Ratimov sold his account

[suchmoon]

Has anyone sent a message informing him of this thread or asking him to defend himself? That would be a good starting point, if he declines or whatnot, then we go from there. I'm sure he will decline to comment, but someone should at least inform him so he is aware.

He's fully aware. There is a good chance that the alleged new owner isn't quite as proficient in English, and posting via Google Translate / ChatGPT is cumbersome.

[NotATether]

There has certainly been a change in his approach to giving sMerit. He spent 200 merits in just 32 seconds, on some very old (iconic) posts, and accounts that have not been active in any discussion for a long time. You can't blame him, it's satoshi, laszlo, etc... but I'm still under the impression that this is not what is expected from a merit source.

Sent in the last 120 days
26 November 2023, 12:21:18: 24 to [banned mixer] for Re: ➡️➡️ [ANN] | [banned mixer] | BITCOIN MIXER ⬅️⬅️
23 November 2023, 11:07:18: 15 to izooomrud for (Deleted/Off-limits/Ignored)
15 November 2023, 10:35:33: 50 to laszlo for Pizza for bitcoins?
15 November 2023, 10:35:23: 50 to GameKyuubi for I AM HODLING
15 November 2023, 10:35:14: 50 to Hal for Bitcoin and me (Hal Finney)
15 November 2023, 10:35:01: 50 to satoshi for Welcome to the new Bitcoin forum!
09 November 2023, 09:18:51: 4 to andy_pelevin for (Deleted/Off-limits/Ignored)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=2627711

Talk about turning into Darth Vader!

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

Has anyone sent a message informing him of this thread or asking him to defend himself? That would be a good starting point, if he declines or whatnot, then we go from there. I'm sure he will decline to comment, but someone should at least inform him so he is aware.

He's fully aware. There is a good chance that the alleged new owner isn't quite as proficient in English, and posting via Google Translate / ChatGPT is cumbersome.

He proved himself as a great escape person when there is anything about him which is not in his favour. Someone who will send him a message even can risk their account to be reported to the mod for unsolicited message LOL

[Don Pedro Dinero]

He's fully aware. There is a good chance that the alleged new owner isn't quite as proficient in English, and posting via Google Translate / ChatGPT is cumbersome.

I don't think that's the reason, as Ratimov also used google translator, like more than half the forum nowadays.

It might be noticeable, if Ratimov knew some English and the current owner hardly any, in the corrections to what google translator writes by him before publishing the post, which might sound more natural, but I think it's more because of everything that has been discussed in the thread I don't think the linguistic issue is the most relevant.

[ineedhelpplease]

This thread blew up a lot more than I ever expected tbh. How big was he in the community? It seems like he did a lot of things already and has been here for years too.

[BITCOIN4X]

This thread blew up a lot more than I ever expected tbh. How big was he in the community? It seems like he did a lot of things already and has been here for years too.

That means you have set a low standard for this case. Symmetrick is behind theymos (Administrator Forum) in terms of earn merit. He is one of the famous and phenomenal users, but has also become controversial recently. Symmetrick is also the most generous merit source so far in his service, he is ranked 7th on that large list.

I had my doubts about whether Symmetrick had changed hands, but he didn't respond to any of the community's questions so the suspicions were growing. If Symmetrick is still the same person, then he must have been getting a lot of notifications on his device because I'm sure he must have subscribed to notification bots before.

[LoyceV]

Has anyone sent a message informing him of this thread or asking him to defend himself?

I'm pretty sure he's seen the red tag on his account, which links to this topic.

My conclusion one way or another: Ratimov is gone.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

IF it's true, then we'll see first case of sold account with merit source status.

Man oh man, I'm just starting to read this thread and I see it's already gone quite a number of pages, so I'll probably add to my post here as I learn more.  And yeah, I think this would be the first case of a merit source account changing hands.  Can you imagine how dangerous that would be if it went undiscovered?  Jesus.  I shall continue reading....

Evidence is required for this charge. So far I see the subjective opinion of one user from the locale board #10.0

Lol.  I've thus far read as far as your post and I'm seeing more evidence than I've had in the past to justify tagging other members for selling/buying accounts.  The only other possibility is that Ratimov is pretending to be someone else by misusing the Russian language, but does that make any sense?  Not to me.

merits seem to buy loyalty no matter what.

