Topic: The curious case of sticky topics created by authors with negative Trust (Read 357 times)

But I also don't think that's very fair to other respectable members.
I say this because some of us can create a very well-developed topic about an important subject for the whole community, and the moderators conclude that it should be a sticky topic.
If only that special account creates these topics, other good topics created by other users will no longer be marked and forgotten.

With the state of the trust system currently, I wouldn't worry too much about this.  Hell, I've been trusted with millions of dollars in trades on this site now (hundreds of millions worth of BTC at today's valuation), and I have negative trust from users that some of you think are honest in spite of never having lost a single satoshi of anyone's, ever...  So I have a hard time thinking about users who may not have my extensive list of trusted feedback being blacklisted by dishonest members who got themselves into DT, usually through things other than real world Bitcoin activity.  When DT became more about politics than safety for end users, it stopped being useful for this sort of blacklisting.

I believe this may explain why Lauda was not banned (again) in 2020:


At the same time, when Lauda plagiarized, there was no rule against plagiarism. Yes, believe it or not, there was no such rule:


Therefore this may be another reason for the absence of the ban: there was no such punishment in 2015, when Lauda plagiarized; the anti-plagiarism rule was implemented in 2016.

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Well, at least, we still have something good from this topic, as you remembered about this user and you decided to remove that negative feedback

I get your point which you are talking how can a scammers's thread can serve as a guide to the newcomers but what if we think in different POV, no body knows how to scam someone better than a scammer then its rational to read their guides about how to avoid scams and what to do when someone got scammed,etc.

Apart from scam accusation threads DT score is irrelevant to the knowledge so we don't have to remove those pinned threads unless the data becomes obsolete.

Let's say one of the forum staff creates an account for that specific purpose and at some point in time he gets tagged for something (on his main account). Since this new account is connected with his main one, it will automatically get tagged as well. Therefore, creating new account just for that makes no sense to me and its unnecessary complication.
In the end, you can't 100% prevent an account getting negative feedback due way trust system works.

The creation of special account is to avoid of having negative feedback since it will only be used for such purpose since the main issue here is the account/s of having negative trusts/tag because mods even admins can be tagged, like who knows they are inevitable from that.

Oh man, I handed out that negative when I was on a rampage back in 2016 and anyone even placing a bet (when forum accounts were being auctioned publicly) would get one from me. 

To the point of this thread, I don't think it matters who the author is of a stickied thread as long as whatever point is being made is valid, which should be the case since the assumption is that pegging a thread to the front page of a section is an endorsement of its importance and accuracy by Theymos and/or the mods.

Stephen Gornick never asked me to remove that feedback as far as I know.  I probably should, since it was so long ago but I have mixed feelings about it.  Judging from his other feedback he looks to be a chronic seller of accounts of various types.  Or at least was when he was last active here.[/list]

Creating special account just for pinned posts is kinda over complicating the issue and it would be more elegant if they just did it by themselves on their own main accounts. After all, how often mods get tagged for scams?


Iirc plagiarized posts were made in 2015 and they were discovered in 2020 so yeah I think you are right. And then few months after the discovery, Lauda decided to leave the forum . Since he didn't get any sort of ban in the meantime I am not so sure that was the main reason for leaving. Unless he felt kinda embarrassed with all that mess since he was very strict when other plagiarized and decided to leave.

May be I messed up my memory but as far as I remember the plagiarism thing happened a long time ago and after discovering it we also passed long years. When Lauda asked for banning herself, at that time there were nothing existed, she was doing well and the good bye thread came just suddenly. Again I may messed up my memory, after all I am ageing 🤣

Lauda male or female or shemale (😉) still is a mystery. But she was a cat for sure.

What if the new author of the pinned thread received a negative feedback for some reason ^{since DT are regularly changing so reds wil be visible}, so another author/thread will be chosen to be pinned, so on and so forth, there's no end to that.

Permanent solution could be an admin/mods made account ^{(or just them)} that is only for this kind of topics ^{(pinned topic)}. This thread can be edited by mods as well so it will be easy to edit it when it becomes outdated just need a reminder.

Topic can only be removed if noticed was a total plagiarism or low effort topic can get deleted automatically. For those with redtag there's no need to get their topic erased I think they could be used for reference purposes if those content are valuable or helpful to be use by the forum members.  Tag are just a result of not being honest or involved in mal-activities.

I get your point and it's not perfect situation. Idea;;y, stickies should be written by someone with perfect reputation. From general image perspective, it doesn't looks good, even if content of post is good. But I think it's not right to compare users that you mentioned in OP and CSW or Roger Ver. Biggest clown in crypto and someone with compromised account - maybe a bit too extreme comparison. And negative trust doesn't always can be received for scamming something, sometimes it can result of disagreement between DT members, even if it's not right use of trust system. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that Lauda had negative trust even when she was active as she was contraversial personality.
I doubt that we will hear theymos stance on it, but from what I understand, he don't want to mix moderation and trust system much. But it would be interesting to hear what forum staff thinks about it.

