The only thing that really is trust abuse is lying, with a few exceptions.
That is a ridiculous assertion. Both positive and negative ratings have a clear description and if the situation doesnt match the description (reasonably), it is abuse.
Being a troll has nothing to do with the chances of someone not honoring their obligations in a trade, which is what the trust system is supposed to help people measure.
The same can be said in many other reasons for giving out ratings.
Thats not true. Behavior does have an influence on whether you'd trade with someone or not. I personally would not trade with someone who exhibits concerning behavior. The trust system is supposed to be about accurate feedback for members, the content is more or less decided by whats acceptable by the community, and to this point, giving someone a negative for trolling, being an account farmer, owning multiple accounts, being racist, etc isn't something thats unheard of. It would be abuse to claim that the guy is a serial scammer because of their behavior. It isn't abuse to point out that behavior however.
I personally wouldn't give out negatives for trolling, but I also wouldn't give out negatives for owning multiple accounts or account farming, and thats the generally accepted practice by the community. I however certainly would give out a negative if it was for harassment or something of that nature.
Again, I didn't read through Cryptohunter's posts to prove to myself whether there is anything worth being concerned about from their posts. My position is that if the behavior issue is subjectively accurate, then its worth noting. I'm not claiming the claim itself is accurate or not, I'm claiming that the basis of the claim, if accurate isn't abuse.
I agree with the part of giving negatives for owning multiple accounts/farming because that's most of the time a clear sign for someone with suspicious behavior and tendency for scamming, but I do not see how trolling or even being racist have any sort of impact on the person being trust worthy or not. English is not my mother tongue but the way I understand the word trust is simply just TRUST. I had deals with people who don't start their messages with a greeting or ending with a thanks or goodbye and I personally think such people are assholes ! yet since they kept their end of the deal I left a positive feedback.
just imagine you had to buy something on this forum, you went first and the guy still delivered the goods as promised but trolled you the next day , what type of trust feedback would you give him? positive for being genuine or negative for trolling ?
I am a new member here, i know non of these gentlemen what so ever, i just think this is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with before the whole trust system becomes useless.
I guess everyone has his own ultimate opinion on what the trust system should be about. I tried searching the forum for some sort of rules related and had no luck. I think maybe theymos should make a set of rules related to this.