Quote:
Originally Posted by Occidentalis
One would assume that should an individual problem arise, the user would contact the moderators. I don't think it would be as hands-on as you describe.
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Once upon a time every user could use the trader rating system. The abuse mostly occurred by someone trying to boost their own rating. They would create a shill account and give themselves positive ratings under their alias.
Then there were times that some members would claim that those giving them a bad rating never did business with them. Some claims would be that someone just trolling the forum would create account and just make up bad reviews on random accounts or someone that didn't like them created a fake account to target them.
Then you might have a user that simply is just being untruthful about doing business with you.
When we went to contributing members are higher using the trader rating system it all stopped. Someone could do it now but it would cost them $25 a user name and they would have to somehow pay without using their real name to not raise flags about the account. Since most of the problems occur from people giving themselves positive ratings it usually isn't worth it to them to pay for each fake account to bump their ratings.
Here is what needs to be considered when asking a moderator to investigate the above scenarios.
It wouldn't be to much of a stretch to moderate someone giving themselves fake ratings. We already look for people not following the rules and using bogus accounts. Creating a fake name and profile would be against the rules. It would probably add a lot more work if a lot of people start to cheat but someone would have to have some suspicions of someone doing it to bring it to our attention.
For the most part the cheats will probably go unnoticed unless they bring attention to themselves. Have a Bad BOI thread or something that catches someones attention and we have a reason to look at their ratings.
The trader ratings being wide open to all will probably boost the numbers of those that deserve the positive ratings but there will be a lot less verification of the numbers. Negative ratings will go up as well.
That would be a lot easier to deal with then the other type of abuse.
What happens if we open it up wide tomorrow and someone gives you a bad trader rating and you have never heard of them or dealt with them before?
As with the BOI the site itself doesn't judge the guilt or innocence of anyone.
The site itself doesn't decide who is telling the truth. The site gives you the tools and asks you to follow the rules.
What if the person just registered and put a negative feedback on your rating and then never posts or comes back to the site?
If you tell me it is bogus how am I suppose to know? You are putting us in a position to just accept your word. Not knowing if it is someone just spamming the site, someone who just doesn't like a comment you made in a forum or if you really did have a bad transaction with the person. I'm not going to delete it.
Sure it can happen with contributing members too but what's really the likelihood when they have paid for account with a name attached to it that they would actually spam the trader ratings with bogus information for people they never did business with? Someone just registering on the site under a fake name would be more likely.
There is a little more of a verification with the ratings as it is now.
Everyone can post on the BOI. They can give positive ratings, negative ratings and debate what is posted. All members can comment there and weigh the information within the threads.
The trader rating system is only for people that have done business with that individual. Being somewhat verified as a real person by paying for that privilege I believe is a better route. Those that contribute to the site have more of a vested interest in following the rules and if they don't, their name is on it for all to see.
Disputes will still arise and people will not agree on their transactions but we won't have to deal with fake ratings from fake profiles.
As Robert stated, is it really that much? Everyone can posts ads on this site for free. Everyone can participate on this site for free. Everyone can leave positive and negative feedback on this site for free on the BOI for every user. Everyone can socialize, make friends, discuss topics that interest them for free.
There are some things that contributing members to the site have the ability to do as a perk that also benefits them and the site. My personal opinion is that the trader rating system should stay as one of those benefits.
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