Tighter restrictions on [what can be used as] vouches.

This is a slightly random suggestion that I've been thinking a lot about recently, as I seem to spend the majority of my time in the Runescape Market section of the forum, chiefly the Other Services and Skill Training.

Over periods of time, I see a lot of people with threads open, who appear to have several vouches, sometimes quite a high number of vouches. These people then claim to be 'trusted'/'legit', or claim something such as "I'm trusted, ##+ vouches". However, on a lot of occasions, these people are rapidly banned for scamming. The problem, or so it seems to me, is that not that many people, new, inexperienced members in particular, do not actually pay close attention to each specific vouch, instead thinking "wow, ##+ vouches, that person must be trusted". On closer inspection, a huge number of the vouches used in the Runescape Market sections are vouches gained from incredibly small, rather insignificant tasks. For example, giving someone a free '76k trick' on Runescape, or completing the Runescape 'tutorial island' for someone. Things that, to be perfectly honest, does not prove someone's legitimacy in any way, as there is no real.. can't quite think of the word, but no real effort needed to perform these tasks.

If someone were to register on Sythe with the intention of scamming people for their money, it would be a simple matter of spending perhaps a day or two at most doing small tasks such as these, and they could have gained quite a decent amount of vouches. They could then state "I have (this many) vouches, so you will go first in this transaction", and the other participant in the trade would find themselves losing their account/money/time.

This has ended up slightly longer than I intended, and I'm sure I missed something out probably, but my suggestion would be that there are more restrictions on what people can use as a vouch, or be vouched for. I'm not entirely sure how this would work, so any input/suggestions/criticisms would be welcomed.

 

What would these restrictions be? Most new members already have a hard time getting more trusted and doing small free services is a good way to earn some trust. People who are a member of sythe.org for two days should always be looked at with more suspicion, no matter how many vouches.

 

I support to the fact that people should read the vouches before acting on the fact that they are trusted. Most of my vouches are selling tricks which really aren't worth much but at least they are worth more then 76k of in-game-cash.

 

As I said, I'm not entirely sure, but what just popped into my mind was perhaps some sort of list could be compiled of certain things/services that cannot be vouched for/used as a vouch. The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it sounds, but I'm slightly stuck on further ideas.

 

Most people don't vouch and say "this person is 100% legit". In fact most vouches are only things like "sold me some stuff, everything went smooth". Saying someone did something small for free is nothing but the truth, and I don't see why you can't quote someone who said nothing but the truth.

 

If p1 vouches for p2, it's because p2 did something for p1 and p1 was satisfied. It is the buyer's responsability to verify the quality of the vouches and as far as I know, thread that starts by something like [#vouch][Trusted!] gets edited, you can't say that you are trustworthy in a title.

 

Vouches aren't some kind of payment, as said above by Xeleration, they are messages of trust voluntarily given by each party.

You can't put a limit on how you determine trust for someone.

 

Operator error comes to mind. You can't protect people from their own stupidity. If they want to trust someone who has been a member for 2 days and somehow has 20 vouches, then let them.

I realize your example was just that, an example, but people need to learn to be more careful by themselves. We aren't Jagex, we can't bubble wrap everything in the world.

 

Firstly.. Where u said .... did you mean to say... risk factor involved that gives the person trying to receive the vouch any credit for trustworthy activities.

Although I support this entirely and have posted on Sythe before about "Definition of a Thread." trying to figure out what legitimacy it actually proves there is no good way to implement this sadly.

Take a look here --> http://sythe.org/showthread.php?t=908999

After posting that I have learnt that I trust people over this..

 

i agree. vouch shold only be made if you actually did some transaction with that user.

 

I support if you could create a list of everything people can vouch for and then separate them into "Vouchable" and "Non-Vouchable" categories.

 

Disagree. If people trust you, then they vouch for you. There is nothing wrong with that, you shouldn't have had to do a trade with them.

 

Vouches hold no tangible value. It's a matter of what you take from them is what they're worth.

No support.

 

Users should read vouches before trading with anyone in the first place.

It is hard to gain rep on sythe, so you have to start somewhere.

 

I don't agree. People should read the vouches before they do a deal. It's their own fault if they don't.

No support.

 

Thats why you don't judge trust on the quantity, judge it on the quality/value of the vouches.

For example if someone had 100 vouches for a free/cheap skilling service it wouldn't make them more trustworthy than someone with 20 $50+ trades, but once again its the buyers fault if they misjudge someone and fall for the scammer.

 

Vouches are people saying your trusted. Now new people may start with small trades and "doing things for free" just to get there name out there, I still think those should could specially if A. you're doing something on my account to get me the highskill or increase it or B. you give me something for free that you'd normally charge for. Vouching to me should remain the same.

 

Its up to you as a buyer and or seller to view the persons vouches to see the quality and authenticity of the vouches...
Then make an informed decision if you believe they are trusted enough but hey, quite a few trusted people scammed...

I.E. You look at Joe Blogs vouches , All from Active members etc , meaning nothing that special..

You look at mine , mostly from Mods , Forum Addict up, donators...you get my point?

 

Agreed. I have vouched for Jimmy many times even though I have never traded with him. I trust him and therefore I should be allowed to vouch for him.