Sythe Monthly - November 2013 | Bitcoins | Market advice from a pro | Events & More |

November
Edited by Superman

Hey folks! Welcome to this month's edition of Sythe Monthly! It's been a month filled with e-drama, so if you aren't banned for posting personal information... congratulations!​

Sythe.org News
By Roary

Staff changes

Congratulations are in order for ZippyGFX who has joined the staff team as a RuneScape moderator! I'm sure you'll do great, buddy.
A warm welcome back for Amethyst after a short departure. It's great to have you back!
And finally, a big well done to -Ryan who has been promoted to Global moderator, well deserved - keep up the great work!​

Two Factor Authentication - additional account security

It's here! Two factor authentication is now available in BETA to secure your accounts from hackers indefinitely. The announcement is here: http://www.sythe.org/sythe-org-news/1652660-two-factor-authentication-now-available.html

What do I need?

• A smartphone or iDevice that can scan barcodes
• A Google authentication capable application for said phone
  • I recommend Duo Mobile: iTunes link | Google play link

How do I get two factor?

• To activate two factor on your Sythe account go to: http://www.sythe.org/twofactor.php and select "Add"
• Go to your app, add a new account, and scan the QR code with the app (It may take a second)
• You should have Sythe.org appear on your app. Click the key icon next to that to generate a passcode then enter it on Sythe.
  • (If your code doesn't work it may be because you have your phone's time manually set rather than automatically synchronised)
• Confirm and "Add two factor"
  • You will then be given a backup code to remove two factor should you ever lose your phone, keep this on your person and not on your computer

How will this help protect me?

You're now protected by two factor. Should a hacker access your account with your password, they wont be able to access anything on Sythe unless they have access to your mobile phone or other device to generate a code.

How do I get rid of two factor?

Turn it off once you've logged in and passed it here: http://www.sythe.org/twofactor.php

​

Members of the Month

LoLSmurfin and Lazy23 have both won Overall Member of the Month for November 2013! Can they evade the curse of the MotM rank and avoid becoming banned like two of our previous winners?
Find the full results of the competition here: http://www.sythe.org/community-general/1652138-member-month-november-results.html

A few members have been caught or suspected to have been asking for votes. This isn't allowed and only spoils it for those genuinely trying to make a difference. We have and will take appropriate action. I will remind you of the rule in the official rules thread:

• Anyone found cheating in/manipulating competitions or other such events will be punished:
  • 1st Offense - One month competition ban.
  • 2nd Offense - Two month competition ban.
  • 3rd Offense - Perm Ban from competitions.
• All of these will include an automatic disqualification from the competition and the user will be given the "BANNED FROM COMPETITIONS" usertitle.

​

A good month to be a donor!

There were a few new releases in the Donor Lounge this month, head over and test them both before general release! Non-donors should expect to be wowed with these fantastic updates when they're released for general use. You can expect to be able to communicate without using third-party software and to store and send a certain virtual currency. Gee, it's exciting huh.

Donors should check out the Donor Lounge for more information.

Donor's often have early access to new features as well as awesome privileges on release and on the site in general. To become a donor, check out the User Center or contact one of our Official Donation Bond Holders:

• Dave - RuneScape Gold
• Elena - RuneScape Gold
• Moes6223 - Cash via Paypal, Dutch Bank Transfer, Western Union and PlayerAuctions

​

New Hearthstone Section

If you haven't already heard of Hearthstone, it's a new game (currently in closed beta) from Blizzard, the creators of World of Warcraft. Check out our new section for it www.sythe.org/hearthstone/! We welcome guides, comments, questions, and everything else related to the game in that section.​

Competitions and Events

There's a load of competitions and events coming your way!

• Community Game Night - Terraria. It's going to be a fun night with a healthy prize pot, be sure to join!
  
