tl;dr: Complaints with no proof presented will be flaired with "No Proof" appended. Complaints with proof presented will be not have "No Proof" appended. It simply means No Proof, nothing more, nothing less. A lack of "No Proof" does not mean anything except that some form of proof was submitted. It is not a judgement of the veracity of the proof or claims whatsoever!
Hi Community,
After some discussion on flairing, we decided that we would append "No Proof" to market or vendor complaints that did not submit proof along with their claim. Much of this was due to our haphazard and inconsistent application of the "No Proof" flair. Sometimes a post with no proof would have it, sometimes not. We don't like inconsistency. Unfortunately, I believe as a result of our capricious use of the "No Proof" flair, it has derived implied meanings. One such meaning was that "No Proof" meant that a complaint was not believed by the mod team or person flairing the post. This is absolutely not the intention of this flair - we let the community judge the veracity of any claim or post.
Thus, we've decided to apply a simple standard on market and vendor complaints - if the OP presents proof, the flair would be "Vendor/Market Complaint." If the OP does not present proof, it would be flaired "Vendor/Market Complaint/No Proof". There is no implied meaning behind No Proof. Just because a post presents proof and thus does not have the "No Proof" appendage does not mean that we have judged the proof presented and validated it in any way. That is for the community to debate and decide.
We want the "No Proof" flair to return to its original meaning - simply that no proof was presented at the time of the complaint. Now, this does not mean that complaint with no proof is without merit. Some claims are difficult to prove for various reasons. Do not interpret a claim with "No Proof" differently than you would before we applied these new policies. Likewise, just because a post has "proof" and thus does not have the "No Proof" flair, this does not mean that the proof has been vetted by the mod team.
I believe over time, the "stigma" of "No Proof" should disappear. Claims and posts should be critically analyzed, just like they are today. We rely on the community, as always, to vet and analyze claims. This is simply a label, nothing less, nothing more.
Again, the purpose of this policy is to improve the manner in which we flair posts. We believe the consistency will be an improvement. The "No Proof" policy discussed only applies to vendor and market complaints. We make decisions, such as this, to improve the community. This was one area where we felt we could take something that was very subjective and apply it in a fair and consistent manner. If the community finds that this policy is counter-productive and does not help, we will revisit it. Give it a chance, see if it works out. If it doesn't, its not like this is pounded in stone and brought from a mountaintop on tablets. We can change it.
As always, we welcome any feedback or concerns you may have.
lol qt the flair on this post