Obviously, I can' t talk about your local, I can' t read a single word in Russian, but as far as I've seen in both the English and The Spanish boards, I can't agree with you. I think this is quite the opposite, though. In this forum, intelligent posts are the most merited and desired. They are quite tired of reading junk staff every single day.


Probably it is just more about mod personal preferences. But it would be interesting if you will conserve in the future the post you think to be really interesting and see what happens to them. Maybe if you find a good Russian post, just save a copy in imgur or somewhere else and see if it gets deleted. Perhaps you can also build a little collection in order for us to be able to see what is going on.
When you make such a kind of accusations, the best to do is just to show some evidence, so please, keep them and, if you can translate it, it will be awesome to analyze what' s going on.

Ufff I heard the news!!! Are you OK??
I think this is too much, I don' t know how much a society can take without exploding into a civil war. Do you see it possible? A civil war is coming?

Really?? What were these posts about? I'm curious!!
I've read from time to time some complaints about the Russian moderator, but I just thought it was an exaggeration.

You're right. But what I was trying to mean is just that we can access to political and social information in first hand, meaning, that we can access to the histories of the people living it just now. I think this is a kind of decentralization, due to the mere access to information. Of course, it is strongly moderated, but I haven' t seen this kind of moderation when political and personal situations are explained. I'm just glad and thankful for that. As a researcher, this is amazing to me to be entitled to know how the people are living in current situations as the Venezuelan's one.

Well, I've been reading some really interesting posts like this one:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4907634.0

And, suddenly, I've come to realize something that was in my subconscious mind all the time I've spent here in the forum. I dedicated my life to history, to research how humanity has changed since the creation of the very first figures in the ancient caves to this very moment.
To me, Bitcointalk.org appeared in my life like a really good place to research about how humanity is approaching this new concept called "cryptocurrency",  as well as the social phenomena involved.

But, maybe, we have forgotten that decentralization - Satoshi's dream?? - is not only related to a new economic system. We all live in a world in which the access to information is really centralized. Yes, centralized by media -designed by governments-, centralized by a strong force comparable to banks. Also, information is something valuable, even in economic terms, but mostly in social terms. A place where information can exist without the interference of its "traditional owners" is, somehow, an "information-decentralized-place".

So, let's keep Bitcoin aside for a little while and let's think for a moment about how this forum has become one of the places in which information can run decentralized. Bitcoin was the first excuse, but the mere existence of Bitcoin is based on his creator's will: to decentralize the power. Information means power too. So, congrats, people and thanks. I am not an expert on Bitcoin and yet here I am. I'm here seeking for information, all kind of social information that newspapers are hiding. And here it is.

Thanks, just, thanks.
Maybe this is time to consider this place as something bigger than the initial idea of Bitcoin. Its creation is far more important than to create an economic alternative: this is creating a new way of being able of taking a look at the world and understanding others. That's precisely what decentralization means.

It is really useful to read a  thread related to the daily life there in Venezuela. One of the biggest interest of History is to analyze the daily life of the subjects of a society. So your contribution is not only amazing but also really useful in terms of history.
Sometimes I wonder why we don't discuss more such kind of matters here in the forum. I think we are forgetting all the time that this cyber place is full of people from all around the world. Even when it was meant to be a site to discuss bitcoin, one of the goals of its creation -the bitcoin creation, of course - was precisely to decentralize humankind, ok, yes, the economy, but isn' t knowledge a direct information part of an economic system?

So thanks for that. I guess this is not easy to speak so openly about your daily nightmare. But you are contributing to the decentralization of information in the world by doing so. So, again, thanks.

The interrelation between religious countries and poverty is almost hilarious. If you compare atheists countries with big religious ones, the differences between the distribution of money seem really amazing. It is sadly obvious that fanatism -I don't find a different world to describe the process of using the religious filter to see anything in this world- is one of the biggest problems related to the economy.

Of course, it is not accidentally engaged with overpopulation: the prohibition of abortion, the encouragement of having a "big family" even when the familiar economy doesn' t allow that, keep the people living into poverty, which, by the way, is one of the best ways of control any government can have. Religion and poverty is the new concept of "Panis et circenses".

