Icopress ' Merit Source Application 🚩

[Billo_]

Last time I checked merit records are public - so what exactly is the issue here? If a merit source were to "abuse" their power it won't take long until the community calls them out for it. Besides that, what's the worst a campaign manager could do by being a merit source? Rank up business accounts for their clients? lol.

I'm also quite confident that any manager here on average read and see more posts than any other user.

It isn't really exclusive to campaign managers but if you've been watching what's going on here over the last few years you'd see that some people took their merit source status and used it to get their subordinates or people who agree with their politics into the default trust network.  They then use their influence to have those who don't agree with their opinions excluded.  This has led to the default trust network becoming nearly useless for real world activity and actually trusting people on this forum with money as I believe it was meant for.  

It's about time, Vod publishes his website presenting your fraud and it will get revealed to everyone.


From all Merit distribution of icopress we can only conclude he will be a good Merit source.

[1714242077]

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[BenCodie]

I must say that I do like that the best you can do in attempt to invalidate my opinion is a set of quotes from August of 2023.

You were a hypocrite who is not to give moral lessons in August 2023, and you are still a hypocrite now, because nothing has happened since then to think that you have stopped being a hypocrite, on the contrary.

One could choose to perceive that isolated situation as hypocrisy (as you do) though I've already explained in the thread about how I do not see it that way, as I believe being open and honest about the fact that casinos thrive on human greed and weakness should not mean that I have to change his opinions just to qualify for a signature campaign, and that others should not be excluded from this opportunity because of discussing this fact.

Since you accuse me of being a hypocrite since then on a constant basis, how about you provide some evidence of that? My best is that you'll either find nothing or post some unrelated garbage, since garbage posting is something is a constant with yourself.

If icopress is made a merit source, you can be very sure that merit distribution will be biased and influenced by icopress' business interests. There is no way that it will not be influenced by their business interests, and it would be naive to think that icopress will take an unbiased approach to merit distribution.

What a way to change your statement from favor of an application to against that application. I don't know what lead you to think that Icopress is no longer fit for a merit source position because to me it seems more like a personal issue rather than a genuine one. As far as I know, Icopress mostly give merits to the good posts only and he's not someone who would favor the ones who are in his best interest.

As a campaign manager he has the right to favor advertisers and deal with them professionally but that doesn't mean that after becoming a merit source he may send merits to the advertisers only so he can please them for his own best interests. That's a totally false statement against a reputed member like Icopress. I highly disagree with you in that regard and I believe that majority of the members will also disagree with you.

That's not what I'm saying. I am saying that a member that favors the interests of advertisers over the interests of the community does not deserve to be a merit source, period.

[FatFork]

Since you accuse me of being a hypocrite since then on a constant basis, how about you provide some evidence of that?

Blatant evidence of your hypocrisy is easily visible in your personal signature area. But, we already have several threads on the Reputation board dedicated to this topic. Perhaps you've simply forgotten about them?  Anyway, reviewing those discussions would be more appropriate than rehashing everything here.  So, I suggest you to stop further discussion on this matter as that would also be off-topic here. Otherwise, the moderators will have some cleaning to do.

[GazetaBitcoin]

Last time I checked merit records are public - so what exactly is the issue here? If a merit source were to "abuse" their power it won't take long until the community calls them out for it. Besides that, what's the worst a campaign manager could do by being a merit source? Rank up business accounts for their clients? lol.

Not more than any campaign participant if we follow this logic... Any source could merit bomb a manager in exchange of a good campaign position/payrate.

I could not agree more with Hhampuz and paid2. And, of course, with all the others which expressed same thoughts. But I think the parts I quoted above are explaining the situation in best possible way.

Other than that, even if a campaign manager (icopress in this case) would actually misuse his Merit Source "powers" (assuming that his application will be approved), then he can also be demoted by theymos. There were many cases in the past, when other Merit Sources lost their status, for various reasons. The process of being "promoted" to Merit source is not irreversible and all Merit sources are aware of this. As a consequence, all which act in good faith are doing their best to preserve their status and use their "powers" in the way they were meant to: to help the forum, to help users deserving to rank up to actually achieve this, to highlight quality posts, to appreciate the ones which are good forum contributors by sending them merits.

