Similar to one other large blackhat webmaster forum. I think it is a good idea to set up a shit list section with a mod residing over it. Scammers would then be taken care of and the forum would become a much cleaner and safer place to do business. In case of a dispute, evidence would have to be presented from both sides. This evidence will then be looked at and evaluated and the scammer will then be (temporarily) banned if he does not make right by for example paying the owed amount or performing the promised paid service etc. I would be happy to volunteer, of course, to reside as mod over said section. I also think @Matthew Sayle would be a good mod for it, not sure if he would be interested. Just nominating.
He'd be a great mod, I'd nominate him just for the entertainment value alone when he would go after the bad guys. As far as a "shit section" goes not sure if we really need one. I've noticed that when a dispute gets heated members will simply create a thread and post it on General Chat, where it gets highlighted and usually both parties will give forth their stories. I would suggest that is probably good enough and a new section isn't needed. But your suggestion does have some merit to it.
It sounds like you want us to become a dispute resolution service. Really no interest in that, nor the resources to do so. Every user already has the ability to protect themselves in each and every transaction by using an escrow service or at the very least PayPal's dispute system.
I was one who get scammed by one of the DP member but able to recover my small $ from him using PayPal dispute service.
@gregevskye @Spoiltdiva Thanks for the recommendation. That's something I would need to consider very carefully, if formally presented. I think DP has enough mods as it is. As for the 'Shit List' section. I think it would be far too hard to manage. Nothing is stopping people from creating new accounts once they are added to the list. I think a better way of approaching it would be to have a 'Recommended List'. You could break it down into different categories like writers, domain sellers, website sellers, SEO providers, script sellers, etc. Providers would ask to be included into our list, under the proper category. After reviewing their profile and/or past transactions - we would add them to the list. If someone had a dispute with a certain individual, we would investigate and remove them from the list if necessary. When a newbie comes around asking where to buy whatever - we direct them to the list and say "If you need ________, here's a list of proven providers." If they choose to go off the list, that's a risk they take. If they do have a good experience with someone else, they can let us know so we can add them to the list. I'm kind of doing something similar on my FB group, but I'm doing it on a product / service level instead of at the provider level. This would be very easy to do in Facebook or as a standalone Wordpress site. We could choose a few DP members to act as ambassadors and could add some native advertising to cover costs. Seems like a pretty simple (and scalable) project.