In order to keep my posts more contained and less spammy, I am going to try and respond to several comments at once while addressing them each individually. Please understand that I am not pointing fingers or accusing anyone of anything, I am simply commenting on others opinions.

Quote from: suchmoon on April 22, 2019, 02:20:33 AM

A+ for the effort but you're missing the boat by a mile on many of those points. For one, I don't think real newbies are in any way abused here, nor do they really need to care about ranks other than perhaps getting one merit to be able to post images. If they're here to contribute content (one of your other points) - they can do it at any rank. However the onslaught of farmed accounts and shit-stirring meta-alts is real and they are not here to be "the future of the forum".

You're also making many assertions along the lines of "I don't care but I'm gonna tell you how it is" and "no wonder this or that" in a way that doesn't feel well-substantiated.

And give it another read, there's a few typos.

Thank you for your response. Yes I think that I definitely could have better articulated by ideas in hindsight but I think I got my point across. I plan on editing the OP once I hear some more feedback and have time to think about it. This wasn't meant to be a substantiated post by any means, as these are just my opinions. I did provide possible explanations for a lot of my points and although they are not at all conclusive, they hold some truth. I simply mentioned them as possible alternatives to the way people currently see things, to spark some more conversation around if things have to be this way etc.

Quote from: Quickseller on April 22, 2019, 04:11:54 AM

Interesting to see a (reddit) account seller trying to improve the forum.

I think a lot of your stated problems can be traced back to problems with the trust system, specifically from the way trust is displayed by default (DT). My suspicion is that theymos wants to have DT setup in a way that he avoids being labeled a "publisher" in regards to liability for libel. If theymos tinkers with the DT system too much, or if it is moderated too heavily, the courts might rule he is not merely hosting content, but is "publishing" content. This matters because if someone is labeled a scammer via the DT system when they are not a scammer, they could sue theymos for libel, and would do so because he is easier to find, and has more assets than most people on DT (and in the forum).

No one obviously intentionally gets scammed, but there are improvements that can be made upon the marketplace. For starters, there could be merit/rank/activity requirements in order to either start a thread, to unlock a thread (more than x times), or to create a thread with self moderation. This would at least increase the effort a scammer would need to put into trying to scam.

I don't see signature campaigns going away anytime soon -- they bring in the page views that generate revenue for the forum. Signature campaigns ultimately are market based, and advertisers pay as little as they can to get the best deal for them. I would point out that when someone pays to have their ad displayed, they are paying to have their ad displayed to potentially 20 other ads on the same page.

Except for "Lack of new upgrades" everything you are complaining about can be traced back to the trust system.

My response to this is not only directed to you, but also to others who did the same thing in above posts. Yet another person who attempts to invalidate my claims by citing my post history, fantastic job. I think the point that a lot of people seem to be misunderstanding here is that validation is completely irrelevant here. Infact I state several times that my thoughts are opinions and have absolutely no real backing whatsoever. There is no clear solution to a lot of these issues and I don't pretend to know the answer.

Thank you for some of the insight into the DT system as I had never heard of the stuff you mention before. I didn't realize there were legal limitations to it, whether they are real or not. Ads would bring a lot more money to the forum if there were a direct relationship between the advertisers and the forum owners, instead of advertiser -> user. And you are right about these campaigns not going away anytime soon, but I think there are some things we can do to help curb the amount of them. I think that you are right that a lot of these things can be related back to the trust system and that is because a lot of these issues are intertwined and involve multiple systems. That is one of the reasons finding a solution is quite hard, as a lot of the time it's hard to even identify where the problem is originating from.

Quote from: Lauda on April 22, 2019, 04:38:02 AM

Quote from: Aero Blue on April 22, 2019, 01:32:29 AM

..however I feel that most would agree that the trust system should be purely backed by deals..

Quite the lovely waste of time. It is called a system of trust not a system of trades.

Quote from: r1s2g3 on April 22, 2019, 03:56:02 AM

Quote from: Aero Blue on April 22, 2019, 01:32:29 AM

Favoritism and entitlement

There is no favoritism. Even legendary accounts get permabanned for breaking the rules (most common plagiarism.)

This is what spreading false information does to others (like OP); but hey we need a system of trust that is only for trust-farming via pocket-change deals. Roll Eyes

Thank you for calling my post a "lovely waste of time", I think that really contributes something to the conversation. Honestly, I don't really wish to reply to these comments prefaced like this in the future, but I have some things I would like to say here. First of all, yes I know the name of the system, thank you for pointing that out. But the question I would like to ask you is: What do you think the point of the trust system is? While this question is a bit of a trap because the real point has been lost, there still is some meaning in answering it. I believe the system as created in order to provide some insight into whether they person was worth dealing with. What the hell would be the point of a trust system outside the marketplace? You don't need to trust someone to have a conversation with them, there is no reason for it. The only time people really want to know if someone is trustworthy is if they are going to deal with them. I don't walk up to people on the street and ask them how trustworthy they are before saying "hi". However, if I am meeting someone selling something on craigslist, I am a bit more cautious. I feel this same logic applies to the trust system, it really doesn't apply outside the marketplace.

In your sarcastic response to my section on favoritism and entitlement:

Please, please read the section before you respond. It only makes everything more difficult as I am not really sure if you read anything I had to say, which I end up having to summarize again. I point out that these thoughts a lot of people seem to have about favoritism ARE infact wrong. Favoritism doesn't exist and people need to stop acting like it does anytime something happens or doesn't happen. I realize it's easy for others to think this when they see things happen, but a lot of the time there is not enough transparency on the issue. I am not really going to respond to your last remark as it would just be a waste of time, and I think you understand my message by now.

In regards to all the recent off-topic discussion and arguments that have inevitably come to this thread, please take it else where. I would like to keep the comments relevant, meaning they should relate to my OP in some way or another one of my posts. I am all for people voicing their opinion but let's keep this discussion mature, please.