... oh boy, a noob spamming a WO-related thread with made-up controversies, machine-gun quote-spam posting and dragging posters into irrelevant side-arguments ... how original, where have we seen that before I wonder?

No wonder deepcolderwallet is shilling for noob accounts because he's just going to create another one when he gets kick-banned for excessive disruption.

Straight off the bat you are twisting/lying to 'prove' your point. This is why it is pointless arguing with propagandists like you, there is no 'arguing' or honest debate for elucidation or problem solving, it is simply an all for show spewing of opinions to warp readers minds.

Anyone can read I said Hero or Legendary and in the warped view you present of my words to the world (to yourself?) it becomes "Legendary-closed club". It is nearly impossible to misunderstand yet you did immediately ... and then put those words in my mouth.

NB: I would consider extending that condition to include Full members (is that the one below Hero)? if it could be shown they behave themselves in the WO archives.

Just because I disagree with your methods or arguments doesn't make me "angry" ... you maybe projecting.

More likely you are getting sucked into deepercoldewallets attempts to create a shit storm vortex around this process, look where the accusations began.

... you were the first to post an accusation of elitism (against me) ... you'll need to prove that first or leave the real arguments to people who know what they are talking about and have been around long enough to see every trick in the book.

(I suspect you might simply be trying to derail a civil discussion here so that WO never opens again).

Quite frankly I don't agree with you and bitserve appointing yourselves somehow as 'moderator selectors' or 'moderator selection process deciders' or whatever you want to call the bullshit elitist process bullies and gatekeepers you have self-appointed yourselves as ...  that really seems like elitist bullshit to me.

So piss off newbie and take your offensive response attitude with you.

I think two relatively simple rules will eliminate a lot of the chaff and spam without impacting the 'sensible off-topicness':

1) you need to be Hero or Legendary member or member joined before 2014 to post in WO

2) posts in WO do not add to a poster's Activity Count

This will essentially make it somewhat exclusive for posters who have already earned their stripes elsewhere in the forum, i.e. veterans. And it reflects the make-up and effective purposeful useage of the thread as it stands, long-time posters who are occasionally or regularly checking in on this thread,posting price news, thoughts opinions and sometimes loosely related bitcoin or personal material.

The spamming and attempts at disruption are usually from new accounts who covet the attention provided by the thread. Bashing the Off-topic button seems to be their latest tactic, since that is how they have been shut-out most recently (classic DDOS attack is to exhaust the most effective defence). People might not know of the huge job Lauda has done in the past cleaning up after NotLambChop and shutting out that entity's attack on the WO. The current Off-topic attack is most likely a response to that ... there has probably been collateral damage and Lauda has collected some undeserved ill-will for that previous defence.

NB: I'm not available to mod WO ... but I think you need to get it sorted out quickly, it's not that big of deal if you enforce those two simple rules above you could even put a drunk and his monkey in charge.  

... shows up at a conference in middle of biggest bitcoin controversy ever  

And didn't he say "you'll never hear from me again!"?

Whenever he shows up bitcoin price takes a dive ...

Not sure how much effort it will be going into it   ... it will definitely be 'light touch' moderation (no hard slaps).

I screwed up the first go around by forgetting to click the "self-moderated" button so locked that ... it all adds to the forking anarchy confusion which is a good thing. Ultimately we need the original re-opened but this will be a possible option in case that doesn't happen.

Mi casa, su casa.

Treat WO like you would like others to treat you.

Behave yourself and there wont be any trouble; piddle on the carpet, talk dirty or generally be obnoxious and you'll get booted out.

Amended from adamstgBit fork :

Wall Observer
A free service brought to you by the bitcoin community

Whenever there is a significant change in market depth, please update this thread with a new depth chart, and a good price chart with some TA is also welcome, feel free to comment on these if you have something worth contributing.

Posting guide lines:
 Please lets keep this thread clean. ( I will be removing any obnoxiously off topic posts, thread-jacking attempts, smearing, scatological attacks, etc )
 Some amount of random comments are allowed on this thread, but try to keep it related to the last wall update or price movement.
 Strictly no altcoin discussion unless it directly relates to bitcoin pricing movements.

as requested, i have started a new thread.
this thread is now a self-moderated topic.
I will try and keep this thread clean, with only facts, current trends, past price movements, depth charts, etc.

thank you for your input!

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg1858442#msg1858442

It's pretty much self-moderated in the laissez-faire style of adamgst ... who has time to watch all the bitcoin haters and scumbags?, not me.

That would be like ignoring the bitcoin cancer. Why do you think the trolls, haters and FUDsters are incentivised to turn it into a shithole?

Bitcoin has many enemies, the WO has become a natural focus for social media attacks on bitcoin.

Mi casa, su casa.

Treat WO like you would like others to treat you.

Behave yourself and there wont be any trouble; piddle on the carpet, talk dirty or generally be obnoxious and you'll get booted out.

Amended from adamstgBit fork :

Wall Observer
A free service brought to you by the bitcoin community

Whenever there is a significant change in market depth, please update this thread with a new depth chart, and a good price chart with some TA is also welcome, feel free to comment on these if you have something worth contributing.

