Dear @keo and @christoph
I am linking from here: Arbitrator not responding to messages at all (urgent!) - #9 by keo
I feel that there is a very real UX issue related to transparency in communication, support and arbitration. This will only become more taxing on your human resources as the trading community grows and ways need to be found to discourage escalations caused simply by people not knowing what to expect and what is happening. This needs to happen without people having to read the white paper or having to go to the forum.
The thread I am linking from is a good example. Regardless of whether the user’s issue is founded or unfounded, there is a need for both contractual parties + the arbitrator to be privy to the same information. Also, both parties need to feel that “something is happening” in a timely (or at least predictable) fashion.
To illustrate with my experience, I had two identical disputes in parallel (which were technical and could have been support issues) therefore not complicated in nature. Both were resolved (so credit where credit is due). From the critical point of money having been transferred to one party (FIAT to my bank account) the disparity between a 5minute and 20hour ticket time closure is sure to make anybody nervous and concerned that something has gone wrong. This type of unsurety can lead to panic, loss of trust and angry words on public communication channels.
I am an early adopter of many things, and what you are doing is phenomenal. I am interested in the details and failsafes of systems (automated and human):
While it is understandable that complex arbitration takes a long time, what failsafes are in place if an arbitrator should become physically unavailable (systemic redundancy)? Is there anything in place to prevent simple arbitration issues to backlog behind more complex ones? Have you a strategy in place to scale if there were a surge in userbase?
Also, it needs to be asked that if a high proportion of disputes on what is set to be a high volume trading platform, become complex, is there maybe many other critical problems that need resolution? I have no stomach for the potential of what should be a simple trade taking up months of my attention.
I can see these types of things becoming make or break for Bisq reputation, but also hope that my comments are taken in the spirit of identifying problems and finding solutions.