The following is what you sent me:

My answer is this:  You are an obvious shitposter; are probably an alt of Zandar; and you're obviously abusing the merit system with him.  There would be no other reason someone would leave you merits unless it was an alt, or a "friend", or was otherwise being traded  Same thing with the Zandar account.  In fact, Zandar says you two are friends in real life here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3162720.msg32983811#msg32983811, so it probably really is a buddy of your you're trading merits with--and not because the posts are merit-worthy.  Hence, my feedback.

If you think TMAN, Jet Cash, Foxpup, digaran, nullius, or anyone else is an alt (or a friend) of mine, you are free to leave a negative as you see fit and I won't complain about it in the least.  But I'll be the honest one here and say that I don't know any of them in real life and that there was absolutely no talk, arrangement, deal, or anything else between myself and anyone whom I've given or received merit from.  

I have respect for these users, and I tend to like what they say.  End of story.  We travel in the same circles on bitcointalk, but my given and received merits are not a case of friends "helping out" one another; nor are we shitposters; nor am I, at least, getting any benefit by receiving merits.  There's no more ranking up for me, and I've made it clear that I'm making it a point to hand out sMerits to lower-ranked users.  I've given out a lot, and the vast majority did not go to any of those users mentioned.

There's this:

And then there's this:
So, you're happy with the neg I left you way back when but now you're pissed that I blocked your PMs.  OK.  I don't spend time going back and forth with people I've tagged via PM.  There's too many of you, and there's not really much to discuss, so I've learned that blocking PMs is the best option to prevent my inbox from filling up with nonsense, like the following:


That gets tiresome, and it wastes everybody's time.  We can do it out in the sunshine, right here, as if we were on the beach in Florida.  

You got lucky with your other feedback for your previous loan shenanigans.   The fact that you got neutral feedback from Lauda is almost a miracle in my eyes.  It's hard to see how those kinds of behaviors are consistent with being a productive, upstanding member of bitcointalk.  But you're crazy if you think I'm going to remove my feedback, and you'll remain blocked.

OK then.

Yep, I remember this very well and I just recently wrote kind of a similar post, likening the dot com bubble to what we're seeing in this ICO market.  People are going irrationally nutty over these things, and they're going to end up utterly worthless--just like those dot com stocks.  I also recall being involved in a biotech stock boom that was happening right around the same time.

A lot of people on bitcointalk are probably young and haven't lived through a crazy bull market, where investors are completely losing their minds.  We probably have a lot of people in their 20s who were kids when the NASDAQ crashed in 2000, and they're the ones who are thinking it's different this time.  And I sit back and LOL, because it's not different.  The asset in question has changed, but the mentality is exactly the same.  This is why I've stayed far away from these projects.  

So yeah, when a new ICO comes out I assume it's just more of the same scammy BS.  Everyone is trying to get rich, the devs, the people buying these tokens, the investors, and they're all on the lunatic fringe of blockchain madness.

Destined to go to zero, but there's a time function for doing so.  The market can stay irrational for quite a while.  That's the crazy thing about bubbles.

You are a numbskull.   I haven't traded merits, and I've removed feedback from users who were JUST suspected of trading them, since Theymos has made it clear he doesn't want that done. 

I've left my feedback on scunts like you who have been busted for cheating campaigns, and not to mention that you were quite obviously trading merits with Zandar.  Sending merits almost exclusively to your "friend" who's in the same shitty campaign is not kosher.  And to top it all off, you're one of the most egregious shitposters this forum has.  Your feedback is well-deserved.  Did you catch all of that?

Just FYI, I've been an investor in CLCT for a while now, which is the PCGS company, and their stock price has tanked as of late and they cut their dividend in half recently.  They're in trouble.  So my opinion is that it absolutely would not hurt for them to be approached by the crypto coin community to see about grading some of these great tokens (that's the difference in their eyes, these are not "coins").  I'm actually kind of surprised that they haven't jumped on board with this yet.  Usually if a competitor is making money from something, a la ANACS, a company will follow suit.

