Yup, that's the fastest way to help prevent people from getting scammed from this.

How about trying to enter it manually by retyping it (and not through copy and paste)?  There are some sites (e.g., Facebook) which will insert an unprintable character (#8203;) to cause a word break but that character doesn't show any visible indication that it is in there.  It has tripped up the bitcoin-qt client too, so a now it explicitly gets stripped out.
 - http://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/1325

Is this possibly the problem?

Also, that error message used to happen with them when their backend had problems, but that was quite some time ago.  Perhaps they had a temporary issue?  You might want to try again.

Additionally, you can also withdraw bitcoins as a redeemable code too.  [Edit: Oh, I see, ... that's what you already are offering to trade.]

This might be confusing.  Maybe each of the secret codes need a label?

The "release code" is a secret known only to seller.  It is used when sending the text message that releases the escrow.

The "verification code" is a secret known only to the buyer.  After the escrow is released, the buyer will receive an SMS text message showing the code.  Since the seller doesn't know this code, then the buyer can be assured that the SMS text that confirms successful transfer of funds is authentic.

During the initial sign-up process, the second page is the Edit your profile page which asks for "Sms number".  

Right now this is the only field on this form, but I could see things like maybe alternate reputation sources (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), when to contact me, etc.  

It wasn't apparent to me whether the SMS was a required field. (it isn't).  

Some sites follow the UI approach where there is a footnote with a red asterisk that describes fields with a red asterisk as being required.  But any method of indicating that this is not a required field would be helpful.

But so that the terminology is clear.

If I had a Swiss bank account and was sending funds to Bitstamp, I could do a SEPA direct debit but that is in EUR only, right?  And then otherwise, from that Swiss bank account I could instead do an international wire, and then send either EUR or USD.

Am I describing the transfer methods correctly?

MoneyPak is an excellent way to cash out of bitcoin and then use that MP to reload a debit card or PayPal, for instance.

But MoneyPak is a horrible way to try to buy bitcoins as Green Dot will not agree to let a merchant accept MoneyPak vouchers for bitcoins.  So your best bet is to find an individual who will trade with you.  Without a trust history, you may have trouble finding that.

Cash deposit at a bank, 7-11, Walmart, CVS, Moneygram, etc, are good methods, though at the $400 range those methods are just slightly more expensive.

SpendBitcoins is the only merchant that was accepting Moneypak but they've suspended that.

Did the order execute?  It won't show an open order if a trade occurred instantly.

If I am not watching my balance, I might end up without enough at the table to double down or split.  Isn't a buy-in something I should be allowed to do at any point?

And the first ones where that might start happening are in regions where electricity is cheap.  In those regions there is an advantageous economic incentive available to those who mine bitcoins.  The hackerspace might be where mining newbies can get guidance as to what to purchase and how to get set up.

Those mining then have bitcoins that could be spent locally.  With sufficient numbers of customers who would pay for purchases with bitcoins, merchants would be able to justify the additional steps to adding bitcoin as a payment method.  Exchanging at the hackerspace would begin to occur and gain in variety and frequency.  From there, bitcoin adoption spreads into and throughout the community.  The hackerspace is the focal point where Bitcoin-related community, education, and commerce occurs.

 - http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces

What do I need to do to see those?

I can verify that the site has been updated and returns the same HTML from the latest commit (4dc7cc64aca58bcf9ee25a859feb9f877623faa8) in github.

To confirm this I first check the sha1sum hash of the html returned by a request to http://bitaddress.org:

$ wget --quiet -O - http://bitaddress.org|sha1sum
162d1ff4fd1e09222cbaca6c282672ee6c195e1b  -

Then from my bitaddress.org repo:

$ git rev-list --max-count=1 HEAD
4dc7cc64aca58bcf9ee25a859feb9f877623faa8

$ sha1sum bitaddress.org.html
162d1ff4fd1e09222cbaca6c282672ee6c195e1b  bitaddress.org.html

There are external risks as well.

Even though it appears there was sufficient precious metals held to back all the Liberty Dollar bills that were issued, people who held liberty dollars have not had access to the metal backing those funds ever since the FBI raided and confiscated the bullion in 2007.  
 - http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/features/Story.aspx?ID=1725808

GLBSE solely holds the information that would allow the asset issuer to continue paying dividends or would allow the proceeds from liquidation, if that occurs, to the shareholders as well.  

That information, if it were somehow be made known to the issuer in the event of a raid against GLBSE, would allow the issuer to broker share trading separately or to help make it possible to move the shares to another exchange.

I've seen some discussion addressing this situation but I don't know if there was any workable outcome either proposed or in place.

Another post on the subject:

 - http://silvervigilante.com/bitcoin-attacked-by-brazils-securities-commission-under-the-control-of-international-finance/

With both TransferWise and CurrencyFair the funds are deposited and then the service itself sends out the payment.  With Bitcoinary, who takes the hit if a bank transfer is reversed?

The client will notice that the transaction wasn't included in a block and will rebroadcast within about a half hour.  It doesn't check on startup so that privacy is compromised (if a new connection is followed by a new transaction, then that node is likely the one where that transaction's wallet is, or is close to.)

 - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Network#Standard_relaying

bitcoin v0.7

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Raw_Transactions

You didn't make it clear.  Are you looking to buy from miners because that is how to get clean, generated coins?  Most miners get proceeds from a pool, which won't necessarily be newly generated coins.  Or are you thinking a miner might be able to sell to you cheaper than going through an exchange (which is generally not likely)?  Or perhaps you are just looking to buy a larger amount (e.g., bulk purchase?)

Bitcoins in bulk:
 - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/4287/153

So if I choose any currency from the list of drop-downs other than USD, what amount should be entered?  e.g., 25 GBP for UK?  You have $25 which is the symbol only used in U.S and Canda, of the currencies in the list:

Do you mean the account is locked and even the BTCs cannot be withdrawn, or do you just mean that you cannot convert to fiat and withdraw that way without verifying your account first?

Incidentally, bitcoinminer.com and @BitcoinMiner twitter feed are unrelated to this forum user which is of the same name.

Finanstilsynet - The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway
RAPPORT RISIKO- OG SÅRBARHETSANALYSE (ROS)
March, 2012

Abstract: The financial supervisory authority of Norway publishes a Risk and Vulnerability analysis and references Bitcoin under "2.4.3 titled 'Shadow services on the internet'".  Includes only a description (an inaccurate one at that) of Bitcoin.

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=96077.0
 - http://www.finanstilsynet.no/Global/Venstremeny/Rapport/2012/ROS-analyse_2011.pdf