I'll do my part to get it filled up

I would suggest a simplified and softened version with no protocol level enforcement.

Currently the minimum fee is 0.1 BTS and the default is 0.5.  Some of the light wallets are already boosting this fee slightly to pay for their development.  I suggest that some wallets could support defaulting to add an additional 0.1-0.5 BTS fee for every transaction, payed to the account that payed the registration fee for that wallet installations first account.  The idea here is that our grassroots marketers introduce people to BitShares, set up their wallets and register them, and receive transaction fees until the new user either stops using the network or changes the default settings.

This way there's no controversial protocol level enforcement pushed by the network as a whole, and marketers are incentivized to get legitimate users, because they're only rewarded if the user transacts.

I been watching this thread.. Finally saw one comment close to what I thought was an acceptable method.

The initial proposal has serious problems. I have run multiple affiliate programs and spent a few years as an affiliate marketing a while back.. and yeah.. even had a good dig into MLMs for a number of years... one thing I took away from it all was that often times the programs were designed in theory to be good but took the human element totally the wrong way... people just don't understand it until they really get some experience.

The quote above is close to what kind of program would be very decent. We want long term, loyal, real users. The proposed program of the OP and variations following revolves around instant gratification and get rich quick.. the sign up fee is completely unacceptable. I understand the deterrent to keep bogus accounts out etc.. which is why the reward should be based on transaction fees for a period of time or for life. A high transaction trader could be worth hundreds to someone who refers them.. I also think you have to be very careful with how much of the fees you pass on through this.. otherwise the appropriate margin for marketing which for any company should not exceed 10% will become a huge burden to the ecosystem.

Personally I think the programmable wallet with the fee split is the way to go.. just have a clear mechanism that allows 3rd parties to implement such programs. Leave it to a 3rd party affiliate marketer/network operator to deal with all the headaches of managing everyone and keeping the network going (and believe me.. there are many) to make their money.. they know what they are doing.. standards are set... and accessing other networks with the opportunity can be done effectively.

As for everyone else getting nasty about this.. remember it was just a member of the community.. a delegate.. who is sharing an idea to help grow the community.. if you don't like it that's fine.. don't need to get rude about it.

I found a lot of references to their rise and failure.. but not with quotes like that.

I am going to guess they may have come from one of the guys book he published.  http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/11/06/the-rise-and-fall-of-diaspora-would-be-facebook-challenger

Hope someone else is more successful than I.

What we do know is that CH signed a non-disclosure agreement when he left I3, so anything he said in that Youtube video is in fact not the actual reason he left.

Not necessarily.. NDAs are generally about business itself.. personal opinions and fair comment on relationships and ideas are ok to go on and discuss at his pleasure. NDA might have taken issue if he had perhaps revealed some kind of details regarding some trade secret.. trade secret in the business vernacular that is.

I did notice through out the hangout of all the things he discussed.. he gave praise to bitshares on a number of occasions.. and only noted one thing he thought could be done better.. the voting for delegates in our network. That's not news to us.. we all know there is room for improvement but there are more critical functions to deal with now.

CH brought up a lot of things about bitcoin that you could tell in the hangout they did not like hearing. Someone even tried to suggest how 10 years from now people are still going to want to use bitcoin.. but CH shot down that idea.. I can see why they would not like to have him speak at conferences.. it's not unlike why these bitcoin conferences don't want to have bitshares on the scene.

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With everything going on.. the way the market cap moves is making me think this is purposeful.

Some people are about to get really rich really fast.

Posts/threads like these make me think there are two issues at hand.

1. Sockpuppet troll happy just causing trouble to drive the price down so they can buy.. or maybe even just to cause trouble because they see bitshares as a real threat to whatever else they are doing. Saying he is hiding when he was just on a hangout Friday is completely contrary to reality.

2. We are not doing a good enough job communicating updates to 'everyone'. Our good news updates often are not more than a single forum thread post that gets 3-4 days of attention and mostly from those that know about them coming or are following all areas of the forum and then drops off the radar to be replaced by these.

There are a few things I propose should/could be done to help:

1. Send email updates out to all forum participants about updates perhaps in a digest every two weeks. Everything from bitshares itself to the user initiatives.. or rather.. send out the nullstreet newsletter to everyone via email.

2. Start 'sticky' posting all these latest updates for a period of 30 days from the time of the update. I think this will help people who come browsing find out what is going on more easily. 

3. Create a forum section called 'sour grapes' or something else.. other ideas are 'concerned citizens' where we can consolidate all the actors into their own space to enjoy their sour grape together and not cause the rest of our discussion to be detracted.

These are just a few possible ideas off the top of my head. Anybody have other suggestions?