Site Suggestion Required posts to buy/sell

I've been seeing a lot of "Se7enWhatever" kiddies flooding the site recently trying to buy or sell. We see it quite a bit with spamming the living hell out of random threads. I personally receive PMs weekly (sometimes more or less) from newly registered peeps wanting to buy stuff. I think the minimum should be 100 posts to either buy OR sell. It'll prevent people from randomly spamming as well as build trust in the community. Repetition and money swapping hands honestly is the only way to build trust in these times.

 

I do like this idea, but how about this @XboxSurgeon, to make it a little more linient on buying.

3 month, 50 post requirement for WTB and price check
6 month, 100 post requirement for Marketplace selling privledges

Posts have to be more than spam of course, as per the rules already. Constructive members should get the right to buy and sell, not lost members stumbling over here from 7S. I'd like to maintain a level of quality, even in dealing with 360 XDKs and the like. I'm sure you, and many others here agree.

 

I agree there should be time involved and not just post count. I like your idea Digsy.

 

I don't know how possible it would be as I haven't done any research but hiding the marketplace behind a paywall might help (in addition to the time/post count). I'm not saying anything major I've seen a few forums do just a $1 paywall on the whole site and it heavily cut down on spam posts.

 

Kev tries to have a fully free site is the one thing. But I get what you're saying.

We just need to protect our community in new and inventive ways.

 

Sadly that's the atmosphere of 360 stuff, no doubt. Don't have issues with anything I've sold with new members.. When I had like 5 posts I bought from members here.

Unless this is a mass problem for everybody I doubt anything will change.

 

I get weird PMs at times that I just let die when I get new members willing to shell out thousands for something without haggling. That seems suspicious to me. Or offers of weird payments like gift cards and such. I dunno.

 

surgeon sounds like me when i tried tossing you thousands for shit and yet we did business mean yeah i had bought from like 1 person before you but had no feedback page

but yeah surgeon I can see what you mean though.

 

That's typical internet safety though. I get similar stuff when selling much more expensive items like cars.

Ignore them, block them even.

 

I understand the intent, but people will always find a way around it. Then they will just post collection threads and wait for the "If you ever want to get rid of that, let me know" responses that we are all guilty of leaving. Or they'll just wait for the unsolicited pm's about their collection.

I thought the time limit (for selling) cut back on spamming to some extent, but it'll always be there.

 

I sell to <10 post count users often. Hell, lots of people register just to message me.

Personally, I have no issue with low post count members being allow to OFFER to buy. No one says you have to accept to sell to people, its your own prerogative.

 

The market can be locked down to under 50 post members pretty easy. I believe @retro is working on something to stop this as it's becoming a bloody joke.

See no issues with people under 50 post buying long as they can provide proof of past transactions. But then again you can research them if you need. We all start as noobs. It's the selling section thats the biggest issue. I see 4/5 a week currently.

Suggested it before along with many other improvements but a marketplace feedback mod would help.

 

Absolutely not, this is a terrible idea. Limiting the marketplace with more rules is a surefire way to shut out new users even faster than the current rules are doing.

 

You couldn't be more wrong.

What we're contemplating is a simplification of the rules. No more you have to have 50 posts and be a member 3 months to post a for sale and you have to have a validation photo with name, site name and date and can only post 1 sale but you can post a wtb but only one and you can also post a price check but you need a validation photo but this only needs your name on it not the site name or date *breathes*

That's a damn mouthful. It's confusing. The simplification would be:

• You have to have 50 posts and be a member 3 months to start a post in the Marketplace (that's for sale, WTB or price check)
• You can only have one Marketplace thread active (in any of the 3 sections)
• For sale, trade and price check posts must have validation. Validation is your name, site name and date on a PIECE OF PAPER (not a digital screen)

Simple. Marketplace threads need validation, you can only have one-at-a-time and you have to meet the posts/time criteria. SO MUCH EASIER.

This makes it LESS confusing for new members. It also ENCOURAGES new members to join in discussion. And the current limit is very FAIR - post twice on every Saturday and twice on every Sunday. In 3 months, you'll have 50 posts. Is that really too much to ask?

From the community's point of view, it gets more people involved with discussion, which creates more content. It also stops the hit-and-run signups who just want to sell something for free. Go and sell on eBay. Limiting new users from selling helps protect you from fraudulent sales. It also rewards regular users, in that their sales threads aren't lost in a sea of hit-and-run sales.

