Certainly not. okbaby123 and girlbtc.com are now banned.

Unless you want it deleted, I will leave the post up in case you want to file a police report.

My first guess is that it's caused by Adblock Plus. The people who maintain EasyList periodically try to block forum ads, but it is impossible to reliably block forum ads using Adblock Plus, and trying to do so creates a mess like that.

Does it reliably happen at this link? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1703694.0;forcead=5

You may have been caught by my custom DDoS protection. I received reports of this from one other person as well. I wonder if it's somehow been banning people too greedily. I'll keep an eye on it, but please let me know if it happens again.

Auction ended, djselery wins 1 slot.

Thanks for participating.

Doing this isn't even a softfork. You can basically just treat it as a form of over-the-wire and on-disk compression. All you need to do is restore it to its original form before hashing, or when transmitting to an old node.

Is it working now?

Now extrabyte also cancelled his bid, so the winners are updated as follows:

Slots	BTC/slot	Person	Total
4	0.9	hashnest	3.6
3	0.8	Chronobank	2.4
1	0.6	KingDice	0.6
1	?	(TBD in special auction)	?

There is a short special auction here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1699655.0

Very annoyingly, both extrabyte and thewebdeveloper cancelled their bids at the last minute in the normal round 192 ad auction. Round 192 will start in roughly 48 hours, so I need to fill the remaining slots. I will do so in this special short auction.

See the last thread for the full rules. Note especially that forum ads have a special HTML/CSS-based format, and images are not allowed.

The minimum increment here is 0.01 BTC rather than 0.05 BTC. The auction still starts at 0.25 BTC. The auction will end at a random time between 23.5 and 24.5 hours from the time of this post.

As of now, there is one slot available. If any other issues happen, this could potentially rise, in which case I will take the top winning bids. In preparation for this eventuality, you could bid "2 @ ..." if you want. I will interpret bids without a slot count to be for 1 slot.

In normal auctions I'm pretty flexible and forgiving, but in this special auction, I will be a real stickler for payment. Once you bid, you are absolutely obliged to pay your bid if you end up winning slots. Anyone who doesn't pay within 24 hours when called will get negative trust from me.

You must be at least a Jr Member to bid. If you have never advertised before, you must include in your post a brief description of what you're advertising. If you haven't advertised before, you should very carefully read the design rules, since you will only have about 24 hours after winning this auction before ads go live.

Even if you are outbid, you could still win slots if I reject the bids of people above you. I might reject bids for any reason, such as because the the thing they're advertising seems unsafe or because I don't trust that they'll pay. If you think that someone outbidding you might have their ad rejected, it is a legitimate strategy to bid with the uncertain assumption that they will be rejected.

If you win slots, I will send you the payment information via forum PM from this account ("theymos", user ID 35) after announcing the auction results in this thread. You might receive false payment information from scammers pretending to be me. They might even have somewhat similar usernames. Be careful.

thewebdeveloper canceled his bid, so the winners are updated as follows:

The forum sells ad space in the area beneath the first post of every topic page. This income is used primarily to cover hosting costs and to pay moderators for their work (there are many moderators, so each moderator gets only a small amount -- moderators should be seen as volunteers, not employees). Any leftover amount is typically either saved for future expenses or otherwise reinvested into the forum or the ecosystem.

Ads are allowed to contain any non-annoying HTML/CSS style. No images, JavaScript, or animation. Ads must appear 3 or fewer lines tall in my browser (Firefox, 900px wide). Ad text may not contain lies, misrepresentation, or inappropriate language. Ads may not link directly to any NSFW page. Ads may be rejected for other reasons, and I may remove ads even after they are accepted.

There are 10 total ad slots which are randomly rotated. So one ad slot has a one in ten chance of appearing. Nine of the slots are for sale here. Ads appear only on topic pages with more than one post, and only for people using the default theme.

Duration

- Your ads are guaranteed to be up for at least 7 days.
- I usually try to keep ads up for no more than 8 or 9 days.
- Sometimes ads might be up for longer, but hopefully no longer than 12 days. Even if past rounds sometimes lasted for long periods of time, you should not rely on this for your ads.

Stats

Exact historical impression counts per slot:
https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adstats

Info about the current ad slots:
https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adinfo

Ad blocking

Hero/Legendary members, Donators, VIPs, and moderators have the ability to disable ads. I don't expect many people to use this option. These people don't increase the impression stats for your ads.

I try to bypass Adblock Plus filters as much as possible, though this is not guaranteed. It is difficult or impossible for ABP filters to block the ad space itself without blocking posts. However, filters can match against the URLs in your links, your CSS classes and style attributes, and the HTML structure of your ads.

To prevent matches against URLs: I have some JavaScript which fixes links blocked by ABP. You must tell me if you want this for your ads. When someone with ABP and JavaScript enabled views your ads, your links are changed to a special randomized bitcointalk.org URL which redirects to your site when visited. People without ABP are unaffected, even if they don't have JavaScript enabled. The downsides are:
- ABP users will see the redirection link when they hover over the link, even if they disable ABP for the forum.
- Getting referral stats might become even more difficult.
- Some users might get a warning when redirecting from https to http.

