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Remove BitcoinTalk link from main page
The main page contains:
Official anouncements will also be made on this BitcoinTalk thread.
My impression (both from browsing BitcoinTalk and from talking to people who pay more attention to it than I do) is that BitcoinTalk has become a cesspool, infested by scammers. It also bans registration by Tor users unless a substantial amount of money is paid (via Bitcoin, which isn't anonymous). It also enforces a CAPTCHA per login, which means logging in without JavaScript is impossible. I haven't logged into BitcoinTalk for years due to the CAPTCHA situation.
AFAICT it is irresponsible to steer Namecoin users in the direction of BitcoinTalk, because we cannot have any confidence that they won't get scammed there. BitcoinTalk may have historical value (it's where all the Bitcoiners hung out in 2010-2011, and is where a lot of the BitDNS discussion happened, as well as Vincent's original announcement), but this historical value cannot justify pretending that BitcoinTalk is a legitimate resource in the present day. My recommendation is to remove the BitcoinTalk link from the main page.
I still use Bitcointalk a lot and would consider it as a good source of news about Namecoin and other coins, but of course that depends also on how active we manage the thread. And it may be because I hang out there already years ago, as you state. You can turn off the per-login CAPTCHA if you solve it just once, but obviously I have not tried registering for a long time.
I think the statement on the main page does not really encourage users to sign up to Bitcointalk first and foremost. It first lists the Namecoin forum and Reddit, and only tells them that they can get news also from Bitcointalk if they prefer that. So IMHO it is fine to keep it, although we can of course tone down the formulation even more if you prefer that. I'd like to keep some link to the announcement thread there, though.
@JeremyRand and @domob1812, just in case you didn't notice: the link refers to the abandoned "Namecoin News Thread" opened by bitcointalk user "namecoin.info" in 2013.
Actually, I'd prefer to change the link to point to the historical Namecoin announcement thread created by vinced. In this case the wording should be adjusted a little. Something like "The original announcement in 2011 was made via this BitcoinTalk thread".
Speaking of bitcointalk I fully agree with @domob1812. Furthermore, everyone can read bitcointalk anonymously. No need to sign up.
AFAICT it is irresponsible to steer Namecoin users in the direction of BitcoinTalk, because we cannot have any confidence that they won't get scammed there.
If we were trying to stop scammers from posting on bitcointalk by removing a link, I'd call this an attempt at "security through obscurity". Determined scammers can easily find all the Namecoin-related threads using a search engine if they really want to.
Indeed, linking to the original 2011 thread with a proper description sounds like the best way to go.