Active Mining has shuttered up its discussion thread, opting instead for a self-moderated one, populated by socks & cheerleaders.
I offer this thread as an open, uncensored forum for ActM discussion.

Anyone know what's up?

Bitcointalk is running this ad:

Here's what it links to:
https://www.bitmit.net/item/15000/?ref=6004 (promises to pay 3BTC in 3 years for 1BTC today)
Pretty much all there's to say.  Stay classy, Bitcointalk.

Maintaining sock accounts is grueling and exacting work, but tedious post counts, writing styles, spelling and idiom usage don't need to burden your e-business!  
Due to a recent forum law clarification, we're able to offer you the services of our expertly trained ☛auction shills!☚
Don't go it alone.  PM the professionals, and find out what our expertly trained ☛auction shills!☚ can do for you!

* Void where prohibited (bitcointalk.org's totally fine though!)
**Residents of Alaska, Missouri & Montana may or may not be subject to sales tax.  ***Terms subject to change at any time. Duh.

Maintaining sock accounts is grueling and exacting work, but tedious post counts, writing styles, spelling and idiom usage don't need to burden your e-business!  
Due to a recent forum law clarification, we're able to offer you the services of our expertly trained ☛auction shills!☚
Don't go it alone.  PM the professionals, and find out what our expertly trained ☛auction shills!☚ can do for you!

* Void where prohibited (bitcointalk.org's totally fine though!)
**Residents of Alaska, Missouri & Montana may or may not be subject to sales tax.  ***Terms subject to change at any time. Duh.

[iste natus error sit voluptatem]

Just a play thread.  Plenty of annoying unicode chars to cut & paste:

☀☀☁☁☂☂☃☃☄☄★★☆☆☇☇☈☈☉☉☊☊☋☋☌☌☍☍☎☎☏☏
☐☐☑☑☒☒☓☔☖☖☗☗☚☚☛☛☜☜☝☝☞☞☟☟☠☠☡☡☢☢☣☣☤☤☥☥☦☦☧☧
☨☨☩☩☪☪☫☫☬☬☭☭☮☮☯☯☰☰☱☱☲☲☳☳☴☴☵☵☶☶☷☷☸☸☹☹☺☺
☻☻☼☼☽☽☾☾☿☿♀♀♁♁♂♂♃♃♄♄♅♅♆♆♇♇♈♈♉♉♊♊♋♋♌♌♍♍♎♎
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Goofy text effects:
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	Toreador smoking crack:
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and, of course, da smileys:  
Edit:  This is as big as text gets here:☠

Fini

[/list]

[Sockpuppetry]

These boards are great.  Bitcoin attracts a fun cross section of people, from hardware geeks & coders to Silk Road dealers to day traders to guys with more money than you can shake a stick at.  From all around the world.  Pretty much anything Bitcoin-related can be had here.  But it's also a place where money changes hands, so there are rules.  If you're new here, which is a pretty safe bet since this is the noob jail, you might find some of these rules ... unusual  I've already wasted a bunch of your time, so i won't try for a graceful segway, and just rattle them off.  Here we go:

• Sockpuppetry -- a single person with multiple accounts -- is not only common, but endorsed here.  
  On other boards, socks are at best annoying -- lonely basement dwellers choreographing conversations with their alts for friends, that sort of thing.  Once money is involved, it's worthwhile to remember the 5 guys trading & vouching for each other are... Well, you know.
• Click on "members"  in the top menu, the one right between "my messages" & "logout."  That one.  Yeah.  On the users page, click on "position," this will list the users by their post count.  You'll see page after page of "brand new" users with 0 posts to their names, dating all the way to 2010.  I'll save you some time with this protip:  More than half of the registered users were created by bots & are lying dormant, waiting ... for your Bitcoinz  Yep, they're a commodity, to be bought and sold.  A practice, as i found out, considered perfectly legitimate on this forum.  Don't believe me?  Ask the mods.
  Please understand that this is not a criticism of this site -- i don't know how i would enforce rules against selling user accounts.  Just some useful info for you, noob
• There's a board here called "Scam Accusations."  If you're going to do any trading, any at all, read that board.  Not just the first page, browse the back pages -- you'll learn more about Bitcoin ecosystem there than anywhere else.   A learning experience for the biggest, most jaded cynics.
• Self-moderation -- fun on these boards.  If you don't know it exists (why should you?), you'll miss the telltale subscript band at the top of the thread.  It looks like this: (that's full size).  Worth knowing 'coz ... well, obvious.  The person who started the thread can delete everything he doesn't agree with/like.  
  

There's plenty more, but i've got 4 more posts to type