UABB is a...

[Xephan]

(5) Still waiting for them to ask me to pay X BTC to get a UABB certified logo on my site, and then telling people that you should only trust sites with official UABB certification.

This is part of my main concern over UABB.

One of the attraction of Bitcoin to me is the decentralized nature. Living in a country where a small handful of people get to say what's right and what's wrong, even when most of are screaming the other way, I'm naturally leery of any central agency.

I can't vote for any of the option because they don't fit how I see UABB at this time: A potentially disastrous power grab

Right now Bitcoin is in relative infancy, forming such a body gives it disproportionate power and is attractive to certain egocentric types IMO. Doesn't help when they come all ready with all the typical aggrandizing titles.

If he just stuck to helping people in a personal capacity, maybe it might not come across so dubiously. But right now there isn't enough participants to set up a counter weight to keep such a body in check so the rise of one just doesn't sit comfortable with me.

Of course Michael could very well be really earnest and honorable in his intentions, but very often such organisations turn rotten if there's no oversight or counterchecks. Who is to guarantee that one of the later members in charge of one region or another don't have less than noble ideas? As the phrase goes "who watches the watchers?", absolute power corrupts.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

What's harder--Sowing seeds of discontent or mining Bitcoin? I'm leaning towards the former, because the sowing has to take place hourly, if not minutely, whereas you only have to set up a mining rig once (the analogy works provided you don't upgrade).

Woe is upon us if anyone figures out how to convert one of those AI online chat bots into a forum trolling rig, and sets it "mining" on here!

You SOB! How the hell did you know that that's exactly what I had in mind?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

(5) Still waiting for them to ask me to pay X BTC to get a UABB certified logo on my site, and then telling people that you should only trust sites with official UABB certification.

Did you think accreditation was free? Accreditation will cost you 2BTC for the first year, and 1BTC to renew every year after that. Consumers and non accredited business members needn't pay anything of course. This barely covers our cost to take the time to investigate into the businesses if you think about it though.

My objection wasn't the idea of charging of 'accreditation'.  It was the possibility of charging for this, and then disparaging anyone who refused to pay, in effect creating an internet protection racket.

Please note I threw this out as a hypothetical, I"m not actually accusing you of having an evil master plan.

With his policy of public investigations I wouldn't rule out a protection racket at all.

Here you go! Just change the logo.

[spruce]

(3) The photo might be real, but for some reason it looks like a stock photo you'd get from one of those sites that also has customer service people with headsets, and that woman sitting indian-style in front of her laptop with her arms in the air.

Haha. I'm glad you appreciate my poses. I took that picture inside the last college prep school I owned and ran. There are PLENTY of photos, videos and music files of me online if you really want proof I exist. Proving I'm really me though might be a little more difficult. Shall I take a photo with a paper saying "kgo is teh bomb"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matthew_wright/MWICPS

For some reason when I Google "Matthew N. Wright" I get zilch. There's a matthewnwright Twitter account. And >>>"Matthew Wright" Korea<<< brings up stuff.

He looks kinda genuine to me. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

[Xephan]

My objection wasn't the idea of charging of 'accreditation'.  It was the possibility of charging for this, and then disparaging anyone who refused to pay, in effect creating an internet protection racket.

Please note I threw this out as a hypothetical, I"m not actually accusing you of having an evil master plan.

I just saw this and realized/recalled what's probably the reason why I intuitively frown upon UABB... there's this company called Barracuda. They sell a network firewall/spam filter device which blacklists IP addresses if it's detected sending spam/virus via their undisclosed systems/networks.

And they run this website where you can get your IP whitelisted... if you pay them a yearly fee per IP address

Pretty much like "If you're not accredited with us, you're automatically a spammer/scammer/fraudster/etc"

[Phinnaeus Gage]

(5) Still waiting for them to ask me to pay X BTC to get a UABB certified logo on my site, and then telling people that you should only trust sites with official UABB certification.

This is part of my main concern over UABB.

