Quote from: theymos on October 24, 2012, 12:10:03 AM

I decided that he harms discussions too much to be allowed to continue. He posts more than Atlas and his posts are of lower quality. When he argues about something, he ignores all of the arguments of his opponents and just repeats the same nonsense over and over. I suspect that he may be intentionally trying to stir up drama in order to hurt the forum and the community.

The ban will not expire automatically. I may review it later.

I support this decision and hope to see more like it.

Goat was becoming increasingly belligerent after being delisted from GLBSE. He wasn't discussing anything anymore, just restating the same points over and over. When he was criticized, he would resort to legal threats (not based on a strong grasp of the law, mind you). Plus, he's run several failed investment products, costing the readers of this forum tens of thousands of Bitcoins, if not more. For me, he symbolizes Bitcoin last year.

It's time for us to move on to the new Bitcoin: respectful, legitimate, honest, productive.

From the Bitcoin "financial collapse", with so many people losing money to Pirate, funds frozen in GLBSE, etc., Bitcoiners are becoming more discerning about where they put their coin. Caution and prudence with investment is good: I think this is a positive change. I would welcome a similar elevation of the level of discourse on this forum.

People who lead a thread off topic should be warned. If they do it repeatedly, they should be banned. There is too much clutter here, and the ones who are cluttering rarely add anything of value to the conversation.

Quote from: BCB on October 24, 2012, 12:40:00 AM

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=119525.msg1288788#msg1288788

Atlas is a major thread-derailer. I was thinking of this example before I saw that you posted it.

I wouldn't mind if he created a new topic, linked to it in the original thread with a short summary, and continued discussion in the new thread, but I've never seen him do that. I think he's a net detractor for the forums, and think a ban would be a step in the right direction. (Happy to see change too, but I think history indicates this is unlikely).

If he could keep his Randian FUDmongering to "Off-topic" and "Politics and Society", I wouldn't mind him staying. It's just frustrating to see a page full of core-devs and other great Bitcoiners like Casascius discussing something interesting and then getting distracted by his pointless, stubborn, unsubstantiated complaints.

EDIT: Atlas actually just made a pretty good thread. I optimistically retract my ban suggestion. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=119885.msg1291504#msg1291504