Quote from: OutOfMemory on Today at 06:07:15 PM

Quote from: ImThour on Today at 04:44:29 PM

Quote from: sirazimuth on Today at 04:37:43 PM

Quote from: death_wish on Today at 07:59:09 AM

Who keeps deleting WO posts? Things are jumping around—again and again. At this rate, WO’s page-count will soon dip below the Bitcoin price without any recovery in the latter.

Well, I'd venture to guess we could have page parity in one easy step.
....Just delete all your blah blah blah posts.... Win, win....

Indeed, that sounds like a good plan. Imagine having 2 JJG's on one single thread. Surely WO can't handle this much stress test.

I sense sarcasm, and i am fairly good at using, but bad at recognizing it.
Whatever, have my two cents:

I'd rather have to read or scroll through discussions between three JJG's than the nonsense that permabears, beggars, attention whores and toxic morons leave in this thread.
It's easy and quick to check a JJG-sized post for interesting information and scroll through it if not satisfied, while it's a nightmare to scroll through many one-liners of nonsense or brainless rants, even if they show in the form of "This User is on your ignore list" maskings. I respect JJG and death_wish for being serious about their opinions, and i share their (obvious) favor for detail. That's much better than those testosterone-laden posting catfights.

Don't you agree?

As a rule, in any public discussions, >90% of readers are lurkers. With some of my recent substantive posts, I write primarily for the lurkers. I am seeking to reach people with important substance; I do not care even a whit about “seeking attention” in the usual sense of that term. Thus, although I appreciate thoughtful replies from WO regulars such as yourself, OOM, it is unimportant to me if I become generally unpopular here.

A few low-grade trolls have been yapping and nipping at my heels. They thus show their true character. They do not realize how it looks to the public, when they habitually follow my cogent, substantive posts with repetitive, ridiculous, irrelevant, sometimes factually false and libellous, oftentimes vulgar, always rude ad hominem personal attacks on me. They also don’t realize that I have them ignore-listed, so I myself only see their posts either when someone quotes them (as here, in the internal quote), or when I take an archival snapshot of some page (I do that often). Accordingly, they show themselves as spite-driven fools to my primary audience—without even getting my attention: Losers get a lose-lose deal here.

Their ultimate objective, of course, is to drag me down to their level. I mind the old proverb about wrestling with a pig: You get muddied, and the pig enjoys it. I have seen what happens, when decent people get dragged into the mud that way—take a look in the Reputation forum, and bring your barf-bag! Taking the high road is much cleaner—especially in the eyes of those >90% lurkers.

It is for such reasons, OOM, that I was reluctant to reply to your thoughtful post. I do not want indirectly to feed sirazimuth’s trolling. I do not wish potentially to be dragged next into back-and-forth arguments about me, which are incited by smear-attacks and are liable to be quite dirty. If he obsessively snipes at me, so what? Why should I care? WO is almost a free-fire zone; trolling is explicitly allowed in WO, as a special exception to the forum’s rule against trolling. Here, he can troll to his heart’s content. I am not obliged to pay him the attention that he craves.

Nonetheless, you raised some points much worthwhile for discussion. I do not want to ignore that!

Quote from: OutOfMemory on Today at 06:07:15 PM

EDIT: I don't use ignore lists for a reason. Freedom of speech.

I myself never used ignore-lists before quite recently. I have always wanted to see the full discussion. If I deem someone generally not worth reading, I can skim. For that purpose, my eyes and brain make a much better filter than an ignore-list; the ignore-list is a blunt tool. Of note: I still do not and will not ignore-list people simply because I find their opinions generally disagreeable.

Moreover, I have a supreme contempt for the general use of the Almighty Ignore-List as some sort of a comical non-punishment—sort of the opposite of a Facebook “Like” button. So what if someone ignore-lists me? Am I here to win a popularity contest? If someone wants to ignore-list me, then I prefer for him to ignore-list me. I have the self-confidence and self-esteem to know that if someone personally rejects me from spite or for other petty non-reasons, that’s not my loss. Those who ignore-list me are ipso facto unworthy of reading my posts—and they are probably incapable of comprehending them, anyway. My posts will be read by those who want to read them.

Now, however, I have discovered that ignore lists have one good use. If ever you are being personally harassed by trolls, it is a mistake to give them what they want! Ignore-list them, but take archival snapshots of relevant pages—just in case you ever fancy wasting time and effort with a reckoning. They probably aren’t worth it. They certainly aren’t worth even one minute of any sane person’s limited lifetime, perhaps unless (a) they hold significant positions of community trust and responsibility, and (b) they show dishonesty. In that case, a reckoning would not merely be about settling personal scores in some petty Internet grudge-match.

As I have said before, one of the great distinctions between Bitcoin and most altcoins is that the Bitcoin community cleaned up some awful garbage early on—things even worse than what now commonly befouls most high-cap/mid-cap altcoin ecosystems! But that process never ends. Vigilance is always needed. And sadly, this forum has regressed in recent years. Corruption here has increased, not decreased. Some outstanding contributors have disappeared—some in disillusionment. The first principle behind Gresham’s Law is generally applicable, and it cuts both ways: The good can chase out the bad, or the bad can chase out the good.

The problems with this forum are not problems with Bitcoin itself. Bitcoin is thriving—Bitcoin itself is thriving, in its usage and its long-term prospects. Nowadays, most major happenings in Bitcoinland occur far away from this forum. Nonetheless, this is still a major venue for Bitcoin discussion—and it is Satoshi’s forum. What is this forum worth?

Aside from such musings, I make efficient use of the ignore list just to save time and to clear clutter. If you ever have any problems with users who want to follow you around obsessively and spit at you, then consider the ignore list as an efficient (non-)response.