Bitcoin Forum

The mystery is solved : those are part of the team recovering the hacked/lost accounts.

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Is this a bug??

It's not de-ranked full member, should have 100 merit at least, registered after the merit system.




EDITED: Pictures added to draw more attention.

https://i.imgur.com/JiRFsPf.png

https://i.imgur.com/GfLbJmJ.png

Has the demotion of merits implemented already?
Just kidding, LOL.
Even with old rules years ago, only Members and above can wear avatar.
It is totally new account, not old one, so, I am shocked.

Rules:
@hilariousandco
Why can't I change my avatar?

You need to be a Full Member and up to be able to have an avatar.

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I also posted this account:
account: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2243418
alanst

Interesting again and there is an oddity if we look at the trusts in these two accounts the Trust Reference generates we own profile account.
trust:
(Chungtuhung)(Reference)(go to moon).

3dOOm (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2288758)this account Reference produces the profile that sees it.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile

I think this account is one of the mods, Admin that controls it. Because the profile system can be controlled, as members rise to the rank of Newbie to Legandary. And activity system. He can control it all.

I think it's because of the new fee changes in copper member which enables newbie to add avatar. My assumption only.

Not fair :D

I would like to have option for avatar also as Copper member.

Only text/emoji work. I can't add image. I used Personal Text option which all users have.

But he is not the only one wearing , I spotted one more
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2243418

There is nothing about this in Cooper membership link.
Is it accidentally done by Theymos?

@iasenko there is one more newbie account named alanst (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2243418) also weaing avatar but it has only 9 posts with 9 activity.

I found something interesting here, the account alanst shared one merit to 3dOOm and name Cyrus can be found on those accounts merits history which may caused this bug?

Or those accounts were in control of any staff or admins. ???

I think this is a bug in the system, the avatar feature was available to all ranks some years back so you could see some Jr.members and members wearing avatar but there registration date should be before 2015 or so and the account you listed does not come under any of the criteria, so yes it is pretty odd.

If this bug was accidentaly made by the new copper membership fee, then I suggest if you really want it badly, then pay for it again :P

Though this isn't reallly fair for us who ranked the way all up here just to where that avatar and I can also conclude that if that is already possible then wearing signatures upon the new Copper Members will also be like on the Full Member priviledges.

Let's wait until theymos finds this issue, and maybe this accounts was really made by the staffs.

Do you have any reference for it? It looks like this is not a isolated case. People have posted at least 2 more accounts with the same issues.
Really want to know what happened :)

If it’s something new I don’t mind paying copper membership again. Just want a clarification to make sure my extra payment won’t be in vain.

It is most likely not a recent bug looking at those users profile, maybe no one paid attention to it.
According to this post https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5058163.msg47860162#msg47860162 it shows that "alanst" has paid his Copper membership over 2months ago.

My actual concern is how the option to add avatar was made available in their forum profile settings, I'm a copper member and I can verify that such option isn't available in my profile settings.

I remember there was a time in 2018 I guess when the admin is making an adjustment in the system and everyone from newbie to highest rank have the same access to special features that higher ranked account enjoys including add/change of avatar. Some members took advantage of it and added avatars but after a few hours, system was updated and they cannot remove the avatar that they added. I even remember an admin admitting the mistake, I forgot who that was.

The fact that both accounts was registered last year and hasn't been also a deranked Full Member, instead theyboth availed the Copper Membership. This maybe a bug or certainly they possibly achieved to bypass the limitations upon their accounts.

The said account are still active, might want to ask them on how they did achieve such thing.

As for @Hakorede mentioned that they're not a new registered Copper Members then we can say that this might be a bypass. I may sound contradicting myself here but because if it just a bug, then why is it only a number of them and not the others who availed it back then?

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Would you mind getting us on that matter? You can provide us a link or just a clue where you've found it recently.

There is no suck kind of information when I used search option.But why only 2 people were using avatar when the forum has thousands of newbie accounts when there is a bug on system.

It's possibly brought up by the change in copper membership, theymos might have changed some unnecessary things not part of the standard feature or there is some kind of bug created with the change that is why they have access to have avatars right now. Its the only reason why newbie accounts registered in 2018 have avatars right now as compared before which your account must be 2015 or older. Avatars might not be part of it especially if copper membership only offers up to member ranked privileges

If the CM really does offer such feature, I'd buy me one right now  :D

The copper membership allows those users to have an avatar. It should be a feature who come with the rising price of that membership. 0.0065 BTC isn't a bad price at all, but maybe the CM thread should be updated because it doesn't mention the Avatar.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=credit;promote

I highly doubt this is true, we would already be seeing dozens of Newbies carrying those avatars and with such a change even though it seems minor, Theymos couldn't have forgotten to include this information alongside the price change announcement... but then again I could be wrong.

