I am one of the people who always trusts first and when someone messes it up I will often give another chance. I have always been like that but in the last 20 years I have become increasingly warier and since starting on Steemit my spidey sense is through the roof. Now I still give everyone a chance or two but I seem to be able to sniff out manipulators and liars at a faster rate than ever before.

In real life, I found that the best way to find out if someone is a friend and trustworthy is to lend them something that is under $100. If you never see it again it was a very cheap way to know who someone is. That doesn't work here because it's all free internet money so I don't keep track of it. I do notice that after lending somebody even $10 worth of crypto they usually never come around again. Of the dozens of times, I have loaned or given something I rarely see the person again, let alone the money. Ah well, I have made a lot of real friends that do pay things back or better yet, don't need to borrow anything.