As I said, I'm not part of this community.  Have either PCGS or NGC issued any kind of guidance regarding this?  Has anyone approached them?

That's what I'm saying, but I have to profess ignorance as to whether anyone has requested they start grading physical crypto yet.  And I'd find it hard to believe that they'd be unaware of the existence of these fine pieces of exonumia, since these people specialize in coins and, I would presume, know a little something about tokens--AND that they would at least keep an eye on what ANACS is doing.  My guess is that they see it as a small market and have their hands full already, grading the yearly silver eagles and other bullion products by the thousands.

I'd be curious to know how many total crypto coins you guys have sent to ANACS per year and whether there would be enough demand in their eyes.  Grabbing less than 100% of a what's already a small market might not be worth it to PCGS or NGC.

This has kind of been suggested before, but the problem is that these knuckleheads do not read things.  They won't read any message or understand it upon registration, or they just don't care.  The reason why these shitposters keep posting new threads about merit and keep posting in existing merit threads is because that's where they see merits being given out.  But their posts are still god-awful and just because they're now magically in Meta doesn't make them any more merit worthy.

Still, what you've suggested is not a bad idea.  It would then allow mods to delete any new shit-threads that keep asking the same questions over and over, because then they could point the person to the link that has the answer.  I'm just not sure Theymos wants to do something like that.

Physical crypto was never my thing, but for the brief years that I was somewhat of a coin collector I learned that ANACS is a 3rd tier grading company.  Their old slabs, the small white ones, were actually pretty, and the grading was pretty spot-on.  Then somehow those slabs morphed into these testicle-twisted monstrosities, which are apparently being still further degenerated in aesthetic quality as time goes on, and their reputation for accurate grading is swirling around in the same bowl.  Figures.

ICG?  If I recall correctly, that was one grading company coin collectors advised absolutely staying away from.  It's a company that's probably being run out of a school for the blind, that's how fucking off they have a reputation for being.  Man, if I were you guys I'd petition PCGS and NGC to start grading crypto coins.  They're the only ones who are really trusted in the traditional coin community, and their slabs don't look like they've been heat-warped.

Just my opinion--and it's obviously one from someone who doesn't collect physical crypto--I'd probably keep the coins raw rather than send them in for grading, at least until a more reputable company can do it.  As wheelz1200 has pointed out, there's that potential for theft once the coin is out of your hands, and a lot of these I would imagine have very high "intrinsic value" attached to them in the form of being loaded with bitcoin/doge/whatever.  I'd be a bit paranoid as well.

I believe you; they probably dropped it and said "fuck it".  To my eyes and from that picture, it doesn't look that bad.  I've seen MS69 coins with more flaws than that, so I've come to believe that a coin that was never intended to be circulated has to be extremely defective in order to earn anything lower than that. 

I'm sure the graders don't have all the time in the world to spend on any given coin and don't take any more time than they have to to examine one.

Thank you for the first part of that.  And I don't doubt the second part for a minute.  You're not even the first person among the people I get along with here who's told me I'm naive, so there's probably truth to it which I'll ponder.  

I believe in cleaning my own house first, so I'll be happy with the max of 0.0375BTC per week I can earn in Chipmixer, and I'm very thankful that I was accepted into it.  Those fuckbags who are making that kind of dough I can't really control though, can I?  If the forum allows it and doesn't want shitposters tagged, or merit abusers, what can I do?  If you've got suggestions I'll be more than happy to listen.

I call them "idiots" because I don't respect them.  That's just the first thing that comes to mind.  I realize they may not necessarily be stupid human beings, though there's certainly plenty of that here too.

Edit:  BTW, are you telling me I should be even more cynical and pissed off about the state of bitcointalk?  I'm not sure that's even possible at this point.

Edit2: I just redid it, thank you.  Not sure how I missed it in the first place, but now I made the neg longer and more vitriolic.

The problem is a qualitative one.  That is to say, the continued shittiness of bitcointalk has to do with how bad the posts here are, not how many of them there are.  Your solution would only make this problem worse, because then users would be motivated to make way more posts than whatever their maximum is for whatever campaign they're in.  That certainly won't help the quality of the forum as a whole.  

