To say it was his only source of income and he needed the money, so he can cheat and the rest of the forum must be understanding is dangerous. There are people in Brazil who tries to justify robbery with the same argument.
Are you really comparing using alts to go around campaign rules to a violent crime?
What about the people who are legit trying to get one spot, and also need the money and it is their only source of income? I think ethics should always come first.
Well, if someone treats it as a job (keep in mind that ChipMixer doesn't even have weekly post minimums), they're on the wrong forum. And relying on a potentially ephemeral sig campaign as a sole mean of income is financially foolish, to say the least. Theymos could theoretically one day straight up ban signatures, what is such a person going to do then?
It is not a crime what he did. But it damaged other users, damaged CM and the campaign manager.
Considering the fact that he was undiscovered for three years, no one reported him for spamming or posting low quality posts, no mod or admin banned him, the campaign manager kept paying him, and ChipMixer themselves happily continued on making payments, it's hard to speak of any damage.
And it is a hell lot of money. He received probably around 2-5 BTC... We are talking about hundred thousand dollars
Way more than '2-5 BTC'. Remember, he tended to make close to 50 posts per week for three years, on two, sometimes three of his accounts.