For one thing, there's already a thread in Meta for congratulating members who've recently ranked up.  

Second, people who want to toot their own horn after getting to their next rank are probably not going to seek out this thread to do it in, especially since OP made it self-moderated for some bizarre reason.  

And third, I'm of the opinion that members don't need to be congratulating themselves on ranking up, as those threads seem to be (to my jaded eyes) attempts to get even more merits.

Therefore, I think OP ought to just lock this thread and forget about it.  I'm not sure what his motivation was in creating it (probably to earn merits), but it's a bad idea overall.

Edit:

Yeah, of course I didn't read your post before writing mine--bad habit, but I'm glad someone was thinking the same thing I was.

If the channel is representing our community, I would think the identity of the presenter should matter quite a bit, no?  AFAIK, bitcointalk's Youtube channel isn't selling a product and who do you think the target audience is going to be?  Bitcointalk members!  That might be one of the reasons why there are only 29 subscribers at the moment--a number that leaves me dumbfounded, because I know damn well there are way more people than that who've been awaiting the release of the channel.

I know I'm nitpicking and criticizing something that I've been looking forward to for quite a while, but I can't help myself.  There are so many videos out there across an array of different areas of interest that seem to present their content in similar ways--and one of them is the presenter/speaker looking like I described, as well as the background and so forth.  That might seem to be what draws in views and why so many content creators are feverishly copying each other's strategies, but why start off the bitcointalk channel doing that?  Surely there's been enough time to think of creative new ways of presenting whatever content is forthcoming.

Not sure what your precise definition of quality is in this context.  To me that word when used to describe a Youtube video would mean screen resolution, getting the message across without wasting the viewer's time with extraneous crap, and perhaps a subjective factor that would be different for everybody. 

If I were to judge the trailer on those criteria, I'd say it was great.  The visuals, however, just look too much like everything else that's on Youtube.  However I will keep an open mind, and I am looking forward to the next video.

Maybe, but I didn't see many Legendary accounts applying.  I did see that SmokerFace applied, even though he has negative trust that has nothing to do with being associated with the 1xbit campaign (one of the campaign's exceptions to the no-negative trust rule).  Ugh.

It's unbelievable to see so many members applying, even though they've got to know that they're going to get negged all to hell because of it.  They might get accepted to the 1xbit campaign, but good luck to them trying to join another one once it ends.

One other thing that's striking is how low the rates are for sig campaigns these days (at least if 1xbit's campaign is typical).  I guess the days of being able to earn 0.XXXXBTC/post are over, and payment is pegged to USD--and it's a small amount of $ even for Legendary members.  $100/week is pretty damn low if you ask me.

Well, it's a good thing (in the US at least) that the government can't dictate what private companies can pay their workers--and I agree, if the government decides to cut costs by lowering wages of their employees, there will likely be a flight to the private sector.  That almost makes me smile, because that's what they've brought upon themselves with their reckless economic policies.  On the other hand:

This wouldn't be a good thing at all, but I don't see how those services wouldn't deteriorate if the federal government has to start slashing costs and cutting salaries.  Let's hope they start with the military first (and no disrespect to our troops, but I think we can afford to defund at least some of the military branches).

Airdrops are supposed to be free tokens, correct?  The scenarios you described above sound like they'd only be taken advantage of by people who are completely ignorant of what airdrops are. 

Honestly, I don't know how they work because I've never participated in any of them.  I remember they used to be really hot back in 2018 or thereabouts, and the forum used to have what seemed like endless threads devoted to them--and then it just dropped off a cliff.  Can someone explain what the screenshot in OP's post is showing?  In particular, I don't know what "removed trustline" means.

That's exactly it, and I'm pretty sure that's what OP is getting confused about.  I wish exchanges charged only what it takes to send coins on whatever blockchain they're on, but that's part of how they make a profit.  Some exchanges have pretty reasonable withdrawal fees, and some are just effing insane--especially for coins like BTC and ETH. 

Right now if you're withdrawing a relatively small amount of bitcoin from an exchange like Kucoin, you have to pay 0.0005BTC or so, which is over $30--and that's not worth it if you want to withdraw $100-200.  Even with $300 worth, you're paying 10%.  And the odd thing is that the network isn't exactly congested, nor are fees that high.

Hope that and the other answers members gave you led you to understand what exchange fees are all about, OP.

If you're going for a medical degree, props to you (and I mean that).  But do they ever use the phrase "self-plagiarism"?  It's not my intent to bicker about semantics, even though I started this by doing exactly that, but I'm just tired of people repeating things other people have said or written without thinking, just parroting.  Maybe I'm in a pissy mood, maybe I'm being an intolerant jerk, but I see that behavior a lot online and it drives me nuts.

Yeah, I get what we're talking about here and I agree that Shamm shouldn't be reposting old posts of his as answers to other members' questions.  I also think he understands that now, so hopefully this won't be an ongoing thing with him. 