One of the attraction of Bitcoin to me is the decentralized nature. Living in a country where a small handful of people get to say what's right and what's wrong, even when most of are screaming the other way, I'm naturally leery of any central agency.

I can't vote for any of the option because they don't fit how I see UABB at this time: A potentially disastrous power grab

Right now Bitcoin is in relative infancy, forming such a body gives it disproportionate power and is attractive to certain egocentric types IMO. Doesn't help when they come all ready with all the typical aggrandizing titles.

If he just stuck to helping people in a personal capacity, maybe it might not come across so dubiously. But right now there isn't enough participants to set up a counter weight to keep such a body in check so the rise of one just doesn't sit comfortable with me.

Of course Michael could very well be really earnest and honorable in his intentions, but very often such organisations turn rotten if there's no oversight or counterchecks. Who is to guarantee that one of the later members in charge of one region or another don't have less than noble ideas? As the phrase goes "who watches the watchers?", absolute power corrupts.

Thank you kindly, Xephan, for your insight. I believe that any start-up, in regards to Bitcoin, is a power grab. If Matthew didn't start UABB now, someone else would of in the not (is it to or so?) distant future. Should the first Bitcoin eBay type site waited? or the first tattoo (that reminds me, I need to go check her out again--my favorite thread)? or the first restaurant to accept Bitcoin (Damn you Meze Grill! You should of waited till Bitcoin was ready for you. Now look what happened! We have to go into damage control.)? or the first whatever?

[Xephan]

Thank you kindly, Xephan, for your insight. I believe that any start-up, in regards to Bitcoin, is a power grab. If Matthew didn't start UABB now, someone else would of in the not (is it to or so?) distant future. Should the first Bitcoin eBay type site waited? or the first tattoo (that reminds me, I need to go check her out again--my favorite thread)? or the first restaurant to accept Bitcoin (Damn you Meze Grill! You should of waited till Bitcoin was ready for you. Now look what happened! We have to go into damage control.)? or the first whatever?

The key difference here is that all the other start-ups are not based on passing judgment on everybody else.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

(3) The photo might be real, but for some reason it looks like a stock photo you'd get from one of those sites that also has customer service people with headsets, and that woman sitting indian-style in front of her laptop with her arms in the air.

Haha. I'm glad you appreciate my poses. I took that picture inside the last college prep school I owned and ran. There are PLENTY of photos, videos and music files of me online if you really want proof I exist. Proving I'm really me though might be a little more difficult. Shall I take a photo with a paper saying "kgo is teh bomb"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matthew_wright/MWICPS

For some reason when I Google "Matthew N. Wright" I get zilch. There's a matthewnwright Twitter account. And >>>"Matthew Wright" Korea<<< brings up stuff.

He looks kinda genuine to me. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

Say it ain't so, kgo! This throws a monkey wrench into my scheme. It would of only worked if Matthew N. Wright (and NABB) was a farce. But now that you'll shown me this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matthew_wright/MWICPS I now have to see if I can get a refund from Godaddy for the domain name I will no longer need. I had it all figured out to phish my ass off in this naive Bitcoin community pool. My Romanian partners (or is it the Nigerians?) won't be happy campers when they translate read this.

Great find, kgo!

[Phinnaeus Gage]

My objection wasn't the idea of charging of 'accreditation'.  It was the possibility of charging for this, and then disparaging anyone who refused to pay, in effect creating an internet protection racket.

Please note I threw this out as a hypothetical, I"m not actually accusing you of having an evil master plan.

I just saw this and realized/recalled what's probably the reason why I intuitively frown upon UABB... there's this company called Barracuda. They sell a network firewall/spam filter device which blacklists IP addresses if it's detected sending spam/virus via their undisclosed systems/networks.

