Bitcoin Forum

A few days ago I was a trusted forum member and treasurer but after getting frustrated by what I considered to be a lack of moderation (to do with some nasty posts being made about my wife that were clearly off-topic and offensive) I pulled a stupid "stunt" by making a topic about losing control of the forum's BTC that I was holding (50 BTC) if the offensive posts were not removed.

I didn't realise that the stunt would "backfire" so badly on me, however, I did lock the topic when I came to my senses and have since returned the 50 BTC to the forum (this can be attested to by theymos).

The funds in question were actually never at risk as my offline PC actually doesn't even contain any data (as I use a bootable USB OS to access my offline funds) so the destruction of said PC wouldn't matter at all (and also I do have GPG encrypted backups of the private keys in case of USB device failure).

Admittedly this was a very stupid mistake (and having returned the funds to the forum it cannot happen again) and I hope the moderators who have given me negative trust might consider removing it as I've never even come close to being a part of any sort of scam or deception on this forum before.

As the topic in question was created in Meta I have created this topic in Meta also (but mods are welcome to move it anywhere else if they so see fit).

I am human, I love my wife and I made a very stupid mistake.

I am sorry.

I have indeed received the 50 BTC.

I accept your apology, and I don't have any negative feelings toward you, though your actions here were very unprofessional. Probably it will take quite some time before people can look back and view this just a temporary lapse in judgement that was quickly resolved.

It seems that those two posts you were complaining about were deleted by a moderator (in response to your reports) before he even saw your thread. We wouldn't have changed/violated forum policy as a result of this issue.

In life, more often then not, you probably are not going to get your way, that is simply the way that life works.

My advice to you is that when you don't get your way to not threaten to do things like leave the community, try to impose ridiculous fines/fees on people you do not have the authority to impose such fines over, threaten to stop adhering to your responsibilities/threaten to quit your job, or threaten to withhold money that you are holding for other people. If my memory serves me right, you have done all of the above when you were not getting your way in how the forum is managed, primarily in regards to paid signatures (I may be mistaken on some of these).

Instead of doing the above, if you are not getting what you want, then make a strong argument as to why your way is the right way. If you do this, then the number of times you get your way will increase, although you will still not get your way a lot, and that is okay. If you need help making a strong argument, then ask someone who agrees with your general point of view and/or someone who you can see is good at making strong arguments. If you ever need help articulating a strong argument, then shoot me a PM, and I will do what I can to help (even though there is a good chance I will not agree with your viewpoint, I will still try to help), I am sure that a lot of others will be willing to do the same, especially if you feel strongly about something.

If you do the above, then you will gain the respect of others, regardless if you share common viewpoints. If you don't then you will lose the respect of others, even if your viewpoint is shared.

I know this advice may come off as somewhat harsh and critical of you, however I believe that following it will overall help you in life.

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Also it appears that your treasurer contract/agreement is here (http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=XGyJFddU), which lists the treasurer address to be https://blockchain.info/address/1BuANiueZAiNashSCfGV5Gmj9P8ReG1D8N (http://blockchain.info/address/https://blockchain.info/address/1BuANiueZAiNashSCfGV5Gmj9P8ReG1D8N), however 50 BTC are still showing as being unspent from that address. Did you spend the 50 BTC to theymos from another address? It looks like theymos has confirmed the receipt of the 50 BTC from you

edit: I also hope you understand that people are going to write offensive things on the internet, and the people are going to troll you on the internet. This is a simple fact about people on the internet. The fact that someone is trolling you is going to say a lot more about the person doing the trolling then it will say about you (or your family)

When I read your original story about your wife holding the forum's coins hostage, I never understood that as a threat.
I thought it was a hilarious way of complaining.
And anyone with a wife/girlfriend/significant other could probably very much relate to the story ;)

That it backfired so badly is really sad, but not totally unexpected, though.
I hope the guys will accept your apology.

Honestly, I don't think what you asked for was wrong but the fact that you threatened the forum was wrong. I would also support the fact that your trust should be removed/changed to neutral as you have refunded the money and now you hold no bitcoins on behalf of the forum.

The forum doesn't moderate scams nor helps members here to feel secure. There is so much freedom of speech here that whether it's your wife/mother/father/or yourself being abused, nobody is interested and because of this, the forum only will suffer as nobody would like to visit a place where they might get abused for sharing their opinion. This is not a FB/Twitter where there is no control over the language people use but this is a discussion forum. If there aren't any civilized people/educated people whom we can communicate with, there is no use of even discussing anything here.

Your frustration was justified as when anything wrong happens to us, we obviously react and that was your reaction which was addressed. I hope that now the forum does look into the posts people make here and moderate it. We need a peaceful place to talk and interact about bitcoins rather than people getting personal with us.

