After recent events whereby it was discovered (too late) that a particular long term AG member had not completed a number of transactions, I would like to propose that the user - user section is updated. As a member of other websites I have come across a number of different ways these things are measured, but the best so far is 'at a glance'. It's basically a counter that sits under every users name & avatar. As people trade, you can apply feedback. It is instantly available for viewing on every post the person makes. Thus, if you are considering trading you get an up-to-date visual of previous trades. If something does sadly start to go wrong, then people can immediately warn others. It's even colour coded so you can tell that RED means bad, and GREEN means good, whilst ORANGE is neutral feedback. Wouldn't be too hard to add in surely?
Do you know how it is monitored? Is there someone that would have to review all of the feedback to ensure someone wasn't just posting a hundred feedbacks to raise / lower a status? In that instance, the speed would rely on whoever is processing the feedbacks.
In order to apply feedback, you click on the feedback link. You type in the username of the person you wish to leave feedback for. A box appears with ALL their feedback details, i.e. previous feedback with the user name of whomever left the feedback, score / rating and comments from that user on the particular transaction. I always state the actual item, or atleast something like 'Naomi cart'. That list of user names is important as if someone did decide one day to just get a mate to apply feedback, then it would be spotted pretty swiftly. It lists the date, the user name and you can only leave one per user per item. Like all these things, I am sure it could be tampered with, but it does offer a far more accurate reflection. If you see someone with a number of negatives or a few neutrals for example, you'll check their feedback pages and see it all in one place, rather than us currently going into user - user and perhaps not seeing, or like the recent issue, people having not made other users aware until many, many months have passed.
Oh, and there is also an option to select whether you are leaving feedback as a buyer, seller or whether it was a trade / swap. Which I find particularly useful as when buying and selling you do tend to have slightly better protection as you can use PayPal (for example). In a trade, you are pretty much having to rely upon your own instinct. I've sent a few things off wondering whether I'd ever get the item in return. Sometimes... sadly... If I can SEE someone has dealt with trades properly in the past, well it would reassure me somewhat. :nod:
Won't you get Ebay like instances where someone leaves a negative rep. point uncalled for, giving a mod a hard time get to the bottom of everything etcetera.
It's a possibility, no denying. The point being that you are expected to leave a comment in the feedback and someone getting negative feedback once or twice and resolving it is one thing, but someone suddenly getting a few from various members is a totally different thing! it's only just started on this other site, but we were all expected to go through our sales and leave feedback, which I have to admit most people did and with little fuss. I've not seen any negatives yet, most people appear to behave themselves. On here might take a little longer eh! lol I also think that when it comes to negative feedback, that tends to generate comments either from the seller / buyer in the threads at some point, it's just the length of time it takes is of concern to me. No point after the horse has bolted or when other members have also come behind and been caught out too.
Plus, some people prefer private sales, would you be able to read back the sales/rep. given? Not everyone will like that I suppose.
The comment could simply state 'Private' or something generic as 'Sony material'. You can still keep things pretty private.
An example: Name of user: Parris Feedback for: A1Gamer Buyer: Y Seller: N Trade: N Positive: Y Neutral: N Negative: N Date: 1st Jan 2009 Comment: Sony material. All went well. ---- What gets left once you click OK is: User: A1Gamer Pos: 1 Neut: 0 Neg: 0 Bye clicking on the users feedback you get a break down of ALL the users who've left feedback. It makes sense. You can read through the comments, just like user - user here, but they get group together in one place rather than scattered across an entire thread. It could be months between sales for example, and finding all the relevant feedback is a pain!
Dammit, see how that just shines out! LOL Imagine that under every users avatar, you can see how it becomes a quicker reference to their selling / buying and trading exploits. :drool:
Given that this forum is still running on vBulletin 3.5.4, which is nearly three years old (and has known vulnerabilities)... I wouldn't hold your breath for updates.
I think you'll find there would be a few problems that would need to be overcome before any more mods could be installed ;-)
