For some reason the staff found it appropriate to get directly involved with my removal over a single complaint, but not in VOD's case. One of the reasons cited were that being on the default trust is a responsibility to hold higher standards for leaving feedback in order to protect the integrity of the system. VOD is clearly abusing the default trust to serve his personal uses AT THE EXPENSE of the community repeatedly, yet I don't see staff mobilizing to protect the integrity of the default trust system. The default trust system as it is is certainly not fair, and I argue it also does a poor job of "working" by preventing scamming as well. The trust system as it exists does more harm than good, and I am not the only one who thinks so.
Vod is still at Depth 2 from Default Trust, so obviously Vod did not trigger the same reaction. In you opinion he should have triggered it, but Badbear, Canaryinthemine, and Tomatocage disagree with you. "Pushing peoples buttons" may cause people to not trust you. Those people may publish that by leaving negative feedback. It is all based on opinion. Many people trust you. Some people don't. That sounds reasonable to me. I am neutral to you because I don't know you. Vod doesn't trust you cause he said you're a liar. Takagari thinks you're trustworthy by merit of fighting Vod's feedback behaviour. That's all valid in my book.
Bottom line is that you cannot directly decide who someone trusts or not. Though of course you can influence it in many ways, ranging from exposing a persons foul play to slandering.
Also, as attractive as Vod is, I have no relationship with him other than that we happen to both post on this forum. So I am not a shill. I do think his method is effective though, so you may call me a supporter . However since the introduction of neutral feedback, I think may be more appropriate for hotheads.