You should add, that You are the 2nd guy on Augustos right hand side and thta there is one more pic of You from the same day on Your profile, which confirms it is You cause You have a similar look.😉

To convince this one user I have added a picture of my promotion (including Augusto Ferrrari and me with bb). However he still is not giving in… Can you please help me out?

Paul, I'll repeat what I wrote in our message conversation (you can add the whole conversations, complete with your messages, if you want): 'Basically, I like to see evidence that is obviously promotion pictures. Pictures together with someone, group pictures etc. are common during camps etc. even without promotions. But such pictures over many years and belts show an ongoing connection to an instructor and can be sufficient evidence together with e.g. diplomas (which in themselves are not good evidence and have even been falsified on Beltchecker before). Good evidence is also links+screenshots of social media posts about the promotion, with comments, likes etc. from the promoting instructor. Some instructors also have lists of their promoted BB:s on their homepage, which is then excellent evidence to link to.' and 'I basically only vote based on presented evidence. Unfortunately, a lot of instructors and academies need to get better at producing evidence of promotions, especially at black belt level. Which you can make sure to do different when you promote someone yourself - I personally make sure photos are taken even for stripes. If you have any possibility of influence at the academy, I would also recommend you set some kind of routine. If you have good contact with Augusto at your academy, it would also be easy for him to publish a post mentioning the seminar and who he promoted to what belt there. I checked both the academy homepage, Facebook and Instagram (including Augusto's) and didn't even find evidence of a seminar at that date. If there is, you don't need to be a member yourself in social media if someone helps you find and link it. No evidence produced is not evidence the promotion did not take place, but I think the whole point with Beltchecker is that the belts should actually be checked, much like IBJJF would but without the cost and more possibilities what can constitute evidence.' and 'Sorry, no evidence is a downvote from me. This is Beltchecker after all and belt should be easy to check once added to the promotion history. I've myself held seminars where I've posed with individuals for pics and on group pictures without having promoted them, so would hope no one would verify a belt from me just based on that. If not now, I still suggest you discuss in your academy how to produce good evidence of promotions for your students in the future. Should be quite easy if you're just aware and think of doing it. Btw, next time you see Augusto, just ask if you can take a picture together with him holding the end of your belt. That's the easiest way to document a promotion, even if done at a later time. Also works with e.g. old (brown) belt hanging around the neck.'

Here is a sample picture of me and another black belt together with a bunch of colored belts at a seminar. Do you think me being in this group picture is good evidence that I (or the other BB) promoted anyone to the colored belt they're wearing? If you can accurately tell which colored belts on this picture were awarded by me (or the other BB), whether on this occasion or earlier, I'll remove my dispute right away. Otherwise, you just have to trust me on group pictures together with a black belt not being good promotion evidence in itself.

Ultimately, the better documented a profile you build, the more people will vote to verify you. I could agree that your profile is a bit empty, although I personally don't downvote because of that. But each to their own.

The point is of course that if there is someone like Augusto Ferrari present that it would be very unlikely that there are people there with fake belts. Given that he is the head of our gym. Unless you doubt him as well, he does not have a belt checker account and does not post about every seminar he gives…

Even if fake belts (or BB:s not actually promoted by Augusto himself) could by all means be present at his seminar (open seminar? no information on the internet that I've found), the point isn't that it's unlikely that you're a BB or that it's likely that you are a fake BB. Most of those I initially downvote because of lacking evidence later show that they were indeed legitly promoted according to what they had written on their profile the whole time. So every single time someone makes a belt claim on Beltchecker, it is more likely that they're legit than not. But upvoting just based on that likelihood is not beltchecking. And beltchecking is what I do on Beltchecker. Is your belt checkable? If no, don't expect to get all upvotes.

I think unless/until we have an army of Johans then just one is enough to do the good and not enough to do the bad this policy creates. If you're getting verified, why do you care that one random Swedish BB 'would like to see better evidence'? I for one would vote for you if I'd see evidence of you on podium e.g. Rotterdami Open brown would make sense you're black now. Or pictures where you're also coaching purple and brown belts. I won't downvote if you don't match -my- criteria (unless I'd have evidence that you suck which I don't) but I usually won't verify based on just promotion confirmed if I don't know the instructors standard.

I think unless/until we have an army of Johans then just one is enough to do the good and not enough to do the bad this policy creates. If you're getting verified, why do you care that one random Swedish BB 'would like to see better evidence'? I for one would vote for you if I'd see evidence of you on podium e.g. Rotterdami Open brown would make sense you're black now. Or pictures where you're also coaching purple and brown belts. I won't downvote if you don't match -my- criteria (unless I'd have evidence that you suck which I don't) but I usually won't verify based on just promotion confirmed if I don't know the instructors standard.

Is there any particular reason why Augusto only promoted you to blue and black, whereas Remco promoted you in between those ranks (purple and brown)?

Again Paul, do you consider the picture above with me evidence that all colored belts on that group pic were promoted by me? I'm quite sure you're right that most members on Beltchecker would take it as evidence that I promoted them, but that still doesn't make it good evidence or true. What I dispute is not the trueness of your promotion history but there being evidence of it being true. Sometimes, I cut some slack when I've already seen evidence elsewhere myself, but if I haven't, that is an absolute downvote from me. But why don't you just contact Augusto for evidence and get it done with? If he knows you enough to promote you to BB, don't you know him enough to be comfortable asking him for e.g. a mention in a social media post as evidence? Or just have him ok that whoever wants your promotion confirmed can contact him through DM to an official account of his on e.g. Instagram and write that invite on your profile. E.g. 'Augusto doesn't issue diplomas, but he sends his regards that you are more than welcome to contact him through DM to https://www.instagram.com[...]errari.10/ and he will happily confirm his promotion of me'. I would gladly do that for any current or former student which I have ever promoted, even those now competing for different teams etc, so I hope it would be the same with Augusto. If so, I would both be able to verify and pass on any confirmation from Augusto, so everyone who trusts that I don't throw verifications right and left could take that as evidence much stronger than a group picture. Does that sound like a solution?

I am not sure if I understand your solution, but you are more than welcome to send him a DM!

Verifyers shouldn't need to go dig up the evidence themselves, but following specific references (e.g. not 'somewhere on this linked instagram account' but an exact link to the post) that you've provided yourself is another way of you providing the evidence. Also, I think the reference should be a permanent part of the promotion history (easiest then to add it as a comment under the black belt), for everyone including the instructor to see. If you, as a courtesy, need to ask him before writing that on your profile is up to you and your relation to him (of course, the step is shorter to actually contacting him if it's an invite to contact him that he himself is explicitly involved with - see my example in last post). But basically, I'm willing to treat it as a reference that you've provided if you in your promotion history for black belt write an encouragement to contact Augusto (through an obviously official account, which you also provide) for confirmation of the promotion.

Encouragement added!

Great! You'll need to manually replace the link though, as it didn't survive the copy paste intact. Also seems he has to change some setting for it to be possible to PM him through instagram, or add another official account where he can be contacted. https://www.facebook.com/[...]ugusto.942 might work better. But needs to be copied through rightclicking and copy link, or similar link copy routinem depending on what unit you run Beltchecker from.