The only dumb person here is you. You didn't search google for just the the answer. You searched google for the question too. People shouldn't have to google posts before they merit them and they're trying to help genuine contributors out, but people like you ruin it for everyone. It's a sad state of affairs where half the decent content that gets posted here is plagiarised from somewhere else and people are often reluctant to send merit because they don't want to give a plagiariser or spammer the opportunity to get a signature from just one half decent post (that may or may not be copied), but this is another reason why we need a higher than one merit requirement because people like you don't deserve to move up a rank for one plagiarised post.

Well that was also one of my reasonings. They're already spending a hell of a lot of money for these bumping services and they're ones that also damage the usability of the board, so they need to be stopped. I think a lot of ICOs would also prefer their own sub boards so would gladly pay a fee. Many of them create their own forums but they're usually dead, but at least here you already have access to a large userbase and would probably give the ICOs a bit more respectability with a bitcointalk.org/shitcoinabc url they could use. We could even let them self-moderate their own boards so staff don't have to waste time with it, but regardless the spam will be quarantined in their own little sections so it's probably something staff won't have to deal with, or at least let them spam away in their own squalor.


It's not really restricting anyone. It doesn't stop people from posting in the thread, it just stops it from being bumped. I don't think people saying "good project" or "airdrop?" should bump the thread to the top and it's because it does that has lead to the abuse on an industrial scale. The thread being bumped once a day should be enough and active threads will still remain at the top, but something really needs to be done about this sort of spam and these are two of the only ways that I think will work effectively without causing too much damage.

Well we could probably say the same for Ross Ulbricht  . I think it's relatively easy to remain fully anonymous if you set out from the start to do so, but it's also relatively easy to screw up just that once... or twice. Satoshi used tor if I remember correctly, but I'm sure there's ways that can leak your IP occasionally, or if the FEDs are controlling certain exit nodes maybe they can grab your IP somehow. You could further mask this though by using tor via public wifi, a proxy or connecting via a throwaway simcard. You can still screw up in other ways though, but if you're committed to privacy and remaining anonymous it shouldn't be that difficult. I think the biggest way satoshi could be discovered was if he was a person that was already public known in the crypto-sphere and his writings could be compared to that person, but if he was a relative nobody then that's pretty much impossible, and if he was somebody he would have probably been linked already.


I don't think this should happen. As r1s2g3 said, it's possible (though not probable) satoshi could return one day and he may wish to find some information from his PMs (or maybe even delete it himself, but that should be left up to him). I'm sure satoshi was smart enough to not leave anything incriminating behind though, but even if he did then maybe fair game to anyone who did manage to get access to it.

Staff (or more specifically Globals/admins) can already give the reason for a ban and also its duration, but it's clunky and time consuming to do, especially when some people are reporting dozens of copy and pasters at a time. There's a ban button that automatically bans the user and their IP so that is usually used for copy and pasters to save time. I have requested an additional ban button for plagiarisers that automatically states the reason for the ban and that's it's permanent so this confusion will be cleared up, but whether we get it or not is doubtful. 

Theymos isn't going to implement anything that restricts users from posting which he is dead against. It would just scare off genuine users whilst the ones who are here to abuse the forum for financial gain will just grin and bear it jumping through any hoops you throw in front of them. Some people will come here who will have a genuine query and need an answer, but without any points they won't be able to open the relevant thread. As others have also said, people who are against you will just down-vote you. It's hard enough to get merit here as it is so I don't think we need to implement another points system that restricts people.

It's probably not about being soft but rather having the time, energy and resources. There's only a few staff members that can ban people for a start and it's incredibly time-consuming to do so not to mention never-ending, and that's why things need to change with the culture here. Also, those specific reports you're talking about may have been handled by someone who doesn't have the ability to ban them, but it's also something staff shouldn't have to be doing and is just seen as a waste of time by most of us at this point without changing the culture of paid bumping which is at least being addressed now with this thread.

I don't think a reminder via a bump hurts either. I think they only way things will get done here is if the community keeps asking for them and the best way for that is to keep threads active on pressing issues, otherwise the threads could just get buried and forgotten about. Remember, theymos seemed to be dead against the one merit-requirement for Juniors initially but eventually came round to it. I don't know how much that decision was based on the overwhelming demand from the community but letting him know it's something we want or support is a good way to make sure it's something he sees and lets him know that it's something that is actively wanted by many.