• Sythe Movie Night, hosted by Delta Squad, will take place streaming this month's choice: 21 Jump Street - stay tuned!
• A Sythe.org Official Teamspeak server is up - drop by and say hello!
• Who would like to see a vanilla Sythe.org Minecraft server? If you would, head over and help make it happen!
• A Dota 2 Tournament could be on the horizons - voice your interest to make it happen!
• Signature of the month is off again - Christmas theme this month!

• Sythe.org Pool Tournament - Sign up now to win 15$ and an 8-ball minirank! Free to join and play!
• Sythe.org Connect 4 Tournament Winners!
  • Pockets (1st place)
  • LoLSmurfin (2nd place)
  • BGlave (3rd place)

​

Interested in helping to keep these things running? Contact any member of the Community Development Team to add a donation to our prize pots! In return you will receive advertisement space on the thread.
​

IRL News
By Roary

Star Wars: Episode VII
That's right! Grab your lightsabers because it's happening. Star Wars: Episode VII will be released in 2015 by Walt Disney Studios after they purchased Star Wars producer Lucasfilm for $4.05bn in 2012. No acting choices have been announced for the new film, but original cast members Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford have been in talks to appear in the upcoming film. Open auditions have also been announced, described as: "a nationwide search for lead roles for a Walt Disney Pictures film". If you're a young, twenty-something male - go for it!

Bitcoiners beware!
Online bitcoin bank owner "TradeFortress" has reportedly lost 4,100 bitcoins he was holding for his website's users after two hacks occurred on his website, https://inputs.io/ - which is now down. The theft occurred around October 26th, but customers were only made aware at the start of November. TradeFortress denies taking the coins for himself and has said he will repay some customers between 40-75% with 1,000 bitcoins he personally owned.

Let this be a lesson - don't store bitcoins on an internet-connected device unless exchanging! Your own hardware is safest.

Robocoin ATM - Canada
Keeping with the bitcoin theme, the first ATM offering bitcoin services has gone live in Vancouver, situated at Waves Coffee House. The kiosk, made by company Robocoin, is equipped with a hand scanner and face recognition camera to verify customers' identities before they add cash or withdraw it from their digital wallets. The devices only cost $20,000 and several other countries have now enquired about them, Robocoin says. Increasing concerns about the almost-untraceable currency being used for illegal purposes and money laundering are being voiced after the seizure of SilkRoad, the online marketplace described as the eBay of drug trafficking.


What do you think about Bitcoins? Let us know below! ​

Notable User Accomplishments
By I_DONT_BOT

Congratulations to all on their accomplishments! We appreciate each and every one of your contributions to the Sythe community. Obviously we ought to congratulate the new OMM's and high achievers, so I'd like to congratulate the most important first.

No... wait, that's not the right one!


Congratuations to -Ryan on earning OMM! I remember when he was just a little noob working in a team with Me, Superman & Frenzy. How far they've all come.

Member Accomplishments

Post Count
10,000 - n4n0
9,000 - Roary & I_DONT_BOT (Bromance of the year 2013) & Dave
7,000 - sypherz & Yaroow
2,750 - Heeatz
2,000 - Time To Buy
1,500 - i_love_la
1,300 - ThePrestigedMuzza & Superfluous
1,000 - Donald Duck
500 - Matty ICE & Cas_M

Vouches
1000 - zuzel111
100 - Superfluous

Donor Status
$300 - subaru_fan
$200 - Anthony1994, Direchampion, StopSign & OldSchoolQuester
$100 - Cas_M
$25 - Add My Msn & Spear Dice
$5 - Alex_J_Leon

Tenure
6 Years - Amethyst
3 Years - Time To Buy
1 Year - StopSign & THERSG0D

Special Congratulations


Congratulations to Dave for maintaining a 1-year tenure on staff!


Congratulations to Heeatz for winning the coveted Zombie rank in the CDT's Halloween event!​

If you want to be included in next month's edition of Sythe Monthly, make some noise about it! PM any member of the Community Development Team, found HERE or post in this new thread HERE.​

Administrator Q&A
By SellerMan

Sythe

1. Check all the servers.
   
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNr8yM9CUYc

n4n0

1. Staff lounge, then check the threads I've created, then browse around aimlessly.
   
2. Ditto. That way I can be them all.

Roary

1. I go check all my PM's and reply to most of those. Then I check the Staff Lounges to see what I've missed (usually everything).
   I then check up on RaSc/RaSp/Disputes and if it's built up a bit too much I'll handle a bit there. After that I just generally post around and help out where possible.
   
