Thread: Classifieds policy change

Originally Posted by Bruno

That is exactly what this policy is designed to do.

We do not back anything. But if we have a reason to believe that a seller is really misrepresenting shavereadiness, then we want to look into that before allowing him to sell again.

This is going to sound redundant because Gugi basically said, "you guys do whatever you want." But, are there criteria? I suppose I'm asking, what is the threshold test? A complaint by a reputable member? Just one blade that slipped through the cracks? Or a long history of fraud?

I'm sorry for asking this again, but I don't like opaque "I am the king and I'll decide when I decide" rules. I like to know in general what is acceptable advertising/honing and what isn't. I understand this is your website, but its also a community, and communities generally have written laws and rules that people are to obey. Thus, we know if we have violated a policy or not.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Because that is a crapload of work for the mod team, and would incur a gigantic shipping cost overhead, not to mention insurance in case of loss, etc etc...

initially i agreed with the idea of not being allowed to call it shave ready until approved, but this would create unavoidable confusion, because people might then just Assume something is shave ready when its not.

however, an *approved* tag or auto siggy to those that have done succesful transfers,
u could add a stars system open to those that have won bids. so if the first person gets bad item, they give them 0 stars, a warning to the rest.
kinda like the rating system ebay has.
they must be asey, theyve got them on every link/video site. thumbs up/thumbsdown stars etc.
that way ppl can see if they are buyiing from a trustworthy member or some jerk trying to off all there stuff
hell u could just add a poll to the sellers profile, "wpuld u buy from this seller again?" or something like that.
and limit ads (if its not already) for new sellers, that way they cant post a dozen seemingly good deals and sale them all in 1 night.

I'm pretty sure that would require a whole revamping of the classifieds system.

Might be easier to have a "seller's feedback forum" where buyers can praise the seller or condemn his honing ability. But really, the buyer should at least try to work it out with the seller before posting negative comments. IMHO.

Originally Posted by Leighton

Might be easier to have a "seller's feedback forum" where buyers can praise the seller or condemn his honing ability. But really, the buyer should at least try to work it out with the seller before posting negative comments. IMHO.

thats a good idea too.

the Only downside i see is that there is already over 30 topics on the main page, many of which are then subdivided.
this site already has more topics than any site for any subject ive ever seen. even on really techy forums with 25,000+ active members.
this contributes to the neccesity for a million mods, to the daily-asked repeat questions, even though the answers are here somewhere, there just hard to find.

its friendly here, ive been on some forums where they will ban you for asking stuff already answered., even some that would ban us members for giving input on such matters

Originally Posted by Leighton

I'm pretty sure that would require a whole revamping of the classifieds system.

Might be easier to have a "seller's feedback forum" where buyers can praise the seller or condemn his honing ability. But really, the buyer should at least try to work it out with the seller before posting negative comments. IMHO.

+1 on that! Part of the hassle of being a seller IMO is risking your reputation. I've seen new guys who bought a pre honed razor from an internet vendor complain that it wasn't shave ready more then once. Guys read this forum and expect the razor must pass HHT or it isn't "shave ready".

When this topic comes up I always think about the differences in shavers evaluation of DE blades and how much that varies between individuals. Here we expect that a razor can be made to a level of sharpness where anyone who uses it will agree that it is shave ready. Add to that the necessity of having a requisite knowledge of stropping, preperation and shaving technique.

I haven't sold on the forum and to be honest if I was going to sell razors or whatever I would put them on ebay where I have over 1,200 postives and no negatives in 10 years of buying and selling.

Originally Posted by Leighton

This is going to sound redundant because Gugi basically said, "you guys do whatever you want." But, are there criteria? I suppose I'm asking, what is the threshold test? A complaint by a reputable member? Just one blade that slipped through the cracks? Or a long history of fraud?

I'm sorry for asking this again, but I don't like opaque "I am the king and I'll decide when I decide" rules. I like to know in general what is acceptable advertising/honing and what isn't. I understand this is your website, but its also a community, and communities generally have written laws and rules that people are to obey. Thus, we know if we have violated a policy or not.

Probably another mod can address this as well, but it's not about 'I decide because I have the power to do so'. Airing dirty laundry is not pleasant for anybody regardless of the end result. That's why any discussions with the potential to do a lot of harm to people's reputation are best to stay limited to as few people as possible. The moderators are tactful and sensible, even if it may not be apparent, so I think an opaque process actually works best. One may argue that it creates a false idyllic sense, but my impression is that usually things get blown way out of proportion and that's the bigger danger to a community - everybody seems to be really quick to reach for the tar and feathers when it's not them.

And yes technically this is a Dictatorship, but it's one where nobody is forced to be a part of it. If power starts getting abused it won't take long for it to die on itself. I think this is a pretty decent assurance that things would work ok even if parts remain secretive. Everybody stays here voluntarily because overall they like it.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

+1 on that! Part of the hassle of being a seller IMO is risking your reputation. I've seen new guys who bought a pre honed razor from an internet vendor complain that it wasn't shave ready more then once. Guys read this forum and expect the razor must pass HHT or it isn't "shave ready".

Ah, yeah, the infamous, 'Lynn is also human' clause has been invoked so many times that you'd think it may be true. So far I don't know of even one case it has held, so I'm yet to be convinced.

yea flaming and bickering is another downside of forums for feedback..

i dont think it would be hard at all to add a thumbs up/thumbs down thing in every sellers profile, that buyers can click.

or even just a 3 question poll in there profiles,
fast shipping : yes/no
Accurate ad: yes/no
comunication: yes/no

Originally Posted by gugi

Probably another mod can address this as well, but it's not about 'I decide because I have the power to do so'. Airing dirty laundry is not pleasant for anybody regardless of the end result. That's why any discussions with the potential to do a lot of harm to people's reputation are best to stay limited to as few people as possible. The moderators are a lot more tactful and sensible than most members, even if it may not be apparent, so I think an opaque process actually works best. One may argue that it creates a false idyllic sense, but my impression is that usually things get blown way out of proportion and that's the bigger danger to a community - everybody seems to be really quick to reach for the tar and feathers when it's not them.

And yes technically this is a Dictatorship, but it's one where nobody is forced to be a part of it. If power starts getting abused it won't take long for it to die on itself. I think this is a pretty decent assurance that things would work ok even if parts remain secretive. Everybody stays here voluntarily because overall they like it.

I'm referring to the criteria of even getting to the mods attention. Is it just one razor? Two? A certain percentage? Must the razor(s) be sent to a mod for eval first?

After it gets to the review stage, that is fine to keep it between the parties interested. But I want to know what the criteria is.

The problem here is that you're allowing people with poor reasoning skills to determine your actions; a bad sale should reflect poorly on the seller, not on the forum. Anyone reasonable and genuinely interested in SRP will see this and not be upset with the forum.
When you begin to police the ads, you have suddenly begun implicitly guaranteeing the purchases being made, which creates a logical, rational case for persons being upset with SRP for purchases that went south.

Any policy policing the sales in this fashion is begging the question; it will create the problem it is claiming to solve.