This was a rhetorical question.
Lol, I missed that
Lauda should be blacklisted for what happened when the flag system was implemented
I think it's commendable that theymos is trying to not be a dictator here.
OgNasty currently has 16 inclusions and 16 exclusions on DT1.
Lauda currently has 26 inclusions and 24 exclusions on DT1.
A month ago, the number of inclusions was 26 higher than the number of exclusions.
Judging by these numbers, I'd say Lauda is now more controversial than OgNasty. I also think the current DT-system is something Lauda can't win.
I don't find OgNasty to be controversial. In fact, the only controversial thing I can think of OgNasty ever doing is wearing a signature of a shady company for a couple of weeks that I don't believe had actually scammed anyone (but IIRC were operating in a very shady way). When OgNasty was 1 of ~10 DT1 members, he had excluded many people who were very high profile because they posted a lot, but had no real trading experience and had no business being on DT.
In regards to your point that theymos is not acting as a dictator, you fail to account for the fact that whoever controls the algorithm controls the output. He also has great influence on the inputs by controlling the merit sources and how much each source gets. When google doesn't want particular pages displayed prominently on their search results, they don't blacklist websites, they just tinker with the algorithm to get their desired results.
There are also many examples of people leaving many controversial ratings over time who are already on DT who see no real pushback against their ratings. There are also examples of people facing retribution in the form of frivolous negative ratings (bill gator), and trust exclusions (bill gator and teeGUMES) for making statements that goes against the "crowd".
In order for the trust system to have any credibility, there needs to be rules (some of which were recently implemented with the flag system), and they need to be enforced (which does not appear to be the case). When the system is not being used appropriately, there needs to be intervention, period. If there is no intervention, those who speak out will see mass exclusions, and others will see this and be afraid to speak out. Without intervention, the forum will become more like most countries in the Middle east, China, or North Korea, in which citizens are jailed when they are critical of the government.
