Don't take it personally, but this is something I get a little tired of.  The forum statistics say clearly that one third of registered users here are female.  The problem is not getting female users online, it is getting rid of the idea that they already aren't.  For example, what gender am I?  If you stop to think about it, you assumed I was male, didn't you?

There do exist systemic forces that cause a gender disparity in highly technical or theoretical fields, but women are already online.  If they don't feel comfortable posting or identifying themselves, maybe it's not something with regards to them that has to be done.


/rant

That was a straight up rant--nothing against you, just a personal pet peeve.  Comments like (are there any females on here yet?) set a tone that, unsurprisingly, is frustrating to many women.  Yours is not the first by any stretch that I've seen on the bitcoin forums (to which I was specifically referring), merely the colloquial straw.  But it is a real issue.

Your larger point is of course, unlike mine, on-topic.

Probably quite a few people under 18 but I'm guessing.  Going back to how to promote bitcoin, I know they are kinda on the fringe, but how about things like Coast to Coast AM and Alex Jones. I mean, like I say they are kinda on the fringe, but they have a fairly large listening audience, and I get the feeling a lot of them are the type that tend to do things like hoard gold now.  I listen to coast to coast, I don't hoard gold but I don't have the money for that, plus I expect the govt will simply make trading gold illegal when the dollar crash comes.  FDR did it before after all.  I also think Judge Napolitano and Glenn Beck weren't stupid ideas, although I sincerely doubt glenn beck would understand the technical aspects of bitcoin, he would understand that it's about getting away from the Fed and the market manipulation that goes along with it.  A lot of people on the far right are very worried about the state of the FRN right now (justifiably IMHO), and we might be able to get acceptance through this. 
On a completely different note, but also in line with getting more people to use bitcoin, there are a lot of business models that are completely legal, but extremely difficult to find a CC processor for.  Things like online tobacco sales, online ammunition sales, private firearms sales (would only be legal in US if you held an FFL or only did business in your state), and even "adult content".  Also, bitcoin could have a role as an in game payment currency for mobile and social network games.  I realize that long term micropayments aren't a very good thing for the network, but what some of the mobile apps are referring to as micropayments aren't micro at all.  Also, maybe an android app store run using bitcoin, the overlap between developers that opt to use a linux based mobile platform and libertarian minded hackers might be all that would be needed to gain acceptance.

Not only Alex Jones , try contacting some of his guests. Gerald Celente for one. Max Keiser is another who has already done a show about bitcoin.

All it would take is for one of them to mention bitcoin on his show or to Alex himself. If he starts hearing it from a few different guests he might investigate. But then again he might think bitcoin is a conspiracy and that we will all end up with bitcoin addresses tattooed on our foreheads....

 

I think they wouldn't even bother trying on the technical side. They'd probably just 'outlaw' the use of bitcoin for commerce and suddenly no legitimate business would think about accepting it :/

Or is there something that stops them from 'forbidding a currency' in general?