You don't know me, but as I have been around for a little while, I feel that know you somewhat. I've found your posts to be insightful and valuable. This unfortunate incident, however, did hurt my respect for you.

Most people in the position that you placed yourself in would have left the forum, and we would never hear from them again. They would simply be a sour memory. You, on the other hand, didn't do that. You stood up like a man, admitted that you were wrong, and apologized. That couldn't have been easy. Your apology is a great start in the difficult task of rebuilding the communities trust and respect. In other words, the incident lost you respect but your apology gained some of it back. As a community member, I accept your apology and hold no hard feelings toward you.

I saw that post and thought you were just drunk.  I think people on the forum would accept your apology, but I doubt you should be trusted with anyone else's funds again, especially the forum's.

Yeah. It's unfortunate that this happened, and it's good to see that CIYAM has apologised, but I'm still going to leave a neutral on him just as a note of what happened. Hopefully CIYAM will just recognize this as more of a painful life lesson.

I figured the story of 50 coins on an offline pc ....where the only copy of the keys ...was total BS....The wife stealing the off line PC ...on the other hand...  was plausable..... One time, my wife threatened to unplug 2500 watts of miining gear because of a TV remote control battle.....

I have no idea what this incident was about, but it sounds like you got mad about some trolling and acted like a baby.  However, I applaud you for apologizing.  I work in a drug treatment center and see so much inflated ego and see so many people who would never think of making amends, so props to you for that.  The internet is a frustrating place, but learn from your mistake here. 

One mistake worth more than a hundred of good things you done. Now, you already know your mistake and.. Dont do that again. It will take a long time before people forgot about this mistake. It will take a even longer time to build up your reputation again. Next time, think before you post something on the internet. Especially if it concerned money such as Bitcoin.

Glad you apologized. I was sad to see this story ever be in here. However glad nobody's funds were lost. I'm sure a great lesson has been learned from this and we can all move on.

Mistakes like this should be punished no matter how sorry you are and removing the negative trust just because you are sorry is a very stupid thing to do. If you want people to trust you in the future they must know about your stupid mistakes from the past. Next time think before acting!

@CIYAM


Your story was obvious blatant bullshit. I'm not sure why you thought anyone would believe that.

Quit pretending it was just a "minor" lapse.

You wanted the benefit of blackmailing the forum without accepting the consequences.

Make no mistake, holding the forum's BTC as hostage is an attack on the forum.

Theymos is being way too generous in allowing you to remain.

Just my opinion.


~BCX~

If this was another user, I bet you wouldn't be so lenient towards him.

Lenient in what way? Scammers aren't banned and he didn't scam in the end, but the appropriate feedback is still there and that's likely all that would have happened with any one else.

You indeed deserved a negative trust.

So you think we should remove it? Im still ponding whether I should or not, maybe you can help me with some arguments as to why I should remove the rating or change it to neutral. In the end no one was actually scammed. The forums founds have been returned and apparently have never been at risk, the posts have been edited regardless of the extortion attempt (I still wonder which rule exactly would allow the editing of insults though), CIYAM did apologize. With all that beeing said, Im still not certain it should be removed. There was an attempt to extort the forum and its staff and what sounded to me like a death threat.

I do not deny the fact that I made a very stupid post and upset many people from that.

I also do still have a lot to offer to the forum in regards to the work I am doing for CIYAM and the AT creation that is now being used to perform "100% decentralised Atomic Cross-Chain Transactions".

That work is unfortunately now going to be coloured by my stupid mistake which I think is unfortunate for many others that have worked on this project that in no way is related to "scamming" of any sort.

Whatever "punishment* the forum wants to impose upon me I will accept but I do think it is unfortunate if the whole AT project gets destroyed because of this.

I am no longer a forum treasurer so the problem that led to this cannot be repeated (as for sure the forum won't trust me again to be a treasurer) but for the sake of the common benefit of "decentralised development" I would hope that the negative trust could be changed to "neutral" (am not asking anyone to remove anything).

Also if it would be of any help then I will gladly "refrain from posting again" in any topic other than that of the CIYAM project topic (the work is more important to me than me being able to post elsewhere on this forum).

I recognise that I have a personal problem with IQ/EQ (I have a very high IQ but a very low EQ) that is perhaps not very common. I am not trying to make that as "an excuse" but simply as an "explanation" of my behaviour.

FWIW, this mens rea is what counts for me, and I'd put a negative rep now if I didn't consider it to be too late. This is to say, if I had put it at the time, I wouldn't be removing it now.

