I've always felt that a better system is to use a multi-sig Bitcoin payment. You include a trusted 3rd party, and stipulate that any 2 signatures from the 3 parties can release the payment. This seems to be a much cleaner method.

I was interested to see that the new rhodium coin - The Sea Dragon, can be purchased using Bitcoin. The Sea Dragon is legal tender on the Island of Tuvalu, and it is 1oz of pure rhodium. The dollar price is $2,590 and the Bitcoin price is the equivalent of $2,616.16. They don't quote a price in Bitcoin, but simply offer it as a form of payment. I tried to check their rate of exchange, but it seems it is only available to US residents at the moment.

As a comparison - the 1oz Canadian maple leaf gold coin costs $1,263.40

Do we give merits ro our friends? In my case the reverse is true. I am aware that meriting alts, or giving preference to friends, is against the spirit of the merit system. I tend to be more critical of posts by members like JackG and Helana who help with the Fit to Talk project, than I am with new members or juniors. Perhaps that is wrong, and I should try to be more objective.

However, I am having difficulty in finding good posts to merit, and that is why I'm starting my Snow Eagle site. Obviously, Snow Eagles are more likely to receive merits from me, and any other merit awarders who happen to check the lists. Are these people friends? Well I don't think so, I don't know who they are, and I have no contact with them outside the forum.

Isn't it great. It comes from the days when people wrote text, and other people read it. That's much better than the kaleidoscope of images and mindless music that seems to pass as modern communication.

Well what is more significant is that http://plagiarisma.net/ reports the original post as containing 0% original content.

That's why I decided to create my Snow Eagle site. It's a bit like an adopt-a-newbie concept. Once you find a new worthwhile poster, it's worth checking on them every week or so to see if they are continuing the good work.

I have a royalty free gallery of my personal photos. I'm not too sure if there are any that are relevant for you, but you are welcome to use them. All I ask is that you leave the watermark on the photo, and please don't hotlink the images. You can view the galleries by clicking the link below.

Jazz Pics - free photos to use on your website or in your posts

I need to add some more content, so if there is anything that you would like me to add, let me know, and I'll see what I can do. I might add some pics of dismantled computers soon.

I checked to see if there is a "titcoin", and it seems that someone has already created it. The .com has this to say about it.

Right at this moment, the stock markets are probably the worst places to "invest" your savings. This is my opinion, and I believe that we are now in a bear market for stocks, and probably for dollar based bonds.

You don't "invest" in crypto-currencies, but you speculate on the exchange rates. Having said that, I believe that Bitcoin is a good store of wealth, and ranks alongside gold and silver coins. The interesting newcomer is the legal tender coin announced by Tuvalu - it is the first one to be manufactured from rhodium,which is more valuable than gold.

I think that English language videos could be useful to help members who don't have English as a first language. It's something that I have been thinking about, together with audio files that are readings of posts.

I looked at your post history to see if I could award any merits, but I quit fairly soon. Here are my two tips.

- Don't use all caps for titles. I'm not sure why I opene this thread, as I usually ignore the all caps titles.
- Don't make full quotes. It clogs up the thread, and it is very rare for it to be useful. This isthe reason you didn't get any merits from me when I looked at your post history.

I'm sorry about that. I haven't tried to sort out the Audacity software on the Windows machine. It's unlikely that I will try, and I'll install Ubuntu Studio once I've deleted the Windows system.  The idea was to select some of the posts on Fit to Talk, and let people click on a speaker icon if they want to hear me reading them.

Another problem is the number of mySQL d/b that one can/should use.  Too many really ups the cost of hosting. I tend to keep them for sites like my photo gallery - Jazz pics. I seem to be getting more page views on Snow Eagle than I would have expected, so I'll probably keep it as a personal site to help me at Bitcoin Talk, and add some advertising to see if I can pick up a few Satoshi.

I probably ought to have a donations button as well, maybe I'll set up a wallet to pick up some Bitcoin dust.

Source merits are a constant flow, and not a monthly update. They are replaced 30 days after being awarded. If they aren't awarded instantly, they aren't lost, it just means a slight delay in their replacement.

Just to clarify the reason for creating Snow Eagle. It has let me play with a new template that I quite liked, and I can use the knowledge gained in building it to create landing pages for domains that I want to sell. It has a positive benefit for me in the forum as well.

I don't really like Wordpress, it seems to be over complex and insecure to me. I use the other fork of the old B2 blog software for blogs - b2evolution.

These are static pages really, so I don't want the server overload from using a CMS. I have to be a bit careful, as I've got getting on for 500 domains ( I've been cutting down recently ).

I've slowed down a bit recently, as I've got involved in a few associated projects. I'm trying to improve my efficiency in merit awarding, and that is why I started the snow eagle site. I'd be interested to know how much this has affected my posting behaviour though.

I can add the Vulpine Order of Merit members to my avatar page on snow eagles if you think it would be useful. I'm already finding it handyl to check on the latest posts by the members listed.

Flying Hellfish did send me a well reasoned PM.

It was me who brought it to Meta. Probably because I still resent having some of my threads in mining and elsewhere deleted.

I think this thread may have run its course, so it might be best if I lock it.

It's really a question of time management, and I used the "jet" prefix to try to avoid confusion, and simplify my thread searches.

It's not a major issue for me, as I've said my piece, and had reasonable replies, so maybe we should move on.

As i said - it says more about the reporter, and the snowflakes who support globalisation and the associated eugenics.

Thanks for the comment, and I do that intermittently.

Many of the projects are experimental, and I look at the merits and replies to decide if I should continue, or even delete them. The Snow Eagle one is going to be a tool for me rather than anything else, but it will be public, so anyone can access the pages. I deleted the Jet Cash academy as I had no interest in that at all. Ask a Legendary is being hit by spammers, and I'll need to put some restrictions on there, it's fairly quiet anyway.

Fit to Talk takes up quite a lot of time, and some of the early helpers have slipped away. I've just had to close registration, as it is being hit by spammer registrations, and it is a nuisance to keep checking them. BT members can still join, but they will have to apply by PM here. That will keep it as a members' only training project.

That's it exactly, and thanks for your opinion.

One benefit is that it provides a list of senior members who feel that their personal identity is more important than temporary affiliations with bounty programmes. Reviewing their recent posts may be interesting, and could lead to participating in some interesting discussions that may have been overlooked.