Hi @drakos,
I am not a fan of Jerry but I feel I must just say for objectivity purposes that when I checked out his original post on phist.steemdata.com, I've noticed that he clearly stated many times, that he does not recommend using his services only as a last resort, when someone doesn't seem to be able to register any other way. He also said that the registration procedure costs him $36 for each user.
I don't necessarily agree with rounding 36 to $50 but I've seen worst rip offs in my life (apple?)! At least he is saying that it doesn't really worth it.
I don't know about his other actions you have stated above, therefore I will not argue those.
However, Steem is the most open platform I've ever seen. I really hope it's going to stay open and free for everyone!
He should learn how the account creation process works, before embarking on a crusade to recruit people by feeding them false information. Everything he said was totally wrong. If he's really sincere about discouraging people from using HIS service, why the hell even post about it?
Why don't we encourage him to focus on what he knows then, marketing to new users? Could the community even help provide better documentation to that end?
If Jerry has value as a witness, that is what it will be in - sign-ups.
this sounds like it will be a job for captain hindsight
If he's not still working on BP/DP.
Honestly, the word to mouth gets out pretty quickly about Steemit, and users were already flocking before jerry joined. The account signups have doubled in 4 months, and that's not because of him. The more users, the bigger the snowball effect. One marketer isn't the only reason for Steem's success.
"The account signups have doubled in 4 months, and that's not because of him."
If you have evidence, by all means, present it. Otherwise, I will relegate this to the pile with other unsupported statements I can ignore.
It is a fact that he has brought $100,000s into the platform. Indisputable. I don't think he deserves running out of town on assumption of malice.
Can he explain why it costs him $36, when other witnesses will do it at cost for $6 STEEM?
He was doing it via Vessel out of (presumably) ignorance. That costs 30 (Steem?) per account created.
So, potentially not malicious but overpriced.
Actually, stating that the cost is at a certain amount when the cost is much less, is being malicious. The handling fee on top of the inflated cost is just the overpriced bit.
"Actually, stating that the cost is at a certain amount"
If we at least consider his side of the story as plausible, he thought he was going to be using Vessel, where the cost is reportedly 30 Steem?
Offering at cost would be silly, because anyone taking Paypal is taking risk of chargebacks.
Bad service, but I don't think it was a scam or malicious. Just dumb.
Cost at Vessel is 30 Steem, he was charging 36 as "cost" and then charging on top of that.
$50 is what he was charging for the service.
30 x 1.11 (internal market current price) = 33.33
Closes most of the gap to 36 at least, and he probably used a price of 1.20, where it's hovered for awhile.
I'm not saying it wasn't a bad idea, but I don't think it was pre-meditated money making scheme. If it was, he could have done it cheaper and pocketed more, no? Ignorance of the alternatives seems more likely.
Or, he could have know both ways and decided to charge the higher price and then pad it.
But, we don't know his intent, other than he seems like the type of person to sell free stuff for $180.
"Actually, stating that the cost is at a certain amount when the cost is much less, is being malicious."
PS - You don't know what malicious means.
It requires intent, which you are ignoring.
He can't explain anything because he doesn't know what he's doing.
Ironically, that IS the explanation.