You know, I never really thought about it but unfortunately you're right.  Rank does as well, as does being on DT.  My gut is telling me it shouldn't be this way for a community based on a shared passion for a form of money that eliminates the need for trust (of a 3rd party) and which ought to be comprised of very skeptical individuals, not ones prone to blindly trusting someone based on their statistics on a discussion forum.

[m2017]

In recent messages talked with me as if we had never communicated before.But we had a lot of disputes and communication. Anyone for whom the native language is Russian will notice changes in the style of writing messages.These are not only my thoughts in Russian local.

Of course, this is not strong evidence, so I created a topic to attract the attention of more experienced users

Over time, having reached a certain level of fame, one might say becoming famous on the forum, people may experience changes in behavior because we all change and nothing remains the same. Views on familiar things, thoughts and attitudes towards everything also change, which can result in changes in the manner of communication, as well as in the social circle. This is the well-known effect of “star fever” - having reached a certain level of heights, people move away from their previous circle of people. I have no idea what happened to Ratimov’s account (I’m not going to justify or blame), but your assumptions alone will not be enough. More substantial evidence is required to confirm the transfer or sale of an account.

[CryptoPravda]

Over time, having reached a certain level of fame, one might say becoming famous on the forum, people may experience changes in behavior because we all change and nothing remains the same. Views on familiar things, thoughts and attitudes towards everything also change, which can result in changes in the manner of communication, as well as in the social circle. This is the well-known effect of “star fever” - having reached a certain level of heights, people move away from their previous circle of people. I have no idea what happened to Ratimov’s account (I’m not going to justify or blame), but your assumptions alone will not be enough. More substantial evidence is required to confirm the transfer or sale of an account.

I think this is even more significant evidence if you do not have enough of my arrguments.
Why would he do all this if he wanted to continue to write and earn on the signatures?

I see he also changed his password and email today...
~
It's interesting that after all this circus he remained in the same campaign

Now all that's left is changing the payment address for his signature campaign

So let's make a sum-up of recent events:

- this topic exposes all Ratimov / Symmetrick's shenanigans from past years
- many DT and non-DT users distrust him or stop trusting him and, eventually, he is kicked out of DT and his DT strength goes from +13 to -9
- he starts a mass purge of his old posts and topics, possibly some with plagiarism evidence, involving also in his actions the 2 Russian mods which he fools into becoming his garbage men, until theymos puts a stop to this (it was too late anyway)
- he deletes all his left feedbacks, retracts all his support for flags and wipes his Trust list
- stops posting in international sections and resumes only to Russian local board
- stops earning merits with lightning speed; stops sending merits with lightning speed (if you check his merit activity you can see that lately he sent some merits at intervals of ~one week)
- changes his name
- changes his email and password.

What do all these seem like?

Add to all these that meanwhile he also was demoted from Merit Source position and cancels a 0.0435 BTC sponsorship with a few days before he is supposed to make the payment (after benefiting one year from the reputation and popularity gained by saying that he is the sponsor of that contest).

Then, for "clearing" the account even more, I'd also apply for a name change. This did not depend only on him, but theymos was generous so we can say this step was also Checked..

I'd eliminate any negative feedbacks I left in the past, thus there would be low chances for other rants to appear to my "new" account and jeopardize a possible deal with a customer, which may not be interested om an account involved in accusations, beefs with other users etc. Checked.

I'd be mostly inactive for avoiding other conflicts or, if I needed to be a bit active I'd remain inside my local board, where less people would see what I'm doing. Checked.

I'd cancel any sponsorship, as no potential client for my account would be interested in buying the account with a debt of 0.0435 BTC. Checked.

I'd change my username and password. Checked.

Eventually, I'd also enroll in a better paying campaign, thus the account would look even more appealing for being bought. Checked.

What's there more to say? Ratimov Symmetrick checked all the above criteria, which are common sense for someone trying to obtain a very good price for his account. Let's not forget, this not an ordinary Legendary account, but fourth most merited account on the forum. (Of course, a client would never be informed that those merits were made in thousands by copy-paste and plagiarism, but that's another discussion.)

When changing the owner, all these actions are logical.

