Scam reports removal [READ BEFORE REACT]

[Notifyz]

Hello users!

Before reacting please read carefully till the end.

It is kinda annoying when somebody searches your name and the first thing they see is the scam reports against you.
That shouldn't be the first thing they see, it gives bad first impression.

When you meet new people in life, you do not ask them what they did or what happened in their past, in order to give you impression about them.
You meet them the way they are right now and not what happened before.

Same should be on this market.
So I am suggesting for closed scam reports that are older than 6 months or maybe 12 months (expiration can be discussed) should have been moved to achieve where normal users would not be able to see.

Before reacting AGREE let me know with what you agree or what would you change (if you would).
Before reacting DISAGREE let me know what would you change then to be agreed on.

 

[Notifyz]

That's why you talk to clients about it. I've completed coms from transferring files from my comp to my phone so I can send them since my internet was out. Most of the time there is a way around it, if not most clients understand and would be willing to push it a little bit back

Well not all clients understand or are not willing to understand situation and then this issue comes.

 

[Mick]

I'm extremely conflicted about whether or not I should lock or clean up this thread. It's not done for suggestion threads, normally, but at least half the posts here seem to be about the user that submitted it instead of the actual suggestion, or said user reacting to those posts in an off-topic manner.
If you have beef with each other, a suggestions post is NOT the place to fight it out.

Now, on to the suggestion. There's a few reasons why we have scam reports, and why we won't be doing them completely behind closed doors.
1. A focus of the accusation. I'm sure a lot of you have had to deal with people accusing you of scamming for one reason or another, often giving you neg-rep. We require an official report to be made for such reputation to be valid. Without such a report being linked to the rep, we will remove the accusation without question, regardless of whether we personally think the person that received it is a scammer or not.
If we did not have scam reports, we'd need to basically run through a judgement of the proof provided by either side before we can even consider whether or not to remove the reputation for being a false accusation.
Which brings us to the next point.
2. It's a centralized and controlled way for the accused to defend themselves. Without scam reports, there'd be a bunch of "SCAMMER ALERT!!!1!1!!" threads in general discussion and wherever else the person making the accusation would stow them. Sure, we could make an explicit rule forbidding this, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to need a dedicated staff-member for removing such threads.
In addition, the accusations would just be flying all over the place, in a highly escalated manner the way they do now. It would be impossible for someone accused in such a way to properly defend themselves, and it would be even more impossible for staff to keep track of the defense and accusations and whether or not they match up.
This is also the reason why we won't be doing it all completely behind closed doors. If we do, the accusations will still go flying, mostly by friends and buddies of the person doing the accusation who cannot view the now hidden scam reports. Again, this may be against the rules, but just because you forbid something does not mean you can prevent it.

3. Scam reports are actually a way for a person to clearly and easily prove their innocence. If a scam report is closed, everyone will be able to view why it was closed, whether it's lack of proof or resolution of the issue. This way, contradictory accounts can be nipped in the bud.

4. Your main concern is that people get a negative impression of the person accused because of the scam report. This is true, to a certain extent, and I get why you're concerned by it. It's one of the reasons why I argue against an official "Scam report open" badge or similar whenever it's suggested. There should not ever be such an official denunciation by the staff team while the scam report is going on. It should always be accuser, accused, and the "judge" in the form of a scam resolver, who has to remain neutral,
even if it's extremely obvious one party is guilty.

However, not having scam reports open at all will not solve the issue.

In the physical world, if you don't give "The public" information, but they do know something is going on, they'll just make something up. Shit like that grows in the re-telling. Hell, nowadays even the truth grows and distorts almost beyond recognition.
So we're keeping the scam reports public because if we don't, there'll just be infinite amounts of bullshit conclusions and speculations going on that nobody but staff and the 2 parties involved can refute. Often, one of those 2 will not want to refute it because it works in their advantage, meaning that staff would need to back up the person the tide of bullshit goes against with reality, even if they're guilty, and therefore take sides.

This comment has summarised a lot of the main points I was thinking of when I was reading through it.

I see no reason for us to hide the history of scam reports. It provides no benefits to hide them. It's useful to the community to know that scam reports on our website are never removed and are a full reflection of a person's history of trade disputes on the site.

Denied, thanks for the suggestion.