Bitcoin Forum

Hello,
As I recently saw in bitcointalk the trading of accounts is legal and free to do it. My propose is just when someone is selling his account to be obligatory to send a notificatino to some moderator so the stuff to know which account are possible to be traded to scammers. It is not very difficult just to send a PM with the name of the account and to who it is sold. Or when you buy an account to write your previous name of the account . Something like that....may be this is a way to prevent scam...
BR

Gondel

AFAIK, the only reason because selling accounts isn't illegal is that you cannot really avoid that.

In a similar way, I think that a mandatory notification cannot be imposed so it would probably be useless.

Exactly. One of the main reasons accounts are allowed to be sold is because it's unenforceable to stop them doing so, and so is this. Pretty much all account dealing goes on behind closed doors because they people buying/selling them don't want anybody else knowing they have the account for various reasons. The mods don't act on this sort of thing or scams either.

This 100%. If a notification system would be possible to enforce, we could just outright ban multiple accounts and account selling.

You will never ever be able to implement this syatem and if somehow you succeed in implimenting this system then selling of the accounts will automatically get stopped.

Agreed.

With that being said,
Selling an account for the post count and activity is a scumbag move.

It should only be allowed with strict conditions and approval from a moderator, when done under other circumstances a nice ban would fix it.

Even in the case someone wants to use the name of another account for their company, postcounts should be transferred or reset.

So, you want to buy my account?

It's so simple like use an escrow if you think someone is an scam. Besides, anybody buy an account for 1btc to scam 0.5btc, and anybody buys something for 1 btc and doesn't use escrow.

It depends on the use IMO.

Anything illegitimate or something that could easy be frowned upon, should be moderated (but not prevented/restricted necessarily).

- Using multiple accounts to scam users [BAD -- obviously]
- Using multiple accounts to generate reputation/trust [BAD]
- Using multiple accounts for more funds within signature campaigns. [BAD, but not easily restricted/preventable]
- Using multiple accounts for signature backlinks of OWN sites. [I don't see an issue with this, some may (Controversial)]

If the user wants to have multiple accounts to spread their link around, I don't necessarily see any issue with this. The person could use the same account and post a lot which would essentially promote the site. However, using multiple accounts could be almost the same as running a signature campaign, makes your organization look larger and could be seen as a intelligent marketing move.

Any obvious attempts to sell/buy accounts for illegitimate purposes should obviously be taken with seriousness.

The general good citizen rules are hard to enforce...hacked or sold, I see too many newbie questions from hero accounts. Theymos does do a good job reminding people to change passwords with each potential security breach, but nothing will make accounts unstealable.

Why would selling accounts be illegal, exactly?

Some may want it to be punishable on the forums. As of now it is not.

I don't really believe it should be punishable. Isn't this the same type of power most people try to stay away from by using Bitcoin. Sort-of defeats the purpose of a Bitcoin forum is we are told we what we can and cannot sell.

I'd understand criminally illegal items, but this could come off as a bit controlling even if the accounts are technically owned by the website.

It damages the forum (not bitcointalk, but a forum in general)...Selling accounts usually leads to a lot of trusted or reputable members to go rogue and scam a lot of people. Or, just like TradeFortress/Free hugs, mislead to be someone who they are not

So if it's "legal" does that mean if someone buys a mod account they get to keep their 'mod'?

No, mod status would be removed if a mod sold an account.

Glad there's a disincentive there...What are the incentives for our mods not to sell?

Someone would just make a noob account, then buy the account so you would never know who it was. Nothing can be done it will either be out in the open or end up in the DNM's.  :-\

They won't be mods anymore?

And isn't disincentive exactly the same as incentive for them not sell ???

Not sure what you mean, that's not really a disincentive. If a mod sells his account, he's effectively already removed himself as a mod.

Are mods compensated? It would be awkward to put them in the position of having valuable accounts by virtue of providing a valuable service but not to pay them. 

Yes, they are paid from 25% of forum ads

Yup.
And IIRC the share each mod gets is calculated using a complicated secret formula that only theymos knows (I read it in a post long time ago, but I can't find it now)...

Confirmed, he keeps it secret from us so no one can game the system.

This is worth noting, But if the moderator spreads this information or even announce it officially that account would get negative bomb'd. Difficult to actually look for sold accounts as well (unless they volunteer to report).

Good to know. I think you guys and this forum provide a very valuable service to the community. I think y'all are worth paying.