Do you not realize why the merit system was implemented in the first place?  It was an alternative to DT members red-tagging shitposters.  It's a solution that doesn't have to make a mockery of the trust system, and I think it's one that will work, given enough time to play out.

These threads suggesting fixes to the merit system that promote laziness and go against the spirit of what it's about drive me nuts.  Just be patient and earn merits like everyone else.

And that *only* works because he doesn't accept shitposters to begin with.  Can you imagine what would happen if something like what OP suggested was adopted by these awfully-managed altcoin bounties?  It would be a never-ending waterfall of shitposting, because these dolts would be incentivized to blow past their quotas, and meanwhile they still haven't mastered the English language.

Now you're on to something....

Bitcointalk isn't some sort of perverse RPG, where you need a strategy guide to tell you how to slay the dragon at the end of the water level.  It's not a big mystery, and even the 3 activity noobs seem to be mouthing the words "We need to make a quality posts and we can gain merits".  Aside from the problem of whether said noobs are ever going to rank up, that's essentially the correct answer.  And I would add that you have to get on the radar of people here who have merits to give and will hand them out to low-ranked members.  Because of how awfully unreadable bitcointalk has become and the fact that it's mainly noob shitposters who are responsible, there's a lot of bias against members of the lower ranks.  

A lot of that is well-deserved, but two things:  

1)  The merit system isn't even 3 months old yet.  A lot of members who are squealing about how unfair the system is are just being lazy and impatient.  This is akin to being the lazy-ass coworker who steals company pens that everyone wants fired, and who asks for a raise every 3 months.  It's just not a realistic perspective.  And,

2)  You can't expect to earn merit by making posts in threads that no one reads.  This point was recently made by DarkStar_ in another thread, and it's right on the money.  I've noticed that the vast majority of shitposts are made in mega spam threads in certain sections of bitcointalk, where most of the threads have titles that are these idiotic questions like "How bitcoin affect your life?" or "How can I earn btc?" or "The advantages of bitcoin".  These are topics that have been discussed hundreds of times already, and new threads are usually created by Account_A so that Alt Accounts_B-Z have something easy to write about.  And guess what?  No one reads that shit, especially not other spammers, who don't care about reading anything anyway.

Again, there's no mystery.  Take enough time to write a post like I just wrote, with some thought put into it, and you'll eventually get enough merits to rank up.  If not, goodbye and good riddance.

Aww, thanks.  And I gave what I said I'd give to OP here. 

I wasn't subtly begging for merit with my post in this thread, either.  It's just that I've run out of sMerits and keep wanting to give them to people who make threads like this, that are nicely thought through and well-presented, and I just don't have the merits to give.  It's not that I'm trying to keep the poor noob (or Member in this case) down--I'm really not able to give out more merit than I have, and that's the bottom line.  I have a feeling that there are other people around here who are in the same boat.  Can't give what you don't have, right?

Just FYI:  That post I made in the gambling thread was more about addiction than gambling, and that's why I made it.  I generally don't have a lot to say about real gambling and the mechanics thereof, since I don't partake in that vice--but I'm all too familiar with addiction.  That whole thread caught my eye, and there are some crazy degenerate gamblers on bitcointalk who probably need some help in quitting.  That'll ruin people and families just as easily as the current fentanyl-laced bags of heroin are doing.

That's amusing to me, because I've seen people try it--and it's failed miserably, with users only going to these new forums because they're being paid to do so.  And, I hate to say it but signature campaigns are a huge motivating force for a lot of people to post here.  It can be done right, as evidenced by the handful of usually high-ranked members who engage in them and still somehow manage to write things worth reading.  Sometimes even things of brilliance.  It just appears that a certain class of users here are lazy and ignorant and are here for all the wrong reasons, as if bitcointalk owes them a writing career.

I've read posts from the early days of bitcointalk, and doing so is instructive.  People then really did care about bitcoin and the discussion thereof.  And man, there were some excellent posters back then who've seemingly abandoned their accounts--probably because bitcointalk became a cesspool of shitposting.  Or they got very wealthy and suddenly found better things to do than spend time with the plebians *lol*. 