Why don't you make it so the thread can only be bumped once per day regardless of how many people post in it? I think if we make it merit or rank-based then they'll just find a way around it by paying the relevant users to post in there. That would at least the defeat the purpose of paid bumping and it'll probably stop whilst still allowing active threads to be bumped daily (but just once a day. The time could also even be randomised so people can't just choose a certain time of day to bump it).

Have you thought any more about this that you put in the Maybe category:



I think that would once and for all solve the paid bumping issue and it's about time ICOs started contributing financially to the mess they're causing here and the extra manpower that is needed from staff to clean it up.


I think a better solution (and as I have suggested before) would be that lower ranked member's posts in there just don't bump the thread at all. I think they'll just get around it though by using higher-ranked accounts which could easily be purchased (if they don't even have them already or some high ranked bumping service will then pop up to meet demand).

You mean they get their own sub board not thread? I've suggested something similar in the past as a way to eradicate paid bumping. Basically the Alt Coin section would be scrapped as is and Alt Coins have to pay a fee to get their own section in there. Would put a stop to people paying users to spam bump their topic to keep it at the top as it would be useless then.

Not only do Wolves score in the fourth minute of injury time to thwart my correct score, but that then gives another correct score and the full three points to slaman29 who breaks further away from the rest of us. He's now 23.5 points away from me in tenth place and that's going to be hard for anyone to catch I think. A top five place isn't out of reach yet though at only 8.5 points. It's still pretty close from place 5 to 19 really and I think any of those players still have a chance of winning something.

Champions League is on tomorrow so for those playing don't forget to put your predictions in for that.

I agree that we need more staff/admins to help out with things like account recoveries, but theymos did say a while back that he's working on an automatic recovery tool that should be ready by the end of the year. Not sure if that's still on track but hopefully it'll be ready at some point. With that being said, I do think we'll still probably need some admins to help out with them and with other things, especially for those who can't sign a message or can sign one but from an altcoin addy.

Theymos did put my suggestion I made in this thread to create more admins or demi admins in the "OK in principle, would require thought/adjustment/implementation" category so hopefully that will happen at some point and sooner rather than later.

Nobody could have predicted where bitcoin would go but I believe he did say something along the lines of (and I'm colossally paraphrasing here): In ten years time either nobody will be using it or everybody will be. There are a lots of potential reasons why he may have wished to be anonymous, but we'll probably never know his true reasons. Maybe he wasn't sure of the legality of it or didn't want to run into any potential legal problems in the future. I'm sure governments would have wanted to talk to him at least. If someone knew who he was then they could certainly pressure him to take bitcoin in a certain way or even try to sabotage it. Maybe he just didn't want the attention or hassle of being the founder/figurehead of it. Being famous in any sort of capacity for me would be a nightmare. I like my anonymity. I like being able to walk down the street and nobody hassle or bother me for anything. That changes when you're famous. Maybe satoshi also felt this way.

It would be funny if satoshi's dox and home address were just sat in those PMs all along  . Maybe he did an Ulbricht and colossally screwed up right at that start (I seriosuly doubt satoshi was as dumb as Ross)


I think satoshi is probably safe, but it's surprising how much the way people type gives them away sometimes (especially if they're still active on another account or elsewhere... would be hilarious if satoshi was still on the forum trolling on another account haha. Maybe he's one of the fud trolls  .).  Most people have mannerisms or some identifying marks when they talk and especially type - typos, grammar mistakes, sentence/paragraph structure, specific slang or usual words they use. I've spotted quite a few alts (or suspected ones) over the years just by the way they type. mdayonliner fairly recently created a new account that he purposely wanted to keep separate and anonymous from his original and within a few days I had an inkling that it belonged to him. He then referred to me by a variation of my name in a specific way that I had only ever seen him use that gave the game away fully. A few other people have since noticed it. A similar thing could be used on satoshi, but again, I think he probably took this into consideration. The fact that he wasn't around for that long also helps. The longer people are here the more evidence and personality traits they leave behind and it becomes easier to identify them.


