BitcoinTalk Ads income, who get them? Why?

[KaozTiposta]

We know Bitcointalk is earning a few ten btc/month.
I wonder for a while, that income going to whom pocket? And why?

[1714728781]

1714728781

[1714728781]

1714728781

[1714728781]

1714728781

[hilariousandco]

It all goes to satoshi to fund his drug habbit and Lamboghini collection.

The forum sells ad space in the area beneath the first post of every topic page. About 25% of ad income goes to the forum moderators as thanks for all of their work. (There are many moderators, so each moderator gets only a small amount -- moderators should be seen as volunteers, not employees.) The rest is stored in the forum's treasury (verifiably), where it sits until the forum needs it.

[Vod]

It all goes to satoshi to fund his drug habbit and Lamboghini collection.

Well, 15% goes to paying off shills like me.   

[HELP.org]

The people involved in this forum earn money by running scam ads designed to defraud newcomers to Bitcoin.  Michael Marquardt (Theymos) gets the money and apparently pays some of the moderators.  However, they have several $million due to the appreciation of Bitcoin and the donations made from the early days.  I believe he stated that the funds are being saved in case they have legal expenses due to all the stuff they do which is highly questionable from a legal standpoint.

[KaozTiposta]

The people involved in this forum earn money by running scam ads designed to defraud newcomers to Bitcoin.  Michael Marquardt (Theymos) gets the money and apparently pays some of the moderators.  However, they have several $million due to the appreciation of Bitcoin and the donations made from the early days.  I believe he stated that the funds are being saved in case they have legal expenses due to all the stuff they do which is highly questionable from a legal standpoint.

I don't think few million $ saves them when the govt caught them.

[BIGbangTheory]

The people involved in this forum earn money by running scam ads designed to defraud newcomers to Bitcoin.  Michael Marquardt (Theymos) gets the money and apparently pays some of the moderators.  However, they have several $million due to the appreciation of Bitcoin and the donations made from the early days.  I believe he stated that the funds are being saved in case they have legal expenses due to all the stuff they do which is highly questionable from a legal standpoint.

Why should it be up to the forum to determine which ads are for scams and which ones are legit? I can guarantee you that there was not conclusive evidence of most scams that were executed on here prior to the scam being brought to light. There is also likely some evidence of legit businesses of being scams prior to them earning a reputation.

I get the feeling that you want the forum to have a higher standard as to what they will accept as advertisers so the price to advertise will go down so you can advertise your own business

[HELP.org]

The people involved in this forum earn money by running scam ads designed to defraud newcomers to Bitcoin.  Michael Marquardt (Theymos) gets the money and apparently pays some of the moderators.  However, they have several $million due to the appreciation of Bitcoin and the donations made from the early days.  I believe he stated that the funds are being saved in case they have legal expenses due to all the stuff they do which is highly questionable from a legal standpoint.

Why should it be up to the forum to determine which ads are for scams and which ones are legit? I can guarantee you that there was not conclusive evidence of most scams that were executed on here prior to the scam being brought to light. There is also likely some evidence of legit businesses of being scams prior to them earning a reputation.

I get the feeling that you want the forum to have a higher standard as to what they will accept as advertisers so the price to advertise will go down so you can advertise your own business

It is a matter of degree of what knowledge the web site has.  If you run a bunch of ads and one turns out to be a scam a web site would not be liable if they did not have knowledge beforehand.  If the web site knew the ads were designed to scam people and they went ahead and worked with the advertiser and ran the ads anyway then they are liable.  Often there is grey area which is why normal businesses set some sort of standard.

I don't generally buy advertising (with a few exceptions) and I would never send these guys any funds.  I also would not want to be associated with the ads running here.  In fact I won't run ads for any of the Bitcoin advertising services I have seen on web sites I operate because all the ones I had tried display highly questionable ads.  I recently tried one and the first ad that showed up was some kind of "Litecoin pharmacy" and I immediately stopped serving the ads.

[grue]

The people involved in this forum earn money by running scam ads designed to defraud newcomers to Bitcoin.  Michael Marquardt (Theymos) gets the money and apparently pays some of the moderators.

It should be noted that most of the money is not controlled by theymos, and he pays himself less than most global moderators.

[Cyrus]

I don't generally buy advertising (with a few exceptions) and I would never send these guys any funds.  I also would not want to be associated with the ads running here.

If you dislike bitcointalk, why come here at all?

[HELP.org]

I don't generally buy advertising (with a few exceptions) and I would never send these guys any funds.  I also would not want to be associated with the ads running here.

If you dislike bitcointalk, why come here at all?

