Well firstly most accounts are set on default trust.
If a member with little to no trust were to leave negative feedback then that in itself wouldn't be enough to warn others as they wouldn't see the negative trust on the OP's profile unless they look at the untrusted feedback.
True, but it's everyone's responsibility to vet deals on their own, and learn the various functions of the forum. Even if a member is new to this forum, a responsible member would at least check the post history and previous dealings of a person who he/she wants to engage any type of business with. We (well, the more patient members mostly) already coddle newbies beyond the point of just giving them fish. This is a discussion board where conversations oftentimes deal with real financial implications -- learning how to make use of the Trust system on their own should at least be something that a newbie is capable of. Otherwise, regardless of whichever forum that member joins, he/she would prolly be trading a car for a smelly old sock without a pair anyway. Sometimes, there comes a point when you should stop being a parent and just admit that a child is a lost cause, and let him/her fend for himself/herself.
In terms of the abuse, I was referring to any and every member leaving negative trust on any suspicious account without allowing the OP to answer the questions first. I could be wrong but I'd think that people would be much more 'eager' to leave negative trust in such a case even though it may not be fully justified.
That happens a lot of times even now. If you see abuse, then report it to the staff. If it's deemed by them as abuse, then it will be dealt with. Abuse will always be an issue in everything.
Again, that could be an option but if this is a feature that SMF provides then surely it would make more sense to disable self moderated threads for new members rather than just relying on the trust system. I don't see the harm in doing so but feel free to correct me
I would actually prefer a system where the staff would manually disable the self-moderation of a thread on a case-by-case basis. I've never had to use self-moderated threads, but I can understand why some newbies would
legitimately need them. And who's to say that higher ranks are more trustworthy anyway?
What do you think about the idea of disabling the self moderated thread option for new members?
Like I said above, I'm more for a case-by-case disabling rather than a blanket system.
