I am reposting this here because it was originally posted in Armis's thread, but he conveniently felt it was time to lock it to prevent any response from anyone. Original thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=846683.0;allQuote from: BadBear on November 08, 2014, 10:38:33 AM
Yep, he's now excluded, and is no longer in the default trust network.
In the end it's good that things like this happen to highlight deficiencies within the system, and help to bring about change."
Funny how users such as VOD (I don't have a problem with you BTW) are on your trust list and him handing out negative trust like candy is ok, and his drunken mistakes are forgiven, but one incident after 3 years of impeccable activity here and I am out, and the people who trusted me are coerced into removing me under threat of removal themselves. This was just an excuse to make an example out of some one so you can keep forgiving your cronies for real abuse and make a scapegoat out of someone who has been an honest and dedicated user of Bitcoin and the forums. You claim that I was wrong and I refused to see that, I admitted what I was wrong about, putting in a BTC value when there was none. I corrected that.
What ensued after was corersion against me and others in an attempt to force me to change my trust rating. ARMIS was in fact only there to harass me in my single outlet for trading on the forum. He initiated this conflict. He claims he deleted his posts but he only deleted one then began posting again. He deleted all his posts after I left him a trust rating to make it look like I was overreacting and that he actually stopped posting. If you read my quotes of him you can see he continued. He also deleted several taunting insulting posts from his own thread again to make himself appear like a victim in this and not a perpetrator. He has since them posted in at least 5 of my other marketplace ops accusing me of being "untrustworthy" in an attempt to slander me for giving him negative trust. Also him changing his signature to slander me also was clearly another escalation as well.
No one is acknowledging here the fact that he began this and escalated it at every point of the way. This is why I am being "stubborn", because I admitted to the mistakes I made, but that wasn't enough you had to punish me punitively for defending myself when the moderators refused to do so even when repeatedly requested. I didn't just attack this user for no reason. He was actively slandering me in my marketplace ops directly inhibiting my ability to trade in the only section I am permitted to. He has the freedom to criticize me everywhere on the forum. He also believes he also has the right to harass me and interfere with my marketplace posts dedicated exclusively to trading for his own personal entertainment.
This wasn't me trying to "blackmail" or oppress this user in some way. All I was demanding was to be restored to my original state BEFORE he started this conflict with me. I never demanded he be silenced or be unable to slander me anywhere else on the forum he likes. He is taking my ability to speak from me then claiming I am doing the same to him because I took action against him. My feedback was legitimate once corrected. I pointed out his harassment, and that is what it was for. Badbear for example accuses me of leaving negative trust frivolously and that I am some how abusing it for using it like it was intended, to warn others of problematic users, yet his trust list contains people who use the feedback system in EXACTLY the same way, and he excuses it. I am accused of participating in an "old boys club" while the real old buys club uses me as a convenient scapegoat so they can further excuse the abuses of their buddies.
I have seen the moderators and staff here have whole threads dedicated to harassing a minor (atlas), for no other reason than they found him annoying. I pointed out that it was a bit excessive and my post was removed. I then posted that anyone's posts not critical of atlas were being deleted so they banned me. You people have no right to talk to me about being aggressive and abusing users. It is a daily activity for staff here. Meanwhile this troll comes along and manipulates the situation and cries like he is being oppressed and the staff lick it up because it is a easy way to roll out and justify trust upgrades and cover for the actual abusers of the trust system, their buddies. I imagine the next step will be that you will retroactively claim my feedback is now invalid because I have other options with the updates. That's a convenient backdoor way for punitive action then forcing me to remove my feedback anyway because you changed the rules after it was left Wink
You are always talking about how you don't moderate feedback, but clearly you do, only thru coercion and threats of trust removal. This isn't a forum trust network. It is the Theymos trust network, and he demands everyone in his harem does what he decides. There is no posting of clear rules for trust ratings, and even if there were they are being selectively enforced to cover for the ACTUAL repeated abuse of trust from people in his trust list which he conveniently seems to not see. Then I come along and make a single infraction of these unwritten rules, correct the mistake in posting the trust, but refuse to submit to their threats for removing it completely because Armis instigated this and refuses to reciprocate with removing his slander of me and I am punitively punished. Not only by being removed by from the trust but because Armis still has slanderous posts in my marketplace threads regardless of how many times he claims he deleted them. He had no intent of leaving me to trade in peace, or to even engage in trading activity. If you actually read the posts of his I quoted you can see he is simply there to entertain himself at the expense of my ability to trade.
I can't just take my existing years old threads with tons of good customer feedback, answers to questions, and other valuable content and make it self moderated, otherwise I would and none of this would have happened to begin with. My only option within the forum architecture left was either to leave a negative rating, or simply suffer damage of my ability to trade and speak freely here without being drown out by a 4chan like atmosphere.
The marketplace is so overrun with trolling I can't even sell items at cost without people claiming I am being unfair just as pretext to start an argument and make more accusations. This is exactly what Armis was doing to me, and I told him repeatedly to leave my thread and he refused. He CLAIMS he deleted his posts, but he deleted only his first post, then jumped right back in to start harassing again when others joined in emboldened by his first post. I attempted reports to moderators many times but all of my requests for assistance were ignored. He later deleted his other posts in my now closed thread (now reopened as a self moderated thread) after I left him negative feedback to try to appear reconciliatory and victimized after he had repercussions from me.