You're not wrong, He just didn't bother to read previous responses. I already said it's like not a new feature, I could tell since I'm Copper Member privileged and I'm sure one of those users didn't just pay for CM recently.

What if he was full member at some point, then deleted all his post history until demoted to newbie?  :P

I think it's impossible to delete Merits (he needs 100 to be Full Member). Received Merits will stay, no matter if airdropped for a rank he had before or if he had earned them for good posts, even if the post is deleted or the entire thread trashed.

What if he did that before merit was implemented in the forum?

1. Become Full Member with your activity points (before merit);
2. Set an avatar;
3. Delete post history;
4. Back to Newbie but avatar stays;
5. Merit introduced, didn’t get the airdropped merits because isn’t ranked anymore.

Edit: nvm, user was registered after merit was implemented. The mistery continues.

This is purely speculation, but perhaps this is a hidden reward for reporting good posts?

alanst (the other Newbie with an avatar) has 500+ good reports (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5058163.msg47705602#msg47705602) and 3dOOm responded to a thread regarding a usercript to make reporting posts easier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5101823.msg49418012#msg49418012). I guess a mod/admin would need to confirm this, though.

Here is another user wearing an Avatar but his registration date is also after the new Merit requirements were launched: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2243418 (Registration date: June 28, 2018, 01:57:26 PM)

When he posted there, he had only a few posts, but already 575 reported posts: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5058163.msg47705602#msg47705602

I don't know how he dealt with the cool down period after each report, but it seems like we have some special Copper Member accounts around (he's also a Copper Member)

I also thought that it can be reward for making lot of good reports. But if yes, it's strange that this thing are kept in secret without information in public.
Probably only theymos can answer question about this mistery, we have to wait response from him.

Just checked, I've 2 merit and I'm wearing the copper membership and I can't add avatar

So we have two low ranked accounts with avatars which is logically impossible since they both joined after the merit system has been introduced.
Also LoyceV noticed this (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5058163.msg47706701#msg47706701):
From their post history, we may presume they know a lot about forum rules and they fight spammers so why 3dOOm (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2288758) would reply with a "shitpost" like this one (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5101823.msg49418012#msg49418012) to Cyrus thread?

Also:
-alanst (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2243418) sent only two merits, one to Cyrus and another to 3dOOm.
-3dOOm received only two merits, one from alanst and one from Cyrus.
-3dOOm received his two merits for a post in the Romanian local board.

I’m assuming that shitpost is just sarcasm, referring to how easy this script makes it to report the idiots who post that in every thread.

I don't think so. It is in no way can be a reward, imo. Either it's a bug in the system or they are controlled by admin panel. I think I have somewhere read about the case alanst previously. Can't be sure where it is.
It's still a mystery. Expecting @LoyceV to come here and find us the truth behind this.

Copper members aren't allowed to wear avatars,they are bypassed some restrictions,they are allowed to post images and upload signatures but not to put on avatars which is exclusively for full members and above,which is why the OP is a strange one to say the least as the user was registered after the merit system,where the changes to the system were made.
So debunk the idea of trying to put on an avatar.
 think an admin should come and clarify us on this issue

Just curious... How would you even know this? :P

I smell account farming lol...

Merits are un-destroyable, till now.
Hence, your assumption is wrong.
If that guy was a Full member, the account should have at least 100 merits, even when all post deleted and demoted to newbie.

It is mentioned in the ANN thread. People who spend most of their time in meta, face this kind of threads thousand of times. How come you don't know about this?
Smell account trading, lol.

Oh that is good for sure. If it is really inclusion of the copper membership then I guess I should avail that membership. This the only thing I want also in my account to have an avatar below my name. I envy with the higher ranks to which they could wear it. Since merit system hinders every users here in the forum to reach directly the FM rank then it would be an uphill or even will just be a dream to rank up to FM that allows to wear an avatar.

It will be fair for now if this is really an inclusion. Ranking system create a caste system here in the forum and for me it is not fair as a bounty hunter that we work the same, posts a number of posts required by the bounty manager but will get paid not equal in terms to the higher in rank. I should hope that there is a consideration for this and that is to be fair to all bounty hunters without the ranking considerations payment scheme. It is really not fair! Just Saying!

Title need little correction.
I guess this is not the first time that we  saw some thing unexplained for user alanst (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2243418).

