Me?  Nah, I wouldn't waste money on something that needs no dressing up whatsoever.  I don't know about anyone else (though I've read the replies so far), but I just do not give two shits if my HW wallet is made fancier. 

Next someone will figure out a way to shoehorn all sorts of RGB lighting as a "skin" so the ADHD crowd has something to ooh and aah over whilst briefly looking at their HW wallet when using it.  And I mean, that's the thing.  I don't give much eyeball time to my worker-bee wallet; my main concern is plugging the fucking thing in as fast as possible and inputting the password so I can get on with my bizzy, y'know?

And HW wallets I collect....that would be sacrilege.

Why not?  Because then I'd have my inbox flooded with requests more so than it already is, and being a merit source would then become a full-time job.  In addition to that, it isn't a merit source's job to replenish other merit sources's sMerits; that's Theymos's job if he deems it necessary.

If you don't believe me about how popular offers of merit are, just try opening a thread announcing that you have, say, 50 merits to give away and to have people PM you.  Then you'd understand.

***I've updated the OP to modify my terms, which I figured I'd have to do as the requests started rolling in.  It's obvious that I need to spell things out as clearly as possible (though I thought I'd done a good job of that already) and to be a bit more of a hard ass than I wanted to be.

That's OK.  Most of you have seen the hard ass version of me already, especially when it comes to willful ignorance.***

Not for nothing, but the lawsuit for this tax evasion accusation was just announced, so I think it's way, way too early to start passing judgement as if we know all the facts (not sure if that's what you were doing, but even so I stand by my statement).

And so what if he borrowed against bitcoin holdings and thereby avoided capital gains taxes?  That isn't illegal at all.  I'm not saying it was a smart thing to do, because I don't, but if the IRS wants to throw people in jail they'd better make sure the law is on their side and they're not just making shit up as they go along.

I had a strong feeling Saylor and/or MSTR was going to be hit with one or more lawsuits, but I figured they'd start by the shareholders, not the government.  Anyone want to bet there's going to be a massive wave of shareholder lawsuits coming soon?  I'm not saying that gleefully, so don't get the wrong idea, but it's the next logical step when the 3-year stock chart now looks like this:

Still haven't slept yet, and earlier today when I was even more maniacally deprived of it I wrote this in that thread he created about a new section:


I chose my words very carefully, because for whatever reason I had an itch in my gut that was telling me that taking this dude at face value might be the wrongest of wrong actions.  I've been fooled by fools, cretins, halfwits, lobotomy cases, humans with knives, various animals with either charm or claws, and I don't ever see that trend having an inflection point in my favor.  Oh well.

Should you need a skeptic and/or someone who might be able to write very clean copy in English for your website (I looked it over and there are parts that could use some touch-ups), I'm available for the right price.  I must warn you that I'm no $20 ho.  No way I'm getting involved in anything shady, but I've never been involved in any crypto projects before and given all the names already on board, this looks like one that might be a good first.

That said, I don't quite understand your business model fully--though that could be the caffeine blood levels dropping precipitously.

If you're still giving away these freebie chips, could you add me to your spreadsheet with bc1q9spy85nxzpy26afaseng8sk4rcst64adue98a6 as my address?  Thanks, and I'm keeping my eye on this.

Yeah, I jumped the gun on that one and should have allowed the core wallet to sync fully before posting, because after it did I saw all the MNs.

This would be a neat, cheap way to experiment with running a masternode (assuming that's to your taste), but the biggest barrier I'd have with that is the absolute dearth of exchanges available to me to buy enough coins.  I've never used XT.com, Graviex, and I haven't a clue what Pancakeswap is all about, and those are basically it.

As a side note, I just read that Neblio (anyone heard of it?) was "acquired" by some group:



Now, Neblio is a PoS coin and BTX isn't, but I've never heard of a cryptocurrency being "acquired" as if it were a business.  Does anyone else think that's bizarre?  And if it could happen to Neblio, might not something similar happen to a coin like Bitcore where MNs exist and thus a bunch of whales no doubt exist (in addition to whatever dev team they have)?

I thought that was interesting anyway.

You might be as or more paranoid than I am about stuff like this, but at least you know about it; I'm a complete nincompoop when presented with a menu of possible ways I can be fucked and it's written in a language I can't read.

But this is why I rely on the experts here.  Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm just being an idiot or if that feeling in my gut is telling me something.

Seriously!  I just don't get it.  Do any of you get it?

I'm going to play Devil's Advocate here and say that their site is still up (as well as Flyp.me's) because they're not complete scam services--in other words, some people have used them and still do without any problems.  That same statement could be said of a lot of crypto casinos, traditional custodial exchanges, you name it.

I agree that that the below statement sounds like a license to do anything with your funds....but how's that any different than many other crypto services' ToS?


In addition, I only heard basically one side of this story, that of OP's.  I have no idea what really happened between him and these two exchanges.  And since this was all back in 2018, I'm wondering if they're under the same management.

