I normally don't quote as many things are regurgitated here many times, But I have to do this one from BFL website.
Win a Butterfly Labs Imperial Monarch!
In an effort to demonstrate and consequently improve and repair the trust rating system on Bitcointalk, I am holding a contest that will provide concrete examples of how the trust system is broken on Bitcointalk.
I have spoken with Theymos, the operator of Bitcointalk, about this and I have his full knowledge and permission to perform this experiment, with the prize being an Imperial Monarch to one lucky winner!
Starting now and running until we start shipping the 28nm Monarch based products, anyone may enter into the contest by posting to the trust feedback system on Bitcointalk. Each entrant must make 6 separate trust entries. There will be 3 positive entries that must be made and 3 negative entries that must be made. You must make all 6 entries each day to be eligible for the drawing on the day we ship the products. On the day we officially start shipping, the contest entries will be closed. The next block to be found on or after midnight UTC of the following day will be the winning block. We will use Bitcoin Blockchain raffle ticket picker to decide the winning number. Entry numbers will be taken in order they are posted each day and numbering of each day after the first will continue where the previous day left off. The winning number will be chosen at random via the blockchain.
Entrants may make one entry per day. Multiple entries per day will be ignored and only one valid entry will be allowed per day.
Summary of the rules:
1. One entry per person, per day.
2. Entries will consist of 3 positive and 3 negative Trust entries on Bitcointalk.org to the accounts specified. (Listed below)
3. Entries will close the day we ship our first Monarch product to a paying customer. Entries will be accepted up to 23:59 UTC of that day.
4. The winner will be chosen at random via the next block on or after 00:00 (midnight) UTC the day after we begin shipping.
5. The winning list will be compiled through taking each set of 6 entries by a single individual per day and entering their name in the list, in order of posting as displayed by the Bitcointalk.org website. Each subsequent day after the first will start where the previous days list left off.
6. Trust entries must not be cut and pasted from previous days and must be unique each day. Entries must not be gibberish or otherwise unintelligible entries. (Sorry, but you will have to put some thought into it!)
7. DO NOT SPAM MULTIPLE ENTRIES! THERE IS ONLY ONE ENTRY ALLOWED PER DAY. Multiple entries per day are useless and likely to be removed. Anyone found spamming the system will be disqualified.
8. Only valid Bitcointalk accounts registered prior to the 28th of March, 2014 are allowed to enter. Accounts registered after this date are ineligible to participate.
9. Incorrect feedback type will disqualify an entry. (For example, leaving a negative feedback on one of the positive accounts or a positive feedback on a negative account will be disqualified.)
10. Shipping of the winning entry will be at the end of the current pre-order queue. Although I will try to slip in the shipment of the entry earlier than that if we have a gap in the queue based on anyone electing to take a refund, but I can not guarantee that at the moment, as I don't know if we'll have enough refunds to allow that without compromising paying customers shipping schedule.
11. If the operator(s) of Bitcointalk or other entities decide to discontinue this demonstration/experiment early or disallow the feedback for any reason, this contest becomes null and void. I will design a new contest to replace this one in just such an occurrence with the same prize available.
Leave Positive feedback for these three accounts:
Inaba:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=8198 BFL_Josh:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=63314 BFL:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=44366 Leave Negative feedback for these three accounts:
Theymos:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=35 Dogie:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=87869 Bicknellski:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=76550
Background information on the reasons behind this contest:
Many people believe that the trust system on Bitcointalk is not only useless, but actually counter productive to a fair and balanced system for evaluating the viability of conducting trade on Bitcointalk. There are countless examples of the system being gamed, and false ratings being applied to individuals, unrelated to any sort of actual trust scenarios. Many scammers use this as a method to instill trust in their victims, allowing them to continue scamming with impunity. Other use the trust system as a way to air grievances, which is not a valid use of the system and also contributes to false rating levels for numerous individuals. The operators of Bitcointalk do not believe the system is broken and further more do not believe it can be gamed. With the small time gaming that has happened in the past, it is hard to differentiate legitimate feedback from illegitimate feedback. This contest, I believe, will conclusively prove that the system can easily be gamed in one direction or the other with minimal effort. Per the rules of the contest, there will be an equal number of positively gamed trust accounts as negatively gamed trust accounts, which will definitively prove that either direction is possible.
I have spoken to Theymos at length over this issue and informed him that I will be conducting this demonstration, so he is aware of the impending demonstration and the likely results. It is possible that I am in fact incorrect about my understanding of how the system actually functions behind the scenes, but I do not believe this to be the case. Hopefully, upon the conclusion of this demonstration, Theymos will be convinced of the lack of viability of the system and replace it with a more viable system or remove it entirely. While this certainly won't solve all of the problems Bitcointalk faces, at least we can try little steps to try and rehabilitate Bitcointalk as a place people can have civil discourse and believe what they read there instead of being forced to ignore the vast majority of the site.