Sig campaigns were here when I started lurking in 2014 and bct had already gotten really bad by that point.  Not quite as bad as the present day, but close.  There weren't all the account farmers, I don't think, but that was an emerging problem.  I'd like to see this forum not become one that the shitposters have taken full control over.  I'm hoping the merit system evolves to have a more profound effect than it's currently having.  We'll see.

Well, you fucked up on your 4th word in this post, which is jarring to a native English speaker like me.  Yes, I'm used to people not being able to write well on the internet, but the fact is that "wandering" and "wondering" are both English-language words with very different meanings.  If you're going to make me jump through a linguistic hoop (no matter how trivial it may seem), I'm not giving you any merits.

And then there's this, which DarkStar_ has so nicely pointed out:

This is 100% true.  The only time I ever read posts in Bitcoin Discussion, Economics, or Speculation was when I was tagging and/or reporting shitposters.  Some people might read those, but I sure as hell don't, and I don't know anyone of sound mind who would enjoy reading poorly-written answers to idiotic questions over and over and over.  Those posts are never going to get merited unless there's some shady merit dealing going on.  I've always thought that shitposters don't do a lot of reading here anyway, so if those posts aren't earning merit by merit sources, high-ranked members, or peer-group shitposters, who's going to be meriting them?  Ans:  No one.

Though I like the spirit behind this idea, I don't think it's necessary and I'm not sure it would help.

Given enough time--and merit sources awarding merit to good users, ones who aren't merit farmers--this problem should take care of itself.  The merits sent back and forth between alt accounts of idiots & merit dealers should eventually run out, leaving them and the forum as a whole with less over time.

Aside from that, I'm pretty sure that when Theymos rolled out the merit system in January, it was pretty well-thought out and he's probably not going to be tweaking it anytime soon.  We're still early on with this feature, so the verdict isn't in whether it's a failure or not.  So far it doesn't seem to have caused a pullback on shitposts (I continue to see a lot of them), but users who make them don't seem to be earning much merit and hence they won't rank up.  That removes a lot of the financial incentive for them to continue to make them.  Right now, that's good enough for me.

Done.  I just saw this thread, did not see that thread initially; and I would have tagged him anyway.  

But my question is:  Did this guy actually scam you, or is this thread about him just deserving a neg for selling his account?  Either way, self-moderated threads in conjunction with selling bct accounts is sketchy as hell and deserving of a red.  Duly provided, sir.

I tag them when I see them.  If you see them and they haven't been tagged, feel free to send me a PM with the link.  I agree, it's a huge flaw with this forum, tolerating scammers as policy.  Thankfully most DT members don't tolerate scams.

Edit:  What a moron this guy is.  I just reported him for bumping that thread in way less than 24 hours.

Early on, in late January and early Febuary I think I gave most of my sMerits to higher-ranked members, though I didn't keep track and I haven't even looked.  Lately, I've been trying to give sMerits out to lower-ranked members who really deserve it.  The problem is that there are so few posts I see by Newbie-Member ranks that are worth meriting--but I have fairly high standards and only so much sMerit to give.

And dammit, some of the best posts are written by Hero-Legendary ranked members.  There's no getting around that, in my opinion.  Right now I'm totally out of sMerits, but if and when I get some I'll continue trying to reward the people who need to rank up.  I try to avoid meriting Legendary members, but I have no problem sending sMerits to Heros.  They need it as well.

Decent analysis, OP.  I owe you a merit.

As pointed out by actmyname, I don't do that anymore, nor am I going to give fresh negatives for merit abusers.  That's per Theymos and the feedback I've gotten.  Scammers and account sellers still deserve a negative, though.

You shitposters don't seem to realize that this forum might not even exist other than as a spam forum if you guys keep up with your antics.  I don't want to imagine what the forum would be like without the people I have in my trust list.  It would not be the same, and it probably would not be a forum I'd want to visit.  What should happen is that campaigns ought to pay for post in the local sections, where you can at least be understood and you might have more to say.