Bumping this thread likely isn't going to do much good--and I haven't searched, but are there tons of complaints against flyp.me and/or holytransaction?  I don't recall seeing many over the years.

Oh wow, this is the first I'm seeing this thread and I absolutely love this!  There are so many members here that I'd love to stick a note tag to, right on their forehead if it were in real life, to remind me that they're a potential cheat, a total bastard, lack ears, etc.

Now I'm just going to have to see if I can deal with all that code within my browser.  I know you all are on the ball when it comes to what must seem like simple crap like this, but I have a bad feeling that I could seriously screw something up and leave myself vulnerable to a home invasion, possibly with me being made to do degrading things with or to some hacker.  Those fuckers are crazy.

Despite my fear of losing my chastity I believe I'm going to give this a shot, because the benefits are well worth it.  Thanks, TryNinja!

Edit:

Aw, man.



Does anyone have any soothing words of comfort and/or reassurance that those aren't too many permissions to give an add-on like this?

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, my hypercortical number cruncher!  I appreciate the answer--it was exactly what I was looking for, though if I'd given the whole thing about 20 minutes of thought I probably would have arrived at the answer.  I'm very aware that naim027 is appealing his ban and also that I was helping him rank up.  My initial thought was that it was a member who'd recently requested a post history review, and I'm relieved that it isn't.

All right, I think that'll do it for this thread.  I'mma lock this bizotch up like the storage locker I used to live in and my thanks to you again.  I would merit you if I could.

<<Goddamn it, Theymos!!!!>>

I'm tellin' you, my peeps, ever since I started that thread with my rules for requesting post history reviews, I haven't been able to keep up!  But that's made me curious about merit statistics, which I never really gave much thought to in the past.  Recently I saw this and was chagrined to the wind:



Here's my issue: I visited BPIP and Ninjatastic Space looking for who the banned members are that I merited, and if that info exists on either of those sites, I'm totally missing it.  But I know for damn sure there are bigger brains than mine in these parts, and I'd like to tickle said brains for an answer. 

The problem is that I've browsed a number of people's post histories without giving a single merit, and I'm generally careful about handing out merits to newbies unless I'm sure there's no plagiarism involved--I even reported one of my requestees for plagiarizing something, but I can't remember if I'd already given him a merit or two.  I don't think so, but that still wouldn't account for me being at the top of that ignominious list.

And yeah, I get that it's data for the last 180 days, but still.

Thanks in advance, you big-brained brethren....and sistren.

That's true, and though I'm not one who tags campaign members I certainly won't oppose anybody who chooses to do so--but as far as the accusation that the HEWRA account changed hands....I'm not so sure.

Obviously there's always been a language issue and equally as obvious is that HEWRA is dropping shitbombs in a language that's a long-ass way down the list from his first, and he was doing the same thing years ago, albeit with about 15% as much effort as now (but that's like comparing the level of stink between two litterboxes that haven't been changed in years).  So personally I wouldn't tag him with the evidence of a password change or haven woken up after a long time.  Sometimes that just happens with people, and there doesn't seem to be a dramatic shift in language style, just effort.

By sheer volume of posts made daily, there's bound to be plenty of the kind you speak of (though there's honestly no telling what's really motivating someone to write any given post).  Unfortunately this subject of conversation has come up before over the years, and I still hold firm to the belief that if sig campaigns and bounties were to vanish overnight, this forum would be a ghost town by the time the sun peeped over the horizon.

Actually, there would be an outcry at first, but that would quickly be followed by a mass exodus of members who'd never show their faces until there was money to be made by posting again.  Don't ever underestimate the influence these campaigns/bounties have on the number and quality of posts here.

It doesn't, really.  I'm also of the feeling that it doesn't matter whatsoever what a person's incentive is for posting on bitcointalk as long as they've got something to say and can write effectively.  There are plenty of members in campaigns who are excellent members of the community, so it isn't as though everyone who gets paid to post is a shitposter.

I'll give credit to OP for being a newbie who's very passionate and inquisitive about bitcoin (I'm trying to just take his posts and rank at face value and not assume he's an alt account).  Based on his post history, this looks to be a genuine request to improve the forum and not some ignorant noob, although it would have been much better had he indeed noticed the Trading Discussion section, among others, which will probably suit him just fine.

My guess is that you're gone from this thread for good OP, but in case you do check back in, there's pretty much zero chance Theymos takes your suggestion.  It's nothing personal; lots of great proposals for improvement have been submitted and died a slow and quiet death.  Take this forum as it is, and hope that someday it might be close to how you'd like it.

Eh....I'm not so sure I trust mainstream financial media or their headlines, and especially any statistical methodology that resembles the above.  But hey, that's me and one person's opinion--my own.