Because much of the important information is posted here.  I think the developers and the Foundation should find a new place to post information and announcements.  The Foundation tries to distance themselves from this site in their discussion board they refer users here in the Bitcoin Core software.  Of course not all the developers are with the Foundation so you never really know where important stuff will be posted.  Even if I didn't use the site many new users come here and that causes a problem for Bitcoin as a whole.  Thousands of complaints and FTC action and fake banks that get hacked all over the news is not a good thing.  But, yes, many people have told me they stopped using this site because you have to sift through large amounts of useless posts to get to the important stuff. 

[BIGbangTheory]

The people involved in this forum earn money by running scam ads designed to defraud newcomers to Bitcoin.  Michael Marquardt (Theymos) gets the money and apparently pays some of the moderators.  However, they have several $million due to the appreciation of Bitcoin and the donations made from the early days.  I believe he stated that the funds are being saved in case they have legal expenses due to all the stuff they do which is highly questionable from a legal standpoint.

Why should it be up to the forum to determine which ads are for scams and which ones are legit? I can guarantee you that there was not conclusive evidence of most scams that were executed on here prior to the scam being brought to light. There is also likely some evidence of legit businesses of being scams prior to them earning a reputation.

I get the feeling that you want the forum to have a higher standard as to what they will accept as advertisers so the price to advertise will go down so you can advertise your own business

It is a matter of degree of what knowledge the web site has.  If you run a bunch of ads and one turns out to be a scam a web site would not be liable if they did not have knowledge beforehand.  If the web site knew the ads were designed to scam people and they went ahead and worked with the advertiser and ran the ads anyway then they are liable.  Often there is grey area which is why normal businesses set some sort of standard.

I don't generally buy advertising (with a few exceptions) and I would never send these guys any funds.  I also would not want to be associated with the ads running here.  In fact I won't run ads for any of the Bitcoin advertising services I have seen on web sites I operate because all the ones I had tried display highly questionable ads.  I recently tried one and the first ad that showed up was some kind of "Litecoin pharmacy" and I immediately stopped serving the ads.

Do you have any actual evidence of this? You have implied and outright accused theymos several times of knowingly accepted money from people who were planning to scam however you have shown zero evidence that he knew of their intentions, nor have you shown any proof that conclusive evidence was even available prior to the scam taking place.

EDIT: if your accusations are true then it would be important for the community to know the truth about his dealings so the community can act accordingly. If you are unwilling (unable) to provide proof then you are just spreading FUD and lies around

[BitCoinDream]

I don't generally buy advertising (with a few exceptions) and I would never send these guys any funds.  I also would not want to be associated with the ads running here.

If you dislike bitcointalk, why come here at all?

Because much of the important information is posted here.  I think the developers and the Foundation should find a new place to post information and announcements.  The Foundation tries to distance themselves from this site in their discussion board they refer users here in the Bitcoin Core software.  Of course not all the developers are with the Foundation so you never really know where important stuff will be posted.  Even if I didn't use the site many new users come here and that causes a problem for Bitcoin as a whole.  Thousands of complaints and FTC action and fake banks that get hacked all over the news is not a good thing.  But, yes, many people have told me they stopped using this site because you have to sift through large amounts of useless posts to get to the important stuff. 

Your foundation already have a discussion board here => https://bitcoinfoundation.org/forum/

If BitcoinTalk is so bad and U r so bored to read all the craps we post, why dont u find peace there ?

p.s. Some people from centralized society will never be able to cope up to the decentralized chaos. Their life is chained.

[HELP.org]

The people involved in this forum earn money by running scam ads designed to defraud newcomers to Bitcoin.  Michael Marquardt (Theymos) gets the money and apparently pays some of the moderators.  However, they have several $million due to the appreciation of Bitcoin and the donations made from the early days.  I believe he stated that the funds are being saved in case they have legal expenses due to all the stuff they do which is highly questionable from a legal standpoint.

Why should it be up to the forum to determine which ads are for scams and which ones are legit? I can guarantee you that there was not conclusive evidence of most scams that were executed on here prior to the scam being brought to light. There is also likely some evidence of legit businesses of being scams prior to them earning a reputation.

I get the feeling that you want the forum to have a higher standard as to what they will accept as advertisers so the price to advertise will go down so you can advertise your own business

It is a matter of degree of what knowledge the web site has.  If you run a bunch of ads and one turns out to be a scam a web site would not be liable if they did not have knowledge beforehand.  If the web site knew the ads were designed to scam people and they went ahead and worked with the advertiser and ran the ads anyway then they are liable.  Often there is grey area which is why normal businesses set some sort of standard.

I don't generally buy advertising (with a few exceptions) and I would never send these guys any funds.  I also would not want to be associated with the ads running here.  In fact I won't run ads for any of the Bitcoin advertising services I have seen on web sites I operate because all the ones I had tried display highly questionable ads.  I recently tried one and the first ad that showed up was some kind of "Litecoin pharmacy" and I immediately stopped serving the ads.