At the same time, there's this little pissy-mooded, intolerant jerk that's sitting on my shoulder whispering in my ear that he is indeed trying very hard to earn merits and that it isn't outside the realm of possibility that he would employ alt accounts to ask questions that he could then post what look like high-quality, thoughtful answers to.

But again, there's no hard evidence of that.

Just to clarify something: There is no such thing as "self-plagiarism" just like there's no such thing as "self-escrowing".  If you copy/paste or repost something that you, yourself, have written it is by definition not plagiarism.  So please, let's stop repeating this meaningless phrase.

I've got Shamm on ignore, so as far as I'm concerned he can keep doing whatever he likes until he gets punished by the moderators, though I think he'll probably learn his lesson from this thread.  I can also see where OP is coming from, because that kind of behavior is exactly what you'd expect from somebody desperately trying to earn merits.  

The only problem is that Shamm has a point, i.e., those kinds of requests for help are posted all the time and there's no hard evidence linking Shamm with any of those other accounts.  So without such evidence, there's really nothing to do but to give him the benefit of the doubt in this case.

First thing, this thread ought to be in the Scam Accusation thread with all the evidence you have, including screenshots.  Second, it'd be much better for your complaint if you were more concise, because I can tell you that big walls of text don't go over well here.  Third, the problems with HitBTC are well known and I think if you search in the Scam Accusation section you'll find out people have had horrible experiences there and they're pretty much considered to be a scam exchange by the community here.

And believe me, I understand your frustration and sense of loss and helplessness after being fucked over by a crypto exchange.  That's the problem with the unregulated ones: they can basically do whatever the hell they want, and they know most people aren't going to pursue the matter through legal means.  If you're considering that, I say go for it.  I'd love to see one of these dirtbag exchanges brought to justice.

Good luck, and I'm sorry HitBTC screwed you over.

Bro, save the bible-thumping for another forum.  Everyone is free to cast stones around here, and they do.  Either get used to it or go elsewhere, because nobody is going to cease doing so because of something someone may or may not have really said 2000 years ago.

Yeah, but the point is that you're not reading and that's not a newbie "mistake".  You're just here to make money from BTC365 or whoever else will pay you to crank out lousy shitposts, and since they don't pay you to read you end up replying to someone who's not going to ever see your post.  If you'd read nutildah's post in context you would have known this.  And yes, I've been guilty of misreading dates of posts before, but that's not what happened here.

OMG, you're so full of yourself it's blowing my mind.  You're going on my ignore list immediately after I hit the post button.  Don't bother responding to this post, because I won't be reading it.

IMO, a thread started with that post does not belong in Serious Discussion.  If that was posted in another section, I'd even consider it a generic shitpost, because all it expresses are generic positive sentiments that are frequently written by members who don't know how to write well in English.  It's definitely not a topic of serious discussion, and not surprisingly no one has yet replied to it.

I have Serious Discussion and Ivory Tower on ignore, but for a while I didn't.  I thought when they were created that there would be some really great threads since shitposting bounty hunters and other zero-value members wouldn't post there.  After a while I started to notice that either the threads that did get started would be over my head in terms of technical knowledge or would get very few posts in them, i.e., they just didn't stay active.  Needless to say, neither section turned out to be what I thought they'd be, so I just don't bother even reading anything in them anymore.

It's been well over a year since I visited SD or IT.  Has it gotten any better in either section?  Are threads like the one you quoted common, or is that just an outlier in terms of quality?

Ah, you beat me to it--I was going to say exactly what you said after reading the article.  Zhou isn't concerned with any functional problems of bitcoin or its utility as a currency.  Those statements are total BS, which is exactly what I'd expect from any politician in any country.  It really is amazing how consistent they are across the world with their double-speak, obfuscation, and straight-up lying.  You'd think cultural differences would have an effect on that, but they don't--people who achieve high political rank get there by the same means and have sociopathic personality traits that transcend borders and culture.

The ban on crypto is all about China's control over its citizens' freedom to do what they want with their money, and it's the same reason any government regulates crypto to the point of uselessness.  I'd like to think something like this wouldn't happen in my country, but I'm not naive enough to think that it couldn't.

OP, you might have seen that I wrote this in your self-congratulatory thread about ranking up to Full Member:

And this thread reminds me of exactly why I put you on ignore.  The whole "education is best, follow the rules, blah blah blah" thing has been written by hundreds of low-ranked members before, and I always consider such sentiments to be aimed at higher-ranking members with merits to hand out, because members who express those sentiments think that's what generous merit-givers want to hear. 

Well, let me clue you in:  It isn't.  Nor is it anything newbies would want to read even if they visited Meta for anything other than a merit grab attempt.  You've been here for almost exactly 5 months, and even though your rank may have changed, you're still a newbie in my eyes.  As such, it'd be better if you weren't trying to dispense words of forum wisdom to members who've been here less than 5 months.

Oh, man--that was just under a year ago, and I'd already forgotten all about it.  But I certainly don't remember an image of a tube of whatever that was in the video being posted, so that's why it caught my interest.  It looks like a neat collectible-type thing.

