Very interesting topic and I wonder what saved this thread from being deleted?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5337562.0 (it's kind of a giveaway to me, users were asked to find a song/tune posted and whoever finds it,
gets 20 dogecoins and a merit)
It simply wasn't reported. It's now been trashed and the creator temp banned.
Banning OP and participants for this seems excessive to me.
As per how other altcoin-part-bitcoin giveaways in Games and Rounds have been handled by theymos in the past, only the OP gets banned. Participants do get banned if the thread was originally posted in the altcoin sections (due to the warnings plastered all over there's no good excuse as to why the participant "didn't know").
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Honestly speaking, your understanding and interpretation of rules are going over my head (maybe my level of intellectuality is way lower than you). Maybe we can draw a line in disagreement because clearly we are looking this case from completely two different angles. Your focus in on the ALT coin part and my focus (and perhaps others too) is on the Bitcoin part. You are more into finding a little fault (not sure indeed it was there) and ban hammer a user by not caring about anything and without even looking at details and I (perhaps other too) are more into being open and give enough thought before taking any negative action.
But eventually your one will stand because you are playing an official rule. Just make sure that you don't make this space hard for genuine crypto lovers, bitcoin enthusiasts. Bitcoin still has a long way to go, and we need to ensure that we are helping to make this community bigger.
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Let's forget what others are thinking or interpreting the rule/situation let's just point what mprep and hilariousandco (both global moderator after all) considering unofficial rule number 23.
23. When deciding if a user has broken the rules, the staff have the right to follow their interpretation of the rules.[e]
Eventually this is where we stand
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There's plenty of exceptions to be made in other rules where enforcing it to the letter would violate the spirit of the rule (and I've marked numerous reports as bad that have tried to use the letter of the rules to attack users they didn't like). However, from both what's written and from what I've observed (in how theymos has dealt with altcoin giveaways both in and outside the altcoin sections), there are no exceptions to this rule (for the organizers). If you incentivize posting in a thread for altcoins in a way that is more reminiscent of a giveaway rather than a bounty that requires substantial effort to complete, you will be banned and your thread - trashed. This isn't the first altcoin-part-giveaway posted in Games and Rounds I've issued a ban for and AFAIK not a single creator of such a giveaway had their ban removed by theymos.
Now, theymos is free to change his mind at any point and decide that cases like these don't deserve as harsh of a punishment as similar offenses but he has given me no reason or indication to think so. If he does change his mind and / or informs me that these exact situations are an exception to the rule, I'll gladly adjust my moderation.