Just to be clear; cboat was never formally identified by any of us. He or she developed a reputation by posting obviously real NPD numbers and internal publishing documents years and years ago before most of us were moderators. The reason we verify purported insiders is not to protect us (no sweat off our back to delete or lock the posts or wait until the rumour comes true or false and then perm them or just perm them until what they say comes true) but rather to protect them (so that if they say something and it ends up getting changed--because lots of things are subject to change--we have a basis for believing that they weren't making it up to begin with). When you hear something from CBOAT, your mental filter is "This is a guy who has said a bunch of stuff over a long period of time including some stuff that was obviously true and private but I have no idea who he is and some of it didn't quite shake out in the end."
I have no idea who ntkrnl is. bishoptl (who has been very public about his own name and background in the industry) verified his identity as someone who would in theory be able to know the kinds of things he's saying. We keep confidence of people who talk to us and bishoptl wouldn't and shouldn't tell me who ntkrnl is. When you hear something here, your mental filter is "This guy appears to be verified by GAF moderators as someone who potentially could know the kinds of things he's saying." We can't and couldn't verify that someone is telling the truth, only that they appear to be someone who could know this stuff based on their position or identity. Of course it could also be that he's Phil Spencer and playing a giant trick on us all. If Phil Spencer asked me to vouch for him in confidence, I'd say yes, and then he could post that Microsoft was buying Nintendo and making a game where Master Chief runs for congress, and I'd have no way of determining if that's true or not, only that theoretically someone in his position could vouch for it.
Thuway and famousmortimer have never been verified at all, and in fact they are both abundantly clear that they are NOT industry insiders. They both give their real names and professions publicly. They make it clear that in both their cases, they talk to people in the industry. In FM's case, I think it's not so much that he did talk to people in the industry, but rather his success with the PS4NoDRM thing got him connections to talk to some people in the industry. So when you hear something from either of these people, you know "This is something from people who appear to be connected, but don't have any first hand information because they're not in the industry. So are they using discretion in terms of choosing their sources or the certainly or degree to which they present the claims they heard?"
Three totally separate cases.