Do you have any actual evidence of this? You have implied and outright accused theymos several times of knowingly accepted money from people who were planning to scam however you have shown zero evidence that he knew of their intentions, nor have you shown any proof that conclusive evidence was even available prior to the scam taking place.

EDIT: if your accusations are true then it would be important for the community to know the truth about his dealings so the community can act accordingly. If you are unwilling (unable) to provide proof then you are just spreading FUD and lies around

The FTC is collecting the proof as part of their enforcement action.  The information and complaints are all on this forum and on reddit.  What do you want to sit here and provide hundreds links because you want to pretend you don't know what happened?  Anyone following this forum over that time period saw what was happening.  It is true at first they would not know at first but after it went on for many months any reasonable business would have taken down the ads.  they put up some kind of stupid disclaimer instead.  Even if they didn't know at first they now know and they should return the money since they now know much if it was stolen. 

This is the same kind of corruption you see with entities like HSBC.  It is funny how the people here will make excuses for this forum while making all kinds of accusations of fraud with the traditional banking system.  You don't see people here trying to defend HSBC and demanding "proof."  This is big problem with Bitcoin.  People blindly support businesses because they are involved with Bitcoin.  I had similar complaints about Mt. Gox last year and the people like you dismissed it and look what happened.

Possible the proof you want will be collected by FinCEN concerning the fake bank (inputs.io/Coinlenders) that Theymos conspired to promote.  Maybe the FTC will expand their action to include all the money s[pent on ads here, maybe the IRS will look into whether taxes were paid on this business, and maybe the SEC will look into the fake companies Theymos prompted with the GLBSE thing. 

If some of the authorities, such as FinCEN for theymos

[HELP.org]

I don't generally buy advertising (with a few exceptions) and I would never send these guys any funds.  I also would not want to be associated with the ads running here.

If you dislike bitcointalk, why come here at all?

Because much of the important information is posted here.  I think the developers and the Foundation should find a new place to post information and announcements.  The Foundation tries to distance themselves from this site in their discussion board they refer users here in the Bitcoin Core software.  Of course not all the developers are with the Foundation so you never really know where important stuff will be posted.  Even if I didn't use the site many new users come here and that causes a problem for Bitcoin as a whole.  Thousands of complaints and FTC action and fake banks that get hacked all over the news is not a good thing.  But, yes, many people have told me they stopped using this site because you have to sift through large amounts of useless posts to get to the important stuff. 

Your foundation already have a discussion board here => https://bitcoinfoundation.org/forum/

If BitcoinTalk is so bad and U r so bored to read all the craps we post, why dont u find peace there ?

p.s. Some people from centralized society will never be able to cope up to the decentralized chaos. Their life is chained.

You have not been following, I am not a member of the Foundation because there are too many people like Theymos involved.  I would not want to be associated with those people. 

Further, this forum is not decentralized and it is not "chaos."  The only thing that is decentralized in Bitcoin is the consensus of the ledger and that is done by mining.  People who go around calling everything "decentralized" surrounding Bitcoin do not understand what it means.  This is also not "chaos," it is stupidity.   You are correct that many people are tied to centralization which is why so many Bitcoiners filed complaints with various centralized authorities such as the FTC and SEC over BFL, pirateat40, Mt. Gox, etc.

[BTCfan668]

The people involved in this forum earn money by running scam ads designed to defraud newcomers to Bitcoin.  Michael Marquardt (Theymos) gets the money and apparently pays some of the moderators.  However, they have several $million due to the appreciation of Bitcoin and the donations made from the early days.  I believe he stated that the funds are being saved in case they have legal expenses due to all the stuff they do which is highly questionable from a legal standpoint.

Why should it be up to the forum to determine which ads are for scams and which ones are legit? I can guarantee you that there was not conclusive evidence of most scams that were executed on here prior to the scam being brought to light. There is also likely some evidence of legit businesses of being scams prior to them earning a reputation.

I get the feeling that you want the forum to have a higher standard as to what they will accept as advertisers so the price to advertise will go down so you can advertise your own business

It is a matter of degree of what knowledge the web site has.  If you run a bunch of ads and one turns out to be a scam a web site would not be liable if they did not have knowledge beforehand.  If the web site knew the ads were designed to scam people and they went ahead and worked with the advertiser and ran the ads anyway then they are liable.  Often there is grey area which is why normal businesses set some sort of standard.

I don't generally buy advertising (with a few exceptions) and I would never send these guys any funds.  I also would not want to be associated with the ads running here.  In fact I won't run ads for any of the Bitcoin advertising services I have seen on web sites I operate because all the ones I had tried display highly questionable ads.  I recently tried one and the first ad that showed up was some kind of "Litecoin pharmacy" and I immediately stopped serving the ads.