Tal cual.
El tema del petro es como querer tapar el sol con un dedo, mientras se jactan de tener una de las mayores reservas de petróleo del mundo y hablan de "criptomonetizarla", miles de miles de venezolanos huyen a la frontera en un número sólo antes visto en la Alemania Nazi. Un proyecto  que habla de orgullo mientras masacra a su gente.
Los que compren esa basura sólo serán partícipes del desvarío de los dirigentes de un país llevado a la ruina voluntaria e incluso "alevósicamente", que venden su patria a cuatro magnates mineros a los que, con una mano le dan oro, mientras con la otra le dan basura a su pueblo.
Para mí cualquier país que se involucre en la actualidad con Maduro y su histrionismo no es sino por un interés vil y hasta cierto punto patológico en una patética ganancia, y una falta de sensibilidad brutal ante la desgracia.
¡Cómo le gustaba al coleta mencionarlos como ejemplo! Nunca entenderé cómo puedes hablar mal de Franco y a la vez vanagloriar el Chavismo... habrá que ser hipócrita, carajo!
(que quede claro que yo jamás diría una cosa buena de franco, como tampoco del chavismo y sus descendientes ideológicos, por si no quedaba claro jaajja)

Madre mía, Gothorum. ¿Será que es más saludable tener escondida la dirección de email?
De todos modos no sé si tu puedes darle red trust a ese personaje. Por mi parte, me pondré a denunciar varios de sus posts, que para colmo son una basura, a ver si se consigue que le bloqueen la cuenta.

Creo que merece la pena que hagas una publicación en la sección Meta en inglés en el foro. Si quieres te ayudo a traducir esto, porque es posible que en esa sección tengas resultados antes.

Un saludito y a ver si le encontramos solución pronto.

Yes, I understand you. In locals, rules are not so clear, and no everyone has the ability of reading/writing in English. Just read the pinned post and try to translate them. I think this is really a good way to help the community!!!
I`m glad I helped you.

Hello, fellas.
I`ve read the whole thread, and I can`t see anything related to local boards. Well, I do understand that maybe this is the English mean board, but locals are part of this forum too, and there are a couple of problems there.

I can only speak for my own local -Spanish and the problems I`ve seen in there, problems that also reflect on the forum:
- Locals have not enough pinned post. What does that mean? Well, many people come in here and this is just impossible for them to understand the rules and policies, given the lack of information in their local languages. Of course, they can try harder before beginning to spam or plagiarize, but, maybe, by implementing well-explained pinned post in every local we can help the forum. So my suggestion is to designate people to translate every new information of importance to their locals.
- Besides, there is also a problem with merits in local boards -again I can only speak about my own. The people don`t seem to understand the system, and there is a common misunderstanding: they think they will only be able to rank up in the English boards, so they use google translation or engage in the English main in a poor English. So maybe this is time to have more merit sources dedicated to their locals.

So those are my suggestions. I think we need to care about locals a bit more, so the people can get the information and avoid to rush in here with the wrong mindset...

Everyone receiving merits has the opportunity to become a merit-giver. Nevertheless, there are two types of people awarding merits:
- The one receiving them, for every merit you receive you also have 0.5 Smerits to send, so, every 2 received merits you have one to give away.
- Merit sources. Trusted people in here, selected by the administrator receive a number of merits every month, I think, so they can award the people.

I think this question is already been answered in my previous explanation.

Everyone has a different mind in their skulls. So... it depends a lot. I can just talk by myself: when I give someone a merit, I usually check her or his post history, in order to determinate how many merits I will give to the person. If the post I think is deserving merit is OK, but the member`s activity is pretty cool, well, I use to give more than a single merit. I also check always if the thread is plagiarized or not before meriting. If, on the contrary, the member`s post activity sucks in general, well, it is improbable for me giving merit to her/him.

Again, this is difficult to determinate, for everyone has a different mind and different interests. I am truly interested in social issues, in history and about the forum itself as a social environment, so I use to award threads or quotes that make me think about my own selfish interests. It depends on the person but, in general, the most merited posts are those ones with a curious and creative mind behind.

Nothing but the sane use of this muscle called the brain. The forum is a huge place, with a lot of people talking about many different things every time. I`m sure there`s a place for everyone in here, you just need to use common sense and to learn. Just be curious and honest.


Probably. Local boards are quite "orphans" about the rules and the new protocols implemented in here. In my own local I`ve tried to explain how the merit system works for, of course, not everybody can read/speak English. If you find your local to be pretty "lost" about this matter, just try to inform yourself and to give this information to others in your own language. This is a great way to help the forum and other users to understand the system, and also a great way to get the people of the locals interested in this particular matter.