Posting guide lines:
 Please lets keep this thread clean. ( I will be removing any obnoxiously off topic posts, thread-jacking attempts, smearing, scatological attacks, etc )
 Some amount of random comments are allowed on this thread, but try to keep it related to the last wall update or price movement.
 Strictly no altcoin discussion unless it directly relates to bitcoin pricing movements.

as requested, i have started a new thread.
this thread is now a self-moderated topic.
I will try and keep this thread clean, with only facts, current trends, past price movements, depth charts, etc.

thank you for your input!

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg1858442#msg1858442

Theymos, first thanks for taking the time and effort to understand what it is about this thread that's worth continuing. I think the above quoted ruleset usefully encapsulates what it should be about and demonstrates that you've got the point of it, thanks again.

Apologies for losing my shit somewhat about the locked thread but we all agree that something had to change so kudos for taking the first difficult steps to sort it out.

Now which poor (lucky?) bastard wants to be WO listed owner?! A responsibility/challenge/opportunity unlike any other.  

The best idea was to moderate it properly 2 or 3 years ago when the trolls and spammers arrived, like I repeatedly asked them to at the time ...

I don't find it hard to accept that things need to change but how about they just do their fucking jobs and moderate the thread? Is that better idea/proposition?

Who are you btw? I'm allowed to make a fuss if I want and I can also ask you to go fuck yourself for having an opinion if I want too ... but it wouldn't be that constructive, so please lets not derail the discussion by slipping in random questioning of personal motivations.

... it's the new 'driverless-bus' form of OP-moderated journey, can be a bad trip when passengers like NotLambChop or the mETH heads try to grab the wheel.

I think it defeats a significant part of the purpose if you move it to "Off-topic" because it was effectively the landing page for noobs who wanted to find out about price action with bitcoin (i.e. essentially all bitcoin noobs). This is how the bitcoin noob experience has gone for thousands ...

they go... google search bitcoin CLICK ->
.... hmmm, bitcointalk.com, yep, that looks popular want some of that goodness CLICK ->
... hmmm, Speculation (yep, that's what I'm really here for hehe) CLICK ->
....hmmm, what's this massive long-ass thread with millions of views, yep that's what I want to read WALL OBSERVER!-> CLICK bang, done, arrived \O/
... and down the bitcoin price discussion rabbit-hole they fall  

The landing page effect of the rough 'n tumble feel yet warts 'n all authenticity of Wall Observer should not be underestimated.

I think it defeats the purpose if you move it to "Off-topic" because it was effectively the landing page for noobs who wanted to find out about price action with bitcoin (i.e. essentially all bitcoin noobs). This is how the bitcoin noob experience has gone for thousands ...

they go... google search bitcoin CLICK ->
.... hmmm, bitcointalk.com, yep, that looks popular want some of that goodness CLICK ->
... hmmm, Speculation (yep, that's what I'm really here for hehe) CLICK ->
....hmmm, what's this massive long-ass thread with millions of views, yep that's what I want to read WALL OBSERVER!-> CLICK bang, done, arrived \O/
... and down the bitcoin price discussion rabbit-hole they fall  

The landing page effect of the rough 'n tumble feel yet warts 'n all authenticity of Wall Observer should not be underestimated.

Another idiot moderator's opinion ... just do your fucking job and clean the thread up (if you can't handle the heat in the kitchen, get out, and no whinging on the way out either). How could it be "another pointless thread" if it is getting so much attention from the trolls and spammers? Not to mention the massive number of views it gets daily.

You moderators are ruining bitcointalk as much as the spammers and trolls that you are letting run amok.

Maybe all that money spent on the forum software (where is that by the way?) would have been better spent on moderator attitude training?

Is that really the best you can come up with? You just don't get it?? It's probably the most popular and viewed thread on all of bitcointalk and you 'just don't get it'? That's no reason to lock a thread, that's just pathetic.

The reason for all the trolling and accusations (many times by trolls themselves) of "Off-topic", etc, etc is because it is the most popular 'go to' thread for a lot of the traffic coming to this forum. People are getting paid to post/manipulate/disrupt Wall Observer because that is where a majority of readership uses as a 'go to' to gauge market sentiment. It is one of the frontlines in opinion creation and manipulation in the bitcoin space ... how could you not 'get' that? Of course it is going to consume the most moderation resources because that is where the battle is being waged, unsurprisingly on the most viewed thread on the forum.

An attempt to diffuse the trolling, in order to reduce moderator resources, to all corners of the forum is unrealistic as they will appear again around a most viewed speculation thread that concerns market pricing expectations and opinion manipulations of those expectations. In short, it won't work and all you will achieve is to piss off the core of useful posters/readers who use that thread as a go to source of information. In fact, it mostly plays into the trolls hands as they will have successfully disrupted regular activities.

You're going to have to come up with a more intelligent and sophisticated approach than simply locking popular threads that get all the troll attention, that's just silly.