Why would you think some government would be hiding him and why would they be doing that? I think he just took sufficient steps to remain anonymous. Probably not that difficult to do if it's something you're conscious of before the get-go. Most of us here after all are mostly anonymous but with a few additional steps most people could leave little trace of things that could be tied back to them.


Why would he? I believe theymos has said before he doesn't know who he is, but whether you believe him or not is up to you. Satoshi seems to have taken sufficient steps to tell nobody about his identity and remain anon for obviosu reasons so I'm sure even theymos doesn't even know.

I agree with you and share your frustrations, but either theymos would rather there be as much freedom as possible with moderation taking a backseat and intervene as little as possible, or he just doesn't have the time to do anything about it. It's hard to know where he stands sometimes as we rarely get comments from him on issues. Sometimes I just don't know whether he's dead against something and as such doesn't comment on it/ignores it to save him having to do so, or he just doesn't have time to comment or implement these things. Obviously as much freedom as possible with little mod intervention is good, but obviously sometimes there needs to be something done about those who cross the line (both with trolls and spammers) otherwise the forum just becomes a mess and unusable. We could have curbed the sig spam a long time ago and just banned the campaigns who were doing nothing and causing the destruction and they would have probably cleaned their act up pretty fast as this forum is too valuable to them. If we let them get away with doing what they want without repercussion then they will continue to be lazy and greedy and the forum continues circling the drain in the process.

Bastard slaman29 getting a correct result again and has taken the top spot. Glad I changed my result. Was going to go for a 1-1 draw but changed it to 2-1 at the last minute. 1 point is better than zero.


I'm not a big fan of it, even if there's money on the line. Too much effort involved. I haven't bothered with it since the first couple of weeks and just let it run with the squad I had.

Gone with the Skybet price boost of Man United, West Ham, and Arsenal today. All those teams should win comfortably, but if United lose to or even draw to bottom of the table Fulham he probably should go. Only game I'll be watching today is the Chelsea/City match. Have the game down as a draw currently but I'm tempted to back the City win.

I'm well aware of his behaviour and it's obvious he just logs in to post some fud then leave and his only intent is to kick up a fuss and be disruptive, but if you want an answer of how they should be handled then PM theymos about it. I brought the case up about fud trolls and what to do with them at the beginning of the year and have bumped the thread several times throughout the year looking for an answer but no response from anyone let alone admins so I'll assume it's something we tolerate until I hear differently.

Again, it's purely down to opinion of you as a reporter and the mod that handles it. Only Globals and admins can handle reports in Bitcoin Discussion so it's likely going to be down to me, mprep and Rickbig on deciding what to do with them.  They probably won't get marked as bad so will probably just stay in the queue unhandled like they are now. Whether you want to waste time on report them or not if they're not going to be handled is also up to you.

Trolling isn't allowed as per the rules but obviously that's completely subjective and why I brought the issue up in the staff forum for other's opinion, but nobody at all commented on it. I'd say he crosses the line from being a bitcoin cynic to a troll. His entire history here has just been to scream negativity about bitcoin and if he wasn't a troll he could do that in a much different way, but he's only here to alarm and fud.


There's a difference between someone being a sceptic and someone just being an outright troll who is just posting alarmist threads to purposely rile people up. He's not saying anything new and is obviously just getting kicks out of posting fud time after time.

I think they've got a good chance of going top, but both are difficult fixtures and I could see draws in both of them.


Just buy an IPTV package. Plenty of people selling them on the forum here for a reasonable price. I'll never buy Sky Sports unless they start showing all the 3 o'clock kick-offs.


Spurs are certainly still in with a shot, but it's pretty much a two team race between Liverpool and City now unless either of them screw up which I can't see many teams taking points from either of them. I want Liverpool to win the title but I think City might be a bit too strong for them. They're both playing each other on the third of Jan so that could be the decider.

As I've said before things like this will just scare genuine users off whilst the ones who are determined to earn here will just jump through whatever hoops you throw at them (and theymos would never implement this anyway). If I signed up to this forum and it required sms verification I would seriously think twice about proceeding and just leave... or I could just buy a throwaway sim for £1, and that's what those who come here to abuse the forum will also do and that's also why it's essentially futile.