As a reminder to you all here on The Bench you get a Bench point for each completed trade. Bench points are used to determine Trader of the Month and HOF status; one other very important feature completed trades have is that you have the chance to rate the transaction which factors into a trader's overall Trader Rating. This is a great tool that people can use to judge other trader's on and also determines when and if special avatars need to be used on a person.
A deal that involves you giving away a free card, or in exchange for a SASE, is to be posted as such and NOT an actual trade. Since nothing is being actually traded no Bench point is to be awarded in such cases. The Trade Manager allows you to set up free card transactions so they can be tracked for the convenience of the traders.
As always though there has to be a few bad eggs in the bunch. Today a trader was caught using false trades to boost Bench point totals and ratings. The thing that bothers me the most about this is that it takes two to tango to cheat like this and this was done not with the help of one person but multiple Bench members--many of which are established members here and in the Bench HOF. I'm not here to call anyone out but I must say I was a bit dismayed to see the list of members that were involved in this. The main cheater has been suspended for 6 months and all Bench points and ratings will be removed. Does anyone out there really think that "a thank you" in exchange for a "shout-out on a YouTube video" is a worthy trade for a Bench point?
From here on out when we catch people trying to cheat the system we will come done harshly and for BOTH parties involved.
We will catch you if you try to cheat.
A deal that involves you giving away a free card, or in exchange for a SASE, is to be posted as such and NOT an actual trade. Since nothing is being actually traded no Bench point is to be awarded in such cases. The Trade Manager allows you to set up free card transactions so they can be tracked for the convenience of the traders.
As always though there has to be a few bad eggs in the bunch. Today a trader was caught using false trades to boost Bench point totals and ratings. The thing that bothers me the most about this is that it takes two to tango to cheat like this and this was done not with the help of one person but multiple Bench members--many of which are established members here and in the Bench HOF. I'm not here to call anyone out but I must say I was a bit dismayed to see the list of members that were involved in this. The main cheater has been suspended for 6 months and all Bench points and ratings will be removed. Does anyone out there really think that "a thank you" in exchange for a "shout-out on a YouTube video" is a worthy trade for a Bench point?
From here on out when we catch people trying to cheat the system we will come done harshly and for BOTH parties involved.
We will catch you if you try to cheat.
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