Once you fully understand the system, it's important to start using it:
- Did you do a trade in which you risked funds? Leave feedback!
- Did you see users who left accurate Trust feedback on many accounts? Add them to your Trust list!
But first, keep reading, so you're sure you know the difference.
Since this is a beginners guide, I'll only cover the most important parts. I can't cover all details here, but even without knowing all the details, many people can improve how they use the Trust system.
I created TrustTestUser to aid in creating screenshots and links. Please don't consider this as leaving positive feedback to my alt, I don't intend to use this account for anything else.
Don't confuse your Trust list with feedback
Trust feedback: leave feedback to people you trust or don't trust. Or leave neutral comments.
Trust list: a list of people who's judgement on others you trust (username) or don't trust (~username).
Trust feedback
Trust feedback (Positive/Neutral/Negative) can be used to express your opinion about someone's trustworthiness. In other words: would you trust or have you trusted this user with your money?
Where to find it: Click on a username to go to the user's profile, then click Trust to see their Trust summary (depending on the board it can also be shown under the username).
After clicking it, you're on the user's Trust summary. Read the description per Type carefully:
Note that the description for Positive, Neutral and Negative is different than it was 4 months ago: it was changed when Trust Flags were introduced.
Positive (shown as +1)
- If you made a small deal with someone, that doesn't deserve positive feedback.
- If you made a deal in which you risked a substantial amount of money with someone, and all went well, that deserves positive feedback.
- If someone is a nice guy (or girl), that doesn't deserve positive feedback.
- If you believe someone can be trusted, even when you didn't trade with him, that too deserves positive feedback.
Neutral (shown as =1)
- Use Neutral feedback for anything that doesn't mean someone can or can't be trusted. This can be good feedback, for instance when someone helped you out.
- I think Neutral Feedback is currently undervalued on Bitcointalk. It's a great tool to de-escalate without drastic consequences. Please use it when appropriate.
Negative (shown as -1)
- If you believe someone is a scammer, or someone is likely to scam, that deserves negative feedback. Please provide evidence.
- If you really hate someone and he's a terrible troll, that does not deserve negative feedback.
The result after receiving feedback once for each Type:
Comments
Write a clear description. Keep it as short as possible without leaving things out. If your comment gets too long, create a topic in Reputation or Scam Accusations to refer to.
Try to be objective. If you stick to the facts, people are more likely to take your feedback seriously than if you resort to name calling.
Use Reference links
A Reference link provides more background information about the Feedback. This is very helpful for others to assess whether or not your judgement was correct.
You can use a Webpage archive to preserve evidence when needed for your Reference link.
Be the bigger man!
With great power comes great responsibility (source unknown). Especially when you're on DefaultTrust (or if you want to be on DefaultTrust in the future), you shouldn't (ab)use that power by leaving (negative) feedback when someone does something you don't like. Your Sent feedback is what others use to judge your judgement.
If someone on the internet is mean to you: boo fucking hoo! Use the Ignore button, and forget about them.
Delete feedback
You can delete feedback by visiting the user's Trust sumary. Any feedback left by you has a link to (Delete) it:
Please delete feedback when it's no longer appropriate. You can for instance replace old negative feedback by new neutral feedback when the situation justifies it. If the situation is the other way around, I suggest to leave the old neutral feedback, and add new negative feedback.
Do's and Don'ts
- Don't leave positive feedback for your own alt account (use neutral comments for this).
- Don't leave negative feedback when someone violates the forum rules. Instead, use Report to moderator for rule violations.
- Do leave mutual neutral feedback if you want to show which alt account(s) belong to you.
- Don't leave (negative) feedback based on retaliation.
- Don't leave (positive) feedback just because someone left it to you.
These are mere guidelines
Trust isn't moderated, but how you use it is your "business card" to the community. Use the above as guidelines only. It's meant to give you a general idea of what I consider good behaviour. It's also wise to ask yourself before leaving feedback: "Does my feedback make Bitcointalk a better place? And if it's negative: is it worth destroying someone's account and reputation over this?". Consider using Neutral feedback if neither Positive nor Negative is justified.
Trust Flags
I won't cover Trust Flags in details here (for now). The most important thing for creating, Supporting or Opposing Trust Flags is to read very carefully what it says before clicking. If something is incorrect, don't Support it!
Trust list
You should add users who left accurate feedback and have good Trust lists to your Trust list, and you should exclude users who leave inaccurate feedback.
This means your Trust list should be based on how you value the users' judgement on others, and it should not be based on whether or not you Trust those users (with money) or traded with them.
I encourage anyone to create their own custom Trust list! But before you do, please continue reading so you understand the implications.