Lauda asked to be banned after he was exposed for plagiarism that ruined his reputation, and he is a male but you can call him it if you want.
Punishment for multiple cases of plagiarism is permaban so he decided to perform hara-kiri.

But we the people (members) can report all sticky topics that are obsolete and outdated, and this is not so hard to accomplish.
I am sure we can find plenty of volunteers for this work and for editing or rewriting this topics.

DT coalition is sadly on life support currently.  

Most sticky topics in Beginners & Help section has outdated information.
Imagine recommending someone Bitcoin wallets with topic that was not updated for years, or checking How to earn Bitcoins topic, and this is just a few examples.
Trust feedback is important, but I think it's time to check and clean up all stickies.

The way DT is these days, it's entirely possible that there could eventually be a - sticky topic on nearly every board. Scammers make DT every month and their inclusions then make DT2 leading to lots of new/old tags that will be visible on trust scores.

My opinion, as long as the information is valid, why mess with it? The easier solution if anything might be to remove trust scores on sticky topics.

I totally understand.
There really isn't a leeway, unless it's something agreed with the admin/moderation of the forum.

Perhaps, make a more detailed overview of all these sticky topics, regardless of who wrote them, and suggest the respective update or authorization to update them.

I don't think it works just like that...

I believe that should be a decision taken together with moderators, theymos and a majority of users.

If I (or anyone else) would just do it, without consent or approval of forum staff, such move may be considered, in best case scenario, as a double topic. And it would imply questions like "Why haven't you checked first, to see if there is any other topic on this matter"?. Remember, that was the best case scenario. Worst case scenario is to have the new topic reported as plagiarism and actually be considered by mods as plagiarizing the original one, which leads to ban.

For these reasons I am reluctant in doing anything unless a consent is met or until a decision coming from theymos, although seeing a sticky topic written by a scammer in Legal board feels like a kidney stone and when I see the sticky from Scam accusation board also written by a scammer my eyes are bleeding

No doubt I find it very ironic!

But who better to explain how not to fall for scams than the scammer himself? They know well how the scheme works, so they are the best at explaining how not to fall into this trap. 

Of course, that doesn't make much sense and doesn't look good. But, as I commented, the majority of users who will look at these topics are users who don't know well how the forum's trust system works and therefore don't even notice it.

But I agree that this and other topics can be written, with more current information and by more reliable users (to date).


GazetaBitcoin why don't you try to make a new topic on the subject, and then ask to be pinned in place of the old one? It doesn't hurt to try...

I think another reason why a banned user can have a chances of creating an appeal on the the ban placed is for the community to look into the case at first, access the whole situation if or not a second chance can be given after considering the role such user had played in the past to the forum growth, i user can get banned and his threads created that has significant taughts can still be use, as a matter of fact the thread can also be active if the discussion is what should be on a continuous follow-up, any member that violate the rules faces the consequence no matter who he is and that doesn't renders his past thread less important.

Think about this: BitcoinTalk forum has (should have) very high standards. It cares (through its users and administration) a lot for combating spam, for example. It is one of the very few (if not the only) forums which bans plagiarism. And examples can go on and on. These high standards pushed this forum way ahead of others, like CryptocoinTalk, AltcoinTalk etc. Right? If it is so, then these high standards should be enforced wherever possible. Including in not having sticky topics with obsolete materials or created by authors with no credibility. Picture these sticky topics as landmarks of a particular board. Having a topic set as sticky one makes it practically to be pushed forward in front of all other topics, right? It means it is a topic representative for the respective board. Maybe one of most important topics of that board. And, if that topic is written by someone with -5 Trust what impression does it make about the entire board? I think this thought appears naturally, for many users: "Since most important topic of this board is written by a scammer then this board is full of scammers.".

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Don't you find ironic at all that a topic which is representative for Legal board (such as List of court cases, complaints, regulatory actions, etc.) to be written by a scammer, also involved in account selling and account farming?! Seriously?

Don't you find ironic at all that a topic which is representative for Scam accusation board to be written by a felon arrested for scams?

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I fully agree here and I also mentioned these materials in the previous posts of this topic.

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I have no idea... I asked theymos once twice, but I did not receive any answer.

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Lol! True, there are some having a double personality disorder =)))

If the content is relevant and useful, I don't think it matters who wrote it. Since for those who understand the trust system of the forum, you will not look at the OP of this topic, but at the content of it. Perhaps those who visit the topics the most are newbies and many may still not clearly understand how the trust system works, nor will they notice it.

Now, what I think should be evaluated were the topics that are fixed. Many were written nearly 10 years ago, and probably already contain information that is out of date or of little current value. Those who created these topics have their merit, but it is necessary to review and write new ones.


What are the criteria for a topic to be pinned?