With 5000 sat fee, it took 211 minutes to confirm my transaction with 17 uncompressed legacy inputs. I signed the transactoin on an offline system (LIVE Linux DVD) with coinb.in.
Not bad for consolidating just over 3 kB of data If fees ever reach their peak again, this same transaction would cost like $500.

I'm not sure what you're getting at. It's obvious you can't send Bitcoins without making an on-chain transaction. That statement is true with or without Lightning Network.

As a Merit source, I completely agree. However, I can think of a reason to send it to lower ranks if you're not loaded in sMerits: you're helping the forum more by highlighting the (quite rare) new users who aren't spammers or shitposters. I Merit a lot of Newbies who just make a decent real post, doesn't matter what the subject is, and it doesn't matter that they're not here to post a lot. Those real users are what this forum and Bitcoin need to grow in the right direction.
Of course that doesn't mean I don't appreciate getting merited.

Let me know when you're here, I'll request through Bluewallet, and I think those payment requests expire in just 1 hour.

That's not a dilemma, it's entirely up to you how you spend your sMerit, and the user who merited you doesn't get a say in it.

I have a similar but much bigger "problem": 476 of "my own" sMerit and 26 source sMerit to go The source sMerit stash got bigger recently during my family road trip.

Long story short: just Merit posts that deserve it

Bubbalex sent me a PM asking for my 2 Satoshis on this matter.

First, there's this:
And that's really all there is to it.

It looks like it has been deleted.

I think his "power" is bluff, Full Member is in no way a high rank, and authorities are only a problem if you're breaking any laws.

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I've managed some bounty campaigns, and the only way to not get any complaints, is to accept all the crap and plagiarism they throw at you. If you reject the worthless entries (and I would have rejected this youtube video based on the fact that it's only a recording of a scrolling website), people who don't put any effort in their "work" complain.
I've seen very good Youtube video submissions, but that's only about 1% of the total.

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Please fix your font before hurting my eyes

Firefox expands it to this:
And then obviously can't find the site.

If I try this (the first 5 characters copied from the URL from the PM, then "test" added by me:
Firefox turns it into this:
What kind of sorcery is this?

It reminds me of the homograph attack, which is now automatically replacred on all English boards.

This is the culprit:
Google confirms it's Cyrillic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ge_(Cyrillic)

I guess theymos missed this one.

Can you copy the URL as shown in the PM?

I'm asking because you can't do this (I can't even do it within quote tags, so I've replaced the "/" by "slash"):
It shows like this:
https://bitcointalkFAKE.org

I think the scammer replaced the lower case L by an upper case i:

And now it works:
https://bitcointaIk.org

My thoughts exactly! If anything, knowing that someone is checking my post quality (first guitarplinker, now DarkStar_ made me much more aware of the need to put some effort in my posts.

While you're at it, remove usernames too That's going to be an interesting forum with totally anonymous users.

I've suggested that before, "Tokens" created out of thin air have no real cost and can thus be used to pay as many spammers as possible.
Payment in Bitcoin ensures there is an actual cost for the campaign, and ideally there should even be a minimum payment per post.

I don't expect any of this to be changed though, as theymos values the freedom to do things, even if that creates some spam.

Simply banning the ones that don't do their job (based on the existing signature campaign guidelines would be a good start already.

First: Bitcointalk doesn't ban scammers. That's important to know when using this website.

I've been there, these things make you worry big time. However, as I said, give them some time to respond, it's not the first time there's a hiccup, but I've always seen it resolved (within a few days).

Are you okay or did your flux capacitors break? I got so used to your flawless timing

According to the current estimate in my Bitcoin Core client, it should confirm within 4 to 8 hours.
If you're not in a hurry: just wait.

ViaBTC is the real deal.

Update: The transaction is confirmed, by ViaBTC.

No, all it needs it patience
I've prioritized uploading the Trust Flag viewer, and I'm updating it now.

Update: Daily updates should be automated again, let me know if something goes wrong.

On average, 10 flags are created each day. Sending a popup message to 500 users would be terribly annoying. Supporting a flag means spending enough time to really know the details of what you're supporting, and for that reason, I've only supported a few so far.

My Flag viewer will be online again soon (only half a million files left to upload). I've manually prioritized it, and will run an update soon. Please check it for flags you want to support.

There are 2 things to check:
1. Since the transaction was made just yesterday, you should still have your session token. Can you still log in?
2. Is 1HJGazVPvPaNHPxGYMcMUVQWZkfctMq7JY really the address the website shows? You wouldn't be the first to lose Bitcoin because of a PC infected with clipboard hijacking malware.

If the address is correct and the token is still valid: just wait for them to respond by email. Support isn't fast (and if I have to guess, that's because they too value their privacy and take precautions when going online) but usually answers and provides a solution within a few days.

I've seen some problems, but they always got resolved. Sometimes something goes wrong, such as bitcoind failing:

Indeed, I stopped reading after the first sentence already

It took me a while too, I had to identify them for my Trust Flag viewer. Normally I would refer you to my site for the exact type of each flag, but it's still uploading data (currently 75% to go).

I took these notes on 3 flags which can be withdrawn:
            type 1. Newbie warning: 'alleges: Due largely to the factors mentioned'
            Sample: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=29
            WITHDRAWN: 'alleged the following, but later withdrew it: Due largely to the factors mentioned in'
            Sample: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=37

            type 2. Violated implied agreement: 'violated a casual or implied agreement, resulting in damages, in the specific act referenced'
            Sample: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=30
            WITHDRAWN: 'alleged the following, but later withdrew it:'
            Sample: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=9

            type 3. Violated written contract with damages: 'violated a written contract, resulting in damages, in the specific act referenced'
            Sample: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=41
            WITHDRAWN: 'alleged the following, but later withdrew it:'
            Sample: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=35

I'll add this overview to the OP.

I don't have a goal, it's something Pffrt asked about.

It says "violated a written contract, resulting in damages", which means type 3.

Based on this, I think he is a victim:

Sorry, I don't have time to evaluate all evidence myself now, so I can't support it yet.

Why don't you just copy the files and restart the node afterwards?