Why exactly would using a forum escrow not be safe? If you trust someone enough to use them as escrow then there is no rational reason why you would not trust them enough to do a direct trade with that same person, and in a worse case scenario, you would be essentially be sending first to the escrow, and since you would rationally be willing to send first to them (unless you wanted to act irrationally) so you would really not be getting tricked into sending first.
AFAIK, OgNasty is the only escrow who has publicly stated that he will not be a party to any trade that he escrows, so if you wish to be certain that the escrow is not a party to a trade, then you should use his
escrow service, although I would not personally feel cheated or betrayed if it turned out that he was a party to a trade of mine that he escrowed. I have traded with OgNasty multiple times, and he was always very quick to ship and was very professional, and I think it is difficult to argue that this is someone that I would not want to be trading with, regardless of the handle I am messaging -- this really does not mater however because OgNasty does not act as escrow for deals he is a party to.
Most of my negative trust ratings are based on misinformation and/or are emotionally charged statements and/or are based on things unrelated to my escrowing my own deals.
Mitchell - I had spoken to him about his rating, and he told me that it was primarily because of the fact that I lied about being banned. He originally told me that he will eventually edit it to a neutral rating and has since followed through in doing so.
DiamondCardz - His trust rating seems to echo Mitchell's rating. I would assume that he is reasonable and will eventually update it to a neutral rating. I will probably eventually message him about his rating to discuss it, and based on the assumption that he is a reasonable person, I believe that he will either remove it or update it to a neutral.
Vod - Martain is upset that my actions represent something that makes it more difficult for Vod to force people to act in specific ways, and to listen to him. Vod's trust rating is only the latest (it is actually no longer the latest) of a long list of negative trust ratings that were left for personal reasons.
jonald_fyookball - Another emotionally charged trust rating. I am really not entirely sure why he was ever put on DefaultTrust.
cryptodevil - He is just one of multiple shills on dooglus's trust list. I would not be surprised if he turns out to be another scammer who is currently on dooglus's trust list. Regardless, his rating was pretty clearly the result of my speaking out against dooglus
John (John K.) - it appears that his rating is based on some amount of misinformation (at least based on his trust comment). I will probably eventually send him a message clarifying the situation, and based on the assumption that he is a reasonable person, I would say that he will either remove it or update it to a neutral.
I have a solid trading history, and a history of providing an escrow service that my customers have publicly stated they are/were very satisfied with. When terms of a trade that I am asked to escrow would make it impossible to mediate a dispute, I recommend alternate terms that would protect both parties, and would have a high likelihood of being able to resolve a dispute in a fair manor, and when such terms (or other terms that would allow a dispute to be mediated using facts that I can personally verify) are not agreed to then I will decline to escrow a transaction. If the terms of a trade put excessive risk on one party (eg when the instant release of bitcoin would be done after the other party will be receiving a clearly reversible payment), then I will most often explain such risks and suggest alternate terms to somewhat reduce the risk to the party taking the excessive risks. I have been trusted with large amounts of money (both while escrowing and when trading) (amounts that are greater then the aggregate value of trades that many/most people engage in over a year)multiple times, and every time I have been trust with large amounts of money, I have showed that it was appropriate to give me such trust (and the same is true when I have been trusted with smaller amounts of money).
Over the last ~year, I have helped countless people protect themselves against getting scammed, have warned the community about countless numbers of scams, have given countless number of people advice regarding their trading practice, regarding their (giving) trust practices, among other things. Anyone that wants to speak ill of me is really only going to end up embarrassing themselves.
