Bitcoin Forum

It looks like  TheGambler  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=152722) is showing as being a hero account, however it only has 99 posts.

It previously had well over 500 activity and over 700 posts, however they were recently deleted (to cover his tracks).

My question is why was his rank not updated when his activity fell below 480?

I think it will be updated within an hour. How long did you observed this? The status will automatically changed based on the activity level.

Why would he even take the time to delete 400 posts like what the fuck, admin can recover all the posts anyways so i dont really get it, anyways his account is done so it doesnt really matter if he is hero or not.

It's probably an SMF bug. I remember his threads were moved to Trashcan/Archival board some time ago. I can see 109 messages from him now.
Sometimes when we nuke accounts their post count still show 1 or 2.

It has ~400 posts late last night and was still showing as a hero (should have been senior then). I noticed it had 99 posts maybe 30 minutes prior to me making this thread. It should have received a demotion several hours ago.

He has scammed several times over several accounts. Each scam was very large and he stole at least 20 BTC, although this is only amounts I can easily and quickly verify, I would guesstimate the actual amount he stole is closer to 100 btc. I recently was able to find his identity because I found blockchain evidence with an account that could be linked to his RL identity. I had waited to post it because I wanted to give the person behind the account I linked to him to have time to dispute the connection. However the fact that he has taken so much time to try to cover his tracks I am confident they are the same person and that I have the right person.

I will most likely be posting his dox later today (I have it at home).

You are right that admins can recover deleted posts but that doesn't matter because relevant threads connecting him to other accounts and scams have been archived.

His threads probably shouldn't be in the trashcan. He edited most of the OPs in threads he created to make it misleading as to what was being discussed (and he moved them to incorrect sections).

I don't see the point. He is taking a lot of pains for nothing.


You should probably clear this with Theymos. Reason (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1034121.0)

He is trying to cover his tracks. It shows malice. In theory his posts won't be undeleted if there is not evidence of scams. He went as far as to edit the OPs of threads he creates to random questions and moved threads in order to hide what he was posting about.
I don't have his SSN (or equivalent) nor any similar sensitive information. All information that I have is name, address, phone number, Facebook pictures, Facebook accounts, names of likely family members, family's facebook accounts, and Twitter. All information is available publicly on the Internet.

But anyways isnt he already declared a scammer? Like i see he has a lot of red trust so no one needs to prove him scammer or anything right? Or am i not understanding the problem correctly

He has stolen massive amounts of money over at least 3 years. The hope is that people sue him and/or press criminal charges. 

Is it possible for the staff or even the admin to alter his personal message/signature to something that warns users that he is not an actual Hero member and is a potential scammer? Even though Quickseller is certain, do we have enough incriminating evidence to say that TheGambler is a scam account?

He has negative trust. He had such negative trust even when he was a "hero" account. IMO his accounts should be given scammer tags so he can no longer edit/delete his previous posts as he took so much time to do.

There is proof that he is a scammer in this (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1046791.msg11275422#msg11275422) post/thread as he actually admitted to stealing and being a part of a ponzi (which happens to be the post with his dox)

I have read and evaluated the thread's information and the replies. I must commend you for the effort of compiling all that information - all the separate pieces of the puzzle fit together. Since you have more evidence against him and he is not willing to provide explanations as to how he got this information, I am inclined to believe you over him, but I wouldn't pass a definite verdict just yet. I agree that his account and his confirmed alts should be given scammer tags in the interest if the forum's community. I think theymos needs to take a look at this, and the authorities could get involved if he really did scam 100BTC off the forums.

The 100 BTC amount is just an estimate, however I know for sure it is over 20 BTC. Scammer tags were actually done away with a good while ago so I would somewhat doubt he will be given one

google cache  (https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php%3Faction%3Dprofile%3Bu%3D152722&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=wvRIVYnwCcaegwS09oDwAQ)shows he used to have 800+ posts. His recent posts page shows up as 6 pages (20 posts each page) for me, so there aren't that many posts that are in trashcan. I'm guessing that he deleted his posts.

Yes we have understand he deleted a lot of his posts, but will he lose his hero status or not?

He deleted his posts because he is trying to cover up evidence of him scamming. If you look at threads he created the entire conversation has nothing to do with the title of the thread nor what he edited the OP to (note the edit time). Below are a few examples:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1038343.msg11198958#msg11198958
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1038301.msg11198503#msg11198503
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1034655.msg11163147#msg11163147
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=929204.msg10201112#msg10201112

And there are plenty more

---

back on topic, if he deleted his posts, shouldn't he have his rank change?

I have seen this behaviour previously. It's probably a SMF bug.


He might have used a bot?

I have done this before, when I was Jr member, I deleted few post, and after 30 - 60 minutes my rank back to newbie.

Also if he will delete all his posts I am sure if someone wants them, he should only send a PM to an admin (and most probable those posts will be re-added).



It is not a bug, because the activity (so also the ranks) is updated every hour.



So it is only a question of 'time' and he will lose his Hero rank, I am waiting to see the change.

He is no longer a hero member, it just takes time for the activity to update if I'm correct.

