This has all become so absurd. The whole trust picture has become debatable because in the last iteration , Theymos truly "democratized" trust. (probably after changing his own opinion about how "decentralization" is not the answer to everything). That was when we witnessed the mass uprising with all the "oppressed" people red-tagged by Lauda et al coming to realize their strength in numbers.
Suchmoon has clearly stated that he will give trust ratings based only on trade history. Nullius wants trust system to imply trustworthiness in terms of overall judgement and principled behavior. If humans were perfect and we all had the same levels of self-respect, everybody on the forum would be making independent judgement on trust (Whether trade based or opinion based) and it would all come down to a stable equilibrium sans any drama.
What happens in reality is that the world gets divided into camps. There are the ones sticking to their self-held principles/ judgement trying to be the "lonely wolves". They get targeted by the "swarm" of people whose opinions are generally determined and swayed by their common interests on the forum (bounties/ referrals/ earning). Theymos once said that he considers it one of the success stories for the forum that it enables people in developing countries to make money.
The fault with this "principled" side lies that they are too clever for their own good. They are passionate about their quest to clean up and target the scammers. They find people abusing the system and all that righteous fury spills out as colorful, sarcastic language that cuts deep. "Pajeet, Third world bottom feeder, all your cousins and uncles" are the oft-repeated generalizations. When you use that language you risk biasing each and everyone of those people against you.
The swarm on the other hand consists mainly of the followers and a few leaders. These leaders generally have a separate sense of "sharing the goods" which doesn't always matches with the work-ethics of our lonely wolves. The drama in Turkish section is a typical example of this where people actually considered it natural to include their family and exchange trust ratings/ merits to "progress" in the forum. This seems childish to the lone wolf at best and unethical at worst. To the swarm, its just how things work. Through a system of references and propping up one another. The problem with the swarm is when its leaders try to use "democracy" to settle scores. They easily utilize the pain caused by the aforementioned sarcastic insults to target these people.
This has been going on for a long time and I suppose nullius missed a lot of that drama. The trust system has to kindda evolve into a state where the Swarm leaders and lonely wolves can agree to a certain set of ethics. Suchmoon has been through most of that drama and has found refuge into simplifying the system. "Trust is only for trade, easy-peasy". It can only be good that both him and Nullius are being forced into a discussion so we can once again have something more than simple commercial interests drive this forum.
PS: I forgot to add, "Win Big with the Lucky Cat"...LOL..
Suchmoon has clearly stated that he will give trust ratings based only on trade history. Nullius wants trust system to imply trustworthiness in terms of overall judgement and principled behavior. If humans were perfect and we all had the same levels of self-respect, everybody on the forum would be making independent judgement on trust (Whether trade based or opinion based) and it would all come down to a stable equilibrium sans any drama.
What happens in reality is that the world gets divided into camps. There are the ones sticking to their self-held principles/ judgement trying to be the "lonely wolves". They get targeted by the "swarm" of people whose opinions are generally determined and swayed by their common interests on the forum (bounties/ referrals/ earning). Theymos once said that he considers it one of the success stories for the forum that it enables people in developing countries to make money.
The fault with this "principled" side lies that they are too clever for their own good. They are passionate about their quest to clean up and target the scammers. They find people abusing the system and all that righteous fury spills out as colorful, sarcastic language that cuts deep. "Pajeet, Third world bottom feeder, all your cousins and uncles" are the oft-repeated generalizations. When you use that language you risk biasing each and everyone of those people against you.
The swarm on the other hand consists mainly of the followers and a few leaders. These leaders generally have a separate sense of "sharing the goods" which doesn't always matches with the work-ethics of our lonely wolves. The drama in Turkish section is a typical example of this where people actually considered it natural to include their family and exchange trust ratings/ merits to "progress" in the forum. This seems childish to the lone wolf at best and unethical at worst. To the swarm, its just how things work. Through a system of references and propping up one another. The problem with the swarm is when its leaders try to use "democracy" to settle scores. They easily utilize the pain caused by the aforementioned sarcastic insults to target these people.
This has been going on for a long time and I suppose nullius missed a lot of that drama. The trust system has to kindda evolve into a state where the Swarm leaders and lonely wolves can agree to a certain set of ethics. Suchmoon has been through most of that drama and has found refuge into simplifying the system. "Trust is only for trade, easy-peasy". It can only be good that both him and Nullius are being forced into a discussion so we can once again have something more than simple commercial interests drive this forum.
as they mysteriously appeared after very long periods of inactivity with a change in language, demeanor, and suddenly hold all the same opinions of the people listed above.
Nullius may have been inactive for sometime but I have read enough on the forum to know that this allegation of "change in language, demeanor" is pretty juvenile. Nothing has changed with Nullius. He is still the same old difficult and fun to read person that he always was.PS: I forgot to add, "Win Big with the Lucky Cat"...LOL..