Just for reference, after Maged issued a warning in the Neo & Bee thread that it was not to be derailed and that further instigation would result in a permanent-ban, MPOE-PR posted "Fuck You." I'm not one to follow all of the typical MPEx drama but in this scenario MPOE-PR was clearly not acting in a professional manner. His / her opinion was more than welcomed in the thread, but there really was no reason for the hostility. Of the 10 pages deleted approximately 3~4 posts were submitted by MPOE-PR; this indicates that Maged's actions were clearly not just directed at a single target (Unless you're one to believe that MPEx controls all of the "troll" accounts, I have no opinion on the matter). This makes the actions of MPOE-PR, and your accusation against Maged unwarranted.

To be honest while MPOE-PR is always quite snarky, he / she usually remains civil, so that post seems a bit out of character. The same type of hostility can be seen in this post by TAT and that too seems out of character-- is it possible that their accounts have been compromised? I won't pretend I know either well or even the forum politics, I'm just a lurker.

While not the only method, disabling those characters is a relatively easy way to stop exploits such as SQL injection. Your password is taken in by the server and by using these symbols one could "break out" and execute malicious code. Some examples (which only work on insecure websites):

Login ID: -Anyone I want to hack-       
Password: - ' OR 0 == 0 ' -

Input Field: <pre><!--#exec cmd="ls" --></pre>

The first example would make it so any password would work. The quote at the beginning "breaks" out of the password string, sets the boolean quantifier to true since 0 equals 0, then finishes off the remaining quotes so there is no error.

The second example is showing how <> codes can also "break out" and be used to execute code. In that example it is running "ls" which would make the website print out all of folders in that directory. If that worked it would be trivial to keep using ../ to find what you're looking for.

These are just two examples of hundreds of known common exploits, so while there are other methods it is perfectly sensible to block these characters.

For a small transaction such as $50 I would suggest btcQuick. You can purchase bitcoins through a credit card using their service and Google Wallet. The only downside is that there is a 7.5% fee for new members, but that isn't bad in my opinion for a $50 transaction. I've personally used btcQuick twice and have had a great experience working with them!

If you do chose to use btcQuick you will have to verify your identity; which is normal for most exchanges. They will ask for a picture of your ID and credit card (both can have nearly all of the vital information censored out, they mainly want to see your name and the last 4 digits of your credit card number). Verification costs $1.99 and only takes a few minutes, then you're ready to buy bitcoins! They fund a private key or send your bitcoins to an address you verified via signing a message on your bitcoin client. If you don't know how to import a private key or sign a message with your bitcoin client I suggest you practice with a negligible amount of bitcoins which you can obtain through faucets; there's lots of room for human error currently so make sure you understand what you're getting into!

Link to btcQuick if you're interested: https://www.btcquick.com/beta/