Quote from: geek-trader on August 17, 2011, 04:22:50 AM

LH66, you have made several good points. This forum is pretty troll infested. Why do you think bitcoin.org moved us into the ghetto?

Thanks. I appreciate the tone and spirit of your post. I would like to address your assertion here:

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However, I do take issue with your objection to *text* porn links in member's sigs. Porn has ALWAYS helped new technology. It spurred the adoption of the VHS player. It certainly helped the internet become popular. This article http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2002/mar/03/internetnews.observerfocus even argues it drove adoption of mobile phones.

First, I cannot believe that porn ALWAYS helps new technology. That is a very strong statement. I seriously doubt it influenced the light bulb or gasoline engine, just to name a couple things.

But in a spirit of honest inquiry I read the article you linked. I then located the actual source document used. It was an essay written in 1996 by a lawyer. He makes the general case you outline here. He has some books he referenced at the bottom of his article but I did not locate those. Here's the essay:

http://www.law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v49/no1/johnson.html

Frankly I'm not going to believe what he's saying without more research into his sources. I also find it interesting that his paper was written in 1996 yet nobody else has come forth with similar research.

In my search I located an interesting thread on snopes.com about the vhs vs. betamax issue. Here is what snopes had to say:

"Porn was predominantly put into VHS format because customers were already favoring that format, for all the familiar reasons (longer tapes, non-proprietary players, etc.).

Realistically, if the formats had been runnning neck-and-neck, why would producers of video material (porn or otherwise) have eliminated half their potential market right off the bat by opting to make their products available in only one format?

- snopes"

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Bitcoin is a liberating technology. It frees us from government control. This means a lot of things, but some of the things it means is we are free to spend it as we wish, on gambling, and donations to organizations the government would rather did not exist (wikileaks), and yes, on porn.

I agree.

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Also, many bitcoin supporters lean libertarian. I am one. A liberal-libertarian, but libertarian none the less. Libertarians HATE to be told what to do. We especially hate it when it's the government doing the telling. So, we love free speech. That means that, if we want to say what we want to say, we must tolerate it when other people say things we don't want to hear.

That doesn't mean we can't argue with them.

Lord knows I am all for toleration. But it has to be applied across the board and in both directions. Toleration applied in one direction only is not toleration. In other words, when somebody has a legitimate complaint, such as mine about the porm ad in relation to increasing btc adoption among women, shouldn't my view be tolerated? Shouldn't others tolerate it when I'm saying something they don't want to hear? (especially when it could have a very positive impact on that one thing we all believe in, btc?)

LH66

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