I'm a moderator on another site. I speak very limited Russian but I try.
I know sometimes some the Russians poke fun at me. Sometimes it is clever and funny.
Some of the subtle sarcasm is very hard to detect. 

I'm confused. I just read the part:
But…what if she lies?


I gave Suchmoon merit because it is funny. I almost choked on my coffee when I read it.
In my opinion Suchmoon is one of the most entertaining quality posters on bitcointalk.
(also doesn't need any merit because they are a merit source and cannot rank up any further - so it is purely for the quality of the post)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4563202.msg43679904#msg43679904

I started asking questions on there too !   

I agree that the early forum was very different to the way it was now. It was very development focused from every angle. A huge amount of enthusiasm and innovation happened then.

It still happens but it is harder to find - between the regurgitated topics, bounty, ann and other spam topics.

It is progress...  

But that is the nature of "mass adoption" of crypto. We are in the manic phase.

On some of the exchanges I trade we were chatting to the owner developers on an almost daily basis - just daily gossip. Two years later I can hardly get an email back from them because they are swamped with work. All development work is now handled by their many staff.

Developers have retreated because it is hard to deal with "the masses" of uninformed people riding the crypto mania wave. They have retreated to other methods of communication to extend their development work.

I understand that opinion.

Personally I think it was an experiment with good intention from the moderators. But it had potential for abuse and resulted in "industrial scale" reporting.

It was also flawed in the sense where it was open to abuse by people with bad intent. The moderators saw this and abandoned those methods.

I don't see a problem with trying something to see if it works and when it is pointed out that it had flaws they abandoned it. I think it shows initiative but also shows that they listened to the feedback objectively.

It also should be taken into account that the Ukraine and Russia are known spam locations and Russian trolls are among the worlds best.

With just two moderators on the largest local language board they have a big workload.

So what you are saying is that the merit farmers sell merit to the account farmers which sell the accounts to the account sellers.

Just because the "subcontract" the merit farming - the account farmers are still the ones that want the merit.

If it is costing account farmers to by merit then the system is working - it means less accounts and the accounts will cost more.

It means the merit discouragement is working.


I still don't see why the "informers" and other "rascals" want merit - unless they are part of the account farming enterprise.

Perhaps you can explain that in further detail. This will be interesting.

Account farmers don't need merit to rank up their accounts so they can sell it for more ? So they can use those accounts in bounty and signature campaigns ?

What do the "rascals" and "informers" need the merits for ?

I think if you read the link I posted much earlier - it was all discussed there. Using merit to reward spam reporters is no longer done by the Russian moderators because account farmers were abusing that method of awarding merit.

It was not the moderators or merit source that were abusing it - it were the account farmers that were manipulating the system.

It is generally account farmers and bounty chasers that complain about the merit system. They are the only ones disadvantaged by it.

The merit system was designed to disadvantage them - the complaints prove the merit system works as intended.


I gave a comprehensive explanation here:

I didn't repeat the whole thread where it was discussed  - but I did post a link to it so you could read what was already discussed at length without having to repeat the whole entire conversation again.

Perhaps you shouldn't post anything. Because if you don't create a conversation then you won't get any replies.  


Bots and spam - caused by account farmers that sell the accounts to other users for bounty and signature campaigns or use the farmed accounts themselves for bounty or signature campaigns.

The Russian section was the first local board to be introduced and by far the largest and most active local board. I feel sympathy for the moderators.

If you sell someone a gun - in a lot of countries you will be charged as an accessory to the crime that is committed with the gun.

If you sell an account and get caught - then you ignored the "discouraged" part of the rule.
18. Having multiple accounts and account sales are allowed, but account sales are discouraged.

Discourage definition : prevent or try to prevent (something) by showing disapproval or creating difficulties.

Have you seen some of the other local boards ? The Russian section is extremely tidy in comparison.

I disagree. Fraud is where there is "mens rea". (Definition: The intention or knowledge of wrongdoing, as opposed to the action or conduct).

They were using the merit system in a different way to it was intended but not without the same goals of reducing spam in mind.


Rules also state that account sales are discouraged - which implies that there is a potential consequence.

It is interesting that a tagged account seller is defending the OP for a bought account accusation.

https://archive.fo/mLJv2

My Russian is not good but I do read a lot in the Russian topic section. But I live in an English speaking country. I can assure you that there is a noticable difference in the English grammar used by esmanthra and by xandry. They are definitely not the same person.

Xandry is a merit source and will have given merit to mainly Russian speaking topics which would link him to almost every Russian account.
With a merit source there are always going to be people that they merit more because they like their work.
The deleted/off topic posts were explained here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4330297.0

LOL what a load of bullshit ! Back up that statement with historical facts. Here are some historical facts:

Hitler

Most of the gun control in Germany came from the Versailles Treaty around 1919. Germans were banned from possessing firearms.

Treaty of Versaille, imposed by the allied powers
Article 169 "Within two months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, German arms, munitions, and war material, including anti-aircraft material, existing in Germany in excess of the quantities allowed, must be surrendered to the Governments of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers to be destroyed or rendered useless."

In 1928, the gun control laws were made less severe.
The Nazis actively campaigned against gun control legislation.
Hitler didn't come to power till 1933 ! Hitler didn't take guns, he made it easier for people to get guns !
Hitlers 1938 law actually weakened gun control and made it easier for everyone except Jews to own guns !
In 1938 the legal age at which guns could be purchased was lowered from 20 to 18.
By 1938 Hitler had so much control that no matter how many guns the Jews had it wouldn't have saved them.
The Russian Army lost 8-10 million men fighting the Wehrmacht and another 14 million civilians - the Russians had machine guns, tanks, anti aircraft guns, aircraft, explosives etc.

https://www.salon.com/2013/01/11/stop_talking_about_hitler/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

Mao

Mao didn't take away guns. Not only did people living in the country have rifles for hunting, some communities even had small artillery pieces and anti aircraft guns.    

Of course it was under the proper direction of the party. It wasn't hard to get or own a gun during Mao's time.

It is only after Deng Xiao Ping took over that the militias were gradually banned, and their weapons were confiscated.  

Stalin

Private citizens could own hunting weapons if they had police permission. Police and militia could confiscate guns of people that showed "irresponsible behaviour"

In 1929-30 there was a clampdown on guns. - so Stalin exercised gun control.

Of the 6 million people that perished under Stalin it is said that 3 million starved to death. Maybe they could have eaten their gun if they still had one.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/little-gun-history/

Discouraged with negative trust.

There is the Kevorkian vaccination.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4834391.0

Are you asking for assistance in deleting your account ?