Bitcoin Forum

The Lending forums has a lot of rep-builder loans that are stated as such and they are usually shunned.
Other than that , there are a lot of small loans with no stated reason , with very short return durations.

My question is , why don't we give negative trust to people who try to build rep ?
Falsely building up rep seems like something one would do to be able to scam.
It seems pretty close to buying rep , which usually warrants a negative trust rating.

What sets apart rep-building loans and directly buying rep with BTC ?

People actually state they're only lending to build up trust? That is definitely cause for concern, but I'd take each instance on a case by case basis. However, if they're specifically stating that they only want the loan for feedback etc then it looks fishy, but I could also understand people just wanting to build up feedback and trust for genuine reasons, but there's better and more subtle ways of going about that.

I've seen quite a few people taking and giving loans and stating that they were doing it to build up trust. They were quickly silenced by a justified outburst from the community. Do those people deserve negative reps ? That was my question.

Also , I've seen a lot of people who seem to take a tonne of microloans to attempt to gain rep. This guy has taken 4 microloans and is trying to take a 5th :- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=175837
Why would you need so many ?

This guy too has taken a couple tiny loans , such as 0.02 BTC:- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=148493
Why would you do so when you have past sales of over 1 BTC ?

As above, take them on a case by case basis. If you feel like they are fishy/suspicious leave a warning feedback, but that's up to you. They're technically not doing anything wrong, but neither is selling accounts and people negbomb them for that, so as in all cases of feedback it's ultimately your decision whether to leave it and up to others whether they heed or ignore your warning.

I will flag any reputation loan request. It is the same as buying Trust, which is exactly what they are trying to do. It is paying for a short cut instead of building long term Trust. (think purchasing an established account)
One must ask themselves: Why exactly are they borrowing .xxx, paying back in 24 hours with a small fee? Long con comes to mind.

But there are many easy ways for people to essentially buy trust on here. You can buy it for as little as you want if you've got half a brain.

If it is stated that the loan is just to gain trust in my book thats buying trust and Id give negative trust for that. But thats just my opinion.



Idk, gambling habit?


There might be a reason. Maybe the gambled away the other money allready or they have it invested somewhere else and need some quick coins. I usually dont care about the reasons people want loan as long as they can provide colleteral. As long as you get your colleteral you are fine anyway, so whats the point of "building trust". Its not like you would get better rates because you have 3 or 17 or 42 positive trust ratings. If people lend to someone without collateral just because they have x amount of positive ratings they are following a bad bussinessmodel anyway.



Thats why a deal should not be based on a trust rating, but allways on escrow/collateral/etc.