Again, to clarify, I like Vod. I have seen him bust a great many scams, and he has a razor wit. My problem here is that the trust is based solely on disliking the man's opinion. And I would also not have a problem with that if Vod were NOT in the Default Trust listings, because those are people who the forum members have not deemed to be objective or useful.
Default Trust should not be given lightly, and those who have it should not use it to address personal affront.
And to the commenter who said "one or two instances..." That was kind of my point. I considered this an example of something that seems systemic. That it was Vod in this case is regrettable. He's usually level headed, and BADecker is a difficult man.
But it wasn't unique, nor just Vod. It seems pretty common.
Trust, according to the posts regarding it going clear back to when I started lurking (2011-12), IS supposed to be about whether the person has demonstrated some tendency to be a scammer or thief, and also the opposite. It is not solely about business, but that was (at least then) the primary aim. If I'm considering doing business with someone, I definitely look at their trust rating. It's not the sole criteria, and in fact I frequently look to see WHAT the red is. It's very often trivial nonsense, or a poor opinion of someone based on their opinions.
But I'm not a newbie. Not for a very long time. A new guy is LIKELY to put some weight to the trust system, and this makes my point valid.
Correct. I was browsing through the marketplace because I saw some things I wanted to buy or sell to, but the OP had red trust ratings. So I immediately closed the thread.
But then it baffled me why someone with such a high level account and offering so many services, and with a thread that sounded legit... why he had such a red score. So I clicked and realized it was just people dissatisfied with his personality/character or what he was selling.
I'm sure most new people to this forum would do the same.
I definitely think there should be a separation of business feedback and general trust. But I have a feeling that would undermine both systems, so we're stuck with just the trust system.
I'm not sure what the Default Trust is, but it sounds like that's the more "business" kind of feedback. But I see that gets abused at times as well.
In the real world I couldn't care less if someone is a bigot or an ass. Most successful businessmen have crappy attitudes, just the way life goes. I'm still going to do business with them.