New members on B/S/T forum

[syslight]

I like the idea of leaving the b/s/t open to anyone who wants to use it.

There have only been a few times that i have seen any member, new or otherwise, try and flog something that was considerably less desirable than what the description was. the pictures made the condition obvious, and a few senior members called them on it and the item was withdrawn, or the listing was corrected.

putting prior restraints on members once started will soon lead to more and more restictions... first the b/st forum requires 10 posts to sell an item, then maybe the off topic where you will need a hundred posts to be able to enter the forum... maybe we could simply just limit the membership to just people who are named Dave... where do you want to stop?

i'm for people being able to express themselves and sell and trade but if they are unreasonable then they can be individually addressed, no need to limit people beforehand.

i prefer to first believe that people are honest and trustworthy, until they show themselves otherwise.

just my groats worth for the morning.

[The Topher]

Well hey I don't like rules but there have been a few cases where someone has come on and listed something that is shiny and nice but is at or above retail. OK now for me if it is vintage it doesn't lose value and charge whatever you want but if it is new and has been used then it should be less. Or If you can get it somewhere else SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper then it is a bad deal. In those cases I feel like someone is getting a raw deal. The newbs here wouldn't know that though and I am not gonna be the one to get on there and look like a jerk. People who work hard to restore something or people who have something that is rare are welcome to me newb or not but someone who pops in to try to make a few bucks off something that can be had at one of our vendors often for less money do bother me. I don't know what to do about that and neither do you guys. We don't want this place to change but who is gonna play the bad guy in those cases? Very few do.

[BenMVermont]

I know this is way above what I have any right to discuss, but one method I've seen work on other forums is having a Generic Moderator type account setup that the various mods and senior members have access to. It is used only to post Warning comments, mentioning that a deal may be bad, risky, unknown, or potentially unreliable. I don't know if that would help, but it does provide an annonomous authority figure that shares the communal face to make general warning statement. The goal is to show that there is some unknown factor at play on the thread, and buyer beware, as well as the more senior community members are looking into the matter. Ok, I'll get my newbie butt out of here now.

[cannonfodder]

A for sale forum is a double edged sword. I am new to SRP but a long time moderator on another board. We have no sale forum for many of the reasons already stated. We also have a strict ‘no commercial posts’ policy to keep folks from plugging their brother’s friend’s nephews company. We have sponsors and they are free to advertise their wares in the marketplace forum, but even that is limited to the total new threads they can post in a month. On occasion someone tries to pull a fast one but we catch it quickly, move it to a private moderators forum and ask them nicely to not do it again. If they do they get banned for life.

When we do get a private request to allow them to sell something we point them to another website that has a long established BST forum. We just decided it was too much hassle. We did not want to police a sale forum and deal with any of the potential conflicts that arise from it. The website that has a BST forum, things are kept civil and the community pretty much polices itself. If someone offers up a used item for a ridicules price, someone will question it or it will simply not sell. There is minimum post count to prevent someone from creating a front account for a business.

My time here is short, but from what I have seen your BST forum is well behaved. It gives folks a place to sell items that would otherwise end up on eBay. It keeps them in the family and provides a service to your readers. The minimum post count for a ‘for sale’ posting may be a good idea. You may also want to limit the total number of sale posts for any one person in a month to prevent it from becoming a free ecommerce website for a business that does not want to build their own webpage.

Just my two cents, take it at face value.

[justchillin]

Before I buy from anyone on BST, I usually check their posts to see if they're a "real member". Shortly after I joined, I made this one purchase from a member that had a lot of posts and I had the razors sent straight to the almighty Lynn for honing. Lynn gave me a very honest opinion on the condition of the razors. I overpaid a little for the condition they were in. I corresponded with the seller and he took a LOONG time to respond. I was getting worried. To my relief, he finally responded, he was very apologetic and explained that he had some personal issues which was understandable and we were able to come to a amicable solution.

I was a little "naive" when I made that purchase. The picture that was taken wasn't that clear. If it was Ebay, I would've emailed for better pics. I was ok with the poor picture because based on the description I assumed the razors would be in great condition and PLUS I was buying from SRP NOT Ebay. I knew the price I was paying wasn't a "great" deal but I was ok with that cause it was from SRP's BST forum. Well that opened up my eyes.

I try to make purchases from people who I deem as "reliable and trusted" sellers now. Honorable mentions from me are Joshearl, Lynn and Classicshaving and depending on what I get in the mail this week, I'm sure they'll be another honorable mention (yes Dewey I'm referring to you).

[Kenrup]

I think on B&B the state the rules in a sticky at the top of the forum then the posts are personally moderated. If a newbie then posts it is removed and a reminder of the rules posted in it's place.

Not sure I fully agree with stopping newbies from posting there. Yes, it's more of a risk but looking at a low post count tells you where they are and the buyer can make his own risk assesment before dropping lots of money.

On the other hand if a newbie came here first wanting to sell his fathers collection on 47 mint Escher Stones and 72 Dubl Duck Wonderedges I would hate to send him away till his post count was higher

Tony

Tony

PM SENT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! who's selling it by the way?

[Friodur]

If you really want to put up rules like a minimum membership time or a min. ammount of posts everybody at SRP should be affraid of loosing their profils at the next SRP crash and theres one thing you can count on, it will happen.

I think a trusted moderator would be a good thing who first contacts a dubious member via PM to get rid of misunderstandings, if there are some. Nevertheless if there are any major problems the moderator should have the possibility to close the thread. Such an approach would be just fair, wouldn't it?

Just my opinion

[TOB9595]

WoW! So many thoughts on this

I think BST BUNNIES SHOULD be limited. Folk should not use this forum to ONLY buy or sell. A Moderator would have to pay attention to what is a guy posting about. To be a member of THIS community requires participation.
I also think that a review should be posted by anyone, regardless of number of posts. This is a way of participating and a sharing of info. Like all info YMMV and we all know that.
Regards

[Smithee]

It has been discussed some, but I am one of the ones who lost a lot of information during a couple of computer crashes and when the forum was moved from Yahoo. I actually joined SRP in 2006, but when I had to change email addresses I lost my entire profile. Lost it again during the last crash of the forum. It is frustrating, and I hate to start all over as a newbie and be restricted in participation any more than necessary.

Smithee (previously divotmax, previously BobS)

[tetontent]

Yes I agree with this, I have just finished reading about a dozen review threads made by a NooB who does not seem to have made posts anywhere other than his own review threads.



I believe there is a way. I am a member of a forum with strict status rules for certain areas I.E you can't post in off topic threads until you have made 100 posts, other parts of the forum you need to have been a member for x amount of time and made x amount of posts before getting permissions to post.

I think this would be good for both the review and BST forums. Simply because IMO why would I listen or trust the reviews of someone with very few post count and only 3 or 4 days as a member, what do they base their experience on etc.

Azjoe should be able to look into this and keep us updated.

I hope the "noob" was not me.

I really hope that this site is not going to get real political and clickesh. I have been lurking and watching for a while and since the crash I am seeing this kind of stuff happening. ME as a "Noob" so to speak want to learn about this tradition of razor shaving and i might want to contribute to the forums once and awhile (not just blabber away about nothing),. I might even want to buy trade or sell something. But now it seems that a few people want to decide for everybody or it appears that way. Dont get me wrong I really like this site and would like to contribute as a member.

My issue is i really hate politics, have to listen to it every day at work, on the news , on the radio. That being said I come home to relax and check this forum out and others and participate when i can. not have to jump through hoops or meet a quota of some kind to ""become a member of this site"" The way I see if if somebody is abusive or abusing the site kick them off. Dont make everybody else suffer.
Robert