Disputes

From time to time users might perform actions considered to be in violation of the economy rules. For example, a particular user might record work that another user believes was not actually performed, or the output of that work was never made available for purchase via Rovas. In cases like these, users can start a formal process called dispute, that might lead to penalization of the offender.

To file a dispute, follow these steps:

1. Contact the violator by sending him/her a message with request to clarify or remedy the violation voluntarily. Only if this step fails, continue with the next steps.
2. Submit a dispute. The dispute form contains the name of the accused, the object of complaint (a work report or a project) and a description of the charge against the accused.
3. Upon saving the form, Rovas changes certain application privileges for and notifies the accused about the new situation. For the duration of the dispute process he or she will not be able to file new own projects, open disputes, e.t.c.
4. Both parties are encouraged to invite other users to support their positions. Their goal is to attract supporters, as disputes are won by that party, which accumulates the greatest sum of their supporters' Merits. Both parties can solicit help for their position for 36 hours.
5. If the accused takes an action that addresses the complaint (deletes or edits the object of complaint) within 24 hours, the dispute is closed without penalties,
6. If the accused takes an action that addresses the complaint after 24, but before 36 hours since the official start of dispute, the dispute is closed, but the accused's Merit reward score is set to 0,
7. When the accused does not rectify the problem, after 36 hours since the start of dislpute, the contest period expires, Rovas tallies Merits for both parties and determines the winner. If the accused loses, Rovas will calculate the penalty. The algorithm will find the average merit score of all workers in the economy and divide that number by two - this forms the base of the penalty amount B. B is then multiplied by Mw divided by Md, where Mw is the sum of all merit scores of the winning party and Md is the difference between merit scores of the two parties. The negative value of the resulting number replaces the existing merit score of the accused. The object of complaint is also removed. Workers with negative merit scores have lower status in the economy, which is manifested for example by their inability to work on their own or public projects.
8. If the party of the accused wins, or the dispute ends in a tie, the Dispute is closed and no party is penalized