I've said it before, I think mdayonliner was just being too ambitious both in his efforts to make money and build a reputation for himself on bitcointalk--the latter is always why I thought he offered to escrow that huge amount.  But I also agree that once an amount like $100k is in someone's hands, there's got to be some temptation to just take it and run.  I never thought his escrow offer was a scam attempt, but it was ill-advised at best.

As far as the ponzi stuff goes, I have very mixed feelings on it, but only as far as when it happens on bitcointalk.  For one thing, ponzis have their own section here, so you know they're rampant and Theymos doesn't give a shit about them, and another reason is that I think most people who participate in these "investor-based games" basically know what they're getting into and that just like other forms of gambling, there's only a small chance of winning.  I've always thought that whole section should be nuked, but it must benefit the forum or the bitcoin community....or someone.

This is also why I tended to ignore mdayonliner's ponzi history and in general why I don't tag ponzi promoters--but I respect those members who do take a stand against them.

DT members definitely get a lot of shit for things they do or don't do, and as you know I've made some mistakes in tagging members based on bad evidence or bad judgement, and that doesn't give me a good feeling.