Where to find it: Click on any user's profile, then click Trust, and click Trust settings.
I recommend to keep DefaultTrust on the list so that you see feedback based on DT1 and DT2 members by default.
You can include any user by adding their name to your Trust list. And you can exclude any user by adding their name with a "~" in front of it. When you're done, click Update. Example:
In the above example, you can see I have excluded cryptohunter, and included guitarplinker and NLNico. DefaultTrust is still on my Trust list too.
Unless you know what you're doing, you should leave the Trust depth at 2.
Implications of making a Trust list
Adding users to your Trust list has large recursive implications because the users you trust directly (Depth 0) make you trust the ones they trust (Depth 1), and the users they trust (Depth 2) (see details beyond beginner level).
Once you have a custom Trust list, you'll see different Trust scores than users without a custom Trust list. You can always add ;dt to any URL to view the forum as if you didn't set a custom Trust list (see this example).
Public record
Note that all Trust lists are public: theymos publishes a weekly list, which I use for my Trust list viewer. I keep historic records (currently 38 weekly snapshots). You can use this tool, to asses which users you deem worthy to include on your own Trust list.
I don't censor data: your choices will remain visible even after you change it, so choose wisely.
Do's and Don'ts
- Don't add users to your Trust list because they've added you!
- Don't exclude users from your Trust list based on retaliation. It's okay to trust someone's judgement, even when he doesn't trust yours.
- Don't add someone to your Trust list because you had a trade with them. Even if you trust them with money, that doesn't mean you should trust their judgement on others. I think this is the most common mistake made on Trust lists!
- It's okay to include your alt-account on your own Trust list. This means you trust the feedback you left from that account. Example:Quotehilariousandco Trusts these users' judgement:
7. hilariousetc (Trust: +3 / =1 / -0) (1725 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP) - Don't include your main account from your alt account(s). This could influence DT1-voting, and although that's not part of this guide, it's bad.
DefaultTrust
DefaultTrust (or DT) has several Trust depth levels, and is set to depth 2 for anyone who didn't change it. This means that feedback left by all DT1 and DT2 members is by default shown for all users. Don't worry about this for now, it's not the main concern of this topic.
Any feedback left by you, always shows as Trusted to you. But it depends on other users' Trust settings whether or not it shows as Trusted to them.
DT1 voting
Depending on certain criteria (which fall beyond the scope of this topic), creating your own Trust makes you eligible to vote for DT1-members, and/or you can be selected for DT1 yourself. Once you're on DT1, the users included on your Trust list reach DT2, which means their feedback is shown by default too. That's a big responsibility, but as long as you (and the majority of other users too) use Trust properly, the voting system should work even if you don't fully understand it.
No spam
If you quote the entire OP, I'll delete your post. Stay on topic.
Translations for local boards
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian): [Guide] Cara Menggunakan Sistem Trust Dengan Benar (Versi Bahasa)
- Deutsch (German): Anleitung für Anfänger zur korrekten Verwendung des Trust Systems !
- Pyccкий (Russian): [Pyкoвoдcтвo] Cиcтeмa дoвepия
- Türkçe (Turkish): ⚡ Yeni Başlayanlar İçin ⚡ Trust Sistemi Kullanım Kılavuzu
- Português (Portuguese): [Guia] Como utilizar o sistema de Trust (confiança) do fórum corretamente
- Pilipinas: [GABAY] sa mga baguhan para sa wastong paggamit ng Trust system [LoyceV]
- Italiano (Italian): Re: [INFO] TRUST. Come funziona il sistema di feedback
- Français: Guide pour débutants sur l'utilisation correcte du système de Trust par LoyceV
- Hrvatski (Croatian): Vodič za pravilno korištenje Trust sustava
- العربية (Arabic): دليل للإستخدام الصحيح لنظام الثقة
- Română (Romanian): Ghidul incepatorilor pentru folosirea corecta a sistemului Trust [LoyceV]
- বাংলাদেশ (Bangladesh): ট্রাস্ট সিস্টেমের সঠিক ব্যবহার
- Malay (Malaysia): [GUIDE] Panduan pemula untok gunekan Trust sistem yang betol oleh LoyceV
- Español (Spanish): Introducción y guía de para el sistema de confianza (por LoyceV)
- India (Hindi): ट्रस्ट सिस्टम का उपयोग कैसे करें
- Pakistan (Urdu): لوائس وی نئے ممبران کو ٹرسٹ سسٹم کے درست استعمال کے لئے رہنمائی کرتے ہیں
If you're translating this topic, please post a link, so I can add them here.
Help me improve this topic, if anything is unclear or missing: please post it
