[Guide]: How not to use the negative feedback aka red tag.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

For some weeks now the hottest topic on forum is the Trust system with more epehesis on custom trust list and DT members both on meta and reputation boards. I picked interest in getting to understand what the trust system is and how to use it but can't find any guidance on how not to use it.  So I decide to write this guide after asking some questions and I got answers.

How not to use the negative feedback

[1] Do not leave a negative feedback (red tag) a user for violating forum rules unless on rare occasions. source e.g Don't red tag a user for ban evasion, plaragism etc instead report user to appropriate authority (moderators)

[2] Do not leave a false negative feedback, offenders might get red tag for this act if proven to be a false red tag.

[3] Do not leave a negative feedback without reference (evidence) this will be seen as an accusation

[4] Do not red tag a user for having alternative account unless the Alt account was bought or used for bad intentions like trust/merit abuse

[5] Do not leave a negative feedback for disliking another user.

[6] Don't turn leaving of negative feedback into a daily job or hobby, only do it when necessary.

[7] Do not leave a negative feedback based on other people judgement (they could be wrong)

[8] Do not leave a negative feedback because you disagree with users religion statements or user is criticizing you or others.

[9] Do not leave a negative feedback because account is promoting referral link or altcoin

Note: The moment you start leaving negative feedbacks on other users accounts, you'll make enemies and probably get false red tags so you have to read these quotes on how false negative feedback (red tags) can be handled

The best way to handle it is to appeal the red trust with the person who wrote it. However, the only way the person's red tag shows up on the trust numbers for an individual depends on their trust settings. Otherwise, it just shows up under the section "untrusted feedback." Most people have not fiddled with their trust settings, so it is set on default trust with a depth of 2. If you have customized your trust setting and want to see what your score looks like under the default settings, just go to a page with a post of yours in a section that displays the trust scores. Then after the url just add ;dt. If the tag doesn't show up on default trust, I wouldn't be too concerned about it, although these false tags may be more of a concern if there is a big move for people to start to customize their trust lists. For example, on my untrusted feedback I have someone accusing me of spreading a fictitious disease to newbies.  

First thing you need to do - stop worrying about ludicrous retaliatory feedback. It's unavoidable but it has no effect on you and you shouldn't waste time appealing it. Trust is not moderated. You will not get it removed unless the sender agrees to do that (in rare cases extreme trust spam may be removed but don't count on that).

Edit: Visit Discussion about acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Community values. DT for more understanding on how the trust feedbacks (positive and negative) should be used.

[DdmrDdmr]

I think people on the Beginners & Help board will be rather puzzled as to what all this Trust business is all about, and at what point it may be relevant to them both in terms of usage and interpretation of scores and feedback.

Perhaps the OP could start with a summary (or links) to information on the Trust System itself. Additionally, it may be interesting to see all four combinations for trust feedback:
-   Use positive feed back for.
-   Don’t use positive feed back for.
-   Use negative feed back for.
-   Don’t use negative feed back for (OP).

I saw a thread by @xtraelv today that is rather related (see re: Discussion about acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Community values. DT ).

The way I see it now, there is no clear official guidelines for leaving feedback (which I think there sort of should), and there are multiple discussion threads trying to determine or establish them. I guess @theymos wants it to be rather community led, but I see quite a lot of confusion still around it all.


Edit: I quite like the referenced links in this post to get a general idea: re: Theymos I believe there is an issue with your trust algo.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I think people on the Beginners & Help board will be rather puzzled as to what all this Trust business is all about, and at what point it may be relevant to them both in terms of usage and interpretation of scores and feedback.

Perhaps the OP could start with a summary (or links) to information on the Trust System itself

S_Therapist got all these covered with his posts and he always add links to other posts relating to the trust system examples:
[Explained] Importance of Custom Trust List
[Updated]--[Infographic] Leaving Feedback vs Custom Trust List
[Explained] How DT system works
[Explained] How Trust Score is calculated

And one of his post was directly under mine so I thought it won't be necessary to repeat the same thing but thanks  for the info.

Additionally, it may be interesting to see all four combinations for trust feedback:
-   Use positive feed back for.
-   Don’t use positive feed back for.
-   Use negative feed back for.
-   Don’t use negative feed back for (OP).

Thought about this but decide to tackle the Negative feedback aspect first. Because when a user get red tagged, the account losses some benefit the average forum users gets. that's why I want them to get it right when leaving negative feedbacks.

I saw a thread by @xtraelv today that is rather related (see re: Discussion about acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Community values. DT ).

I notice xtraelv posted his Today at 02:51:24 AM and I posted mine Today at 02:12:42 PM that's about 38mins difference.  He has more experience so his could be better.

[HODL2090]

The way I see it now, there is no clear official guidelines for leaving feedback (which I think there sort of should)

I share this opinion that there should at least be a guide of what deserves a tag and what does not. The cases I've observed has been very broad, from possible scams to low quality post. Users can get tagged for whatever reason depending on the discretion of the one leaving the feedback.

I have also come across a situation where a user was red tagged for possible pliagarism whilst the account was not banned.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…> Because when a user get red tagged, the account losses some benefit the average forum users gets. that's why I want them to get it right when leaving negative feedbacks.

There is another weird but expected potential effect when reading the trust scores: The more people that use a custom trust list, the more visions we have for the same user profile. Say you and me have very different customized trust lists. The trust score we may see on a potential scammer will differ depending on our inclusions in our Trust list, perhaps to the extent of being green coloured on one of our views, and red on the other.

The next logical step is to read through the actual trust feedback, and not let the score be a decisive feature (*). Here I believe the feedback we see is the same, but the classification on trusted and untrusted feedback may differ for each feedback tied to the profile we are looking at. Add to that that DT changes potentially every month, and we could have some strange things going on, with multiple diverging visions of the same profile’s trust score depending on the observer.

(*) Of course, it is the reading of the feedback that should help us understand the score, and eventually the profile we are looking at. I guess that a large fear for campaign signature bearers is that Campaign Manager exclude people from campaigns based on trust score, without normally reading through the feedback to accept red trusted profiles.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I have also come across a situation where a user was red tagged for possible pliagarism whilst the account was not banned.

Yes I have also seen such a feedback, I also saw a negative feedback for ban evasion and it mislead me to start tagging user for that offends until I asked suchmoon if that was right and he said nope and that lead me to writing this guide concentrating on negative feedbacks.

PS: : I just updated topic, Visit Discussion about acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Community values. DT for more understanding on how the trust feedbacks (positive and negative) should be used.

[kingpin4321]

I actually feel that you are not in the right position to make up rules about negative feedback even though you rules are reasonable but are superficial I think the forum heads after selecting Dt who are in charge of giving our feed backs would do a good orientation to help Dt understand there job and they would have been more elaborate than your rules.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I actually feel that you are not in the right position to make up rules about negative feedback even though you rules are reasonable

This isn't a rule but a guide, I'm giving some guidelines to avoid giving of negative feedback wrongly from those new to the whole trust system to other users. I only concentrated on the negative aspect as it has more effect then the positive feedback when given wrongly. Beside everyone can give a feedback not just DT1/2 members


Edit: No 8 and 9 reasons not to red tags an account have been added. The list will be updated regularly all thanks to replies on xtraelv post.