Topic: Mods: Keep your opinions to yourself (split from BS&T Home thread) (Read 3326 times)

The exact same holds true for any of the mining bonds and the like.

I can, assuming you mean amount of invested capital rather than just the number of investors:

A bank. A bank takes in at-call deposits and then loans funds out long term, for stuff like people buying houses. All their liabilities to depositors are covered by assets (loans), but if 50 % of customers suddenly withdrew their money, the bank wouldn't be able to provide it because they can't suddenly make their borrowers sell the houses they bought with the bank's money and pay it back. They would suffer a liquidity crisis, even if the bank is completely sound.

It's the same with pirate. Everyone withdrawing all at once and causing delays in pirate being able to pay out does not automatically mean he's running a Ponzi (although a Ponzi would show the same effect). It could could just be that his assets are not liquid enough.

I would be all for [moderator hat]text[/moderator hat] tags, as long as a tophat gets added to any text within

It's easy to distinguish it by typing mod comments in a different colour/font or by enclosing them in [moderator hat on]/[moderator hat off] tags.  For the most part, the mods around here do mostly house-keeping stuff and don't sanction people in public.  I think the default assumption should be that they're posting their personal opinions unless otherwise indicated.

I've been part of a couple of communities which restrict mods and admins from posting as normal posters and I believe those communities are poorer for that choice.

was that a reply to me?

I meant in the case that "EVERYONE" withdrew (and got their coins, proving its not a ponzi), leaving pirate with only his own BTC and demands he can no longer fill

I can think of no legitimately ethical investment that ceases to be profitable based on the number of investors.

People have sued over eBay ratings, Any other site rating being defaming is not that much of a stretch

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edit : in pirates case, if all the ponzi talk causes everyone to withdraw and it turns out it ISN'T a ponzi but the lack of funds/client faith does kill pirates business... I would expect there is a case there

In other news if my scammer tag is not removed within 24 hours I am suing bitcointalk.org Inc. for damaged amounting to $ 100 000 for preventing me selling my GPUs now ASIC are coming.

Harassment too !

Joking ...

I think its important that moderators and anyone else that is meant to be trusted is very loud with their opinions, Its easier to spot a rotten apple when the worms are on the outside - and if they really do feel it is a scam they should post the same as everyone else

having said that i would appreciate a way to distinguish what is being said between personal and professional, forum mods (edit: as in modifications, not moderators, lol) being the pain they are and separate accounts being overkill, perhaps just sign 'site related' posts as '-staff' at the bottom (it wouldn't be a problem to forget to sign, as long as important posts are signed and personal opinions aren't) ... but even that could just be a treatment for a non-existent problem

Back in the days of Ultima online we had shared moderator accounts. Like Nicknames that stayed, but the mods behind it changed. That way moderators could do their moderation without giving a "personal" opinion. You never knew who was just moderating and if people brought in their personal opinion they used their nicknames...

I wont comment on the OPs opinion.. i just say that this what we did years back in such a situation...

They weren't commenting as moderators.. that's the point

It's sounds like maybe your point is that it's hard to tell if a moderator is being a moderator or just another long-time member of the forums. I regularly see guys with hundreds to thousands of posts defending what seems to be a pretty obviously shady operation (not necessarily BS&T) and I wonder how long they could have possibly been members and sure enough they are no more than 6 months old and in some cases they only been posting for maybe 3 of them. I often wonder if these high-post count users send more of a wrong message than a moderator just warning about a possible shady op.

Also, something to keep in mind is that "buyer beware" is advice, not law. Anyone willing to remind buyers to beware isn't breaking some unwritten law, and it's only scammers or their victims that would want to prevent such advice from being repeated, quite honestly.

There's also an edge that is less frequently talked about here. The guys that benefit from HYIP scams are typically the ones that only invest once. They have a vested interest in keeping HYIP possible, because that's how they make their money, attempting to scam the scammer. Pesky things like moderators commenting on the validity of an investment, only get in their way.

Thanks for this.  I'll do my best to be more polite.

Honestly, I agree with imsaguy here, but think it's more of a technical problem. I like reddit's moderation system because I can, as a moderator of a subreddit, speak normally, but I can also "distinguish" a post I make in official capacity. That is, I can fuck around with people and say things like "haha u so dum also trollface pun pun pun" and it'll just appear under my username. Or I can be serious, type something like "Please refrain from posting off-topic pun threads as they are against the rules of this subreddit", and then press a button to distinguish my post, which makes my username appear red and all fancy.

I do think there needs to be something like that though. Otherwise it's a weird power situation, like socializing with a police officer who always wears his uniform, and you're not sure if you should act like a friend (teasing, making fun of, not guarding your speech) or as a citizen (respectful, fearful, making sure not to do anything that could be remotely seen as illegal). When Maged or theymos or any other mod comments on a dispute, it's hard to be sure if they're acting as moderators/arbiters or as just regular people. If they're arbiters, it can reasonably be assumed that they've done their due diligence and have a stronger basis for their opinions than other people just spreading FUD. If they're just opining as regular forum members, we risk their opinion being taken as a stronger statement of truth than it is. That should make people feel uncomfortable, regardless of what the topic is.

Unless this forum is their own personal playground, it is.

Being a mod is a profession?

I'm not asking you to sensor yourself, I'm asking you to separate your personal and professional opinions.  I'm glad to see you take such offense to that. 

Perfectly fair.  Anyone that doesn't investigate for his/herself in some fashion isn't doing him/herself any favors. 

I can't think of any good reason why moderators shouldn't express their opinion on EVERY legitimate or illegitimate transfer of Bitcoin. That they choose not to express an opinion on some of them and choose to do so on others reflects their level of trust, and with that, a history of knowledge of past and ongoing "scams" that they have had experience with. If something seems fishy to them, so be it.

It's not just mods that have to wonder if interactions they've had are ultimately questionable, all of us have dealt with this in some manner.

Don't worry, despite my opinion on the matter, I haven't even opened a scammer investigation. Sure, I'm investigating, but it's not in any official capacity.