I am sure that if icopress' application will be approved he will do a very good job in this new position, same as he did a very good job in anything else he did on this forum for years.

[SamReomo]

That's not what I'm saying. I am saying that a member that favors the interests of advertisers over the interests of the community does not deserve to be a merit source, period.

I must tell you that my intention was not to say that he favors the advertisers by sending them merits or something like that. You misunderstood my words, I said that because a manager need to convince the advertisers to advertise on a forum which isn't a simple thing. The manager has to convince them that they will get good results if they advertise on a forum like this.

Favor in my words is more like helping those advertisers to grow on this forum, and I guess now you got my words. Nothing is wrong in that approach because advertisers are paying huge money in order to get results and a manager tries his/her best to give best results to those advertisers by accepting the active participants of the forum. Favor doesn't mean that he doesn't give importance to the interests of the community.

In fact, I believe Icopress is one of those managers who gives so much importance to the interests of the community. He's not only a good manager but also a very good human being and I believe someone like Icopress will surely be a very good merit source of this forum.

[JollyGood]

Icopress has been a member who has been making valuable contributions to the forum for a long time. Along with his being a campaign manager he is making a big contribution to gambling board as well. For this reason I'm supporting Icopress' application.

In fairness, icopress has been contributing across the forum. Without doubt he is a valuable member, that cannot be denied because his longevity and consistency has demonstrated. The member that has changed his opinion and no longer wants icopress to be merit source has a chequered history of dubious posts and behaviour therefore to give him any attention regarding this matter is probably not warranted.

Quite clearly, he has applied for campaigns managed by icopress and maybe was never selected therefore stopped applying, maybe that is his motivation. Anyway, I think regardless of the number of members that will support (or oppose) his application the final decision is/always was with theymos and if he looks at this thread he will see icopress has almost unanimous support.

In fact, to me the strongest proof that icopress will not misuse merits if given merit source status is that he earns merits at 5 times his activity and does not misuse them now.

This is an interesting statistic and what it means is if anything untoward happened with regards to icopress handing out merits, it would already have been mentioned/alleged in this thread.

[philipma1957]

A campaign manager and a merit source are an inherent conflict of interest.

Not more than any campaign participant if we follow this logic... Any source could merit bomb a manager in exchange of a good campaign position/payrate.

If someone is trustable and own all required qualities to be source,  manager or not is not important IMO. A positive thing with a manager is that we know he won't risk his reputation/business here for some merits donations

Not the same at all..

Any campaign manager could merit 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 people. Do it for a month. Then let them join as heroes getting them higher fees.

It is an inherent conflict of interest.

I do not know the status of the 109 merit sources. I am not sure any are campaign managers.  But it does not change the fact that no campaign manager should ever be a merit source.

As for a signature person giving tons of merits to a campaign manager. It is visible if they do.

The difference is clear.

A campaign manager will know he is giving to 5 accounts that he can add at will in the future. Along with 5 or 10 others that he does not care just to throw you off.

A signature guy can give 50 merits to a campaign manager and ask in a month but it would be obvious  to see they did it as they would be giving to an active person.

While a campaign manager giving to 15 people knowing he will add 5 down the road can hide what he is doing.

If I funded a campaign I would insist that the manager does not give merits to anyone that is not a legend as it would protect me from over paying.

So if Icopress says he will only give merits  to legends his source would be pure.

Same for any other campaign manger.

let me explain this better.


this is a high paying campaign

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5387753.0

'Rules:

➥ Posts in local sections will be taken into account.
➥ Post bursting is not allowed, moreover it is easy to check with ninjastic.space.
➥ Posts that do not carry a semantic load or posts whose content is less than 200 characters will not be paid.
➥ I reserve the right to change the rules and disqualify any post and any participant for any reason.
➥ Excluded boards, (Altcoins, WO & Serious, Sig Threads, Press, Politics, Games, Micro, Off-topic, Mega Threads.).'

