Pros: This would get more feedback on the GM trials.
Cons:
a.) This would put more pressure on the GM trials. The standards of the GM team within itself have been fairly well examined, and the GM team has determined how to constructively assist every trial in meeting those standards. The standards of the public upon trial GMs, however, are unknown, subject to whimsy, and generally relatively harsh. If trial GMs were expected to make absolutely everyone happy, then nobody should want to do the job.
b.) Conversely, if trials are judged, even partially, on the feedback given by the general public, then becoming a trial becomes significant part popularity contest. Popularity, however, does not correlate with competency. Voting people you like as friends into positions they're not good at doesn't make the community better. So if commentary on trials did not turn out to be excessively negative (the cause of the concern in part a), then it could very well turn out to be excessively positive.
c.) The general public is not necessarily informed on what is actually expected of trial GMs. Thus, we would likely receive a decent amount of useless contributions, such as "This trial GM didn't handle my scam report instantly!", or "This trial GM didn't delete this post in Discussion that I disagreed with!"
d.) The loudest users are those with complaints. This, combined with the above points, provides a reasonable arbitrary blackmail potential against any trial GM. "Do this or I'll complain about you and you won't get full GM" would be a reasonable tactic, and while it is quite possible to defend against this, it either places too much stress on the trials (bringing us back to part a), turns into a popularity contest fueled flame war in the relevant thread, or results in the entire system being useless anyways (since at least one post arbitrarily cannot be trusted, so maybe none of them can).
What i'm trying to say here is, aren't gm's basically here for us users? Why not let us give our feedback on who we appreciated, or who's putting in the extra effort.
This isn't about having faith in the community. The problem is that most of the community is utterly apathetic and doesn't care either way.
As such, there are two reasons why people would end up posting in such a thread, and they're the two reasons any particular member of the community would care at all: Either they really like the user and will praise them and the ground they walk on (in general), or they really dislike the user for some (possibly imagined) slight and will curse them and their bloodline for a thousand years.
Troll Complaint
Actual Complaint
Dick rider comment
Actual positive comment
That is, a product which fails 0.1% of the time might have 10%-50% negative reviews, depending solely on whether or not anyone reviewed it positively.
I like the idea, but I feel like only GMs would be able to see it, not others or trial GMs. That is the only way I can see this being used. And that isn't too fun either.
I am mixed on this.
Why wouldn't trials be able to see it? If it's about them, then they have to right to know what we're saying.