2. Tough call. I guess a Growlithe would suit my name haha.

​

Interview with R2Pleasent
By Roary

This month, I decided to interview R2Pleasent, one of the most recognisable figures in the gold trading market. My conversation with him proved very interesting, and it may be extremely beneficial to those of you that are currently operating a small business with aims to go big.

R2Pleasent's tips for success:

• There are always going to be risks in starting up a business. You just need to figure out how to minimize their impact
• Change happens all the time. You need to be ready to adapt to market conditions or you'll be left behind.
• I'd say that the main qualities that are important to starting an online business are: Focus, knowledge of product and the ability to cope with change.
• Believe in what you're doing, and do it.
• I think it's crucial to separate yourself from business regularly.
• Keep an open mind, and ask unbiased questions. Think for yourself.

​

Click the button below to read the full interview - which I genuinely, fully recommend for those interested in the market or business in general.

Spoiler: Full interview with R2Pleasent

When you first joined Sythe, how did you start out and did you have any idea that you'd end up where you are now?

When I joined Sythe, I was intending to sell off some Rares I had left over from a mule on Runescape.
I had never traded for real money on forums at the time. However, I was formerly a merchant within Runescape, so it didn't take long to get comfortable.

I never intended to actually set up a business, things just progressed to a point where I sold all my personal stock, yet people wanted to buy more at 4$/M.

I found a person selling for $2.50/M, and things just snowballed from there.

You gave your fair share of time and contributions to the Sythe staff team, how was that and do you ever miss being a part of it

I always look back on my time as staff with a smile. It was a great experience. I personally enjoyed tackling tough issues with other intelligent users in the Staff Lounge.
We'd discuss situations where there were no clear answers, but all with the same goal to maximize justice and minimize pain to innocent users.

Nothing was more satisfying than taking out a big Paypal scammer before they even had a chance to rip anybody off. I was always watching for them on the Buying forums.
They'd purchase old stolen Sythe accounts on other forums and try to use them to find buyers. I aimed to make such strategies a losing investment.

Now that you're essentially 'at the top' so to speak, is there anything about your Sythe career you'd change? What about changing your name to R2Pleasant ?

Well, the name R2Pleasent followed me from Runescape itself. I was a fairly rich merchant at the time; I accumulated about 5 Party Hat Sets purely from buying/selling stuff in-game from 2004-06.
I figured that people would recognize my name on Sythe as the old RS merchant, which would provide me with some reputation. I agree that the name makes no sense though.

I can't say that I'd like to change anything so far on Sythe. I've made my share of mistakes along the way, but I've learned from them and they've helped me improve as a person and as a business.

Although you've obviously been very fortunate and successful, has anything ever gone really wrong for you and what would you say to anyone debating starting up any sort of online business but afraid of the risk involved?

I've had everything go wrong that you could imagine. The worst event so far was in 2011 March, shortly after free trade was released, my website was hacked and the hacker caused a huge amount of damage.
I also had a reset (the first incident of a bank reset since Free Trade returned) that lost me ~$10,000 USD/25 Billion GP back in Sept 2011.

There are always going to be risks in starting up a business, but I'd say that most risks are manageable. You just need to figure out how to minimize their impact.
If the risk outweighs the benefit, then get out of the business! A wise man once said: "Only risk what you can afford to lose."

Is there any other advice you'd give to aspiring market traders? Perhaps even qualities you think are essential to successful business?

I'd say that the main qualities that are important to starting an online business are: Focus, knowledge of product and the ability to cope with change.