Do you have any actual evidence of this? You have implied and outright accused theymos several times of knowingly accepted money from people who were planning to scam however you have shown zero evidence that he knew of their intentions, nor have you shown any proof that conclusive evidence was even available prior to the scam taking place.

EDIT: if your accusations are true then it would be important for the community to know the truth about his dealings so the community can act accordingly. If you are unwilling (unable) to provide proof then you are just spreading FUD and lies around

The FTC is collecting the proof as part of their enforcement action.  The information and complaints are all on this forum and on reddit.  What do you want to sit here and provide hundreds links because you want to pretend you don't know what happened?  Anyone following this forum over that time period saw what was happening.  It is true at first they would not know at first but after it went on for many months any reasonable business would have taken down the ads.  they put up some kind of stupid disclaimer instead.  Even if they didn't know at first they now know and they should return the money since they now know much if it was stolen. 

This is the same kind of corruption you see with entities like HSBC.  It is funny how the people here will make excuses for this forum while making all kinds of accusations of fraud with the traditional banking system.  You don't see people here trying to defend HSBC and demanding "proof."  This is big problem with Bitcoin.  People blindly support businesses because they are involved with Bitcoin.  I had similar complaints about Mt. Gox last year and the people like you dismissed it and look what happened.

Possible the proof you want will be collected by FinCEN concerning the fake bank (inputs.io/Coinlenders) that Theymos conspired to promote.  Maybe the FTC will expand their action to include all the money s[pent on ads here, maybe the IRS will look into whether taxes were paid on this business, and maybe the SEC will look into the fake companies Theymos prompted with the GLBSE thing. 

If some of the authorities, such as FinCEN for theymos

Your forgot to cite a source.

Neither this statement nor yourself will carry any kind of credibility until you can give a source.

I call this nothing more then FUD

[HELP.org]

Your forgot to cite a source.

Neither this statement nor yourself will carry any kind of credibility until you can give a source.

I call this nothing more then FUD

Bitcointalk.org and Reddit.  Use Google.  There will be hundreds of threads dating back a couple of years.

[grue]

Your forgot to cite a source.

Neither this statement nor yourself will carry any kind of credibility until you can give a source.

I call this nothing more then FUD

Bitcointalk.org and Reddit.  Use Google.  There will be hundreds of threads dating back a couple of years.

sorry, it doesn't work that way. YOU have to provide the source

[BTCfan668]

Your forgot to cite a source.

Neither this statement nor yourself will carry any kind of credibility until you can give a source.

I call this nothing more then FUD

Bitcointalk.org and Reddit.  Use Google.  There will be hundreds of threads dating back a couple of years.

sorry, it doesn't work that way. YOU have to provide the source

If there are "hundreds" of threads then why are you not able to post one link? Your claims are much too vague to use google to "confirm" what you are claiming.

[HELP.org]

Your forgot to cite a source.

Neither this statement nor yourself will carry any kind of credibility until you can give a source.

I call this nothing more then FUD

Bitcointalk.org and Reddit.  Use Google.  There will be hundreds of threads dating back a couple of years.

sorry, it doesn't work that way. YOU have to provide the source

Some of the people who are new maybe have an excuse to be a fanboy for this form but you have been around a long time so you know full well what has happened.  If you now claim you don't know what is going on then you are a scammer.  Here are few examples of the thousands of threads.  I started asking Bitcointalk to stop running the BFL ads more than 18 months ago.  Even if they didn't know it for sure it was scam back then everybody knows how so the money should be returned.  It seems everybody wants to make excuses so they can keep the stolen money.

This thread was from June 2013 about the BFL ads
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=224257.0

This is the fallout from theymos being involved in a phony investment scheme.  if you read through all this stuff you can see how delusional the people involved are.  I actually ended up buying bitcoin.me from that MPO-E guy (read his home page, what a nut).  It took almost 2 months to complete a deal that usually takes 2 days.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=115669.0

here is stuff about how theymos and TradeFortress promoted a fake bank that was "hacked"
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=326879.0


These are just 3 examples.  While a few people who commented are maybe new and didn't know about this stuff people like grue know all about it.  The scammers running Bitcointalk do the same thing as BFL staff.  They ridicule people who make complaints and then try to act like they don't know what is happening.  These people are scammers like you find in the traditional banking system except they are not as intelligent.

[HELP.org]

Here is grue promoting BFL.  As a "global moderator" here he probably got some of the stolen money and he probably doesn't want to give it back.  Give the money back grue.  One guy I met who was ripped off by BFL is disabled and he ran a Bitcoin meetup group.  I had asked Theymos and his gang to refund that guy and they won't answer.  People like grue and theymos are perfectly fine with ripping off Bitcoiners in wheelchairs. 

https://bitcointa.lk/threads/when-will-butterfly-labs-bfl-run-out-of-money.108680/page-2

Give the money back grue ...