So by letting him be a merit source you are giving him the ability jack up 3 or 4  full members to hero.

Then slip them in down the road.


I am not saying he will but I am saying this is an inherent conflict of interest.


I would love to know what campaign managers are merit soruces and look back a year or 2 at the merit history.

[Poker Player]

Since you accuse me of being a hypocrite since then on a constant basis, how about you provide some evidence of that?

Sure, I'm going to get down to providing evidence of what everyone can see, lol.

My best is that you'll either find nothing or post some unrelated garbage, since garbage posting is something is a constant with yourself.

Sure, sure. The fact that you earn merits at 0.64 times your activity despite the walls of text you write and the lessons you pretend to give everyone and you call me a garbage poster when I earn merits at 1.54 times my activity is a big lol as well. Don't you get tired of making a fool of yourself?

Oh, wait, it turns out that you don't earn enough merits in this forum because the forum members have a low IQ, is that it?

 

let me explain this better.


this is a high paying campaign

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5387753.0

...


So by letting him be a merit source you are giving him the ability jack up 3 or 4  full members to hero.

Then slip them in down the road.


I am not saying he will but I am saying this is an inherent conflict of interest.

That's all well and good philipma1957 but what you don't explain is why he hasn't done that already. icopress has earned almost 7000 merits, which is almost 3500 smerits. Look at his post history and tell me a single case that is as you say. It is no more a conflict of interest than the 7,000 merits he has earned. Shall we ban him from using smerits too?

[philipma1957]

Since you accuse me of being a hypocrite since then on a constant basis, how about you provide some evidence of that?

Sure, I'm going to get down to providing evidence of what everyone can see, lol.

My best is that you'll either find nothing or post some unrelated garbage, since garbage posting is something is a constant with yourself.

Sure, sure. The fact that you earn merits at 0.64 times your activity despite the walls of text you write and the lessons you pretend to give everyone and you call me a garbage poster when I earn merits at 1.54 times my activity is a big lol as well. Don't you get tired of making a fool of yourself?

Oh, wait, it turns out that you don't earn enough merits in this forum because the forum members have a low IQ, is that it?

 

let me explain this better.


this is a high paying campaign

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5387753.0

...


So by letting him be a merit source you are giving him the ability jack up 3 or 4  full members to hero.

Then slip them in down the road.


I am not saying he will but I am saying this is an inherent conflict of interest.

That's all well and good philipma1957 but what you don't explain is why he hasn't done that already. icopress has earned almost 7000 merits, which is almost 3500 smerits. Look at his post history and tell me a single case that is as you say. It is no more a conflict of interest than the 7,000 merits he has earned. Shall we ban him from using smerits too?

i won’t say anything nasty.

i will ask this instead : do you have a complete history of every merit he gave out?

and did he give merits to people that were not hero or legendary.?

so:

 a) show me every merit he gave away. since he gave merits.
b) show me every merit he gave to anyone under  hero.
c) if you do this I will then need  to see every one he approved to a better campaign.

if not you simply do not answer my conflict of interest concept.


this is not about Icopress.

this is about all campaigns by all managers.

it is very simple

can I easily see every merit a source campaign based manager gives out?

back to the beginning of every source person that is a manager of campaigns.

If I can I can see if they boosted a person in 2020 or 2021 in preparation for promotion to a well paying campaign.

especially since most campaigns pay shit  at this time due to theymos  banning mixers.

I have been completely transparent about paying back over four thousand dollars to a mixer campaign and will continue to mention this. So that no one will say I hold a grudge against icopress because of this

this is not about icopress. this is about a  conflict of interest issue that hurts bitcointalk.

[philipma1957]

If someone wants to speak up, don't be shy.  

I gave you 50 merits

I do not think any campaign manager should be a merit source.

I do not know of anyway for me  to be more clear on the subject.

Point A) I like you and think you are honest.
Point B) I do not think a campaign manager should be a source as it is a conflict of interest.


