Quite a ton of bullshit around. TMAN, you really love to stir this, right?
First of all, it's not against Bitcointalk auction rules for auctioneer to bid on the auctioned item. The rules are same for all, no matter who bids.
However, I do acknowledge that having a hidden reserve price should be stated as it makes the auction more transparent. As I've said, I will do that in the future if I have auctions here. At least where I live, it's quite common for the auctioneer to bid on the auctioned items. The auction rules are same for all.
I used my own account when I bid on the auction I held. Also, this was a single auction. I do not consider auctioneer bidding on the auction as unfair or wrong, but people have different opinions.
Also, I informed TMAN that I will leave him a negative rating. Immediately after this he went and negatively rated me so he could now call my rating retaliatory.
After a while, I got several PMs regarding this. One of them was from Vod who had left me a neutral rating still calling me a scammer. I rated him negatively after this, because I consider people who call me a scammer as untrustworthy. You can see this as retaliatory, but in reality it's simply stating how much I trust Vod. I can't find myself trusting someone who calls me a scammer, just like that.
Do you believe the behavior that was exhibited on this auction was ok to do, even if done today?
It would not be against forum rules, but I've since learned that it's uncommon in bitcointalk auctions to do so, so I would simply state that there is hidden reserve price. Probably I would present a sha256 of it to further enhance transparency.
Do you believe it is ok for an auctioneer to shill bid with an unknown alt account on their own auction?
No.
Also,
Why I were to negatively rate TMAN in the first place? This all began when a while back he started talking bullshit about me behind my back and afterwards publicly too. It was over some tipping or something like that. Back then I told him I consider such activity as activity of an untrustworthy person. He wanted me to not negatively rate him, so in the end I did not rate him. It wasn't that big deal after all.
Later on we rehashed this as the air was obviously not clear. I told him I will leave him a negative rating now, getting us here. This auction thing has little to do with this but works (apparently) as a fine tool for him. Let's see what else he will find.
