It will be fun to see, when this thing is up and running, what those wonderful guys over at 4chan will do to this sitting duck.

I have to err on the side of scam for everything here these days. I don't trust anything if it shows up here. Doesn't matter what. I will assume they are all losers.

Now, here's some red flags from my (horrible) experience...
1) can't find an exchange or stay with one.
2) multiple IPO (you wouldn't see that in the legit sphere. Ever)
3) "just give me 2 weeks 20 minutes"

Yup. This ones a classic

Hmmmm
I've been thinking a lot about the paid user generated content sphere for a while now. Things like empeopled, or even bitcointalk (because of sig campaigns) there's a Facebook type thing in Peru
It seems counter intuitive. You will get traffic and you will get content
But ultimately it will be low quality. Putting your special alt coin in the middle of every transaction just makes it worse.
Oh well. Shallow empty garbage worked out pretty good for Kim kardashian

Sounds to me like OP is suggesting a sort of referendum. I get where he's coming from but I think he's misguided. I own some btc, but I really don't understand the whole thing enough to feel qualified to vote. I would simply be guessing. Just like most voters do in a democracy. Wether they know it or not.
So far, the consensus system has worked in my favour, so it's the best option IMO. I also win a few at the $2 window at the track from time to time. Still doesn't mean I know what I'm doing, despite what I tell everybody in the clubhouse afterwards.

A user here gave me 0.25 btc, free, out of the blue.
Btc was worth ~$20 at the time, so I guess it's not ridiculous. Like handing a bum a fiver. It was a very nice gesture.

I'm not going to reveal who gave me the btc, because he would get bombarded with beggars, but it made an impression on me. And even though I managed to get more btc, and lose it all before I could repay him, I have "payed it forward" by giving generously and randomly with fiat to a few deserving parties (much more than $5)

And buddy anon, if you're reading this... I won't forget you!

Sure the quality of most of the posts have gone downhill for the last year or two, but so has the "buzz" and new info surrounding btc. The posts here are lower quality because of sig campaigns, but the sig campaigns are tolerated because activity in these forums was already dwindling.

I joined in feb 2012 (I think) and I knew next to nil about btc. If it wasn't for these forums and my ability to ask very specific questions I'd probably still be struggling with the basics. I think bitcoin talk is still good for this. Anything noteworthy on the reddit sub appears here so I never bother with it.

I'm guessing the REAL btc forum, where the really informative and interesting stuff is, is a private affair that only devs can access (mailing list?)

Anyway, there's really nothing else for us muggles except this here

This has been brewing for a while, and there have been some major players basing themselves there. It's weird how hubs appear, but in this case all the circumstances happened to be in favour. It's also an off shore banking place.
Not a hell of a lot else going on there though.

Looks like Vancouver is your closest option. Unless you can drum up some interest in Kelowna yourself...
I'm in Victoria and have the same problem as you. There are even enthusiasts and a few btc accepting business, but I think it's a small town thing. These guys are insular and apathetic. Meeting up with others only means they aren't "special" anymore or something... I don't know. But the Vancouver meet ups look amazing. Lots going on, innovation, supportive community, networking... Next time I go over I plan to organize my visit so that I can attend.
Only thing happening in Victoria is organic ukulele orchestras.

OP could very well have been led to believe this item is legit, it could very well be legit... The bambino signed a hell of a lot of baseballs... But there are also scads of fakes and even worse... This http://www.laweekly.com/news/how-self-appointed-experts-sullied-the-billion-dollar-autograph-industry-4535659
Good provenance is hard to find

This is one of the main arguments against using faucets. Besides the tiny amount you make for hours of work, the payouts are all dust so when you try to spend them, even bundled up to anything significant, you pay huge fees. Wallets like multi it won't even let you choose the fee, so 20 faucet payouts totalling maybe a dollar can't be spent for less than around 20 cents tx fee.

It kinda busts the whole "btc will empower micro payments" claim. No dude in Africa is going to pay bus fare with btc if it has 20% fee attached

Some people work the faucets like they were at a full time job, hitting as many as they can as often as they can. They might make as much as a dollar a week, but what they don't realize is that that dollar is made up of dozens and dozens of dust transactions, so when they try to spend it the tx fees are so high they lose over half of it, maybe as much as 45% is lost. Faucets are ok for the total newbie just so they can experience receiving, holding and sending btc but they risk scaring noobs away because of the high tx which are not representative of "real" btc transactions.
Faucets definitely are not profitable often even for their owners (they go broke all the time)
For a good run down of the risks and realities see the stickied thread at the top of the "micro-earnings" section of this forum

I do say the same thing about hedge fund managers. And multi-million dollar corporations too. When these guys opt to borrow to invest it only means they want to insulate themselves from any sort of loss. If their gambles don't pay off they claim bankruptcy and default the money owed. Look at the financial crisis across the globe. It's exactly this type of hucksterism that is to blame.

Sorry guys but the days of btc securities being taken seriously by anyone except desperate noobs are over. Any legit offering can get money privately. Everything here is hopeless.

When are they going to auction off the btc that were illegally obtained by that crooked DEA agent who set up DPR?
Bet we will never hear anything about that! Did they even recover any btc from that bent cop? Typical BS from the U.S. Government.

It's something... Germany has a pretty good btc community, Berlin even has a Bitcoin street where all the vendors transact in btc. Still, unless one of these big retailers also offers to pay employees or even buy from btc accepting suppliers, thus keeping the chain of btc transactions unbroken, it doesn't make much difference. I think big guys like this German grocer are merely testing the waters to see how many of their customers actually want to pay with btc.

Btc enthusiasts forget that they are a tiny minority. Btc is still too new. These machines probably don't do a lot of business. Also, any serious bitcoiners most likely have access to and have been verified with an online btc exchange already.

Maybe in a few years we will see more of these btc ATMs but by then I believe most banks and credit card companies will offer btc purchasing. If btc sticks around they will have no choice

I'm following your threads op
I'm subscribed to you YouTube
I can't say I understand any of it
But I like it
Probably one of the more creative thinkers on btctalk
I like your style

This looks nice but Russian watches... Any Russian military collectable for that matter... Many fakes out there... Can you provide a time stamped YouTube video showing the watch running? I don't care if it's a forgery so long as it keeps proper time.
A pic of the exposed mechanism, or better a video of said mechanism actually running would definitely pique my interest some more.

I'm in the market for a good watch, but it's got to keep proper time

You might want to consider your distribution. Blockchain offers the ability to transfer ownership of digital property via services like ascribe.io. This would not raise funds but would for sure reduce your distro budget. Also protect your IP

Whenever I see people pitching trading bots I can only think... If it actually worked, you wouldn't need my money.

Man, I never realized how tight the margin is on these sort of casinos! You'd think they would rack in way more. Is there industry standards to compare? Or do they all obfuscate their numbers?
I believe you're being forthright here with the numbers, op I just have no frame of reference. Does bustabit measure up to other online casinos percentage wise? Btc casinos and fiat both?

Seems like one lucky high roller could sink yr ship. How do you hedge?