There might have been the appearance of that but in fact there was never any *actual* attempt to do so.

The BTC would not have been so quickly returned to @theymos if my supposed "extortion attempt" was actually serious (when angry sometimes we say all sorts of things that we don't really *mean*).

If you've never had an "I hate you" moment with your wife (or significant other) then I guess you wouldn't understand.

You will find out that a lot of users here are not forgiving unfortunately...

No, you should not remove it because there was an attempt to extort the forum and a censure.





The private life should be detached from the virtual life on internet.

Obviously he used extremely poor judgement, but when he realized no one else thought what he was doing was a joke he admitted his wrong doing and returned the forum funds. While this doesn't just erase what he did, IMO it does demonstrate his will to make reparations, as well as enough character to own up to his idiotic actions. I think an opportunity for him to redeem himself with time is not unreasonable.

Sometimes people deserve a second chance as everyone can make a rash decision under pressure. Most of the time a good judge of character is how you try to amend your mistakes. What he did was obviously out of order but was also obviously done out of extreme anger. With that being said, he did the right thing, apologized and returned the money. Had he of not returned it or kept it until he got is way that would be a different matter. Should the feedback be removed? That's up to the people who left it. Maybe given the circumstances it could be changed to neutral at some point and I'd support whatever they choose.

Now you're talking about the character of those who left feedback :)

CIYAM never intended it as a joke. He was serious.

I'm suprised you haven't spun this as just another example of special treatment by the forum mods LOL



~BCX~

Ugh... Why egg him on??

CIYAM, It takes time, but most people are very forgiving and understanding (or really forgetful ... lol?) in the long run.

sorry to hear about your IQ/EQ issue.  it should not be as much of an issue in written form rather than face to face dealings as you can write and rewrite and think prior to posting.  stop acting like a child.

it was clear from the post that the loss of forum btc was total bs and just a crying toddlers whine about being treated unfairly. quite a poor taste in judgement on your part. i think you would have been better off saying you were drunk or that your wife took control of your account and made those posts.  apologizing for it, just cements the type of character you are when pushed against the wall (maybe by your wife)

ohh and what what BitcoinEXpress said.

Although I never took it seriously that you could not convince your wife to give back the funds, I was seriously thinking that you will use that as an excuse to either keep those funds or blackmail the forum into deleting said posts. Surely others would have thought so too.

So I won't be surprised if some negs remain (I didn't give any).

BTW whats the criteria for someone to be "good enough" to hold forum funds?

lol get over yourself ffs, I'm sure you've never made any bad judgements in your life.....

He made a mistake, told the truth + apologised and repaid the forum btc. Drama over, no need to rub it in dude.

Bro you went apeshit nuts in that post of yours. Like literally nuts, cuckoo, psycho, crazy...

A wife taking your computer over being called a bad word? She should probably take anger management classes while you should take a class on reacting properly to the wife's improper acts...women are nuts, we men are the sane ones who calm them down. If you cant do it bro then you're gonna get yourself killed one of these days.

Also, if she made you get your balls removed or something you probably should get them back ASAP cause you need a pair obviously after that 10 year tantrum you threw.

Welcome to the world of red trust, we red trust holders of bitcointalk hold an annual meeting in NYC. If you would like to come its $500 in BTC for plane ticket + meal + VIP ticket for the red trusters convention. If you use scammed funds please make sure to mix them before paying for your spot. Welcome again!

His wife didn't do anything. Read the op. He made that up.

has this forum ever allowed a second chance to someone which has become untrusted when before was trusted?

i don't remember any sincerely

What do you define as a second chance and in what regards? All that has happened is he has negative feedback and that's not the forum's decision whether it's removed or not but the people who left it. I doubt he will be given a second chance to hold forum money either but I don't see why that would be needed or wanted by either party anyway.

Maybe you weren't around long enough to remember Matthew N. Wright (who finally ended up being permanently banned but not before his "scammer" tag was removed).

He is rather clever at social manipulation (and managed to con me out of quite a bit of BTC when I stupidly suggested that I could "help him" to repair his reputation).

Its good that you apologize. Very few have the inner size to act this way. So i think its good that theymos is ok with it.

Though what i was wondering about your story from the start... you always wrote offline computer. It didnt make sense to me that your wife took away your "offline computer" after seeing the posts. When it was an offline computer then she most probably did not see the posts on there. Then why should she go, see the posts on your online computer and then kidnap your offline one?  ::)

To be honest I never thought that my "stunt" post was actually going to be *believed* but perhaps that was because I had drank a few too many beers that night.

The offline storage is actually on USB "flash drives" so the "offline PC" isn't really important at all (apart from it staying offline).