Don't you realize the only thing you contribute to this forum is the enabling of scammers? So, you're calling out one of your own. Good for you. WTF else do you think people do with _bought_ accounts?

The activity Synced, but the Rank didnt. Is it supposed to be like that? He deleted all previous posts, so that his post count went down and the activity too. But does the rank stay at the highest you have achieved no matter how much activity you have lost?

There's the empirical answer to this coming either today or next tuesday or the one after that.  Right?  If no one really knows for sure, we'll find out soon enough.

The rank relies on the activity and should thus update with the activity. Activity is updated every 30 minutes IIRC.

And yet, at the time of this writing, he still appears as Hero but with activity 100.  So, we'll see if the rank is updated on another Tuesday (or never).  It's definitely been more than 30 minutes :)

This is exactly what I think happens with this forum. Although the activity levels drop, I don't think the system will automatically demote users to lower ranks. However I'm sure an admin could manually change his rank to Member now, because he should be ranked as one with that activity.

Think in the next activity update time his won't be a Hero member any more , this won't take
alot of time .

Kind Of Respect ,
Bitcoin

This is a bit interesting as its been a day and I still see the hero status in addition the posts have increased by two
As a default it tends to auto update that so it must be a SMF bug as it should be once every 30 mins

30 minutes was changed to 60 minutes.

P.S.

'

Is not like people can do a lot with bought accounts, most of the accounts that are sold have no positive trust at all so the only thing you can use them is for sig campaigns or any other campaigns, even if they have a little bit of trust, you can always use escrow and be 100% safe in any trade

You can find some of his earlier posts here:

http://bitcointa.lk/search/35874/

It stops at August 2014 because Bitcointa.lk stopped mirroring the forums properly at around that time.


I would think they're mainly used for signature campaigns. Escrow is advisable when dealing with even senior members and above.

He is still an Hero member, and I do not think his rank will be downgraded (but for security we should wait the next activity day - but I am not convicted). Maybe it is not a bug, but I thing wanted.

Its been a day now. Does your rank downgrade when you delete "x" amount of posts? Is it suppose to and for some reason its not doing it?

That is certainly the outstanding question.  And from the look of things, no one really knows the answer.  Either rank doesn't go down (like activity) or it does on the Tuesday upgrade or there's a bug.  Time will tell.

The activity does go down. You can see that TheGambler has 101 activity whereas he used to have 480+. The real question is whether or not rank goes down as well.

Another good person to ask might be shorena who is running an account deletion service. She deletes all the posts except those which might be related to scams. You could ask her what happens to the accounts after most of their posts are gone:

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=953262

I know for a fact the rank went down. I am however not certain how long it took. I know it was increasingly harder to delete or report posts as the activity went down and thus increased the time I have to wait to perform certain actions.

It really is a moot point now because James Volpe can no longer edit, or delete any of his posts (nor can he delete any posts in self moderated threads) and theymos is going to restore all the posts that he deleted.

I also noticed that, strangely  Spodermen (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=366423) is showing as a newbie when I know for a fact that it was at least a full member, if not a senior member previously.

Seems like this proves that there's a forum bug in the case of TheGambler.  He still shows up as Hero but, as you say, Spoderman, has dropped to newbie.

The rank will be updated on this Tuesday and most probably TheGambler's status as well will change. It doesn't seem to be a bug though as ranks don't change overnight but after every 2 weeks.

I think the same and in this case the phrase "...activity updated every hours" is right because it talks only for the activity but not for the rank.

Waiting the restoring of his posts...

Sorry to bump a few day old thread, but the 2 week activity update just occurred and he's still a Hero member. Basically proves that although activity can decrease, a user's rank can't decrease, at least automatically.

I would be curious to see what happens if he were to make enough posts to become a full member.

IIRC only Newbie, Hero, and Legendary members don't get demoted normally. Maybe I'll fix it at some point, but it's not really a big deal.

True on it not being a big deal.  But also fun to finally have the question answered.  I wonder if those ranks don't demote normally because of some aftermarket changes you made to them or something else.

Yeah, I actually put this thread in my calendar to revisit it and see the outcome :P Was worth the wait.

That's not a big problem and will just waste your time , i think its more useful to invest
your time in the new forum  :) its on production now and can fix this on it .
[Note] I don't know if you will fix the new forum bugs because its - Nodejs - scritps you should
learn Nodejs (If you don't sure  ;)) [Note]

Bitcoin Boy .

I thought this thread could help with my question.  It does not but I am sure some one can answer my question.


There is an official thread with


Newbie             = ? posts
JR Member       = ?  posts
Full Memeber   = ? posts
Hero
Legendary

And the thread explains rules  2 weeks with 14 posts = 14 point  etc.

Could I get the link Please?

TIA

Phil

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178608.0

it shows 138 activity and 138 posts now. tho if you're right it's kind of weird to have his post count increased like that.

Oh, my bad. I forgot that I have ignored all of local boards in modify profile , Now I have unignored them , and can see all of his post :(

First of all, He has removed his post's and some of them were removed by Moderators. Secondly, Once you reached posts=activity, Your activity doesn't reduces which allows him to be a Hero member. Which means he had been at 400+ posts at a time and then removed them.

Hope you understood.