Quote:
Originally Posted by w0rM
I know this was brought up several years ago but I wanted to suggest it again now that the forum has a gazillion members. 
I think there should be a rule that all classified listings must include a photo - ideally with a username and date - similar to what they do on that "other forum".
If it's too much trouble to take 30 seconds to upload a photo of a $500 item then what can I expect when the guy has my money and I'm waiting on him to pack and ship my item? Including a photo makes it much harder to fake a sale and ensures at least some level of commitment to actually sell what they're posting about.
Just my 2 cents. |
Thanks w0rM for the suggestion. Though I don't talk about it, this topic has been on my mind for months.
When I launched THE370Z forum classified in September 2008, I wanted my classified section to be the busiest with MOST entries per day. I looked around to get an ideas "how" I can achieve that. I wanted my forum to have the busiest classified area among all other Z forums. This gives forum members a HUGE advantage when they are modding their car because not a single product misses the classified. Even people from other forum sells their stuff.
My first instinct was to look at similar VERY popular and successful classified places. Two biggest name came to my mind were Ebay and Craigslist. I took a 2nd look at "why" these sites were so popular/busy and applied some of the attributes from it to the forum. Almost 4 1/2 years later, I can say that THE370Z has one of the busiest classified section among other Z forums. One of the attributes of ebay/craigslist is that you have freedom to sell whatever you want/like without having to worry about any requirements for it. This freedom is huge. This encourages people to just post things. But this comes with a price. As you've mentioned above, the last thing you want is some guy to run away with your money. As scared I was to try this with my forum, I'm surprised to see the fraud/problem scammers are no more than 3%-4%, meaning every 100 transactions that are good, only 3-4 of them are bad (most of these are usually bad decision on buyers part) But it's not a good thing as people spend their hard worked money on their parts. What you gain in one way, you lose in other way.
Taking your first line ( I wanted to suggest it again now that the forum has a gazillion members ) and 2nd paragraph into consideration (If it's too much trouble to take 30 seconds to upload a photo of a $500 item then what can I expect when the guy has my money and I'm waiting on him to pack and ship my item? Including a photo makes it much harder to fake a sale and ensures at least some level of commitment to actually sell what they're posting about), I def. see where you're coming from. I think the best bet would be for me to come up with classified rule that cover/saves more members. Granted we DEF WILL lose classified entries due to stricter rules but at least members won't lose their hard earned money. I will probably have a scale that $0-$300 (no requirement), $300-$10,000 (pics with s/n) etc. (of course numbers are something I need to work on. it's just an example). So allow me to brainstorm and get back to you on this. I'm always open to creative solutions
Quote:
Originally Posted by dP3NGU1N
We should also require a minimum post count. Nothing outrageous - like 10 posts or so just to keep spammers and bots at bay. There are several forums that employ this method as well.
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Unfortunately this helps but not by much. I will tell you from my personal experience. I have registered to forums before just to sell an item. I had no intentions of scamming of course, but sometimes these forums required 10 posts. I'll be honest with you, I literally just posted in 10 threads (few in lounge and gen section) within 3 minutes and have gotten my access to classified. Someone who has the intention to scam, this doesn't protect you. The concept of picture with the s/n seems to be most effective solution till date.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wonka2581
I think its a good idea guys, Also what about a score like a feed back counter for people who sell stuff more often then others. I would make people more at ease when they can look and read feed back from a seller. Just a thought...
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Unfortunately, there's no specific company that sells that itrader hack. It's made by a programmer and it's not stable or supported. It weakens the Vbulletin coding and there isn't a company that supports the mod. You DO see this software in various big forums that are owned by Internet brands or Autoguide etc, but they have room full of programmers that they pay 6 figure income to that can maintain these hacks. I don't have that luxury unfortunately
. So I am not sure about this heck.
Thank you for the suggestions. I'm going to work on the some ideas for classifieds and brainstorm it until it's perfect.