To prevent matching on CSS classes/styles: Don't use inline CSS. I can give your ad a CSS class that is randomized on each pageload, but you must request this.

To prevent matching against your HTML structure: Use only one <a> and no other tags if possible. If your ads get blocked because of matching done on something inside of your ad, you are responsible for noticing this and giving me new ad HTML.

Designing ads

Make sure that your ads look good when you download and edit this test page:
https://bitcointalk.org/ad_test.html
Also read the comments in that file.

Images are not allowed no matter how they are created (CSS, SVG, or data URI). Occasionally I will make an exception for small logos and such, but you must get pre-approval from me first.

The maximum size of any one ad is 51200 bytes.

I will send you more detailed styling rules if you win slots in this auction (or upon request).

Auction rules

You must be at least a Jr Member to bid. If you are not a Jr Member and you really want to bid, you should PM me first. Tell me in the PM what you're going to advertise. You might be required to pay some amount in advance. Everyone else: Please quickly PM newbies who try to bid here to warn them against impersonation scammers.

If you have never purchased forum ad space before, and it is not blatantly obvious what you're going to advertise, say what you're going to advertise in your first bid, or tell me in a PM.

Post your bids in this thread. Prices must be stated in BTC per slot. You must state the maximum number of slots you want. When the auction ends, the highest bidders will have their slots filled until all nine slots are filled.

So if someone bids for 9 slots @ 5 BTC and this is the highest bid, then he'll get all 9 slots. If the two highest bids are 9 slots @ 4 BTC and 1 slot @ 5 BTC, then the first person will get 8 slots and the second person will get 1 slot.

The notation "2 @ 5" means 2 slots for 5 BTC each. Not 2 slots for 5 BTC total.

- When you post a bid, the bids in your previous posts are considered to be automatically canceled. You can put multiple bids in one post, however.
- All bid prices must be evenly divisible by 0.05.
- The bidding starts at 0.25.
- I will end the auction at an arbitrary time. Unless I say otherwise, I typically try to end auctions within a few days of 10 days from the time of this post, but unexpected circumstances may sometimes force me to end the auction anytime between 4 and 22 days from the start.
- If two people bid at the same price, the person who bid first will have his slots filled first.
- Bids are considered invalid and will be ignored if they do not specify both a price and a max quantity, or if they could not possibly win any slots

If these rules are confusing, look at some of the past forum ad auctions to see how it's done.

I reserve the right to reject bids, even days after the bid is made.

You must pay for your slots within 24 hours of receiving the payment address. Otherwise your slots may be sold to someone else, and I might even give you a negative trust rating. I will send you the payment information via forum PM from this account ("theymos", user ID 35) after announcing the auction results in this thread. You might receive false payment information from scammers pretending to be me. They might even have somewhat similar usernames. Be careful.

You're too new, PM me first next time.

Auction ended. Final result:
Slots BTC/Slot Person
6 0.95 thewebdeveloper
3 0.90 hashnest

How SMF 1.x handles reports is that it sends an email to all mods with jurisdiction over the reported post, with the email's from address set to your email. bitcointalk.org still does this, though I also added a reports queue, which is what most mods actually use.

Fixed, thanks. Though I guess Yahoo IM is defunct, so the icon isn't very useful.

The forum sells ad space in the area beneath the first post of every topic page. This income is used primarily to cover hosting costs and to pay moderators for their work (there are many moderators, so each moderator gets only a small amount -- moderators should be seen as volunteers, not employees). Any leftover amount is typically either saved for future expenses or otherwise reinvested into the forum or the ecosystem.

Ads are allowed to contain any non-annoying HTML/CSS style. No images, JavaScript, or animation. Ads must appear 3 or fewer lines tall in my browser (Firefox, 900px wide). Ad text may not contain lies, misrepresentation, or inappropriate language. Ads may not link directly to any NSFW page. Ads may be rejected for other reasons, and I may remove ads even after they are accepted.

There are 10 total ad slots which are randomly rotated. So one ad slot has a one in ten chance of appearing. Nine of the slots are for sale here. Ads appear only on topic pages with more than one post, and only for people using the default theme.

Duration

- Your ads are guaranteed to be up for at least 7 days.
- I usually try to keep ads up for no more than 8 or 9 days.
- Sometimes ads might be up for longer, but hopefully no longer than 12 days. Even if past rounds sometimes lasted for long periods of time, you should not rely on this for your ads.

Stats

Exact historical impression counts per slot:
https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adstats

Info about the current ad slots:
https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adinfo

Ad blocking

Hero/Legendary members, Donators, VIPs, and moderators have the ability to disable ads. I don't expect many people to use this option. These people don't increase the impression stats for your ads.

I try to bypass Adblock Plus filters as much as possible, though this is not guaranteed. It is difficult or impossible for ABP filters to block the ad space itself without blocking posts. However, filters can match against the URLs in your links, your CSS classes and style attributes, and the HTML structure of your ads.