And I didn't mean to be a negative noodle with my criticisms of the teaser vid, though I meant what I wrote.  I'll be awaiting future videos, and I'm glad the channel at least got started.  I was beginning to think this was all just community masturbation.

So who was the presenter in the teaser, anyway?

Now 15 subscribers as I write this.  Where are all the channel supporters??

From the article:


So did the mother haggle with the kidnappers to get the ransom down to less than 1/10th of what they were asking?  Sounds very much like the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III back in 1973, where the tight-fisted grandfather wouldn't pay the ransom even though it would have amounted to a drop in the bucket compared to his net worth.  She must be one hell of a businesswoman.

Anyway, this was a 14-year old kid who obviously didn't know any better than to brag (sort of) on social media that he'd made money with crypto trading.  I tend to think pre-teens, teenagers, and even some older people don't realize how dangerous social media can be if you post the wrong thing, because you never know who's reading what you're writing.  I kind of wonder how much he made, though I'm sure it's probably never going to be revealed.  Seems like everyone is getting rich with various crypto-related endeavors, and apparently that even includes teenagers nowadays (though as I said, I don't know how much he made).

At least the kid is all right after that ordeal, which I'm sure must have been terrifying.  As far as the sentence goes, it didn't happen in the US, which has the highest incarceration rate in the world, so I'm not sure what everyone was expecting.  The kid wasn't seriously harmed and didn't lose any money, so how would you have it?  A life sentence?  Hopefully the jackoff kidnapper will do the entire 4 years.

Ayyyy!  I have no idea who that guy is or even if he got the message across clearly about what the channel is going to be about, it's nice to see there's been major progress on the creation of the channel.  I'm proud to be the 6th or 7th subscriber, and I'll be looking forward to more videos.

The video looks very nice, but as I suspected it looks very much like a lot of other ones made by professional Youtubers, even down to white guy with beard wearing hipster t-shirt standing in front of a bunch of gadgets/memorabilia, wacky background muzak, quick cuts, etc.  I was hoping the channel wouldn't go that route, but I can't say I'm surprised it did. 

And hey, what's that cardboard Bitcointalk Community Awards tube?  I actually tried scanning the QR code, but it didn't work.

I disagree with that first statement, since there's essentially the same "intrinsic value" for both PoW and PoS coins, which is what you wrote in your second statement, i.e., they're worth whatever people are willing to pay for them based on various factors.  I don't buy that whole "bitcoin is backed up by all the work and electricity involved in their creation" argument.  I never did, because it makes no sense to me.

The good thing about PoS coins is that you can earn income from them, which isn't the case with bitcoin.  And a few of them are useful for their smart contract functionality and so forth.  The main problem I see with them in terms of their utility as currency is that people are incentivized to hold them and not spend them--and that also isn't true for bitcoin.

You have to admit, PoW coins do use up a lot of electricity, even if it's a small amount compared to other things.  I happen to like the idea of being able to mint new coins simply by running a wallet, but I'm also aware that that particular feature can lead to centralization of the coin if the majority of them are in the hands of whales. 

Alright, I take back what I wrote--there are so many scammers and types of scams that it's jaded me over time. 

Even if you posted evidence of getting scammed here, I don't think there's much anyone can do to help you, and that's typically the case when someone posts a story about an exchange or other crypto-related business like you did.  That's because once you've sent your bitcoin, you're at the mercy of the party who received it, and I doubt anyone on this forum has any leverage with autoscoin.  There's a chance I could be wrong, of course, but that's how I see it.

I wish you luck getting your funds back and with your medical condition.  Wish I could help.

You don't have to thank me much, as I only gave you 5 merits for that one post of yours detailing how to post images for newbies.  Frankly, your posts are generally hard to understand, and I have you on my ignore list (though I don't remember when I added you to it).  I'll check your post history and see if it's worth reversing that.

Congrats on reaching Full Member--but I've grown to dislike these kinds of threads, even though I realize how much of an achievement it is to even get that far up the ranks (and I mean that sincerely).  That's why I'm not going to merit your post, OP.

Speaking of merits, I looked at your history and was glad to see you're giving them out.  I did notice that you've sent a lot of merits to members who've merited you, and I can only speculate as to why that is.  If I may make a suggestion: There are other members like you who are working to get to the next rank.  Why not try to merit them instead of giving your merits to Legendaries (and merit sources, too)?  Pay it forward instead of paying it back, you know?

Yep, that would be it.  It's amazing to me how you and other members of the community find threads like that so quickly, just based off a vague description.  Either you've got a great memory or I'm not using very good search technique.

Seriously--the only (or at least the fastest) way those top five members or so are going to be out-merited is if they suddenly leave the forum, and there's no indication that's going to happen anytime soon.  I'm OK with that, since merit earning isn't a competition for me, but my general competitive spirit has always been pretty low anyway.  In other members, that spirit of competition is much stronger and it probably does matter--and that's not a bad thing in this case.  The only thing it could lead to is better quality posts and more of them, so good luck to everyone who's in the race!