We have one more open question about that user.

Who can move and lock topics? Patrollers? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5043048.0)

Maybe he read the previous posts? At least that’s what I’ve done.

Meanwhile, half of the posters here still think CM users can wear avatar naturally and they keep saying “wow that’s great”... smh... Read the goddam thread, guys.

That make sense. I think those are some new team member of bitcointalk who have been recruited for accounts recovery. theymos saw it definitely , if it was a bug,  he would respond to it.
This is the 3rd time something mysterious with this account. I am 99% sure now that those are members with some special privileges because they are recovering accounts. I am leaving 1% for being ensured from someone officially.

They had merited/get merit to/from Cyrus. This also confirm a little more.

I think I made it clear in my previous reply (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5102721.msg49458884#msg49458884) that there is no bug in the forum and mods already know about them.
The real question is: if mods don't want regular members to know about the existence of those accounts with special privileges, why they let them wear avatars?

Maybe we just found 2 of them

You didn’t make this clear. Also, this is just speculation.

Theymos said “moderators”; there are 3 local moderators that have “patrol permissions” and 20 local moderators who doesn’t. None of those users have the Staff/Moderator rank role.

I'll bump this one as I still have no clear answer for those accounts.

Any admin that whats to share a some info in the case??

Maybe, they made a trial and forgot to take those avatars off.
Last year, I saw a project that the team decided to wear new signature (re-designed) before opening of new wave, then they forgot to take it off.
It's just an assumption, and still need official answers from theymos or staffs.

I think that removing the avatar of these accounts would only be a click only for the account owners, and they would totally leave us in doubt afterwards... We wouldn't know that it was only a bug and has been fixed since, or it has been just removed by the users...
Strange anyway, let's see what happens

Maybe we have a higher chance to get some answers from the users instead of waiting for themyos to unveil the mystery.
I'll try to involve them here and see what happens.. :)

Edit> just sent a message to 3dOOm, hoping that he will post some answers :)

Just a bump form my side to solve this mystery! ???

I just updated the OP with pictures, I hope this will draw more attention to this case.
Seems like a bug to me.

Try to report a lot, to have more than 500 good reports, so we can be sure if this makes any difference in connection with this problem :)
It won't be in vain anyway, sooner or later you'll have your reporting badge, if it get's implemented sometime :)

There is one more related mistery - Newbies with signatures:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5106676.0
For example this profile:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=15085
It would be interesting to get answer about these mysteries

All of these account created around 2009-2011, I don't know exactly about the rules at those years because I was joined at Bitcointalk in 2017. But I think a newbie can put an Avatar a long time ago. I believed that a hacked & bought account because the account was recently wake up after a long period and then he joined the bounty.

Maybe they bought copper membership?
Is it possible to decide if someone has bought copper if he/she don't wear the membership?

I didn't knew that, wow so there are more bugs that I expected. Something should have happened during the transition between the old and the new system, or maybe is related somehow to those increased prices of the copper membership, some glitch or ... pure magic ...

Yes there is but I was wrong on the year, it was way back 2015 when there was a glitch when theymos is doing something in teh system and some users took advantage of the glitch and added and avatar even when their rank is just Member.
Below is the link that issue.

[FIXED] Activity Glitch. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1255935.0)

Jr.Members Allowed To Insert Avatar in profile? Read Here and Give your Opinion! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1255935.0)

As most of us here know it is pretty common to find profiles which are wearing avatar but are below full member level. But the common criteria is they are registered before 2015.

The original post to the update after the glitch was fixed by theymos links here.

Avatars re-enabled (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1008863.msg10948133#msg10948133)

But the profiles described in OP by @iasenko have some unique things to be noticed.

They are registered after the glitch happed in 2015 which makes it a pretty different case and a mystery for sure. ???

Both mentioned members are active in the Romanian section.

Why should it be a bug, admins can do anything.
Both Theymos and Cyrus can do that and this quotation confirms my words.


Just like Cøbra (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=249495;sa=summary) got a "Custom Title."

The best guess is that Cyrus wants to thanks "alanst" for his efforts in translation [1], I do not know about "3dOOm" I searched on the Internet and did not find much information.

A Big Thanks to Recent Translators (https://bitcoin.org/en/posts/thanks-to-recent-translators)

Finally we got an clarification on this mystery from theymos.


Mystery is solved, they are the account recovery team members.

Thanks man, that's a great info and thanks to theymos we finally know what is going on. Then this mystery is solved and I can lock this thread. Thanks to everyone here for the help :)