1 - trust ratings are not for marketplace deals. If you do something in another section of the forum (or even off site) that either shows that you can or cannot (should not) be trusted, or scammed (or attempted to scam), then it would be appropriate to leave trust ratings accordingly. It is also not a requirement to trade with someone personally in order to leave a trust rating as this would allow scammers to simply scam users without existing reputation and be able to maintain their existing reputation.
With the above being said, yes there are many people in the DT network that are leaving trust for no reason other then they do not like the person and/or they do not like what the person is doing. This negative trust is often justified with some comment that is factually accurate, however it would be an understatement to say that it is a stretch to link the comment to the person being an
actual scammer.
The heart of the problem is dooglus, as he is the direct reason why two of the biggest offender, cryptodevil and Vod are in the Default Trust network. When dooglus is asked to address concerns about negative ratings left by those who receive unjust negative ratings, dooglus often will make vague comments as to why the negative rating is justified, or says that he does not agree with the negative rating, but does
nothing to attempt to hold the person leaving the negative rating accountable. This is in addition to the multiple
successful extortion attempts, being involved in, including directly promoting, multiple multi-million dollar scams (
1,
2,
3), as well as the glaring conflict of interest in the negative ratings that he often leaves his competitors. Excluding dooglus from the Default Trust network would solve almost all of the issues the DT network currently has.
I agree. If trust was only for marketplace deals, it would be easier for scammers to scam. I think, though, that we can't let the fact that this is the internet. One thing people seem to do here is forget how easy it is to scam with the annoymity of the internet. That's why some people give copies of their iD some (but not most) of the time.
Another issue is that there are many people attempting to make a name for themselves with unclear motives. This is not a problem with the DT system necessarily, however people often brush off trust ratings from these people as "meaningless" when the recipient of such trust attempts to resolve the issue. The problem with brushing this negative trust off as "meaningless" is that some of these people are in some people's trust list, so it does have meaning.
Agian you are right. Some people (like the Pharmacist) are abusing the trust system. A Partial confession on my note, I would hunt around the forum and leave negative trust wherever I can. I quit doing this because I would usually get a PM (or even a new Skype contact) complaining about the trust I left them. I decided then that I have way more time doing more productive things, like watching Laracasts.
It used to be that the forum administration played a more active role in "moderating" the DT network, however now for some reason it appears that the administration's stance on the DT network is "IDGAF what happens or what trust is left by those in the DT network"
Probably most importantly, the negative trust being left by some users is diluting the effect of negative trust on actual scammers, which has resulted in multiple instances of scammers being able to continue to scam even with negative ratings because it is expected for some people to have negative trust when they have certain types of businesses.
Most people on dT will remove negetive trust if it is warranted. EucaMobi calls me a scammer once, I fix my mistake, and life goes on. (Again, another confession, I could have been more calm and chill about the whole ordeal and as I don't have negative trust now so there's no problem). That being said there are still good DTers who are at least fair.