Sorry for double post, but it is separate from the one before.

[JollyGood]

Since you accuse me of being a hypocrite since then on a constant basis, how about you provide some evidence of that?

Sure, I'm going to get down to providing evidence of what everyone can see, lol.

I am sure you will have fun with this. By the way, the number of times he applied to join campaigns run by icopress (and the time he used the words please can I join) is laughable when you look at the way he is conducting himself now with a clear anti-icopress agenda.

Something quite clearly is not right with him. Even before he copied and pasted all that nonsense in his thread for the security sub-board, he had an overinflated ego and thought far too much of himself considering he has not really contributed at all to the forum. The levels of hypocrisy shown by him are shocking. The constant barrage of nonsense he spouted including trying to justify why he spouted the nonsense in the first place with all the contradictory messages (related to Whirlwind and gambling) effectively showed the level of hypocrisy he is at.

My best is that you'll either find nothing or post some unrelated garbage, since garbage posting is something is a constant with yourself.

Sure, sure. The fact that you earn merits at 0.64 times your activity despite the walls of text you write and the lessons you pretend to give everyone and you call me a garbage poster when I earn merits at 1.54 times my activity is a big lol as well. Don't you get tired of making a fool of yourself?

Oh, wait, it turns out that you don't earn enough merits in this forum because the forum members have a low IQ, is that it?

 

.. and all of those post he made about his alleged superior intellect therefore the word narcissism seems apt  

[Rikafip]

Any campaign manager could merit 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 people. Do it for a month. Then let them join as heroes getting them higher fees.

What's exactly stopping a manager to pay Sr Member as Hero member (or getting him on a private deal)  if he thinks that member is good and will bring him extra visibility? So why going through that hassle of ranking members up in the first place.

Dunno, I think that you guys are just overthinking things.

[philipma1957]

Any campaign manager could merit 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 people. Do it for a month. Then let them join as heroes getting them higher fees.

What's exactly stopping a manager to pay Sr Member as Hero member (or getting him on a private deal)  if he thinks that member is good and will bring him extra visibility? So why going through that hassle of ranking members up in the first place.

Dunno, I think that you guys are just overthinking things.

Nope it lowers the campaign’s integrity.  

Pretend I want to pay for a campaign.

I want to trust manager x.

First I can’t see his long term merit history.

So I have no idea if he grooms people by hiking them up long ago .

So if you really want to allow any manager to be a merit source you need to have a list of every merit they ever gave.

If I pay a hero 100 a week and he is a hero due to many merits given by the campaign manager I need to be able to see that pretty much with no effort.

the look at merits goes back 120 days.


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=1137579


so basically not just for icopress but for all of us.

so in order for a campaign manager to have a proper check you need his or hers merit history to go back way way way more than 120 days.

thats why I keep saying this is not about icopress it is about all campaign managers.

[Rikafip]

I want to trust manager x.

Then check his trust feedback. 

First I can’t see his long term merit history.

Sure you can. Then again, I really doubt that an average business looking to advertise here cares about manager's merit history or even knows what merit is.  

So if you really want to allow any manager to be a merit source you need to have a list of every merit they ever gave.

There is already at least one active manager who is also a merit source.

[philipma1957]

I want to trust manager x.

Then check his trust feedback. 

First I can’t see his long term merit history.

Sure you can. Then again, I really doubt that an average business looking to advertise here cares about manager's merit history or even knows what merit is.  

So if you really want to allow any manager to be a merit source you need to have a list of every merit they ever gave.

There is already at least one active manager who is also a merit source.

and whom ever he is or she is they should not be a merit source.

[decodx]

I want to trust manager x.

Then check his trust feedback. 

First I can’t see his long term merit history.

Sure you can. Then again, I really doubt that an average business looking to advertise here cares about manager's merit history or even knows what merit is.  

So if you really want to allow any manager to be a merit source you need to have a list of every merit they ever gave.

There is already at least one active manager who is also a merit source.

and whom ever he is or she is they should not be a merit source.