I totally agree with that. Even though geologists now consider that we are, in fact, in a new era called Anthropocene due to all the harm the humans have made to nature, I think this is quite a bit anthropocentric. We are just a specimen, yes, a bad one, with erratic natural behaviour, but, at the end of the day, I don`t think we are entitled to destroy something as huge as the earth.

Do you think it is actually going to happen any time soon? I rather believe that the feeling of "the end of the world" has been present in human history for long, though. There is a chance of humankind destroying earth, but I don`t consider this to be a real possibility. Ok, the massive destructive power we have can be something of bad consequence to our planet, but I don`t think that humanity has the power enough to destroy everything. Or maybe I just don`t want to believe this.


Well, of course. They taught us to observe our very social environment. This is curious, somehow, how those ones were able to foresee something that is already happening. But maybe this is something that has been there for a long time. I mean, in the times of those authors, things weren`t so different than now, despite all the technical achievements. Maybe they just were able to observe human nature in a really intrinsic way, so intrinsic that what they are actually speaking about is the human nature and not only a social environment.
Is part of humanity the necessity of controlling others? Is just part of the human brain an unnatural and "bacterial" way of actually being in this world? Were they just describing the most interious sickness of a whole specie?

No lo habría resumido mejor. Puedes ser el usuario que se mete a bounties o puedes ser el que se pone a charlar de cosas interesantes, o puedes ser los dos. Pero si eliges ser de los primeros, entonces no te pongas a llorar con que no puedes subir de rango.
Supongo que en esa frase describes con bastante certeza el tumor que se empieza a volver metástasis del foro: el hecho de que la mayoría de la gente viene con la intención de ganar unos durillos y, encima, se ponen a quejarse porque no pueden subir de rango.

That`s not true. I first came into the forum on the last December, quite shortly before the merit system was implemented. I am not a very active user, in fact, I just come here twice a week or so, and yet, I`ve come to be able to rank- up to Full member.
The problem is not the merit system. The problem is the people who, without effort, pretend to be rewarded. To me the merits system is fair and useful, it is not only great in the sense of stopping spammers in their way of ranking-up but also encourages the people to try harder, to put their souls and minds into a quote, to be a part of amazing conversations. I think many of you tend to forget that we are all in a big place, and you can learn from people all over the world. This is amazing, and we all should be grateful just for that, for having the opportunity of learning, talking and debating with people from every corner of the world.
This is a social place, I`m sure you don`t complain to the YouTube if you are not getting enough views to monetize your videos, true? Well, that`s the same in here, make a difference, or simply read and learn, engage and enjoy the forum and the merit system is going to be for you just another tool.

Let`s not measure things about quantity but about quality.

That`s true, but, again, maybe this is for the best.



I agree and disagree. 
To me, things are quite bit more complex. I don`t see a harm in having the Ivory Tower restricted to the masses, however, the traffic is low, but there is nothing wrong with that. My very favourite board is the Serious Discussion one, and one of my inner motivations for ranking -up was just to be able to be a part of the Ivory Tower discussions.
I understand your point, but I also can see that, in general, the people engaging in here is used to take it seriously: you change your very mindset once you know you are writing on the Ivory Tower, and, even if there are a few people in here, I just can quote my music teacher: "the less the best".

Honestly, I see Bitcoin being used in multiple app`s in the cellphones like a current mainstream tool. Given the actual state of the society- at least on some developed countries-, the use of bitcoin will be mainstream by cellphones app`s. For instance, I can picture this scene: you go to a coffee shop and, at the moment of paying your bill, probably you will be able of doing so by your cell-phone, by picking your BTC app and sending the money, or by approaching your cell phone to a QR.reader.
I imagine that, by this time, probably all the people are going to have is some satoshis and that having a Bitcoin will be a kind of treasure.

Now, sadly, I also picture a future in which the use of bitcoin is no longer be anonymous. The current situation suggests that, in a not-so-distant-future, the use of bitcoin will be regulated through the exchanges, as well as the app generated for this purpose, all of them asking for KYC as a normal state of things. Given the lack of concern our society is showing about privacy, I just can see that as a matter of fact.

Or maybe in ten years the current society will opt for other cryptos, as Google Crypto -if developed, or Instagramcrypto and so. Probably neither facebook nor instagram or Youtube will be apart of this new kind of "money", so they will develop something soon in order for them to get a piece of the cake. So... in a resume, I can picture different panoramas:
- Bitcoin becoming mainstream by the implementation of new and accessible app`s focused on the public in general.
- Bitcoin being used by a few crypto-lovers and, at the same time, being one of the most important cryptos worldwide.
- The rise of other`s assets based on the Blockchain tech but managed by some big monsters like Facebook, Instagram, Google products, etcetera.