To prevent matches against URLs: I have some JavaScript which fixes links blocked by ABP. You must tell me if you want this for your ads. When someone with ABP and JavaScript enabled views your ads, your links are changed to a special randomized bitcointalk.org URL which redirects to your site when visited. People without ABP are unaffected, even if they don't have JavaScript enabled. The downsides are:
- ABP users will see the redirection link when they hover over the link, even if they disable ABP for the forum.
- Getting referral stats might become even more difficult.
- Some users might get a warning when redirecting from https to http.

To prevent matching on CSS classes/styles: Don't use inline CSS. I can give your ad a CSS class that is randomized on each pageload, but you must request this.

To prevent matching against your HTML structure: Use only one <a> and no other tags if possible. If your ads get blocked because of matching done on something inside of your ad, you are responsible for noticing this and giving me new ad HTML.

Designing ads

Make sure that your ads look good when you download and edit this test page:
https://bitcointalk.org/ad_test.html
Also read the comments in that file.

Images are not allowed no matter how they are created (CSS, SVG, or data URI). Occasionally I will make an exception for small logos and such, but you must get pre-approval from me first.

The maximum size of any one ad is 51200 bytes.

I will send you more detailed styling rules if you win slots in this auction (or upon request).

Auction rules

You must be at least a Jr Member to bid. If you are not a Jr Member and you really want to bid, you should PM me first. Tell me in the PM what you're going to advertise. You might be required to pay some amount in advance. Everyone else: Please quickly PM newbies who try to bid here to warn them against impersonation scammers.

If you have never purchased forum ad space before, and it is not blatantly obvious what you're going to advertise, say what you're going to advertise in your first bid, or tell me in a PM.

Post your bids in this thread. Prices must be stated in BTC per slot. You must state the maximum number of slots you want. When the auction ends, the highest bidders will have their slots filled until all nine slots are filled.

So if someone bids for 9 slots @ 5 BTC and this is the highest bid, then he'll get all 9 slots. If the two highest bids are 9 slots @ 4 BTC and 1 slot @ 5 BTC, then the first person will get 8 slots and the second person will get 1 slot.

The notation "2 @ 5" means 2 slots for 5 BTC each. Not 2 slots for 5 BTC total.

- When you post a bid, the bids in your previous posts are considered to be automatically canceled. You can put multiple bids in one post, however.
- All bid prices must be evenly divisible by 0.05.
- The bidding starts at 0.25.
- I will end the auction at an arbitrary time. Unless I say otherwise, I typically try to end auctions within a few days of 10 days from the time of this post, but unexpected circumstances may sometimes force me to end the auction anytime between 4 and 22 days from the start.
- If two people bid at the same price, the person who bid first will have his slots filled first.
- Bids are considered invalid and will be ignored if they do not specify both a price and a max quantity, or if they could not possibly win any slots

If these rules are confusing, look at some of the past forum ad auctions to see how it's done.

I reserve the right to reject bids, even days after the bid is made.

You must pay for your slots within 24 hours of receiving the payment address. Otherwise your slots may be sold to someone else, and I might even give you a negative trust rating. I will send you the payment information via forum PM from this account ("theymos", user ID 35) after announcing the auction results in this thread. You might receive false payment information from scammers pretending to be me. They might even have somewhat similar usernames. Be careful.

Auction ended, final result:
Slots BTC/Slot Person
1 1.10 PoohFace
3 1.00 djselery
1 1.00 Technomage
1 1.00 whalecubco
1 0.95 irfan_pak10
2 0.95 Chronobank

Yes, I regret that I didn't plan for language pack support in the beginning, but now it'd require very major changes.

Sorry, that's not logged.

I guess Trump is just going to post a "help wanted" ad in the paper for all of his cabinet positions: https://www.greatagain.gov/news/help-wanted-4000-presidential-appointees.html 

Lauda just pointed this out to me: Mike Hearn is no longer involved in Bitcoin much, but is still the moderator of this section. Probably he should be replaced. Is there someone in the "official" BitcoinJ project willing to replace him?

Note that moderators of the alt client sections aren't considered full staff members, and aren't paid by the forum. They're mods here so that they can sticky topics and such.

Absolutely agreed. I think that the people of the US would be much better-off overall if the US was dissolved and all of the states became independent. A lot of people's first reaction to that is that US states aren't self-sufficient, but that's the case with many countries -- that's what trade is for. I think it'd work out fine.

A willing complete dissolution of the US is very unlikely to actually happen anytime soon, though. I think that the secession of a handful of states (California, maybe Texas, maybe some of the east coast after California secedes) is at least somewhat plausible, and some improvement.


I was very disappointed in Gary Johnson this campaign. He was ineffective in working toward winning, many of his policies were non-libertarian, and he largely failed to spread libertarian ideas. I'm absolutely not a Trump fan, but Gary Johnson often looked like a Hillary shill.

This is especially disappointing because I think that Johnson did have quite a good campaign in 2012.