The fact is that except for a few instances where users have actually posted their location in their profile or have specifically written where they're from, I don't know where anybody here is from.  When I say "3rd world shitposter", I'm saying that more out of how these posts read than my knowledge of whence they originated.  And somehow 100s of them end up sounding very, very similar on a daily basis.  I don't literally want anyone starving to death, but nor do I want this forum to be ended because people are here just to post garbage--and I'm confident that the posts I've reported, the shitposters I've tagged in the past, and you fools I'm debating with are the problem.  And I have a hard time believing that only bitcointalk can stand in the way of someone eating.  Could happen, sure, but you'd think those people would be a lot more motivated to not be lazy.  Or crafty enough not to get caught.  

I sleep with a clean conscience about this stuff.

Right on.  Or, as Vod has said, it's like these shitposters are at a job interview and after every question the interviewer asks--about qualifications, experience, etc., the shitposter says  "Because I need the job".

Oh, you mean like a famously disgraced member here who has a long history of playing out his vendettas with alt accounts and beating dead-horse issues that he seems convinced people will care about if only he makes enough noise?  Yeah, I got that impression as well after reading his last few replies.  

Give it up, QS, it's obvious.  I was initially fooled and responded to you even though I was pretty sure you were an alt of someone else, but now it's pretty obvious this is just another one of your alts employed to give an apparently fresh voice to your tired old gripes.

You've got an obvious agenda, even if you weren't obviously Quickseller, and I don't blame him for not wanting to be a part of it.  Take a break from this for a minute and give us your opinion on Quickseller's escrow scamming.  Can you do that for me?

When a market is down, people come out of the woodwork to say it's going to zero.  The end is near.  The stock/bond/crypto/whatever is going to zero.  And then when we're in the midst of a raging bull market, the same thing happens except then people think the asset is going to the moon and beyond.  Nothing can stop it.

The truth, in my view, is that market fluctuations are pretty random, and bitcoin is still way higher than it was when I first got into it.  Could it fall even more from its ATH?  Sure, and it might.  The fact is that I don't know, you don't know, and OP here definitely doesn't know--but that never stops anyone from speculating, does it?  What all of us need to realize is that OP (and those like him) don't have some sort of crystal ball that allows them to predict bitcoin prices, or any kind of inside info that would allow them to do the same. 

There isn't any inside information in crypto, because there aren't even businesses underlying any of these coins, like there are with stocks.  Thus prices are driven purely by supply and demand.  Nobody, as far as I know, has the inside scoop on future demand, and we already have all the information we need on supply.  People who say they "know" what's going to happen really don't.  Don't listen to this crapola.

I realize this thread is a couple weeks old now, but I thank OP for posting those links.  I'm going to take a look at them shortly.

Stocks are definitely pricey right now.  I look at the P/E's of some of the ones I own, and they're well above 25, which is out of my comfort zone.  Warren Buffett wouldn't touch most of them with a ten-foot pole.  And tech stocks are insanely overvalued right now, but they have a long history of that and it doesn't surprise me at all.  Still, I don't think the stock market is in 1999 territory just yet.  The businesses behind the internet stocks from that era had no chance of ever earning a profit, would never pay dividends, and some of them had business plans that were completely irrational.  No surprise that the NASDAQ went south in April of 2000. 

I look at Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Zynga, and some of the others and I see businesses that could actually make a profit but whose stocks are valued mostly on hope.  I'm sure we're due for a stock market crash, but I've been saying that for quite a while now, watching and waiting. 

These ICOs and shitcoins very much remind me of those internet stocks, and that's why I don't invest in them.  Most of them are useless and will always be useless, and I don't see any reason to buy them other than trying to sell them to the next sucker for more than you paid for them.  I'm not motivated to do that.  They're even worse than the internet stocks, because they don't even have real businesses behind them.  They're almost like penny stocks based on shell companies, and this whole thing is one giant pump & dump scheme.  It's no wonder that term 'pump & dump' gets used so much around here.  That's exactly what it is, and I want no part of it.