Remember THIS IS JUST AN IDEA right now. It could also be incorporated with the idea of perks for donations - a subscription model if you like. Subscribe and you get more than 1 Marketplace posts, perhaps. Because, quite frankly, a lot of you suck at donating.... including many people who use the Marketplace for free advertising.

If you or any other seller wants to sell to a new user with no idea of who they are, you're welcome to do so. As with any sale, you sell at your own risk and hopefully take whatever precautions against loss you deem necessary... be it to a new user or a veteran.

To anyone who sells... ALWAYS SEND TRACKED / INSURED WHERE POSSIBLE.

Likewise, you or any other seller are free to think "hey, I make a shit load of sales on this site and they're having a fundraiser... I'll chip in a few quid as I've saved a ton in eBay fees... hell, the stuff I sell wouldn't even be ALLOWED on eBay!" ....or just freeload off the site. Quite often, it's the regular sellers who don't chip in... including one who had over $20,000 worth of discs for sale at one point. But hey, whatever... swings and roundabouts. If we get users into the site and they stay rather than just buy and run, it's all good. So this sort of discussion is constructive.

 

My circumstances have changed recently, but assuming all goes to plan - next year and the years after, donations shouldnt be an issue.

Ill be honest, I dont think I have had ANY bad experiences with low post count users. I dont send tracked for low value items, the tracking fee on international orders (£4 on top of existing postage cost )wouldnt be cost effective for a £2.20 bios chip for example. The increase in sales offsets the odd few that go missing. However, the difference is - the items I sell I supply, I can replace them easily. Anything you cant just make more of, you most certainly should send tracked.

 

The amount of marketplace rules here is the exact reason why it is nowhere near as active as ones on other forums, such as NintendoAge. Do you know why NA's marketplace is more active? The fact that their rules are more relaxed is a big reason.

Regardless, I hope you have fun limiting the community, I couldn't give less of a shit anymore. It's been years since I've been able to successfully sell something in the marketplace anyway.

 

I'm always for "less" government. If someone wants to post a something with a low post count. "I" will take that into consideration before I buy.

Just my 2 cents.

 

It's not more government I'm suggesting nor do I intend to ignite a riot over this topic. All I am suggesting is we raise the post count to 100 before a member can sell and raise the time count to something higher in attempts to prevent shitposting and dumbass bumps on things that violate current policies anyway. The upshot is it further protects the community, not further locks it down. It helps admin from having to clean posts up hourly as well as prevents senior members from trolling new guys for violating policy.

Scammers come in all forms. I have been scammed by a "mod" on a different site before. It happens.

But these measures would help clean the site up from random pointless posts simply to up someone's count as well as force their hand to actually participate in the community if they want the privilege to buy/sell/trade.

 

Could probably require donations after a certain value. However, there's no real way moderators can tell who has or hasn't.

 

The problem is putting monetary value ahead of what value it brings to the site. Sure, someone may sell/buy and run. But there is also potential for that material to make it out there, which further puts eyes on the site, which can bring information or that monetary value that people place as being important.

If you think someone is spamming it up, do tell us. We do try to delete some of them. Thats the reason the three month deal was there anyway, just to avoid 50 quick spam posts.

You cant force participation regardless. There is such an incredibly fine line: We want people to stay and participate and add to the conversation, but when someone comes around with the chance to preserve gaming history, do we really want to turn them away?

Comparing us to NintendoAge is silly though. Different strokes and all that. People have noticed that regular stuff doesnt really get the attention here, which I dont think is necessarily a bad thing.

I dont want to nickel and dime users. If they want to donate money, great. If not, thats fine, I havent donated in a number of years myself, but I still think I provide an informational value to the site. The site doesn't struggle all that much really. Yes, many donators are repeats, but thats not bad. If they didn't want to donate, they wouldn't.

Part of the problem with donations is that every year we offer something, whether its the museum, or X, and it just doesn't get done or its pushed off to users to say "Now you," like the Wiki had been multiple times without thought as to what it would take to actually make it a success, and Im surprised that more people dont push back on it. I know the good intent is there, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is at least one person out there that would have otherwise donated that sees this.

The fact is that people want something for their donations beyond just the forum, fair or not, so whether Assembler wants to get the Patreon going and say X amount supports the site directly or whatever, that might give some incentive to people who want continuing rewards. It also gives those who honestly dont care about the forums some reason to donate to what really is a preservation effort. If they care about the videos, say 50% go towards more videos and 50% go towards the site, so they indirectly (kind of hah) are helping both.

But whatever we say we're going to give, whether it be donation incentives to marketplace extras, videos, museum, whatever, it needs to happen in a timely manner.