Thank you for the invitation and sorry it took a while before I could respond ^{[I had to read the first 109 responses before giving mine]}:
^{- Even though it took a very long time, I have no regrets when it comes to reading all of these interesting posts.}

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Back in the day ^{[early 2011]}, I used to be a gamer ^{[FPS games, PC]} and in one of the Facebook groups ^{[gaming & PC build niche]} that I was part of, there was a dedicated section that mentioned about BTCitcoin mining and I said to myself: "I already have the gear, I might as well use it to earn something back". So I did some GPU mining and everything was great for the first couple of months until my GPU died and I decided to completely abandon both mining and BTCitcoin as a whole ^{[I was on a limited budget since I was just a college student]}.

I never bought a whole BTCitcoin ^{[just fractions of it]} but I've mined a few.

In 2015 I decided to give it another shot but my rig wasn't good enough for mining so I looked for alternative ways of earning BTCitcoin and I stumbled upon a blog post that discussed faucets, rotators and how I could earn by getting indirect referrals from this forum.

• After a few days, I joined this forum to promote my free website and later on, I moved to a real website ^{[it didn't last though]}.

Its public image and the greedy people surrounding both cryptocurrencies and various governments as a whole.

Even though it certainly contributes by bringing more traffic, I think it doesn't necessarily affect the development process.
^{- This forum is a self-sustaining one, it'll survive with or without either gambling or other project types.}

I can't give an accurate answer since there are a lot of fields within each cryptocurrency and depending on which one you're referring to, my answer would be different but in general, it's best not to rely on the so-called "years of experience" mainly because of the fact that things are always changing and someone's previous experience may not be that relevant now. In other words, it's never enough and it'll never be good enough ^{[a never-ending process that investors should hope they're standing on the right side]}.

• Merit system: A great system in place but users aren't using it properly.
  ^{- Many are using it as a "like button", instead of giving it for higher-quality posts.}
• Signature campaigns: It depends on who is handling it.

There are so many topics and active helpful users but I would like to give credit to someone that hasn't been active for a very long time: shorena

• Ability to change our usernames ^{[not referring to our displayed names]}
  
  • A security measure.
• Adding more sub-boards.
  
  • Certain boards need to be polished.
• An algorithm that automatically chooses new Merit sources whenever they've met the requirements.
  
  • Those requirements must remain unknown ^{[with admins and mods being an exception]}

I do but only on local exchanges ^[non-crypto].

Continuing on what I said in #1: After my GPU died, I sold my desktop in exchange for a laptop and a big portion of my mined coins were still in there ^{[I wasn't that serious so didn't make any back ups]}.

I hate it's getting so much hype at the moment ^{[it has turned into a food court for scammers]}.

Mine is more of a precaution against scammers but it could also be the first one since I prefer to see other users judge and respect me for who I really am and not base it on if there's a certain title attached to my name.

I'm not a book person.

Wait a minute! So you're telling me that there is more than a single "real" cryptocurrency apart from BTCitcoin?

• On a serious note:
  - I don't like seeing the words investment, BTCitcoin/cryptocurrencies in the same sentence, since most users are using cryptocurrencies ^{[especially BTCitcoin]} for the wrong reason so I rather not give any advice on this front.

Around 12k.

If you're reading this, I hope you'll have a great year ahead and always remember that "putting others down won't make you rise any higher".