Being on the Depth 2 Trust List confers huge powers on an account. I would even go as far as saying that members on the Depth 2 List holds more clout than moderators. At any given moment, a person with that kind of authority can destroy the reputation of a member - instantly.
Theymos and BadBear has stated before that no one should depend on Trust Scores alone when conducting trades. Due diligence should be conducted on the account history and to always use escrows. But the fact is, Trust Score is being used as a gauge of members' trustworthiness. More than that, red trust figures automatically devalues not only the credit worthiness of any particular member, it even affects the weight of their opinion and community standing. The impact is even more pronounced on newbies and members who do not frequent the Meta section.
In light of this, I think it is only fair to expect those on the Default Trust and Depth 2 list to not only be fair, but be seen as fair. Their decisions should be judicious, impartial and based on facts.
Which brings us to Vod. Many will argue that he is a useful member of the community, keeping a close eye on potential scammers. Sometimes, he reminds me of Philip K. Dick's precogs - sitting in a dark room somewhere catching potential scammers before they even thought of scamming.
The problem though, in my opinion, Vod is injudicious and partial with his powers, and at times, base his ratings on how people react to his goadings. I also question his basic honesty, as the reasons for his negging will sometimes 'evolve' after being challenged. The problem is, Vod is trusted by BadBear (among others), who has seen it fit to defend his abuse of the trust system publicly. So instead of arguing abstracts, I'll just list a few of his abuse of the system that I found over the last 15 minutes and let the rest of the members to evaluate whether Vod deserves his Depth 2 authority. Keep in mind that another Depth 2 member was recently stripped of his power after two Default Trust members withdrew their positive ratings.
1. Vod giving out negative rating after being blackmailedIn the interest of the truth, Vod admitted to me once that he was extorted into placing negative feedback onto my profile. He never told me who it was, but i can count on 1 hand my enemies and i'm pretty sure i know who gave the edict. The user couldn't place direct feedback on my profile because i have pictures of him caught red handed scamming this forum. I've got screenshots and pm's from Vod too. He did the right thing and removed the feedback. I think it was Vod, it might have been someone else. It was definitely one of TradeFortress's minions i know that for sure. Are they scammers, i don't know. Are they just as confused as the rest of us? Maybe so.
2. Vod giving out negative rating based on anonymous reports that he can't substantiate and renegading on a deal to mutually remove negsI've left the OP negative trust based on reports I have received.
If OP wants to start fresh, he needs to remove his negative feedback. I'm not considering anything while that BS is up there.
I've added to my signature that I will no longer accept anonymous scam reports, and I've removed that negative feedback I couldn't prove in the open forum due to a promise I made.
This should end the entire "abuse of trust system" issue.
What is this? So you took down the two neg feedbacks you put on my trust, only to put a new one up?
I said I would close the thread when it's resolved.
Take it down and be done with it already. Enough drama. Seriously this is getting ridiculous.
Vod 0: -0 / +1(1) 2013-11-12 0.00000000
Reference
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/abuse-of-the-trust-system-by-vod-329358This guy is a troll and UNTRUSTWORTHY. Likes to accuse random users of things he cannot prove, and abuses the trust system.I was kind of drunk last night when I posted that. I've removed it and I apologize for the mess.
I am sure many other examples can be found for those with time on their hands. I think the two obvious questions here are
(i) If Default Trust members can be pressured to withdraw ratings for a particular Depth 2 list member based on one infraction, why should Vod be subjected to a different standard?
(ii) Will I receive some loving neg reps as well?
I'm not a prolific poster, so sometimes it may take a few days to respond to any post.
