isn't even close to the only person I know with that kind of paranoia, yes, I do wonder how I could explain Bitcoin to some of the people I know if we see "Currency conference marred by child sex scandal" or anything like that in even a minor newspaper or online news aggregator.

I live in a very conservative area -- one which happens to have a pretty large number of financial businesses. I worked in that industry for a few years. If Bitcoin started becoming practical I actually still have many connections in this area and could probably get several businesses to seriously consider accepting Bitcoins. Except for one problem: When I say "conservative area", I mean very. I'm the only gay person in my entire neighborhood. I'm the only person on this block who does not have three or more children. A few minutes ago I sent a PM to someone wanting to pay for some printing work, with bitcoins. I can probably actually arrange that with a local printer, the guy was a former client of my last employer, and personally owes me some huge favors right now.

The guy is also the director of his local church.

So, what it boils down to right now? I'm aware of a specific business I have a very good chance of getting to accept Bitcoins, which is what poster after poster after poster is claiming we need, businesses accepting Bitcoins, merchants letting us spend them.

I even know of a heavy user in this forum who wanted that service for Bitcoin enough to publicly ask about it.

And I know how conservative and religious and church-affiliated the business is. As a result, I have good reason to believe that if I could get him to take bitcoins, he would drop Bitcoin like a hot chunk of uranium if he thought his neighbors and religious clients thought the currency was used for child prostitution. And while were at it, let's be blunt, lots of these people aren't exactly great about getting their facts right before they pour out the "OH GOD YOU PERVERT" stuff, so the fact that "conference held in area where this has happened in the past" is not the same as "conference was about using this money for THAT" is pretty irrelevant...