Bitcointalk uses proxybans against spammers:
When you register, the IP that you used when you submitted the registration form is used to calculate your evilness. The more frequently this IP or its neighbors were banned, the more evil is associated with your account. The amount of evil associated with an IP decays slowly over time, but the amount of evil associated with an account does not. You must pay or be manually whitelisted to enable posting on one of these "banned" accounts.
Sometimes, innocent people become collateral damage. This is generally considered as unfair and very unwelcoming.
Thanks to theymos, I can now
Whitelist users, so I can help to correct this.
BackgroundOnly abused IP ranges have to pay a fee. The fee is an anti-abuse measure, and it is not meant to be (and isn't) much of a source of revenue.
If any very-veteran members want to volunteer, I can give you the ability to whitelist users. (All Staff can already whitelist users, as well.) Perhaps then someone could create a topic like "List of email addresses for people who can whitelist you for free", which I could link-to on the evil fee page. However, these IPs have evil for a reason. If it was sufficient for them to just solve a captcha or something, I'd have them do that. Before whitelisting someone, you have to do something to be pretty sure that they're not evading a ban and just going to get banned again. You may get the impression from complaints on the forum that everyone hits the fee and it's never warranted, but this is selection bias: the fee is more rare, and the vast majority of accounts that hit it should not be whitelisted.
Freedom!Welcome to Bitcointalk! I'll give you a very short introduction of what makes Bitcointalk unique. First: note that scams are
not moderated! If something looks too good to be true, you are going to get scammed. Use common sense, and don't trust random strangers on the internet with your money.
Bitcointalk offers more freedom than any other forum I know. You can choose to be an asshole or you can be a nice person. It's entirely up to you how you want to come across. If you're a snowflake, you might get offended.
That's okay.
You're
allowed to earn money or do business here. Your freedom is mainly limited by the
forum rules.
Warning: unlike most websites, Bitcointalk does
not allow
plagiarism. This will get you banned! It's very easy to prevent: if you quote someone, give them the credit they deserve.
Banned?If your account was banned for breaking the
forum rules, you
deserve the units of evil and aren't allowed to create a new account. Please don't ask me to whitelist you.
How to get your Proxyban removed?I can only whitelist you if I know you exist. There are 2 options:
1. Convince meSend me an email:
Now the tricky part: apart from including your Bitcointalk username, you'll need to convince me you deserve it. I know this sucks, and I hate jumping through hoops too. But it's the best I can do to help new Bitcointalk users without giving spammers a free pass.
You don't need to send me your IP-address or real name. I can't believe I have to add this:
DO NOT send me a picture of a passport!Or (not "and") email someone else:
2. Get someone to vouch for youI know several personal examples of people who I invited to join bitcointalk forum and they couldn't registered because they got evil fee notification and asked to pay with Bitcoin.
If an established member knows you personally, they can post your username in this topic for whitelisting. Don't PM me, keep it public.
I won't accept vouches from for instance a bounty hunter with 1000 Activity and 0 earned Merit.Ease PM restrictionsPM-restrictions are very tight on Newbies
(thanks to spammers in the past):
| Activity | Max recipients | Max recipients if whitelisted | Max PMs per hour | Max PMs per hour if whitelisted | Max PMs per day | Max PMs per day if whitelisted |
| 0 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 40 | 2 | 120 |
| 15 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 40 | 15 | 120 |
If you're a Newbie with a legitimate reason to increase this, please post in this topic.
If you're an established member talking to a Newbie who can't message you back: please post!
Full transparencyI'll post all whitelisted users in this topic. They can expect scrutiny. If you're a real user and don't deserve the "evil" label, this scrutiny can lead to earning some Merit. If you turn out to be a spammer, I'll report you myself.
Another reason for full transparency is to assess my judgement on who to whitelist.
AlternativeInstead of getting whitelisted or paying for evil fees, you can opt to buy a
Copper membership.
If other users with Whitelisting "powers" want to add their email to the list, please post in this topic.
Newbies: don't
spam the same email to the entire list, emailing one person should be enough.
Pay the evil fee by exchanging altcoinsI feel like I'm Bitcointalk's helpdesk now: so many people assume it's my site. It's not!
People ask help in paying small amounts of Bitcoin, or ask if I (yes "I") accept altcoins. I usually suggest
FixedFloat.com to exchange small amounts of altcoin to Bitcoin at a low fee, but just in case: Do Your Own Research before trusting
any site.
I also recommend using your own Bitcoin wallet (such as
Electrum) instead of exchanges with very high withdrawal fees, especially the sneaky ones like Binance who try to convince people to accept their own made-up tokens instead of real Bitcoin. And again: do your own research, and make sure you don't download malware.
I'll use my own judgement who to whitelist. Please make a compelling argument.
This topic is "work in progress". If I need to add something, please let me know.
No spamSelf-moderated to prevent spam and off-topic posts.
Don't forgetWhitelisting is a not a license to spam. You will be immediately banned if you're found spamming, even if you bought a copper membership (and you will not be refunded).
I assume an established member would know they'd qualify.