[Lucius]

Has anyone sent a message informing him of this thread or asking him to defend himself?

I'm pretty sure he's seen the red tag on his account, which links to this topic.
My conclusion one way or another: Ratimov is gone.

From everything I've read on this topic, I can only say that I'm surprised that everyone is still dealing with Ratimov or whatever it's called today, while I'm absolutely sure that the person behind that account has at least a few more high-ranking accounts on this forum and that topics like this actually benefit him much more than they harm him.

I also do not doubt that the same person is still behind that account, but considering all the procedures and actions he did to destroy that account, this alleged sale is only the last in a series of successful deceptions.

While we here are wondering whether his account is in someone else's hands or not, I believe that he is proud of having deceived the majority once again - in other words, he is just continuing what he has been doing since the first day - and as I can see, people still have great sympathy for him - merits seem to buy loyalty no matter what.

[m2017]

From everything I've read on this topic, I can only say that I'm surprised that everyone is still dealing with Ratimov or whatever it's called today, while I'm absolutely sure that the person behind that account has at least a few more high-ranking accounts on this forum and that topics like this actually benefit him much more than they harm him.

I also do not doubt that the same person is still behind that account, but considering all the procedures and actions he did to destroy that account, this alleged sale is only the last in a series of successful deceptions.

While we here are wondering whether his account is in someone else's hands or not, I believe that he is proud of having deceived the majority once again - in other words, he is just continuing what he has been doing since the first day - and as I can see, people still have great sympathy for him - merits seem to buy loyalty no matter what.

You write as if Ratimov is a user who fooled the entire forum and all his steps are thought out in advance, not allowing others to predict all his actions. Doesn't his power seem overrated?

I have my doubts about the destruction of an account that had quite an impressive reputation and influence on the forum. It seems to me that this does not look like a calculated move, but most likely an unfortunate accident that led to such an outcome. Black PR, of course, is also PR, but how can you monetize it when your entire reputation is ruined? A clean account would bring him more benefit than a dirty one, or am I misunderstanding something.

Well, he definitely got his share of hype, but what next? It was the newcomers who got most of the merits. Sympathy is on one side of the scale, on the other hand, many people experience antipathy, and from no less visible and active forum participants, that is, old-timers of the forum.  In my opinion, in which direction the advantage is obvious.

I think this is even more significant evidence if you do not have enough of my arrguments.
Why would he do all this if he wanted to continue to write and earn on the signatures?

Only he himself can answer this question. Have you tried asking him about this?

[JollyGood]

This thread blew up a lot more than I ever expected tbh. How big was he in the community? It seems like he did a lot of things already and has been here for years too.

Your is not the only account, there have been several others new over the past 5-6 months that have behaved suspiciously.

You know far too much about this forum considering your "ineedhelpplease" account was created in October 2023. Having said that, whenever you want you ask questions in an attempt to demonstrate you are a newbie you do and when you decide to post in-depth you do. How many accounts do you have here?

Has anyone sent a message informing him of this thread or asking him to defend himself?

I'm pretty sure he's seen the red tag on his account, which links to this topic.

My conclusion one way or another: Ratimov is gone.

I did not check post history or posting styles (and most of his posts are in Russian language) since the account-selling allegations but from what others are stating it seems the account has changed hands. If that is true, I find it strange he (or any other member with merit source) would sell their account.

[Lucius]

You write as if Ratimov is a user who fooled the entire forum and all his steps are thought out in advance, not allowing others to predict all his actions. Doesn't his power seem overrated?
~snip~

I have my own opinion, which does not mean that I am right - but I already wrote before that Ratimov is the product of the strongest local board on the forum, that he managed to progress for years regardless of his methods, to which the majority turned a blind eye and showered him with merits - and today those same people are attacking him from all angles...

He would still be in his position today if it wasn't for the determination of one member who rolled the avalanche that buried Ratimov, but he is now a completely meaningless story because, as I already said, I'm sure there are a lot of Ratimov alts who will continue on his path, of course, much more carefully than he did.

[GazetaBitcoin]

You write as if Ratimov is a user who fooled the entire forum

He actually did fool the entire forum. Have you read this topic?