If trusted users aren't free to leave trust ratings that they decide on what is the point of the trust network? Also if the point of the trust network is to help direct people to honest traders, what is the point of removing me from the trust if I have been a model of a legitimate trader here? You say I was abusing the system for ONE trust rating left when users regularly hand out DOZENS here, even from users on the default trust list, for nothing more than a guess or because they were annoyed. All you are doing is EXACTLY what you accuse me of doing. Blackmailing me into doing and saying what you want.
Second post:
"Quote from: deluxeCITY on November 09, 2014, 12:04:13 PM
Quote from: TECSHARE on November 09, 2014, 11:48:30 AM
Vod gives out negative trust to people who are actually attempting to scam. You on the other hand gave out negative trust because someone was pointing out what he perceived to be unfair pricing of what you were selling. Instead of making an argument as to why your pricing was fair, you told armis to fuck off (the same goes to other people who posted in your thread with similar concerns) and when he didn't you gave him negative trust.
Although the trust is in fact not moderated, the reason trust should be given out (negative or positive) should be for reasons that measure a person's trustworthiness. The fact that you feel like someone is harassing you is not reason to hand out negative trust. From what I can tell your negative trust was essentially a way to silence your critics.
Additionally it appears that you were essentially selling positive trust in the form of overpriced goods. It appears that you were selling things at over market prices, having the buyer paying you first, then you would regularly hand out positive trust after the buyer received his digital good (most of the time it was either amazon gift cards or steam games)"
So all of these ratings I am listing below were only for scams? It doesn't look like that to me.
evershawn -8: -2 / +0(0) 2014-07-25 0.00000000 Reference
"Lies constantly, twists words, deletes information, hijacks threads, posts I bought my trust, posts I have multiple accounts. The list just goes on with this guy. In the one week I have know him, he has proven himself to be very dishonest. I recommend not doing any business with this person, as I do not trust him at all."
milkyway -4: -1 / +0(0) 2014-08-25 0.00000000 Reference Spamming
BADecker -8: -2 / +0(0) 2014-10-21 0.00000000 Reference
"Mentally unstable - changes stories and views on a whim. Posts that I have the devil inside me (and should not be trusted). For this and his lack or morals makes me believe he would not honour any agreement. I do not trust this person."
jers -4: -1 / +0(0) 2014-10-27 0.00000000
"Threatened me via PM to have my account deleted if I didn't remove negative trust from his scam pump and dump coin."
hilariousandco-rapped -6: -1 / +0(0) 2014-11-05 0.00000000 Reference
"Making up stories to get attention. ;("
Also there are dozens of negative trust left on nothing more than a hunch that the user is a scammer on top of the clearly non scam related posts above. People on the default trust REGULARLY "abuse" the trust just like the staff have claimed I have, and some how I am supposed to understand this is selectively enforced and some are more equal than others.
Those "overpriced" goods were sold AT COST. Just because it is available somewhere else on the net for less doesn't make my goods "overpriced" or "unfair". If it is really that unfair who the hell would buy it to begin with? If no one would by my product to begin with because it is so unfairly priced, what is the point of warning people about it? No one here considered that someone might be willing to pay COST for a product for the reassurance of knowing THEY WONT GET ROBBED. He had no justification for being in my threads. He was there solely for trolling, and trolls don't give a shit how many logical arguments you make, that doesn't make them go away.
I wasn't just "feeling" like he was harassing me, it is a FACT that is what he was doing, and all I demanded in this process was he restore me to my original state before he started harassing me. Since that is impossible now he has no chance in hell of getting my cooperation and he will be stuck with his negative feedback. I made an offer to that would restore US BOTH to our original states but he refused this in favor of attempting to intimidate me into following his dictates. Now both of us are worse off than when we started. Not exactly constructive of him considering every step he took was one of escalation.
As far as me "Selling trust", that is just horse shit. I have been the first trading partner for HUNDREDS of users here easily, because I was at one point the only reliable game retailer. Additionally new users feel comfortable trading with me because they know I treat people fairly. I purposely labeled all trust left to new users with the product or service they transacted with me so that people reviewing their feedback could know EXACTLY what it was for and judge the rating accordingly. Just because I get a lot of new users here started does NOT mean I am selling feedback, and all the accusation is just another attempt at slander me so no one else has to admit their own mistakes here.
So far I am the ONLY ONE WHO HAS admitted any wrong doing in this situation. No one has even acknowledged he instigated this and he should have been minding his own business to begin with, and my reward for offering reconciliation is more punitive punishment and coercion of my trusted trading partners to remove me from the default trust. I have lost what little respect I have for the staff here with this (although I'm sure they could give a shit what this community thinks). They are simply using me as a scape goat so they can move on with the new trust system WITHOUT having to admit mistakes and abuse were made on their part. As usual complaints against mods and staff are just swept under the rug and ignored while they offer me up as a sacrifice to appease their detractors for the slightest infraction. Standard operating procedure around here."
