[denied] Limit 'vouch farming'

Suggestion to implement some sort of rule regarding vouches of a lower tier at a quick frequency.

I get people can do free skilling for 5 people but I think it's setting the wrong stance if you can do like 1-20 fishing x 5 people (takes like ~30 minutes?) & get 5 vouches within that span.

I was looking at a vouch thread & noticed there were scenarios in a thread where there were numerous/frequent smaller scale purchase/sales & this is a way to easily abuse vouch farming.

For example on a day there is:
~50M purchase
~20M purchase 5 hours later
~30M purchase 2 days later

Next scenario:
~50M purchase
~40M purchase next day
~50M purchase 5 hours later

Next scenario:
~50M purchase
~117M purchase 30 minutes later
~30M purchase ~50 minutes later

You get the point. All of these are the time from the actual vouch & around the same GP value.

There should be at least some general rule/regulation to limit scenarios like this from occurring, yeah you can report the thread but I think it may benefit to have something talking about this in the Vouch rule section.

Most newcomers do not look at the quality of the vouch but instead focus on the tenure of the Sythe user and/or just the total number of vouches - so I think this would have a positive impact. Obviously we still want people to build up the trust & earn vouches I just think there's a way to abuse it currently.

 

No support. A vouch is valid so long as a trade occurred. I’m not a fan of your suggestion as structured.

 

[President]

No support. Suggestion overcomplicates things for little to no gain. The rules regarding fake vouches, etc. are good as they are. Here are some additional reasons not to push this through;

-Buyers have a minimum effort obligation to investigate the values of the vouches.
-I also don't like the idea of having staff police vouches. Seems like a big waste of time

 

No support. A vouch is valid so long as a trade occurred. I’m not a fan of your suggestion as structured.

So if someone were to figuratively:
- make a new account
- purchase 10M 50 times within a short time period from a person or a couple people racking up 50 vouches & documenting that the trades occur
- sell/market a high value account & state that I'm trusted due to 50+ vouches
- we all know what happens next

That is fine to do? I'm just asking from a standpoint on how you view something like this occurring. Where-as some form of regulation may say for trades <$10 or minimal in value you are unable to collect a vouch in rapid succession numerous times a day.

I think some form of regulation is needed as I can see that easily being abused in groups/spurts.

 

[President]

So if someone were to figuratively:
- make a new account
- purchase 10M 50 times within a short time period from a person or a couple people racking up 50 vouches & documenting that the trades occur
- sell/market a high value account & state that I'm trusted due to 50+ vouches
- we all know what happens next

That is fine to do? I'm just asking from a standpoint on how you view something like this occurring. Where-as some form of regulation may say for trades <$10 or minimal in value you are unable to collect a vouch in rapid succession numerous times a day.

I think some form of regulation is needed as I can see that easily being abused in groups/spurts.

The best way for Sythe to deal with this stuff is to create more awareness. Not to overcrowd the market with even more rules.

Vouches alone don't count for trust. There are other factors like postcount, creation date, donator status that also play a role.

As for vouches, the weigh-off between spoonfeeding customers at the expense of requiring extensive policing of staff to enforce this type of (complicated) is unsubstantiated. Customers should be encouraged to at least do some minimum thinking of their own.

 

So if someone were to figuratively:
- make a new account
- purchase 10M 50 times within a short time period from a person or a couple people racking up 50 vouches & documenting that the trades occur
- sell/market a high value account & state that I'm trusted due to 50+ vouches
- we all know what happens next

That is fine to do? I'm just asking from a standpoint on how you view something like this occurring. Where-as some form of regulation may say for trades <$10 or minimal in value you are unable to collect a vouch in rapid succession numerous times a day.

I think some form of regulation is needed as I can see that easily being abused in groups/spurts.

took you 6 years to figure that out ? lmao

No support even if you limit it to 10$ + for vouch they can still abouse it with 10$ + so im not really sure how will this solve vouch farming.

 

Well fuck me then huh??

 

The best way for Sythe to deal with this stuff is to create more awareness. Not to overcrowd the market with even more rules.

This sums it for me. It has happened before that someone thought X could be trusted because I vouched for them, while it was only for a donation I processed.

We already have a guide to vouches, but perhaps we should find a new way of having it reach new users.

 

This sums it for me. It has happened before that someone thought X could be trusted because I vouched for them, while it was only for a donation I processed.

