Bitcoin Forum

Hey guys. I raised some objection regarding the subject matter on some other section of this forum
which was being viewed by Benson and many others.  to my surprise, my post was DELETED.
May be, I touched a raw nerve there. This topic sure needs addressing. I have pasted my comment
which was deleted below:


It is high time that Indian Bitcoin community addresses the elephant in the room.

Benson being the moderator of the Indian Forum has SERIOUS CONFLICTS OF INTEREST- as he ALSO runs an indian bitcoin exchange.
He can use this position to modulate public opinion to suit his privately held bitcoin exchange's interest.

Benson, I think everyone would love to hear your answer to the below:

# Being the moderator of the Indian forum on bitcointalk.org, what information of the users data you have access to>> like there ip, browser info, user agent etc.
# is Theymos aware that you also run a Indian Bitcoin Exchange? If not already aware, did you made an attempt to tell him?

i would like all the senior guys in the Indian Bitcoin Forum like  buysellbitcoin, dashingriddler skang, masakali, ,subvolatil, BTCIndia to chip in on this.
i have been feeling this for at least 1 year now. Now is high time guys...

i think it is morally and ethically correct for Benson to resign for moderation.

may be it would also help him focus more on coinsecure.

Not deleted anything myself. This can be validated as well by any Global Mod or theymos as well.
I did see this same message notification in my email before this was posted. Neither has been actioned by me.

You going to have to show me some place where this has happened??? Or are you just throwing random assumptions here.
My job here is not to modulate or moderate conversations, but to manage the overall health of this board, avoiding spam, cross posts, etc.
If you look through my posts, unless a personal opinion, I DO NOT involve in every thread.

I dont have any access to any user data information. This is only available to theymos from what I am aware of. And he does clarify IP matches without divulging the same, if needed.

Yup, everyone is aware that I moderate and handle an Exchange, Payment Gateway, Api, etc....
Its in my signature as well, thanks to someone who asked for me to add it.

I don't have much problem at all with this.
In fact, there are hardly 10 posts aday on this part of the forums and every once in a while, there is some long drawn drama like this that does not make sense to anybody's time.
Probably wont resign, but I have no problem backing away from this if there really is some SERIOUS conflict of interest.

Would love to hear some opinions as well.

FYI, I reported the comment which was made on the Gainbitcoin thread for being off topic. Which it completely was.

Yes there is a possibility of conflict of interest but it's theoretical for now since Benson has been doing a good job of just cleaning up stuff reported by others.
I am sure that if this sub-forum becomes a place of heavy discussion or there is a case demanding such conflict, he would have no problems in stepping down, since he has been consistently logical in the past.

Currently, there is no need & when the need arrives I am sure we as a community will find solutions.

I personally think Benson is the best person to be the moderator of the Indian section. We firstly don't have many other Indian members, and over the last year, I have never seen the conflict of interest being any problem.

It also seems you have a problem with him,only because of your post being deleted which is now sorted since he wasn't the one to do it.

If you feel he is deleting posts that, maybe promote other exchanges asides from his, why don't you post it here for all to see.

In my humble opinion,Benson is the most suitable person to moderate the Indian forum given his experience,expertise and above all friendly and helping nature.
Whether he also owns an exchange doesn't matter as he never ever tried to use his position to promote it.In fact I didn't know that he owns coinsecure until few months back

Your post was off-topic and reported by someone (I've seen the report, but didn't act upon it). Your post was not deleted by Benson Samuel. Moderators usually tend to stay away from threads/posts regarding them and let other moderators make decisions to remain impartial. If you have proof of any misdoing (e.g. unfair moderation), then you should post it here. Otherwise this thread is just a waste of time.

There's no reason for them to do so.

I think Benson is doing an amazing job moderating the Indian board. For several years now.
It is a potential conflict, but so long as it is known, I don't see an issue. I have never seen Benson suppress or push anything for his own advantage or to denigrate competitors.

I appreciate what Benson Samuel is doing  and has done. But we need more  moderators for the Indian Thread.

Them who?  I think you wanted to say him, btw I also think he is doing a good job as staff member and there isn't any reason to him to resign as a moderator.

Regardless of the post deletion.I don't think Benson does his job precisely.No offence but if you look at the Indian forum,its full of shit and off-topic posts.Not that I don't report them but honestly there is no initiative taken by the Mod to clear it up.I'd love to have a Mod who is actively posting not only on the sub-forum but contributing to all the important issues/discussions on bitcointalk!

This is not what we have moderators for.Their job is not to activly participate in discussions but to make sure that there is a room for healthy discussions for everyone.Whether they take paet in it or not is their individual choice

The point of this post is not relevant as nothing yet has happened which would prove or even support the allegations.

I quite reading this thread after reading the above. I feel all is cool with Benson. Please PM me if you feel I need to further assess my stance. TY, all.