The Netbook is running Ubuntu. I've got Mint on an SSD for the notebook, but I switched back to Windows because I forgot some passwords. Windows is such a last century OS with a myopic autocratic philosophy - it's worse than the EU. . I need to get back to Linux.

I keep getting interested in new things. I want to experiment with  a Latte Panda with a streaming cable. The digital radio with text, video of audio output looks interesting as well. That would free us from the current Internet controls, and give us direct P2P communications. (RTL  SDR receiver ).

Do people still use PayPal? I gave up when PayPal itself tried to scam me to boost their profits, and I realised that there is a 6 month confirmation time on a PayPal payment. You can lose the funds within that window for a whole load of unreasonable ( in my opinion ) reasons.

A Bitcoin payment is fast and secure, and cannot be reversed to boost some banker's profits.

How old is old?

Most of the recent crop in society doesn't understand economics or politics, can't speak English, and falters with basic arithmetic.  Many of them even call it "math", which assumed they consider there is only one discipline in mathematics.

It seems to affect quite a lot of services that you might want to use - car insurance for example. A bad credit score can also bar you from some premium services such as Amazon and mobile phone offers. It may also be essential if you want to rent a car in an emergency.

I'm more bothered about the dreadful coloured formatting, and the pseudo-spam appearance, and I didn't bother to read much of the post as a result.

I think it would be a big mistake to prevent new members posting questions about minor alts. One of the most useful aims of Bitcoin Talk is to help newer members to avoid the multitude of scams that are around in crypto. It is also useful to discuss some of the newer minor alt projects. One that I tried is BAT, and that seems to be picking up slowly, another is BitBlocks, but that seems to be in decline. I thought that both of those had some long term potential, but it is fairly difficult to determine if the project teams are sufficiently committed to realise this potential. Discussions on suitable boards here can be useful for members to make decisions. Just because a member is new to the forum, it doesn't mean he is new to crypto, or doesn't have useful knowledge to share with us. Lets encourage constructive new members to become more active, and teach them to avoid spamming and encouraging fraud.

I could give you a url for you to post images off the forum, but I'm reluctant to do it. The awarding of merit is such a subjective topic, and I suspect that many awarders use it to influence posting behaviour. For example, I rarely award merit to posters with all caps thread titles, non standard or formatted text, misuse of images, or merit beginning. Not everybody agrees with this policy.

Perhaps you could post links to some of the suspect posts, and the community can venture an opinion.

Unfortunately, by the time the news is reported, it may be too late. Insider trading will have already taken advantage of the facts. Chart analysis can alert you to the possibility of change. Charts can also highlight trends, and the impact of social behaviour on prices. Unfortunately, there are so many speculators relying on charts in the world of Bitcoin, that the whales and other manipulators try to take advantage of them. It's good fun trying to guess what they are up to, but I don't seem to be very good at it.

I usually get £20-£30 cashback at Christmas time, and I don't have a charge for making US dollar payments. I tend to use it a lot, even fo a single cup of coffee, and it lets me monitor my spending. I make sure that the balance is cleared by the due date, as they charge around 14% if it isn't. In fact, if it isn't cleared by the due date, they just take it out of my debit account, so there are never any arrears. The reason I decided to start using a credit card was the result of finding I had a bad credit rating. This was the result of paying cash for everything, and never needing any credit.

I guess I'm really a bit of a fake, as I had to pay several hundred for a new clutch, and much the same to rebuild the rear braking system, so it is handy to have a few thou for those immediate emergencies.

I had a friend who said that true wealth is having time to spend on yourself. He was quite rich financially, but drank too much, looked ill, and had to multi-task a lot of the time. I lost touch, but I suspect that he is no longer with us.

That was my bad - it has just been pointed out to me in another thread.

Sorry for my mistake.

I didn't realise the 3 day activity requirement, that kills my point in another post - I'd better editit.

I still think it would be handy to have a trading trust ranking, rather than a forum policeman ranking.

Actually food is easier to find than potable water if you are not in the towns. You can obtain it in the towns, but that is a different skill.

There are degrees of poverty, and I guess mine is an assumed role. I've got a credit card with several thousand pounds available, and no debt on it. A debit account, savings and Bitcoin also add to my reserves. What I realised was that you don't own things, but things own you if you seek the trappings of wealth. For example, I have 8 garages full of stuff that I need to sell, and I keep putting off starting this as a project. Maybe I should post some items here - does anyone want a collection of stationary engines - you can have the lot for a Bitcoin.

I decided to focus on good health and a better lifestyle, and that is why I became a digital nomad. I can park on the beach, and swim naked in the sea when I wake up. Alternatively, I can park in the woods, and watch a couple of fox cubs at play under the watchful eye of their mother. I can harvest stinging nettles ( the healthiest vegetable in England ), and I even eat the raw young shoots. I sit in McD or KFC and watch fat parents feed their fat kids, and then use their crutch to help them to the disabled parking bay. Sometimes I see them throw away a half full bottle of Coke, and I may pick that up and use it as a lavatory cleaner. Coke is one of the most effective lavatory and coin cleaners, so goodness knows what it does to people's insides.

I've not been keeping up with the latest changes to the trust system, but I'm having difficulty in understanding the justification for including a member without a positive trust entry in the DT1 rankings.

I agree with Coyster, and I would add the suggestion that if a DT1 is inactive for over a year, then there should be some sort of warning in case the account has changed hands.

Merit awarding is such a subjective topic. I wonder if declared alts of legendary members are more or less likely to receive merits. I think my Talk Merit alt was the faster to climb the initial ranks based on my gaming the activity to gain 28 in the first 15 days. I've managed to run the others up to member status to enable me to use the basic signature facilities should I wish to do so.

ps. One has to resist temptation when one has over 250 sMerits to award, and one's latest alt just needs one for promotion.

I'm not sure how one could detect it, but it would be interesting to see if any members have awarded merits to any of their alts.

- Stop thinking of it as a game.
- Don't post quotes without adding a personal comment.
- Don't add generic statements to topics which you don't understand.
- I can only read 4 posts in your history, this means you are posting on boards which I have blocked, and thus I will not be able to give you any merit for those posts.

Those are all negative comments, so here is a positive one. Merits are like cats, if you chase them they run away. if you ignore them, then they will come to you. Read the information on the boards, and learn about crypto, this will help you to take part in informed discussion, and you will soon find that you will be receiving merits.

I skip over posts with fancy or coloured text. If you want to get the maximum exposure for your message, then stick to the standard fonts.
If you want to attract the kids, and the people with time to waste, then make your posts hard to scan quickly, and add low relevance images.

I still feel a bit guilty about not really using my trust list. I've only got 13 entries, and I should probably update it. My difficulty is that I'm a bit pre-conditioned to think of it as a trading reputation report, and I've only made a couple of small trades here. Both of those were simple purchases of Bitcoin from a Legendary member. As one would expect, they were both problem free. I was asked to remove a couple of my old entries, as the community felt that their behaviour breached certain community standards - trading in accounts for example. My entry was based on a personal assessment that they would complete any trade honestly, and without any problems. It's the apparent dual purpose of the trust system which makes it difficult for me to select members.

Just because you aren't in my trust list, it doesn't mean that I don't trust you.

It would be handy if the rank was listed with the user name, so that we could get some idea of the validity of the entries.

I need to add to my trust list. I've only got 13 entries.

I'm a lurking buyer, but I couldn't buy because Coinbase has withdrawn the facility to deposit Sterling. I need to explore some of the other exchanges.

Learning a skill, so that I could expand my earning potential.