This is why using browsers such as Tor browser is recommended. Whatever website you're visiting will have all sorts of third parties collecting information on you. This was the big debate on whether we should move to Cloudflare or use an alternative service. I believe theymos even considered running his own hardware, because at the time we were having some pretty bad DDOS attacks.

Registering for services with tor browser, and only connecting via the internet through a VPN that you're sure doesn't collect any logs is the only way to really prevent this. Other websites collect much more information including cookies, and other data which they use to fingerprint. Some websites even collect your resolution!

Just to be clear, your VPN/Tor access will still be logged.

I'm not missing the point at all. I've clearly outlined that you can extract the mkey, however we don't know what is going on behind the scenes. Publicly stating it, and privately is different. My warning is valid. However, I would still suggest you use an escrow. I've offered this service before, and actually discontinued the service because of various different issues. I never had problem with payment, because for a long time I offered it as a free service, and relied on tips. However, you will get burned if you're going to rely on your trust for users.

The OP does speak the truth that you can extract "safe to send" pieces of information from the wallet file, send that over, and there's no chance of him being able to get into the wallet (unless the wallet format has changed these days and I'm unaware), and I've had first hand experience with this. However, escrow should still be used if the user is claiming to have found the password, because they could be lying, and that works the other way around too. The OP should be looking to use escrow to assure that he'll actually get paid once he's handed over the password.

Unfortunately, even for a escrow this is a difficult situation. To be able to verify this the escrow would need access to the wallet file or would need mkey (if I remember correctly) or basically the extracted parts of the wallet which are safe to send, and then be able to test that themselves with btcrecover with the password that the user claims to have cracked. Most escrow won't know how to do that or have the  time. Of course, I'd always recommend against the escrow having physical access to the wallet file, and only deal with the mkey.



However, as soon as you send someone else your wallet file you are asking to be compromised, and scammed. Do not under any circumstances give someone physical access to your wallet. Only deal with the mkey (like I said I think this is what it was called, I did it years back now)

Honestly, there are more trusted services offering the exact same thing, and I'd be wary of any newbie offering this service just because we don't know what information is being requested behind closed doors.

Usually, if there's enough evidence that they're using a bumping service the thread is removed, and the user might who posted it might even be banned. Although, we have to be careful because if competitors are aware of this they could stage this, and spam to look like bumping services on their competitors, and get their topic removed. It's a slippery slope.

Exactly, and there's big money in it for a reason. There are ways to try, and combat this from a forum point of view which have been discussed over and over, but I believe the conclusion was we would be limiting genuine users, and hurting them wouldn't be worth putting in the extra restrictions. Unfortunate, for us as newbie accounts are easy to whip up so they really couldn't care less about losing the account.

I've exhausted my merit pool this month, but that's because I'm starting to adopt a increased spending policy. I'll usually reward high amounts for exceptional posts more often now. Whereas before I wouldn't even think to spend 15, I've done that a few times already this month. Luckily, I get 19 merit back today!

It's probably due to the fact that the quoted posts were deleted, and therefore your reply no longer makes any sense. When posts are deleted, which have been quoted by other users sometimes those replies get deleted too. Seems that "Wahyu"'s post has been deleted probably for being unsubstantial, and not contributing enough to the discussion of the original topic.

I didn't handle the report, and I haven't seen the whole conversation other than the posts which have been included in your message, and both of those have been removed also. Your reply might be substantial, but if you're replying to a post which isn't substantial you do risk it being deleted along with the rest to prevent derailing the thread. That would be my best guess looking at the context of the thread, and how the other two posts have been deleted also.

I've heard that they can cope with LoyceV's, and DdmrDdmr scripts so I'm sure the forum would be no problem to run off of them.

Taking a look back at some other threads discussing the hosting situation its just stated "theymos hosts it" which I'm not sure whether to take literally, and assume he's physically hosting it or if its hosted via a service. Almost all hosting providers I know of don't have renewable energy though.

Sweet, I'll take a look at it, but as recommended by others its probably best to just report it, and mention that this has been going on for a while in the report field. A new thread probably isn't justified, although still appreciate the effort, thanks.

Removed the posts, and messaged the user making them aware of the 24 hour bump rule. I'll keep an eye on it in the future.

I guess you're asking if the servers are run on a renewable energy right? Probably not, and pretty sure that the servers impact on the environment is very little, and we should probably be more worried about the cow farting all day along! Theymos hosts the servers I believe, but I doubt its through renewable energy.

Common theme, and there are multiple people on the internet selling this sort of bumping as a service. Charging some obscene amounts for it too. Unfortunately they are always with lower ranked accounts, and don't care about getting nuked, and will just make a new account, and post again. 

I used to do it this way, and I believe I had a 2 second timer? I still hit that fairly regular. I can't imagine what its like reporting with 4+ seconds. Probably why we don't see a wide range of users reporting, and only a select few. At least regularly anyway.

I think anyone over a certain number of reports should just have the cooldown squashed completely. For now though, if the cooldown is annoying you, just put in the report field "more spam on page" or whatever, and we'll usually look at it. Right now I believe the cooldown is based on activity, and we are sort of limiting the amounts of reports we receive due to that. If we based it on number of good reports I think we'd see an improvement in number of reports being made.

The best way to deal with criticism to your project whether its unfounded or not is to answer back with counter arguments, and backing up your counter argument with proof. You could go the self moderated route, but its likely that they'll attack you with their own thread, and use you deleting their comment has an argument against your project. it's always best to remain transparent, and bring the facts to the table.

Here's the same advice as anyone if the banned message has an email in it, then send your appeal to that email. I would suggest making some effort into your appeal, and being completely honest. At least show that you're going to be a asset to the forum instead of a rehashed version of someone else.

It has become its own little thing within the economy of the forum, and isn't necessarily a bad thing with good users overseeing the campaign. It only ever really becomes a problem when poorly managed campaigns are allowed to advertise on the forum. Especially, the altcoin related ones as there is so many of them. At least the ones paying in Bitcoin are somewhat managed or at least appear to be.

I'm just going to go out on a limb, and say it was plagiarism if so the likelihood of the account being unbanned is very unlikely. If the banned message has a email to send your appeal too, then you can do that, and hope for the best. That's the only way it'll be unbanned though.

Various different reasons, besides the ones already mentioned its surely partly down to the community, and a few individuals within it. Look at TMAN's replies for example I'm sure that gives a few users a good laugh. I personally don't like the system that reddit uses with upvotes, and I hate the Twitter interface, so its always made sense to use the forum rather than any of the alternatives.

Bitcoin has various different reasons for its use, and that's what brings it value. Its not just the fact that you control your own money that is the driving factor to Bitcoins price its multiple factors that make it a good investment. A large portion of investors are exactly that, they'll invest in the instability of the value, and cash out into fiat currencies, and are thus using Bitcoin as a dip in and out investment rather than a alternative currency like the minority here.