Anyone who actually knew about the CIYAM Safe (which is what I had publicly stated before I was using to hold the forum's funds) would know that it is a Live OS but seemingly @theymos and the mods were not aware of this and took my "stunt" post as being "for real".

FTFY. You wanted people to believe it, that's obvious, whether it happened or not. And insanely enough, your plan worked because the posts were removed, and now I can never fucking know what actually pissed you off so bad. Thanks mods.

Don't take offense, I don't know you personally, but it wasn't just one post, you carried the story along several posts and maintained that you lost control of the coins due to a rogue wife (which is completely believable). There is a certain type of character that reacts like this when they are angry, and there is a type of person who doesn't. I am glad you came to your senses, and impressed with your release of the coins and I would hope the trust would be converted to neutral with a full explanation, but IMO your actions show you should not be trusted with large sums of the forums coins.

Well people can say that they think that they "know exactly what I am thinking" but that does not make it true (just as silly if I was to start saying I know exactly what you were thinking when you posted your post).

Obviously if I really thought what you are saying I did then I would not have posted unless I actually *wanted negative trust*. :D

(or do you believe that was what I was actually after?)

When I first signed up to this forum it was actually something I was reticent to do as I am not a liker of any "social networking" stuff (the only such thing I had used previously was "usenet" which perhaps shows my age).

The fact that I "lost it" actually wasn't a big surprise to me (but of course was a "disappointment" although perhaps it was more surprising that I had managed not to lose it for years before).

I have no doubt that anger, and *maybe* a few beers (alcohol is no excuse), clouded that part of your judgement - the part that thinks about getting negative trust and the long-term effects, but it seemed clear to me that people were believing what you were saying, and you continued, in order to reach your end goal of getting the posts removed (extortion).

They were just insulting his wife. Trolling or off-topic posting isn't allowed and extreme or persistent cases will or can be removed (or users banned). I actually requested a ban for the guy shortly before CIYAM made his extortion attempt.

There was no intent to actually "extort" - it was a *stunt* mostly from anger and frustration.

The forum's funds were never at risk and I would never have stolen them (I think @theymos believes me in that regard).

It was unfortunate timing that the posts in question (which were removed) did not get removed before I had "lost the plot" (and yes of course I wish I had just waited longer then everything would have been fine).

When I used to post on comp.lang.c++.moderated there was *no acceptance of trolling at all* so perhaps I was spoiled in having been a part of a "useful group" of technical people that were working on improving the C++ language.

Yes, it was unfortunate. The funds may have never truly been at risk but it was still extortion as you used them as leverage to get the the posts removed.

I had agreed to return the funds to @theymos before I had even realised that the posts had got deleted (I only noticed that after I read @theymos reply to my apology).

Even @theymos has stated that their removal had nothing to do with my "stunt" and was just part of normal moderation.

Obviously yes, the posts should have been deleted, and that user had already been dealt with before you posted that thread (though those particular posts hadn't been deleted yet). Only reason I held off deleting them after you posted the thread was to give you a chance to rethink your actions, which is also why I responded to your thread so quickly pointing out what you were doing. It was extortion, whether that was your intention or not. It was also very insulting that you think we would value 50 BTC over our integrity (assuming we disagreed about moderation of the posts).  

It wasn't about the posts, it wasn't about the funds either. It was about you, and the way you conducted yourself wrt your contractual obligations.


I'm not sure why you think segregating yourself from the community would help.

I may change it to a neutral someday, I don't think a single mistake should haunt you for the rest of your time here, but that day isn't today.
 

I did *obey* the contractual demand from @theymos to return the funds within 14 days (was done within 3 days) but for sure I understand why I caused you and others to be upset.

Anyway - when the funds are moved from the address that they are stored at I hope people will not start up again (as those funds are not the forum's now they are actually mine as I am no longer holding any funds for the forum). Any "list" of the treasury funds should have been updated to remove the address that was at issue.

Thanks for at least considering to change the trust to neutral in the future.

In regards to "the record" I think it was unfair of @theymos to remove the *fact* that I had responsibly held 200 BTC for the forum for (from memory) six months (he could have just changed that trust to neutral rather than deleting it to make it look as though I never did anything right at all).

At the time I returned 200 BTC of the 250 BTC I was looking after was because I felt it was actually unsafe for me to be holding so much BTC for the forum (this was when the price was rising towards 1K USD).

If I had ever had some idea of "stealing the forum's BTC" then it would have happened when I had 250 BTC of it (and when BTC was approaching 1K USD).

I think its about time to lock this thread now and get on with out lives. Continue your CIYAM work, continue contributing and time may be able to repair some of the trust and trust ratings.

Okay - topic locked.