I would like to up this tread again since OP was last active: October 01, 2018 and I don't think we need create another thread. Just few point I want to highlight. I don't know reason behind account sale why is it allowed by forum. Since there is few argument with DT and reputed members I would like to hear from admin or mod about account sale. If account sale would not ban officially then is it right to tag account seller or buyer ? If not then there should be official instruction that account seller or buyer should not tag. Or just ban account sale officially so that no one will able to do it on forum inside. Because after got tag peoples attack DT members or who caught them. And they are legal to attack since they haven't broke any forum rules.
From OP poll most of user don't like account trade. I believe Most of reputed users never like it. So admin couldn't reconsider this matter?
Theymos probably won't change his mind on the issue, but he usually lets the community decide on what is and what isn't trustworthy behaviour and people are free to leave feedback for whatever they think is scammy behaviour. I think the official reasoning why we allow it is that we can't stop it or enforce it efficiently therefore it's allowed. I think in the past theymos has said he doesn't mind or thinks it's okay if people can make money off their old account or something and I've gone through a few opinions on account sales. When I first came here I was against them and was very surprised that they were allowed. Then I kind of warmed to it and thought that it wasn't that bad of an idea or big of a deal and was just another way people could make money here. But then over the years things got exponentially worse with sig spam and the account selling market became more shady and spammy. Accounts became big business and people were farming them in the worst possible ways by shitposting and botting and then of course because accounts had great value hackings became rife. Now I just think they cause more hassle than they're worth and contribute to the degradation of the forum and the majority of people selling them are just scammers who don't even have accounts for sale in the first place. The rest are usually either just spammers or hackers. With the merit system it's going to be very very hard to farm high ranked accounts now but I think lower ranked like Junior and Member will still be done as it's not that hard to get 1/10 merit respectively. Personally, I think if we're to continue to allow them then we should also just add more donator ranks like Silver and Gold Member as that would essentially kill the account market in the process as people would much rather buy the benefits of the ranks from the forum rather than some shady black market where nine times out of ten they're just going to be scammed.
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There's one thing I don't see anybody talking about here. I don't think it's very practical to ban selling accounts. How could you practically apply a ban like that? I mean, you can see if the quality of posts completely changes at one point of time and the person starts spamming. If they already have the status they want, they may not really post very much at all any more. I think it's also a good point, that if it would be banned, it could drive prices up more, like illegal drugs. You have to keep in mind, the original account owners put in a lot of work and effort to get their rank up. If they decide they want to move on in their life, maybe their efforts should be worth something. Then if the new account owner does stupid things, they'll just lose their whole investment. They'll get what they deserve.
Well you, an account farmer, would say this. How many accounts are you farming? How many of your accounts have you had banned now? Which ones of these are yours that I've noticed posting in the exact same threads as you:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/zaynnazy-2247852 Zayn_Nazy June 30, 2018
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/willielinder-2280178 Willie_Linder July 14, 2018
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/katherinpanini-2279012 katherin_panini July 13, 2018
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/michaelcox-2271482 Michael_Cox July 10, 2018
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/jamescline-2280138 James_Cline July 14, 2018
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/sherwoodarcher-2272791 Sherwood_Archer July 11, 2018
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/aidandavis-2271537 Aidan_Davis July 10, 2018Besides, you stop it the same way we don't allow users to sell weapons or post ref links here. If they list an account for sale it gets removed or they get banned. As ThePharmacist said, it's not rocket science.
Oh, and this farmer above has currently reactivated and further proof that they're the same is they started waking up at the same time after a period of absence:
I thought that these accounts had been abandoned but I saw one today that had reactivated and started posting again:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/jamescline-2280138 James_Cline July 14, 2018
Last post was on August 12, 2018 then starts again on October 08, 2018. It's a similar story with all the others. Stop posting in August and either reappear recently or have yet to be active again.
The first one I spotted (Aidan_Davis) has been inactive since August 20, 2018, 08:15:36 PM
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/aidandavis-2271537 July 10, 2018
But his "sister" hasn't:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/emilydavis-2280121 Emily_Davis July 14, 2018,
"She" was inactive since August 12, 2018 to October 12, 2018.
Interestingly she made this thread on the 16th:
As of August 2018, there are over 1600 cryptocurrencies that exist, according to Wikipedia. I know that Wikipedia isn't the most reliable of sources because anyone can edit it whenever they want, but the point is the number of cryptocurrencies being introduced. Some of the new cryptocurrencies I've heard were DeepBrainChain, ByteCoin, IOST, and Elastos. There's also a new coin called
Virie, which is apparently a cryptocurrency used to crowdfund and jumpstart the Virternity Project, a project that aims to digitized our minds, economy and the society. I believe that not all new coins aim to scam people, but do we really need more cryptocurrencies? Do we need new cryptocurrencies for every project that exists? Why can't there be one or five cryptocurrencies that all projects can use?
If we look a few posts down in that thread there's another one:
I have to agree with this. Not all projects would work on other existing coins such as bitcoins or ripple or other altcoins. Some needs a specific coin to run their projects, like DeepBrain I think and Virie. That said, I wonder how people would react to too many coins if and when cryptocurrencies became a worldwide digital currency. Do you think that people will be open to the idea of learning about different coins for different purposes?
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/blancagregory-2280133 Blanca_Gregory July 14, 2018
Gap from August 12, 2018 to October 12, 2018
I wonder if they've been created to shill for DeepBrain and Virie (amongst others)?