Did Gar255 put a gun to his head? No one forced the bidders to do anything.
Having an alt that artificially raises the bid price is similar to a secret reserve price in an auction. There's nothing inherently wrong with it
In any case, alts aren't against forum rules, and scammer tags are typically only given when an explicit agreement is broken. Garr255 never promised not to bid on his own auctions. He never even promised to honor the results of the auctions. Without contracts that say otherwise, auctions are only devices to assist in price negotiations.
I think this should be stockied in order for everybody to know forums policy.
No gun to head, no scam.
Shill bidding is allowed.
Auctions mean nothing unless everything is agreed on beforehand, including the fact that the auctioneer will honor the winner.
I don't know if you realize that new members see the auction subforums and might think its a serious business. There are business transactions conducted in here that are based on trust, and it has been demostrated that this trust is not broken if a long time member uses deceiving tactics and blatantly lies to the community and/or his business counterparts to pursue personal gain.
If what Garr255 did does not deserve an "untrustworthy" tag, then what does? Serious question: please mods let us the regular folks know what kind of behavior is needed for an untrustworthy tag to be applied. Money and ethics are at stake in here.
And please consider that this shitstorm was triggered by a decision that a huge part of this community doesn't understand.