He softened towards his exit, especially when some member uncovered some plagiarized posts and tried to get him banned.
Really? I certainly don't remember it that way at all, though I admit my memory is faulty more often than I'd like it to be. Lauda didn't exactly rage quit the forum, but I could have sworn that, like Vod, Lauda started leaving some very questionable feedback and I began to lose trust in him somewhat. I'm just too tired and/or lazy to go back and look at Lauda's trust page to verify that. Perhaps I will later.
I also knew of Lauda and some others before I became a member, as I was a lurker for months before joining and found the drama here to be more than a little bit interesting. It's been dull as of late, but man....when something pops off, bitcointalk can be the most entertaining site on the net.
If that's the case, then the whole DT voting system is flawed. Why should I care about someone else's trust lists? Why should anyone? It's their personal opinion, and everyone is entitled to it.
To be fair, people have been calling the DT list flawed for a very long time, especially when it came from the top down, i.e., before Theymos changed it to the rotating system we have now. I think it's worse now, and it's gotten to the point where being on DT is practically meaningless (which isn't how it used to be).
I believe that only through diversity can a community remain fresh and vibrant. If everyone were the same, how boring would that be? I like diversity because it helps me to see things from different perspectives. That's why I don't mind you doing whatever you want with your trust lists, even if it seems strange to me.
I agree with that. At the same time, there's always been a need to define a set of members who've demonstrated their trustworthiness, especially since this forum has always scammers stacked up from the floor to the ceiling, coming out of the cracks in the woodwork, and jumping out of the cereal box when you open it. I couldn't say if it's gotten better over the years, but the DT system always did have a purpose, even if its setup was highly flawed.
Anyway as I've said before, my trust list now consists of exactly this: ~DefaultTrust. I've opted out of the game I no longer care to play.