[disclaimer: thoughts of a noob, no idea about any of the underlying politics]

bitcointalk is one the first places a noob will find if they want to learn more about bitcoin. It's right up there with bitcoin.org and the bitcoin wiki.

I'm new here but aren't bitcoin and bitcointalk bigger than some of the concerns being expressed? Shouldn't the aim be to promote bitcoin by making this a safer and more user/noob friendly environment? Private, invite only subforums or threads and 100% self-moderation sounds like it would achieve the exact opposite.

I actually think some of the issues - particularly around the borked trust system and the enormous number of scammers/scammer accounts on here - could be addressed by having more active mods. (How difficult is it to mark someone with a "Trade Dispute" tag if there are accusations outstanding, then upgrade it to "Scammer" or removing it when resolved? Clone accounts should also be insta-tagged (I'm guessing the mods just don't have the time at the moment.)