And they run this website where you can get your IP whitelisted... if you pay them a yearly fee per IP address

Pretty much like "If you're not accredited with us, you're automatically a spammer/scammer/fraudster/etc"

Thank you kindly, Xephan, for your input. Here's the link to Barracuda http://www.barracudacentral.org/ and a link to a YouTube video   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JscYYHHNpc&feature=related

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Thank you kindly, Xephan, for your insight. I believe that any start-up, in regards to Bitcoin, is a power grab. If Matthew didn't start UABB now, someone else would of in the not (is it to or so?) distant future. Should the first Bitcoin eBay type site waited? or the first tattoo (that reminds me, I need to go check her out again--my favorite thread)? or the first restaurant to accept Bitcoin (Damn you Meze Grill! You should of waited till Bitcoin was ready for you. Now look what happened! We have to go into damage control.)? or the first whatever?

The key difference here is that all the other start-ups are not based on passing judgment on everybody else.

Thank you again, Xephan. Allow me to ask a hard question and please don't take it personal. Would you kindly show a post or two where Matthew with NABB passed judgement? I'm not being an ass with that question, for I TRULY would love to see it. Thank you, in advance. Bruno (my read first name).

[Xephan]

Thank you kindly, Xephan, for your input. Here's the link to Barracuda http://www.barracudacentral.org/ and a link to a YouTube video   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JscYYHHNpc&feature=related

and here's a link to how it looks like an email protection racket
http://zacharyozer.blogspot.com/2008/10/worst-engineers-ever.html

[kookiekrak]

Your UABB posts criticize many people's business practices and state that they dont adhere to your UABB guidelines.

look here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=33478.msg418895#msg418895

You also solicited donations to spearhead the investigation into mybitcoins when no one asked you to.

That and you're extremely spammy.

Instead of trying to force UABB into everyones face, if you had let it slowly get adopted, maybe less people would have called it a scam.

[Xephan]

Thank you again, Xephan. Allow me to ask a hard question and please don't take it personal. Would you kindly show a post or two where Matthew with NABB passed judgement? I'm not being an ass with that question, for I TRULY would love to see it. Thank you, in advance. Bruno (my read first name).

That's a trick question since he probably didn't do it in any post. Neither am I, nor the other member who brought up a similar concern, saying he's passing judgment in the forum.

But this http://uabb.org/accreditation.php shows that his "business" model basically sets themselves up as an agency that judges others as "secure", "honest" and "ethical". By implications, if you're not accredited with UABB, you're "unsecured" and/or "dishonest" and/or "unethical".

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Thank you kindly, Xephan, for your input. Here's the link to Barracuda http://www.barracudacentral.org/ and a link to a YouTube video   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JscYYHHNpc&feature=related

and here's a link to how it looks like an email protection racket
http://zacharyozer.blogspot.com/2008/10/worst-engineers-ever.html

Very interested read (yes, I read the entire posts and comments)! I'd welcome anything else you have to offer. Thank you, Xephan.

[bitplane]

(2) It appears to be a one-man operation, which is fine, but he acts like it's a multinational conglomerate with 100's of agents working on his behalf.

It certainly started that way, but now there are 4 participants at the executive level and 6 at the lower management level, and that's just for the UABB alone. The UABCI has already 30 members participating.

[/quote]

Sounds like you have 10 managers and nobody to manage! I hope you're paying the going rate for these grandiose titles, say $500k a year for executive management. You are actually paying people, right? (I mean today, not in X years time)

Here on the Internet we have the most respect for organizations that operate as meritocracies and laugh at hierarchical management structures with nothing holding them up.

Can you show that you're not the gobshite that you appear to be?

[BioMike]

Holding options open.

I guess Matthew wants to do something for the community (and maybe lost quite a bit with MyBitcoin) and this is what he came up with, being a bit inexperienced with this type of communities (he said somewhere that he found it chaotic) he does things that are considered inappropriate and his idea being unwanted (community feels attack on its freedom).

I guess he is a business guy or manager. Most people here have different ways of thinking (not in a negative way, just different and that causes conflicts).

Or, I'm totally wrong. I base my trust on actions, not on talk.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Your UABB posts criticize many people's business practices and state that they dont adhere to your UABB guidelines.

look here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=33478.msg418895#msg418895

You also solicited donations to spearhead the investigation into mybitcoins when no one asked you to.

