Allowing one altcoin giveaway to be discussed here and denying another doesn’t seem to fit with free speech.
I don't see what this has to do with free speech. You can still discuss any shitcoin elsewhere, you just can't give them away. Just like it is now for that matter.
And - correct me if I'm wrong - it's not the actual giveaways that are forbidden, it's the "I want to join this giveaway, here's my address" type of posts. In other words, if someone wants to run an altcoin giveaway outside of the forum and even link it here - that should be fine. As long as they don't incentivize low-effort posting/bumping.
That is indeed my understanding. Viewing this from a different angle I don't even know why low-effort posting for a Bitcoins giveaway is allowed.
What bothers me is the rule of banning and if you got me earlier then it's not very friendly rule which is obviously confusing or we would not see so many users got trapped in it including a lot of us who are well aware of the rules and respect it by heart. Do you think some of the users really care much about those altcoin if they had this in mind in the next morning they will see they are banned? The answer is of course NO.
I had this in mind too, when I posted my suggestion. I get where the instant temporary ban is coming from, namely ending spam. But many other rules can be broken without an instant ban. Spamming referral links for instance will only get your post deleted, and I don't believe joining a giveaway deserves a bigger punishment.
Currently there's very little stopping a casino or an exchange from creating a thread with a promotion saying "Go to our website, enter "bitcointalk.org" as a promo code, and receive 1 billion shitcoins that we now accept." As far as I know that would not be against the rules, and no spam will result from it.
Correct. But why would they do that, if they barely get any publicity that way? For the same reason Bitcointalk allows
millions of "proof of authentication" posts: the spammers promote the thread, and again, I find this worse than joining a giveaway with real value.
but this negative consequence is made worse by the fact that most of the world will be spending an increased amount of time on the internet in the coming weeks.
It's like we're all grounded.
Didn't see anyone complain before this 7 day ban that got cut short.
Correct, the fact that that many well-known users thought posting there wouldn't be a problem made me doubt the current rules.
@LoyceV what do you mean by established shitcoins? Top 10 CMC:
Several of those I've never used. But if someone were to offer a $100 giveaway, I wouldn't mind checking how to convert it to Bitcoin.
I think an on the record /public apology by the likes of mprep etc is warranted.
I couldn't disagree more. Don't blame the messanger, mprep is just fair to all, without special treatment for established users.