He would still be in his position today if it wasn't for the determination of one member who rolled the avalanche that buried Ratimov

If you talk about me, I just tried to put in order all his actions from the past years, in a coherent and thorough way, unlike the previous topics at his address, which looked more like rants and they were posted by alt accounts (and, as a consequence, were ignored by many forum users, although they also spoke the truth about him).

[CryptoPravda]

Only he himself can answer this question. Have you tried asking him about this?

I asked him directly in the Russian locale. Why did he delete all the topics and why not explain everything. In response I received a bunch of curse words. His behavior is inadequate. And it does not correspond to the status of his account.

[ineedhelpplease]

This thread blew up a lot more than I ever expected tbh. How big was he in the community? It seems like he did a lot of things already and has been here for years too.

Your is not the only account, there have been several others new over the past 5-6 months that have behaved suspiciously.

You know far too much about this forum considering your "ineedhelpplease" account was created in October 2023. Having said that, whenever you want you ask questions in an attempt to demonstrate you are a newbie you do and when you decide to post in-depth you do. How many accounts do you have here?

Has anyone sent a message informing him of this thread or asking him to defend himself?

I'm pretty sure he's seen the red tag on his account, which links to this topic.

My conclusion one way or another: Ratimov is gone.

I did not check post history or posting styles (and most of his posts are in Russian language) since the account-selling allegations but from what others are stating it seems the account has changed hands. If that is true, I find it strange he (or any other member with merit source) would sell their account.

I don’t know too much about this forum I’m still learning. I don’t even know what “DT” stands for yet for example and until yesterday I thought making alts wasn’t allowed, thought the forum bans scammers, thought the mods did IP checks frequently, etc.
I’m confused by in depth too, show a post please. And I don’t need to show that im a newbie either when my post count and merit are literally small.

I started posting here because well this is literally all that I post on. Rollbits admin Rollbit Razer basically fucked me out of around $7k and I discovered this forum through searching for bad rollbit experiences and reviews. and I want to try and make that money back too

[Saint-loup]

He withdrawn his merit source role and he out from high paid campaign, if he want to sell his account, the two things I mentioned above would increase his account value. For me it doesn't make sense he sell his account with the current condition when he could make more.

What if he transferred the ownership of private keys too?  

There's always any possibility, but talking about selling his wallet is too far IMO. That will affect the whole thing as sign a message is a solid proof to prove ownership or legitimacy.

Sorry but I think you are very optimistic and maybe a little bit unworldly if you think people care about that. This is not a religious principle, they don't commit a sin by doing that, so I don't think what you perceive as too immoral to be done is shared by other people. In addition a private key has never been an indisputable proof of identity or ownership, because it can be lost, stolen or given. Even for PGP there is a web of trust scheme, in order to address that and other cryptographic systems use other models such as central authorities (PKI) in order to deliver authenticity certificates.

[Lucius]

He would still be in his position today if it wasn't for the determination of one member who rolled the avalanche that buried Ratimov

If you talk about me, I just tried to put in order all his actions from the past years, in a coherent and thorough way, unlike the previous topics at his address, which looked more like rants and they were posted by alt accounts (and, as a consequence, were ignored by many forum users, although they also spoke the truth about him).

Of course, who else would I talk about considering that none of the "influential" members of the forum did anything similar all those years because they thought it was not worth fighting Ratimov and those who protected him. A person who built his reputation by covert plagiarism not only that he was not punished for it, but he was also rewarded with merit source status, which only strengthened his position even more.

That says enough that those at the top were always by his side, and even when you cornered him, we saw that he had a special status when it came to deleting everything that could be deleted, even completely unjustified name change. To me, this whole thing seems much bigger than exposing one member of the forum, because I will just repeat that Ratimov is not so much a problem as the problem is actually the system that created him and protected it all these years.

[digaran]

Do you guys wanna know why nobody tagged him before? Even after canceling the sponsorship? and why there is now the accusation of account sale? Because he was still a merit source, so, after they realized he is no longer a source, they grew a pair, I mean what a loser PP is, to bully someone with no power. They know he is in a weak state, and won't try to retaliate, that's why they tagged him, and I bet in the future he will get more tags.

This whole thing was between him and GB, if GB had him tagged, you couldn't argue much, but a ring kisser doing it? This is pathetic even for a lowlife.