Bitcointalk.org = Bitcoin version of Alibaba

[mprep]

Maybe, but if the mods banned users wouldn't they be those who "have all the power"?
In the moderator policing the forums case, theymos controls who he wants to asign and you can't do crap, in the trust rating situation, theymos asigns who he wants in the DefaultTrust however you can change it to what you want. Besides what kind of idiot doesn't check out all the trust ratings before doing a trade with that person?

The kind of idiots that get scammed on here daily  . And the opposite is also abused. A scammer can make a few accounts, give himself feedback from 5 of them so he looks legit, then scams anybody who trusts him. No system is perfect, but putting trust in this trust system is where people fall down as it gives them a false sense of security.

Welcome to the jungle. Smart people win, dumb people lose. The system is definitely better than the high probability of turning the centralized system into a tyranny.

It doesn't have to be one or the other and especially Tyranny vs Complete Lawless Anarchy where anything goes and every man for himself. A middle ground needs to be achieved (or at least attempted).

And that it is. Trust rating system, theymos' DefaultTrust, Scam accusation forums and of course your brain.

But a trust system that doesn't really work that well or is open to abuse isn't such a great middle ground and gives a false sense of security to those who are not in the know. Scam Accusations don't really matter because those are after the scams have been perpetrated and the scammers are long gone. And obviously most people who do get scammed don't use their brain.

If they ain't using their brain, it's their fault. They better learn in this forum, than (like I did) in real life.

[SaltySpitoon]

I don't see why people try to put a political affiliation to a forum. Its a message board, it doesn't have a political agenda. You can come here and interact with other people with the same interests as you (Bitcoin). Theymos is the owner of the site. If he decided that everyone with a "q" in their name was to be banned, it would happen, people would be upset, but so what? How things work here is completely based on common sense and Theymos' ideologies. You do your due diligence, and you are fine, if you are responsible for your own well being, you are going to do a much better job than anyone else would. The forum policy is about general freedoms to do whatever you want, as long as you aren't interfering with others freedoms. Its not libertarian, anarchist, fascist, or communist, its just the admin's personal beliefs on how the forums should be run.

Craigslist is not responsible for weeding out scams, and neither are we. Sucessful scammers are either long cons which there is little protection against, or those that exploit the stupid or greedy. If something is too good to be true, try and get it, but be sure you have adequet protection to make sure you aren't going to get burnt by the deal. If you can't get those protections, rather than taking a gamble and hoping it pays off (you will always lose), just walk. Scammers aren't banned, because the forums are about conversation, and scammers can provide valid opinions as well. Its impossible to keep scammers from coming back anyway, as badbear said, account bans will ban their individual accounts and they will make another. IP bans will ban a tor node and the scammer will switch to another, and then people complain that the tor nodes are all banned.

[mprep]

I don't see why people try to put a political affiliation to a forum. Its a message board, it doesn't have a political agenda. You can come here and interact with other people with the same interests as you (Bitcoin). Theymos is the owner of the site. If he decided that everyone with a "q" in their name was to be banned, it would happen, people would be upset, but so what? How things work here is completely based on common sense and Theymos' ideologies. You do your due diligence, and you are fine, if you are responsible for your own well being, you are going to do a much better job than anyone else would. The forum policy is about general freedoms to do whatever you want, as long as you aren't interfering with others freedoms. Its not libertarian, anarchist, fascist, or communist, its just the admin's personal beliefs on how the forums should be run.

Craigslist is not responsible for weeding out scams, and neither are we. Sucessful scammers are either long cons which there is little protection against, or those that exploit the stupid or greedy. If something is too good to be true, try and get it, but be sure you have adequet protection to make sure you aren't going to get burnt by the deal. If you can't get those protections, rather than taking a gamble and hoping it pays off (you will always lose), just walk. Scammers aren't banned, because the forums are about conversation, and scammers can provide valid opinions as well. Its impossible to keep scammers from coming back anyway, as badbear said, account bans will ban their individual accounts and they will make another. IP bans will ban a tor node and the scammer will switch to another, and then people complain that the tor nodes are all banned.

Couldn't have said it myself. BTW, the part where I mentioned it was a libertarian forum, I wanted to say the high staff (admin in this case) were of libertarian views thus influencing how the forum is managed.

[hilariousandco]

Surely when people call it 'libertarian' they just mean it operates (or tries to operate) with as much liberty and freedom and with as little intervention from authority/mods as possible?

[mprep]

Surely when people call it 'libertarian' they just mean it operates (or tries to operate) with as much liberty and freedom and with as little intervention from authority/mods as possible?

Well that's at least what I meant. And this happens due to the libertarian/semi-libertarian views of the staff. Besides that, Bitcoin is about freedom and no control for centralized entities such as banks, governments...

[howzar]

IP blocking someone is almost useless. There are tons of proxies/vpn's and even simpler are dynamic IP's. Negative Trust from "default trust" list will drive most of the business away from the scammer though.

[qwk]

Theymos is the owner of the site. If he decided that everyone with a "q" in their name was to be banned, it would happen, people would be upset, but so what?

Don't you dare!

[qwk]

Scammers roam freely after they have ripped people off? Why does the board have moderators?
[…]
Can the board ban certain people and use their IP to make it a little more difficult to sign up using a different alias?

If the moderators really started banning known scammers, it'd probably make things a lot worse.
Newbies would rely on the moderators' ability to protect them and be less cautious themselves.

You see it happen all the time, users install a "firewall" or "virus scanner" and start making dumb decisions under the false assumption of security.

Bottom line: don't ban scammers! Point at them and tell everyone to be careful because there are a lot more of them out there.

[hilariousandco]

Scammers roam freely after they have ripped people off? Why does the board have moderators?
[…]
Can the board ban certain people and use their IP to make it a little more difficult to sign up using a different alias?

If the moderators really started banning known scammers, it'd probably make things a lot worse.
Newbies would rely on the moderators' ability to protect them and be less cautious themselves.

You see it happen all the time, users install a "firewall" or "virus scanner" and start making dumb decisions under the false assumption of security.

Bottom line: don't ban scammers! Point at them and tell everyone to be careful because there are a lot more of them out there.

I don't think you can truly ban a scammer. They'll just come back under a new account and/or connection. A ban or being caught out isn't going to stop them.

[Sonny]

I don't think you can truly ban a scammer. They'll just come back under a new account and/or connection. A ban or being caught out isn't going to stop them.

Agree.
And please, beware of those "too good to be true" deals, and use escrows if possible.

[mprep]

I don't think you can truly ban a scammer. They'll just come back under a new account and/or connection. A ban or being caught out isn't going to stop them.

Agree.
And please, beware of those "too good to be true" deals, and use escrows if possible.

This is just common sense. In most cases thinking twice will help avoiding scams.