The big question in my mind is this: How big an issue is bitcoin volume reporting (or any discrepancies related to same) as long as traders can satisfactorily get their trades through without getting ripped off?  There's no question that volume ought to be accurate, but having seen the history of a lot of exchanges over the years, inflation of trading volume seems like it should be near the bottom of the ladder in terms of importance.  Financial solvency, transparency, and yes, regulation are bigger issues that really affect the average crypto trader.

Some regulation would be a good thing.  A lot of it might be a nightmare, and headlines like this one don't help things IMO.  If only Forbes took a look at the trollboxes of some of the "grittier" exchanges, they'd probably realize that a lot of people aren't looking for protection except for exchanges scamming them--which many of them have, going back to Mt. Gox and probably earlier (right?).

Thanks for posting this, though.  I'd give you a merit or two, but Theymos has forsaken me it seems.

It's not heroic, though, and I mean that in the strict sense of the word--nor are members of DT, merit sources, campaign managers, or any highly-recognized and/or respected members of the forum.  This might be a bit of a bugaboo with me, because I think the word hero has lost much of its meaning (much like racism) simply because it's being applied to everything--and I think the overuse got ridiculously out of hand during the pandemic.  It seemed like everyone who reported to work in 2020 was deemed a hero. 

I don't know about anybody else, but heroes are people who exhibit great courage, usually in the service of others.  Someone returning a lot of money when they could have run away with it is showing excellent character, but not heroism.  That's gonna be the end of my nitpicking.

And to your point about indifference in the face of someone else's crisis, that's been going on for a looong time.  Ever hear of the Kitty Genovese case?  Well, that happened back in 1964 and raised people's awareness of the issue of whether or not to get involved....until time made everyone forget. 

Human nature doesn't change all that quickly.

Good lord, you don't know me or my history on this forum very well, do you?  I'm neither liberal nor progressive (these days I'm not even sure what those terms mean, but I think I have an idea), though I try my damned-est to live and let live.  I'm not sure what any of my political views have to do with handing out merits anyway.  

Do you know why I want more merits to give away?  It's so the merit system keeps functioning, which keeps members from wandering into areas of the forum where they have nothing to say, hoping they'll earn some.  So you could almost say I do it in a segregationist spirit (though with none of the mean-spiritedness of what that term usually brings to mind).  If you don't believe me, just take a look at Reputation and Meta in 2017 right up until Jan. 2018 when the merit system was started.  There were a lot of pissed off people complaining about what I just described, me among them.  

So please, do not call me the liberal merit source.  It smacks of ass-kissing anyway.

Yeah, I know the post you're referring to and what my response was to it.

So here we are, a week or so later and I guess Theymos isn't listening to my pleas for more sMerits.  They sure would come in handy, because I've got more requests than I was able to handle with everything I had.  If I had maybe 100-150 more sMerits I might be able to catch up within a day or so--but that is NOT a request for anyone to merit my post(s).  I don't want merits from anyone except Theymos, if he hears my cries and has mercy on my blackened and damned soul.

Damn, don't waste good coffee spitting it up because of my purple prose.  And that's why I used the word; it was appropriate, perhaps a bit amusing, and maybe even a vocab-builder for a few folks.

Thanks, I appreciate it.  I wrote the above before reading your post--not that I could have prevented you from meriting any of my posts in any case.  I just gave a few members some merits, so your contribution did help.

OP, I would extend mk4's advice and suggest you check out the posts of members who've earned a lot of merits--in particular, lower-ranked ones, because if you absolutely have to have a model to go by, those are the members to use.

I've been looking at a lot of post histories lately, and it drives me nuts when I see page after page of posts that are essentially the same length and have the same (minimal) amount of thought and effort put into them.  Personally, I wouldn't advise you to chase after merits but there are two things:

1.  Your posts have to stand out against the rest of the posts in whatever thread they're in.

2.  If you post in sections where the shitposters are, it's not likely you're going to earn merits.

As a caveat to #2, if you start posting in sections like Meta where a lot of merits are handed out but don't contribute much of anything, you'll be marked as a merit fisherman and may end up on people's ignore list.  So when you post, make it count.

Not sure if I'm buying any of this mainstream media nonsense--for all we know, this could just be anti-crypto propaganda driven by an agenda none of us know about.  Kind of like all of those stories about bitcoin's use in money laundering and crime and so forth, none of which detract from its value as a currency or store of value.

I mean, this is a Bloomberg article for Christ's sake.  That's as agenda-driven and mainstream as it gets.  Take all of this with an enormous chunk of salt.

I don't think I'm paying more for electricity per kwh, and gas has gone down considerably in the past few months, but man....food prices just continue to go up and up.  I'm not kidding, every time I go shopping the price of things I normally buy goes up just a little bit (and sometimes a lot). 

And I think food is where a lot of lower-income folks can't afford to cut back on, like they can with electricity and some other things.  There are so many people dependent on government assistance for food, and I'm pretty sure the amount they get every month doesn't track inflation very well.

The cost of postage from the USPS is expected to go up again this year, too.  Buy those forever stamps now while they're relatively cheap.