We already have a guide to vouches, but perhaps we should find a new way of having it reach new users.

agree here, best way would be to clarify what a "vouch" actually is. and make people aware of this, maybe even a "landing page" before redirecting to the actual vouch thread?

 

No support.

Trying to set some sort of baseline metric [dollar amount, time spent training account, etc.] "hey you can vouch for this but not for that" would be tough and arbitrary.

I work hard for my money, therefore, I'm careful when spending my money. Sure, I've been scammed.. but it is few and far between. Even on other websites, I take significant caution when spending amounts of money that I find significant.

Every time someone buys virtual goods online from a stranger, they're taking a risk. That risk has an opportunity cost associated with it. Most newcomers might not look at the quality of vouches, but they should. Life is full of lessons to be learned. It isn't Sythe's job to police the degree of caution to which users spend their money [which is ultimately what this suggestion is inadvertently asking staff to do].

I do wish there was a way to viably stop/limit vouch farming because it certainly happens. I just don't see this being that way.

Education > Dictation

 

Little update the guy I was referencing in my post above is @XXP who just scammed over $1K+ by probably saying he's trusted with all these vouches (aka just buying/selling small amounts of GP back to back to back to back to back to back to back)

 

Little update the guy I was referencing in my post above is @XXP who just scammed over $1K+ by probably saying he's trusted with all these vouches (aka just buying/selling small amounts of GP back to back to back to back to back to back to back)

So tell us a concrete rule we could implement to prevent this from happening in the future.

 

Little update the guy I was referencing in my post above is @XXP who just scammed over $1K+ by probably saying he's trusted with all these vouches (aka just buying/selling small amounts of GP back to back to back to back to back to back to back)

Some of those accounts even on the first page got made just to vouch, possible vouch farming?

 

So tell us a concrete rule we could implement to prevent this from happening in the future.

I just thought it was funny ya know nothing against the moddies.

Honestly it would be tough - I think a combination of things could help such as educating newcomers more (maybe a mandatory read thread the first time they go to vouch section or click on anyones supplied vouch thread). I also think it would be beneficial to at least have 2 mandatory key points to a vouch:
- amount dealt
- who went first
- full extent of what it is

That way you know exactly the amount and if this person did/did not go first.

Vouches like below don’t really aid in determining what was done/who went first/what amounts/etc
- bought GP thx
- sold gp
- bought account thanks for using x
- bought membership ty
- did skilling
- did quest for me ty

Would help to know what type of account (huge difference between buying a tutorial island account or a rested mule vs a 2277 total)
Would help to know the amount of the GP and if you see scenarios that occurred above it would be more of a concern, as I’m sure there’s a lot of people doing it.
Would help to know what all quests/skills/order was done (may even aid the trainers as someone can be searching up vouches and see someone made a specific account and reach out)
etc

I’m hungover sorry if none of this makes sense

 

I would support it if it was something to prevent people who sells GP and go first, to get a vouch from that.
"Sold me 20M, great guy." - Can't scam

What's next? vouch the client we worked for?
"Great guy, paid us to work on his account"

 

So tell us a concrete rule we could implement to prevent this from happening in the future.

Just for a suggestion to this Zora, I'd suggest that a vouch could only be made if the user had a Sythe account at the time of the trade. That way people can't request someone make a Sythe account just to vouch as indicated here:

Some of those accounts even on the first page got made just to vouch, possible vouch farming?

 

Just for a suggestion to this Zora, I'd suggest that a vouch could only be made if the user had a Sythe account at the time of the trade. That way people can't request someone make a Sythe account just to vouch as indicated here:

That's going to stop potential good members from joining

 

No support its effort enough to get people to vouch let alone having to lecture them on vouch rules.

Vouches mean nothing unless you read them anyways.

 

No support its effort enough to get people to vouch let alone having to lecture them on vouch rules.

Vouches mean nothing unless you read them anyways.

Not quite sure I agree with that last statement - vouches are the basis of 'trust' in the eyes of nearly 99.9% of users on this website. Nearly every title/thread/etc has a mention of total vouch count & this sways people into deciding who to go with. Yes the problem is users don't read into the vouches.

 

[Robiiiiin]

No support - But for me as a buyer it would be nice to maybe land on a "infopage" about vouches before actually going into the vouches forum section. I mean myself go through vouches like a detective and even PM some of them for info before doing a trade but in general for buyers it would be beneficial.

The faster you learn that vouches isn't the full story, the better off you are. Vouches are only a small part of that person's rep.

Would support some sort of improvement to the vouches section but don't exactly what it could be.