Lesson #1: If you don't like the thread, stay away and keep your comment only to yourself. It's not your problem if they've got scammed. Besides, it is their responsibility to do their research if it's illegal or not before posting sold.
Recently I've heard of reputable members banned after warning people about scams, reporting mistakenly posted threads or for no reason after helping people. I was absent for long time so I have no idea why all these things changed
So Sarah or other mods here, What would be the proper course of action if someone let's say is selling something illegal, how are we able to notify members that have not only participated but might be viewing the thread without going nuts and getting personal with the person? Would it be okay to report the post? PM a mod? Say something in the thread? Or do nothing? I think most members who do try to raise a concern like leet aren't interested in getting confrontational with the person doing illegal business but just want other, more gullible members, to be alerted to the situation. Skinny
I can see the problem from the dp point of view - admin and mods can't be spending their time trying to determine the legalities and moralities of what people put for sale but on the other hand, I wish there was a way to be able to warn people against a bad choice or a potential scam. The itrader works for this but it's not foolproof and of course, if you bad itrader someone, they are bound to retaliate and mess up your reputation in the process. I would like to see friendly cautions in threads be allowed or if someone pm's people that have posted an interest, they not be infractioned for spamming the pm system. Without the ability to rat out a rat, we are just more of the "I don't want to get involved" twist on society right here at dp. What about a new rating in the thread rating system - caution, could be a scam or - buyer beware or suspicious activity. It would provide a method of 'reporting' without going into details or allow slamming. Lisa
i think it is a case of, does DP want a reputation of allowing stolen scripts, warez, fraud, to rule DP and spoil the reputation of DP, or does DP make an effort to stamp out the illegal stuff and keep it's honest members? there is only so much dishonesty an honest member will take before they look for a safer place to trade. there is the dishonest members reputation that will rub off on the honest members while DP is talked about on other forums for allowing the dishonesty to go on. in fact a few forums have started because of honest members not trusting to deal with DP members anymore. a good indcator of a dishonest person would be 2 neg itrader in a day, or 3 in 2 days. ban them
Lesson #2 Scam people here on DP because it's OK and anyone that speaks up against it will get an infraction, everyone else will just keep their comments to themselves. And then they wonder why there are people out there interested in buying DP accounts Allowing scams is one thing, and if that's what DP wants, then so be it...but to stop people from saying it's a scam, that's simply bad form and puts this forum on par with any run of the mill warez site. However, I also think that it should be the responsibility of the person pointing out the problem to give PROOF of the problem. Without that it's nothing but finger pointing and does little more then send us all back to grade school pointing at each other and telling rumors and lies. There has to be some line that can be drawn to protect the members here from scams without protecting the scammers...lets find that line!
I got a 2 points infraction for informing members about a scammer (just posted a link), and that thread is also deleted now. Member is still not banned. So,let the members get scammed by scammers. DarkX
It can be my problem if the scammed guy leave DP because he is feed up. That scammed guy could maybe have given me a tip on how to increase my adsense ctr by 20% if he didnt leave DP in anger.
Or worse, you could be the next guy scammed. Not all scams are obvious, in fact, the good ones never are. We could all fall pray, especially in a place that encourages scams through silencing those that put out a warning.
Once i am unbanned on NamePros i am moving my business back there. 1 month left on my ban there. DP is a failure because they fail to control the BST section. I think shawn should make the BST a paid area..give 50% of its earnings to the moderators who check each and every sale is legit..hire a few more trustworthy members as BST moderators..it is the only way to sort out of the problems there.. Rob
i dont see how it can be abused really, #1 the 2 neg itrader would have to be in the same deal/thread. #2 to leave itrader you have to have made a deal and post in that thread. #3 a scammer is out to scam more than just one person. #4 i am not talking about banning everyone with 2 neg itrader, just them that are left 2 in the same deal. how many more would you need as an indicator that it's a scam? 20
it would work if the mods would remove any neg itrader the scammer left in return before he was banned. that way honest members would feel safer in leaving neg itrader if they knew a scammer would be banned and any negs he left would be removed.
This will mean that the mods have to check and see each thread starter's iTrader for the specific trade, as well as revisit the same thread some time after more trades have been conducted. It's quite unproductive if the mods don't have the means to auto list these factors. On top of that, lots of innocent people will have to face a ban because of system abuse.
However, mods cannot do anything about iTraders as I learnt from Smyrl from a past experience. I left negative iTrader for a scammer/liar and he gave me one in return but that was not relevant of course. The reason he gave was that I was a `bad person` And then what happened? I had my first negative iTrader beside my other 31 positive iTrader although all I did was exposing a scammer