Too bad I can`t read Russian, but thanks, I now have the author`s name so I can make a profound search and see if I can find any English version.


It is kind of true. H.G. Wells vision was a big influence on Orwell, however, I think that hey didn`t share the first`s scientific point of view. While Wells was talking about how science will change the future, Orwell was more related to sociology. In fact, there is an essay, written by George Orwell (published in 1941) called: "Wells, Hitler and the World State". In there, he pointed out his own vision about Well`s work in lines like this one:

You can read the complete essay in here: http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/wells/english/e_whws

I will be looking and see if I can find the ones you recommended to me. It sounds amazing, thanks for that.

Hi there!! Well, you have mentioned two of my very favourites books, so, let`s analyze a bit them.
In the first place, George Orwell did had a really nice inside of what a dictatorial state meant. He described how, by manipulating the people by fear, a totalitarian government might be able to even destroy the people`s spirit. To me, "1984" is a book related to how the fear and the destruction of the minds of the people, through starvation, by having them in a continuous state of stress, even at the point of being able to destroy the capacity of falling in love. If you continuously keep the people under a thread, then the stress levels will be so high, then you can even manipulate their more profounds feelings, as O`Brien clarify while torturing Winston. Now, Orwell`s life was quite interesting: he was involved in the Spanish Civil War, where he realized how the press could absolutely cheat the people by fake news with the only goal of manipulating the masses into a whole new mindset. That horrified Orwell, like he stated on "Homage to Catalonia" (1938). Well, given the baggage of the writer, the characters of 1984 are based on historical ones, like the "Big Brother", an interpretation of Stalin, or Goldstein, the dramatic representation of Trotsky. So, from my perspective, George Orwell was describing, in a hyperbolic way, his own experience.

We must n`t forget that Huxley wrote "A brave new world" 17 years before Orwell`s "1984". In fact, Orwell sent a copy of his "1984" in 1949 to his master, Huxley, and they even had a debate about which one did have the better approximation. There is an interesting letter Huxley sent to Orwell:

(source:http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/1984-v-brave-new-world.html )

This is an amazing letter, and, even when it is quite long, I think this is one of the better analysis we can read about both authors mindset...

Now, their lives were really different. Huxley used to live in a high-society world and see how the nepotism, the classism and the appearances will lead humanity into a nightmare of entertainment. Orwell, on the contrary, was in the war and experienced in his own flesh horrors that Huxley could only imagine.

However they have true two different lives, I think both were absolutely right. We can see the Orwell´s nightmare having a place in undeveloped countries: fear, orchestrated wars, hunger, surveillance... And, also, Huxley`s nightmare is already happening also in a global state: cellphones, Facebook, Youtube, Healthy lifestyles, selfies, Instagram, "likes" as the new concept of "soma"...

Why do I think both were right? Well, precisely because they have two different approximations to the same problem. It can be mixed, it can happen at the same time, in the same place. Look at the US society, for instance: their government is always scaring their people with a new menace, as terrorism, as war, and, at the same time, they have TV programmes like "American Got Talent", they have to buy their very next app so one day they will be able to be thin and fit, etcetera.

Yes, that`s why both are so important. Because, due to their experiences, they were able to analyce, structured their present so well that they even were able to describe the future.

Muchas gracias a ti por leerlo y me alegra muchísimo que te sea de utilidad. Una de las claves esenciales para no fracasar en el foro es tener mucha paciencia. Creo que es fundamental tomarse todo el tiempo del mundo en ir entendiendo los pormenores de este sitio, así como no escribir cualquier cosa si realmente no vas a aportar nada.
Por otro lado, si no estás muy allá en inglés existe una iniciativa de varios miembros del foro, @JetCash, @Seoincorporation y otros, que se llama Fittotalk y que consiste en escribir artículos de interés (sobre todo de temas políticos mundiales). Ellos te ayudan a traducirlos al inglés y a colocarlos en el foro. Aquí te dejo el link por si te interesa, bueno, por si os interesa a todos: https://fittotalk.com/english-talk/index.php

No olvides leer todos los posts con chinchetas que veas, es otra de las cosas más importantes para ir entendiendo un poco de qué va esta locura. Cada vez que entres en una sección nueva te recomiendo muchísimo que mires a ver si hay algún post arriba del todo con la chinchetita puesta y te metas a leerlo.

Bienvenido/a a al foro.