Sometimes the best research is to dive in and try it out for yourself, however don't expect instant results, be patient and learn. Keep the bigger picture in mind.
Once you have decided on a project, you need to stay focused. If you do this, you avoid uncontrollable variables such as sales to impact our work ethic. Believe in what you're doing, and do it.

This business has changed immensely for me over the 6+ years I've been doing it. There were few competitors in 2007. Then trade limits were added and the small community felt as though it was the end.
Months passed and I looked in to the mechanics of Bounty Hunter, and we eventually settled on a 100% safe way to transfer on free-to-play. This was patched in 2009 and again it felt like the ride was over.
However, I found people with their own, private transfer methods. I contracted them to do the transfers and we managed to re-open although not always successfully.
Finally free trade came around in 2011. On the launch day I had about 200 MSN requests and had 20 or 30 buyers every hour.

The moral of that story: change happens all the time. This is true for all businesses, offline and online.
You need to be ready to adapt to market conditions or you'll be left behind.

Trading across so many platforms, managing your staff and website as well as maintaining your place and identity within the market must be very stressful and demanding at times.
What are your other, personal interests that allow you to unwind and are these important to business-life?

My other interests are pretty basic. I love being around people, I need socialization or I go crazy. I enjoy having a good time and drinking with friends.
I'm very interested in crypto-currencies such as BTC, and Finance in general.

I think it's crucial to separate yourself from business regularly. These days with our laptops and phones on us all the time, it can be difficult to achieve.

Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us - I'm sure hearing from people such as yourself is both very encouraging and interesting to the members of Sythe.
Do you have any last words or words of wisdom to share with us?

Well thanks for having me do this interview, I appreciate the recognition.

I'd like to leave this by stressing the importance of critical thought and research. People on communities tend to follow the masses and blindly agree with popular opinion.
This can be a toxic formula to follow. Keep an open mind, and ask unbiased questions. Think for yourself. It's alright to have an opinion, but it should be your opinion. Not simply what is prevailing at the time.

Cheers, Will (R2Pleasent)

Pics and quotes of November!
By Lvl 75 Def

Marrow has got some comebacks



Who would this be?



Oh...

SanctumX: Goals & Accomplishments 2013



Jack (G)off is the trust guru



This was disturbing


​

 

I also became $200.00 donor! Congratulations to those who had a good month

 

Great work!

 

hmmm... Interesting news regarding TradeFortress.

 

4100'bitcoins is valued in the mils isn't it? If so that's a bummer. Also congratulations to the winners of this months various activities.

 

Awesome read, thanks to the entire CDT and Roary to set this up
Looking forward to next month's one already!

Cheers!

 

Hey folks! Welcome to this month's edition of Sythe Monthly! It's been a month filled with e-drama, so if you aren't banned for posting personal information... congratulations!


Haha close one on that.

I liked the interview with R2

 

Nice one all.

 

Thanks to Roary and CDT - my first Newsletter mention!

 

An interesting read, especially the interview.

Keep it up

 

Interesting news Keep it up guys

 

Enjoyed the read, especially the R2 interview.

 

Good read! Thanks for putting it together! I watched "Pokemon but with animals instead" and found it a little bizarre but a good laugh ^_^

 

nice community i like reading these

 

Well done Roary

 

Lol'd. Take it easy, now =].

Yeah I found the stuff to be pretty neat... Richard moved the released from Sand Box to Donor Lounge... I'm not complaining because:

Which also gave me a good laugh. It's a very serious donation amount... I am humbled.

Fancy news about the BTC ATM... I read somewhere that there were stores that took them too lol

Congrats to Snow Patrol in managing to not have an "oops, it fell in" moment.

Gonna look at that Pokeman vidya soon...



Yeah, that IS disturbing.

This is my favorite issues because so many things I can relate to... plus it has some nice people in the accomplishments.

tl;dr Hello!

 

Sythe watching "Pokemon but with animals instead" makes me so happy. I've probably seen those three episodes a hundred times apiece..

Great issue, CDT, and congrats to everyone in the issue! R2P's interview was an excellent read.

 

Not bad. Not much happened this month :/

 

Awesome read