I dont agree that this has influence on hilariousandco's moderation work, but Im in support of an open discussion regarding the trusted status of Lauda.
If hilariousandco is putting an extortionist in a position of power and authority publicly, then how can we trust him to take moderation actions that are, by definition anonymous?
Believing that Lauda behaves like this for the sake of the community does not makes the person believing it a complete morron by default that is no longer able to do what they have been done well for a long time. If you argue like this, no one should read anything you said, because you made the mistake of escrowing for yourself in the past.
You are making assumptions that are unfounded and/or untrue.
Individual members should make their own conclusions as to if someone should be trusted. If evidence cannot and is not posted on a regular basis, then the person making accusations should not be trusted.
Lauda regularly refuses to provide evidence of allegations he makes when leaving negative ratings, making it impossible to dispute what lauda alleges. This ignores the fact that if alligations are correct, that the receiver of negative ratings would not be a scammer by any measure.
I trust Lauda's ratings here regardless of what he did
So you believe what Lauda says regardless of his past transgressions? You do realize that lauda's history of extorting people means any rating (including lack thereof) could be the result of extortion, right? It is fairly standard to (at least attempt to) hide the fact that a specific person is extorting someone, but rather to prove knowledge of specific negative information.
and think he is of benefit to the community being on default trust, but if I felt he was abusing his position on there for personal vendettas or to extort people then I would have no issue in removing him.
There will almost never be evidence of extortion in these situations. Lauda will use alternate accounts to extort users. There is no benefit to using a credible/primary account to carry out an extortion scheme as long as you can show your victim that you have the knowledge of information the victim does not want made public.