It is worth stating if people are really so disgusted with buymastercoin, they don't have to sell them their MSCs.
I don't know this but my guess is that buymastercoin has a couple of accounts therefor even if someone was disgusted by buymastercoin it will be hard not to sell to someone that you don't know his identity.
Yes, the anonymity is a double-edged sword, and you are probably right that they have more than one account - but in this case I actually I think it is not such a big deal. As I've said, buymastercoin's willingness to buy in bulk at a good price is in my opinion a definite advantage, and helps the MSC market on the whole. The problem is the price at which they sell their Mastercoins (though again I think it is unreasonable to call this a 'problem'). But buymastercoin's advantages are really: 1) that it has been involved with Mastercoin since the beginning 2) that it has name-recognition, and 3) is listed on some site associated with the foundation. If they have to sell their MSCs under a new name (which can happen if people try to spread as much awareness as possible), then they lose all three of these advantages.
Basically, buymastercoin is a very normal operation, and I am not quite sure what people want from them.
I agree with you, the problem isn't with buymastercoin operation. I think people want to hear why the foundation thinks promoting his site does more good than bad.
In my opinion, the 'support' from the foundation is FAKE. On mastercoin.org there is a link to buymastercoin.com, but on mastercounfoundation.org there is not. I don't know who owns the former domain, but if the board doesn't own it, then we've been fooled.
I am not quite sure what people want from them: do they expect buymastercoin to advertise the GoogleDocs orderbook on their homepage? Or to state explicitly that they are charging well above market price?
I don't think anyone is expecting buymastercoin to do any of those things, but i think newcomers and the MSC community is expecting the foundation to point out these points in a
very clear way, that
newcomers can get an
informed decision. Is that not in the interest of the foundation in your opinion?
I couldn't agree with you more. If you read my previous posts, you will see that I have been quite outspoken in my criticisms of the board and the foundation more generally (this is not self-advertisement, it's just to give you a reference). I have also become convinced, however, that, aside from vokain and djohnston, the board is indifferent to community concerns, and that if Mastercoin succeeds, it will be in spite of, not because of its management. Indeed, as you may or may not know, 3 of our board members are completely silent on the forums (I am not even sure whether they have reddit/bitcointalk accounts)
I also think a board change is extremely unlikely because, as JR himself pointed out, the board owns so many MSCs that their decision is pretty representative of decisions that would be reached in proof-of-stake voting - so they could quite easily vote themselves back in.
If somebody wants to undercut buymastercoin, they can register the domain name "buymastercoinsforcheap" or something, offer the same services, and start raising awareness of buymastercoin's 'unfair' prices.
The foundation hasn't answered this question yet. Will any private exchange website be added to the foundation page? If yes I will have a site ready by the end of the week. I agree that the more competition the better.
Great! I hope you make a site! Mastercoin has a reputation for being an insular, and so whoever takes some steps towards making it a more newbie-friendly project will be performing a very important service.