Quote from: Lucius on December 10, 2023, 11:16:33 AM

Of course, who else would I talk about considering that none of the "influential" members of the forum did anything similar all those years because they thought it was not worth fighting Ratimov and those who protected him. A person who built his reputation by covert plagiarism not only that he was not punished for it, but he was also rewarded with merit source status, which only strengthened his position even more.

What I really think about all the facts you mentioned above is this: at first, he impressed many forum users with what-a-good-forum-contributor-he-is-blah-blah-blah. People started giving him merits. He was even named Newbie of the year 2019. Then airfinex exposed his plagiarism for the first time. The fact that he posted from an alt account made his post to not be taken too seriously though. Besides, and here is a very delicate aspect, I believe that some also wanted to close their eyes, for not letting themselves admit that they helped a plagiarist to rank up so fast (remember, Ratimov used to earn merits with light speed for his plagiarized materials). This may be a normal human reaction, up to some point though. But when these people saw crystal clear that they supported an imposter they should have acted.

Other topics addressing Ratimov's shenanigans appeared during time, but always from alt accounts. And were mostly ignored. He was already feared by then. If someone dared to say anything about him it implied to be red tagged and added to Ratimov's distrust list. This is why, those which dared to speak the truth, did it from alt account; and this is also why they did not succeed.

After his aggressive behavior started to be known he was already feared many users and even DT users. I can tell you that, after I wrote my topic, some DT users confessed to me that they can't speak-up because "the situation is delicate", or "they don't have time" or "they are not certain about the proof I presented" etc., etc., etc. -- it was clear for me, reading their words, to see that they are afraid to talk about Ratimov. Even as DT, they were afraid of a Trust exclusion or of being red tagged or of receiving horrendous insults, like it happened in my case. However, I understood their point of view.

In any case, in time, more and more users found courage to speak-up in my topic and more and more finally opened their eyes or -- to be more correct -- allowed themselves to open their eyes. As a result, they started to distrust this imposter and / or add him to their distrust list. Eventually, even those which were afraid of him did it, seeing that he is losing all his support (excepting the never ending support he has from his most loyal minions, which literally worship him, like madnessteat or ~~jokers10~~ -- oh, disregard jokers10, I remember that he abandoned the sinking boat LOL!).

Quote from: Lucius on December 09, 2023, 03:20:51 PM

I'm sure there are a lot of Ratimov alts who will continue on his path, of course, much more carefully than he did.

I also believe this. Ratimov was literally learning like a machine: he was caught plagiarizing and using that infamous introduction "In this article I would like to touch upon such a theme [...]", which was only meant to steal original author's work? -- He stopped using that introduction. His next materials were just copy-pastes, but not plagiarism anymore (thousands of merits copy-pastes but it is what it is). He was caught leaving incorrect red tags, full of insults and without any ref link? -- He deleted them. Were DT eyes on him for a while? -- He stayed low. Forum's eyes were on him for insulting someone's family? -- He quickly deleted those incriminating posts. And so on.

He tried every possible shenanigan, in order to see how far he can go and in which situations people remain unaware of his miserable acts. If caught, he simply changed that part.

So I'm sure now that he uses some alt accounts but he applies all he learned in those years: he won't try to earn merits with light speed, he won't plagiarize, he won't leave incorrect feedbacks and so on. I guess he will just try to farm some accounts to be able to enroll them in signature campaigns.

Speaking of signature campaigns, I also believe, as I once said, that he'll migrate to other forums:

Quote from: GazetaBitcoin on October 26, 2023, 09:29:22 AM

I suggest to Ratimov that, after he becomes most merited user ever, to do same thing on other forums too and become there also most merited user / most recognized or whatever terminology would be used on other forums. Then post also some plagiarized thesis and take his Ph. D. as well. Why stick only to Internet forums? He could take any diploma in real life as well.

Since here his career is over, he may try same tricks on shitcoinsforum or any other forum. He will present himself there as BitcoinTalk's fifth most merited user and he'll probably get into a good signature campaign then he'll plagiarize there forever, since other forums don't ban plagiarists. He'll become number one (from any / all points of view) on some other forum and he'll be happy with the fact that he managed to fool an entire forum again.