I was the one who deleted (or rather, moved to the Trashcan) jackg's topic.
The reason I deleted jackg's topic should be obvious to anyone who bothered to read the
rules governing the Mining section, which are plastered at the top of every Mining board.
The relevant rule here is this:
Hardware - This is for dedicated discussion regarding BITCOIN mining hardware ONLY and hardware in development. There should be only one topic per new piece of hardware [emphasis added], preferably started by the creator of the hardware, and they can then provide support for that hardware on that one thread. Where hardware has no manufacturer representative on this forum, the thread can be started by anyone but all discussion should remain in the one thread. If the manufacturer has stared a thread but it is self moderated, then you are free to create your own personal thread to discuss that hardware and avoid the manufacturer's censorship, but discussion of actual support should go in the Mining support subsection.
When jackg posted their topic in Hardware, theymos had already restored all of the previous S9 Hydro-related threads that I had moved to the Trashcan. There were four threads:
this one by Shad0wSmurf,
this one by taserz,
this one by coinbeamer, and
the currently active one by Philopolymath. The new topic that was started by jackg was therefore redundant, and their question should have been posted in Philopolymath's thread instead.
For the record, I disagree with theymos' interpretation of the rules regarding this issue and sidehack's contention that the S9 Hydro is a distinctly new and unique model that warranted its own thread.
-ck's rule as quoted above is unequivocal in its assertion that only one unique topic may be started for a "new piece of hardware." I interpret this as meaning a distinctly new and unique model or make of mining hardware.
The S9 Hydro, in my opinion, does not qualify as a distinctly new and unique model. Here are two reasons why.
Firstly, Bitmain itself clearly did not seek to market the S9 Hydro as a distinctly new and unique model. If they did, they would not have used the S9 moniker to market the S9 Hydro. The fact that they did continue to use the S9 moniker to label the S9 Hydro shows that they intended to market the S9 Hydro as a mid-cycle upgrade that is still part of the S9 series, like how they market the S9i and the S9j as mid-cycle hardware refreshes of the stock S9.
Secondly, and flowing from the first reason, all of the miners that bear the S9 label — including the S9 Hydro — are designed and built upon the same foundation, i.e., Bitmain's 16nm chip.
Others have noticed this too. The differences that sidehack mentions elsewhere seem to me as changes that were made merely to accommodate the new liquid-based cooling system and to perhaps bump up the spec sheet figures for marketing purposes. There is
nothing revolutionary regarding the S9 Hydro to justify calling it an entirely new model that would qualify it for having its own thread.
Nevertheless, since theymos has decided otherwise, and being my superior, I am therefore obliged to respect his decision and to allow Philopolymath's S9 Hydro thread to remain. This does not mean, however, that I will in any way relax my interpretation and enforcement of the forum's rules.
All further discussion regarding the S9 Hydro should therefore be posted in Philopolymath's thread. The only exception here would be requests for technical support, which are to be posted in Mining Support.
