Quote from: CharlieContent on March 02, 2013, 08:44:35 PM

In the last month or two there have been a few allegations going around of a pro-BFL bias in the moderating activities of the forum. I don't personally have a strong opinion one way or the other, but I do think that there is certainly some basis for these claims.

The Bitcoin community is still a reasonably small one. This means two things:

Firstly, the moderation team of this forum holds an incredibly powerful position. This is the main and original Bitcoin forum and the only one with a significant amount of activity. It's also worth noting that Theymos, the chief administrator of this forum, is also the chief administrator of the Bitcoin reddit, the only other Bitcoin forum with any reasonably amount of activity.

Secondly, it's not unfeasible that members of the moderation team would have a financial interest in various Bitcoin businesses. It's a small community, moderators tend to be reasonably prominent members of that community, and we're all entrepreneurial souls. This could lead to conflict of interest.

In the United Kingdom, members of parliament need to submit information to a "register of member's interests." This is a public, written record of the business interest of members of parliament. It records all of the companies they work for, have received gifts from, or have invested in. This helps prevent unfair practices under the table.

I propose a similar system for moderators of this forum. They should publicly reveal their Bitcoin business interests. This would help identify bias, as well as fend off false allegations of bias.

If moderators don't feel comfortable revealing which Bitcoin businesses they have a financial interest in succeeding, then they should reassess their suitability to be moderators.

You're talking about this forum right? Bitcointalk? The one you pay absolutely nothing to use and for which the mods are paid in pure 24K criticism? Please, feel free to offer an alternative that everyone flocks to in droves. And your proposal would carry more weight if you offered specific examples. I actually had a mod on my Ignore list for some time because I perceived he was severely biased in favor of a BFL competitor. It's all a matter of perspective.