That and you're extremely spammy.

Instead of trying to force UABB into everyones face, if you had let it slowly get adopted, maybe less people would have called it a scam.

I'll assume you're directly your comment toward Matthew with UABB and not the OP (me, Phinnaeus Gage, Bruno, or whatever my name is this week).

I just read the post you provided: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=33478.msg418895#msg418895 Maybe hypercritical, maybe not. Either way, the advise he provided sounded sound to me. Spearheading donations could of been a no-no. I missed that post. No need to provide it for I'll take your word on it that he did unless shown otherwise. A slower adaptation could have been a wiser choice.

I want to thank you too, kookiekrak for your comments and insight.

[smoothie]

I have been baffled from the very start why anything I am doing could be even remotely constrewed as a scam. I hear the "qualifications" argument, and it hits close to home. I'll work on that one, because I have a passion for my work. I hear the "unprofessional" or "rude" argument. Brought on by the public's own actions, but hey, needs work too! I'm on it!

What I don't understand is how I went from sitting up all night long on a conference call with multiple people in the Bitcoin community going over this idea with them and having them all say "Fucking fantastic, do it!" to almost EVERYONE in the community associating my with the likes of spreadsheet game runners.

Does no one know that I am a good programmer and earn my reputation painfully? Does no one realize I am the one who made BIT-FU, all in Jquery, by hand? Does no one know that I have at least 10 years of business experience-- INTERNATIONALLY? Does no one understand that I'm still virtually new to Bitcoin and am just a caring person who wants to be USEFUL?

Am I taking crazy pills or is EVERYONE completely likeminded and biased from the start against anything that smells like its potentially useful, unless THEY made it??

If the op is even remotely depressed, how the hell do you think it makes me feel? These are all human beings here, who have total control of what they want to think and say, and are choosing to bite at me like I was some kind of a rabid dog, out to ruin Bitcoin for everyone. What in god's name is wrong with this community? I come from a community of developers where when Joe makes a program, everyone says "Good job Joe! Let's work together to make that better!". Here it's like, Joe makes a program and there are 3 responses.

"Fuck you Joe"
"That's never going to succeed"
"Thanks for making that, I really appreciate it, that's why I'm going to steal it and call it my own"

Wow. Just wow. /end rant

In a moment of absolute honesty, once the clock hits midnight, I do get way too vocal and liberal with my communications and should probably refrain from even posting past that hour (it's 1am now for a prime example).

Once again I question your reliability given your constant responses to nonsense. If you are doing what you say you are doing then you don't have time for this type of bullshit and would ignore it and get on with the tons of work you claim to have ahead of you.

Seriously prove us all wrong...

[smoothie]

@Matthew N. Wright
you are fucking annoying! and your posts are spam, they are all over the forum, and i don't even care about reading them anymore.
please if you really want something good to the community, STOP SPAM THE FORUM!

Point taken. Annoyance agreed. Sincerist apologies. It was a completely ill-thought out move on my part that I almost instantly regretted (I'm a spontaneous person and that is why I have such a good imagination for building things, but it REALLY screws me over sometimes too).

I am not at war with anyone here, I am at war with myself to become who I need to be, in order to be useful.

When more people start lending a hand in the forum to help change each other instead of pushing them away, more people like me with actual talents to make things will come in. Until then, I'd say I've done an outstanding job of showing my passion for Bitcoin by even STILL being on this forum at this point

ONE SHOULD NOT PAT ONE'S SELF ON ONE'S BACK. GET BACK TO WORK DUDE!

[Xephan]

I guess he is a business guy or manager. Most people here have different ways of thinking (not in a negative way, just different and that causes conflicts).

Or, I'm totally wrong. I base my trust on actions, not on talk.

He does come across like a PR/business guy with the title dropping. Sounds like the MLM folks I've seen before... "As a Gold level leader, I assure you...". Well, we have said quite a few things so let's see how he responses to them in action, or not.