I predicted this would happen:
I don't see too many risks involved with that happening.I can imagine other communities will make their own DT1 "clique": for example a group of Russians, a group of Indonesians and a group of bounty hunters. As long as they stay out of each other's hair, they can co-exist. The moment they touch, it feels like a black hole collision competing for exclusions.
Let's assume "the Russians" manage to come up with 2 250+ merit users and a decent number of 10+s.
They vote one or two of their respected fellow Russians into DT1, let's call them Yuri and Ivan (am I being racist?
).Now, Yuri and Ivan maintain their respective Trust Lists in a "good" way, no problem.
If, OTOH, Yuri and Ivan start including scammers or shady members of the Russian mob into their Trust List, I doubt that will go unnoticed by their fellow DT1ers (most likely, complaints would start flooding Meta).
With ~s from DT1ers accumulating, they'd be off DT1 before anything really bad happens.
Also, from what I think I know about people in general, someone being voted into DT1 will try and behave in a manner that will keep him in position. It may not necessarily be a matter of pride, but being kicked out is still something humans usually have a dislike for.
At the same time, I doubt that a small group of Russians or, e.g. Germans could ever overwhelm DT1.
Inter-DT1-Trust-Lists will confirm the "seats" of reliable DT1ers against any attempt by a small enough group to kick them out.
Long story short: I strongly believe that "local" DT1ers won't cause much trouble.
Furthermore, there is an additional stipulation in the 2 250+ merit rule.
- You must have at least 2 people directly trusting you with an earned merit of at least 250, not including merit you yourself sent.
For example, I currently have 260 merits. I could add suchmoon to my trust list. However, suchmoon is one of my merit fans. So if I deduct suchmoon's merits, I only have 211 merits with respect to my vote for suchmoon, so my inclusion of suchmoon would not count in respect to that user for the 2 members with 250 merit. You'd need a wider network of users in order to get your puppets into DT1.
(As an aside, I'm having difficulty determining what pronoun to use when referring to Lauda and suchmoon. Him, her, they?
)