I'm struggling to find a correlation here, and my first reaction was - do I have to wrap my computer in tinfoil?

On a more serious note, I suspect that geomagnetic storms can affect people's mood swings, and this could have an impact on investment, and quite a few other things.

I think we should have a special ignore option. Any post or thread title that contains the word "merit" can be put on ignore.

After all, we don't want Bitcoin Talk to become a meritocracy.

This has already been discussed in a number of threads. I'm starting to think that we should chuck the whole idea of rank names, and just have level numbers starting at "0". Maybe that would reduce the appeal.

It's easier to collect forked coins if you run your own wallets.

The extra ram makes a difference, and I sync'd my Linux node today, and that has an external SSD. Despite the fact that it is external, it sync'd a lot faster.

It looks as if I'm going to have to replace my Windows machine, and I'm thinking of getting an i7 with a 512Mb SSD instead of a 2Tb HDD. I can always use an external drive for the extra storage.

Why do you trust banks with your money? Oh wait, I don't, and I don't trust online or other wallets either.

I don't see what's wrong with a password protected Bitcoin core wallet. I think that is the most trustworthy, but that's just an instinctive reaction on my part.

I love the terminology that these chartists use. Today's report says that Bitcoin has a bearish pennant pattern.
http://www.kitco.com/news/2018-03-13/Bitcoin-Daily-Chart-Alert-Bearish-Chart-Pattern-Developing-Mar-13.html

Not so long ago it was a cup and handle.

Windows is becoming almost unusable, It is so bloated, and it sucks up bandwidth with its constant updates. Far worse though are the routines that Microsoft include in an attempt to control you. Cortana is a keyboard logger, and it sends everything you do off to Microsoft for storage and analysis.

If you can handle Linux, and it isn't that difficult these days, then you are much more secure in my opinion. It is also more efficient.

Note on purchasing a computer. Buying a Linux computer can be more expensive. This is because retailers and Microsoft put so many "free" trials and data mining applications on new computers, and they are paid for this. The best deals are often computers with Windows and all the other rubbish pre-installed. Then the first thing you do is to wipe the hard disk, and install Linux. That's really easy to do, and there are lots of guides to help you on the net.

Think of it like a college test. You have to do your course work, and you get marked for it. If your marks are high enough, then you get a pass, and you can move on to the advanced course. Is it unfair if you don't pass because you don't do the work, or you submit low quality papers.

I own BitcoinScammer.com

You can have a free email there if you like.

I will reply to you, and I've only included a partial quote, but there are references elsewhere.

You will have seen from many of my posts that I point out that there no benefit to me in being a Legendary rather than a Hero, but it seems the same is not true for you.

Of course I don't blame you for my computer problem, and I suspect that it needs a bit of dust removal. I mentioned it, because it was during a fast scroll to pass over your monologue that it failed, and it affected my mood.

I think your suggestion is rubbish because it fails to consider the motivation of posters at the various member levels. Obviously this is of no direct concern to me as a Hero, but it is important to me as a supporter of the restoration of the great forum that Bitcoin Talk was a few years ago,

I am a speed reader, and as such the first thing I do is to look at the picture of the post. If it appears to be overly verbose, and far too detailed for the introduction of a concept, then I skip over it, especially if the topic appears to be a variant of one that has appeared numerous times before.

My reference to your merit awards referred to the award for the OP in this thread, and the point that I made was that the awarder appeared to have the same posting style and verbosity as you, and the awarding of the point would appear to be counter-productive. I am sure others have looking into your merit history, and your admitted alts, so I assume there is nothing untoward there.

At the moment you appear to be the Sun God on this forum, but please remember that Huitzilopochtli required human sacrifice on a regular basis. Please encourage newer members and don't belittle them for their efforts to satisfy your own self-aggrandisement ( yes, I am English, so I use the correct spelling). If I misread your claim to the simplicity in acquiring merits, then I apologise, but it did come over as rather self-promoting.

Posts should be informative and not overly verbose. Make your point and justify it, but don't be repetitive.

I've put more people on ignore for long arsed posts, than I have for posts that are too short. In fact I can't think of one that went on ignore for brevity.

If you go on ignore, then you won't get any merit from me ever.

You can't put it in a post, but you can include it in your signature. When to have achieved a high enough rank of course.

I'm starting to feel that all these bounty and ICO programmes are a bit distasteful. Paying someone to re-tweet seems to defeat the basic concept of the platform.

I joined Steemit recently, and I've made a few posts. The first reply was the sort of thing you would expect, a friendly comment about a picture I posted. The second reply made me start to question the validity of the platform. It was from a guy who managed an upvoting bot, and he wanted a payment to upvote my post using his bot. I found this distasteful, and ultimately it will lead to people with money and influence dominating the page views. I think the the current methods of bounty programmes tend to indicate that they have no value, and may be contributing to the destruction of the reputation of members displaying their signatures.

There have been a few suggestions that Bitcoin Talk introduces an upvoting system, and I hope that this will never happen.

I was addressed as "sir" more times whilst I was in America, than I am in England.

As I pointed out in another thread. "sir" doesn't derive from English imperialism, but comes from the diminution of the word "sire" which was the form of address for a Baronet or Knight.

A lot of English words come from the days of the Normans. For example, most of the words referring to edible meat come from the French ( beef from boeuf ), because the Normans were the only ones who could afford to eat it. The words for animal husbandry such as "cow" come from the Anglo-Saxon language ( which is Germanic in origin).

Personally, I don't have a problem with people using "sir" on the forum. I think it is redundant, but it doesn't slow down or mess up a post in my opinion.

My ignore list is getting so big. Why don't these idle beggars learn to read?

In essence the merit system is not really about individual posts, but it is a key for a member to unlock the gate to a rank update. Thus, you need to step back and stop thinking about individual posts. The rank is intended to be an indication of the seniority and usefulness of a member, and all of his posts should count towards that.

I didn't read the whole of your book, maybe you could extract the salient points if you really want it to be considered.

Shadow Master shows as "brand new" with 0 posts, but registered last July. Is that indicative of a ban, or just that all posts were deleted for some reason.

I'm starting this in a bad mood, because a rapid scroll through the initial long arsed post killed my main computer. Windows had a wobbly, and I'm going to have to pick it to pieces to see what happened.
So my first comment is - for god's sake stop posting books to start a thread. It will probably be quoted in various posts during the thread, and make the whole thing unreadable.

I think the posted suggestion would be bad for the forum. It might be good for self- aggrandisement, but the merit system levels are sufficient to serve their intended purpose, and that is to remove most of the posts that sig spammers make in order to leech minimal income from the forum.

Nullius is fortunate in that he has a number of junior(ish) members who have the same posting skills and obviously have empathy for him, and who are able to award him merits. His initial post was awarded a merit by such a member, despite the fact that the proposition would be a serious disadvantage for him. Most of us don't have this dedicated following.

Isn't it time that we accepted that the merit system seems to be working at a basic level, and we got on with the business of discussing crypto-currencies in a rapidly changing world economy.

I suppose that my point really is that modifications and subset restrictions around the world make the learning and spelling of English harder. The sibilant "ass" derived I assume from "arse" can cause confusion if a person thinks of an ass as a fool or donkey like animal. There are many variations of English from Ugandan to the French based Canadian, and many of them are found on the internet. It is unfortunate that English is losing some of its richness and subtlety as American becomes ubiquitous.