But theymos obviously doesn't think so, so this argument is a mute point in someone's merit source application thread.

As far as I know icopress's merit sharing history has been exemplary so far and there is no particular reason why he shouldn't be a merit source, and I think it is unfair to judge someone based on some speculations about what could happen. Does that mean no one should be a merit source due to potential misuse?

[dkbit98]

Is theymos back to sleeping hibernation mod again?  
His last post was on February 6 and I am sure he is busy with other things in his life, but maybe it's time to check merit source applications again.
We know there is one less merit source now and I think icopress will be a good choice to fill the empty spot.

[philipma1957]

I want to trust manager x.

Then check his trust feedback. 

First I can’t see his long term merit history.

Sure you can. Then again, I really doubt that an average business looking to advertise here cares about manager's merit history or even knows what merit is.  

So if you really want to allow any manager to be a merit source you need to have a list of every merit they ever gave.

There is already at least one active manager who is also a merit source.

and whom ever he is or she is they should not be a merit source.

But theymos obviously doesn't think so, so this argument is a mute point in someone's merit source application thread.

As far as I know icopress's merit sharing history has been exemplary so far and there is no particular reason why he shouldn't be a merit source, and I think it is unfair to judge someone based on some speculations about what could happen. Does that mean no one should be a merit source due to potential misuse?

it means no campaign manager should be a source.

[philipma1957]

Last time I checked merit records are public - so what exactly is the issue here? If a merit source were to "abuse" their power it won't take long until the community calls them out for it. Besides that, what's the worst a campaign manager could do by being a merit source? Rank up business accounts for their clients? lol.

Not more than any campaign participant if we follow this logic... Any source could merit bomb a manager in exchange of a good campaign position/payrate.

I could not agree more with Hhampuz and paid2. And, of course, with all the others which expressed same thoughts. But I think the parts I quoted above are explaining the situation in best possible way.

Other than that, even if a campaign manager (icopress in this case) would actually misuse his Merit Source "powers" (assuming that his application will be approved), then he can also be demoted by theymos. There were many cases in the past, when other Merit Sources lost their status, for various reasons. The process of being "promoted" to Merit source is not irreversible and all Merit sources are aware of this. As a consequence, all which act in good faith are doing their best to preserve their status and use their "powers" in the way they were meant to: to help the forum, to help users deserving to rank up to actually achieve this, to highlight quality posts, to appreciate the ones which are good forum contributors by sending them merits.

I am sure that if icopress' application will be approved he will do a very good job in this new position, same as he did a very good job in anything else he did on this forum for years.

do you know the leading receiver of merits from icopress.

that leader got 256 merits.

number 2 merit reception was only 97
number 3 merit reception was only 82.

sorry for double post on an ipad and hard to merge them.



number
1
2
3


all supported icopress to be a merit source.

its another conflict of interest with zero transparency on their part.



decodex gave me the link showing all of icopress’s merits given.

and just by viewing the first three merit received people there is a lack of transparency and a conflict of interest.

my thanks to decodex for the link. 🔗

[icopress]

In reality, both support and criticism have no effect on who the admin assigns as a merit source. The admin personally told me to create an application for the reason that when he assigns new merit sources, he does not consider users individually, but looks for relevant threads in the meta using keywords.

that leader got 256 merits.

number 2 merit reception was only 97
number 3 merit reception was only 82. [...]

It seems that the difference between first and second place is 159 merits, and one can assume that my favorite author is GazetaBitcoin.

I should probably mention that you also have a favorite author, since the difference between the first and second place of those you sent merits to is 177.

Although in reality you probably should have looked at the other panel which says that I submitted 3267 merit 2180 times, to 471 profiles (not being the merit source). Btw, you sent 8790 merit 4496 times, to 1259 profiles (being a merit source).

To be honest, I have no idea how all these discussions regarding conflicts of interest relate to my appointment. But I am sincerely grateful to everyone who participates in the discussion, regardless of your opinion, since active discussion allows this thread to continuously remain at the top of the meta section.