Buying/Selling Forum

[412 Burgh]

I have been noticing spam and I think it's been brought up before. I think I have a solution. Limit the posters in that forum to have at least a number of post. For example if you want to post in that particular forum you must have 50 posts in order to do so. This limits the spam and also shows the person has been around for a month or so.

Any thoughts from members or mods are welcomed !

 

[KmH]

A couple of threads below this one you have started is - http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/feedback-suggestions/292090-seller-buyer.html

The suggestion has been made many times. The Buy/Sell forum is 'buyer beware'. Feeedback sticky's were recently added at the top of the Buy/Sell forum so members could comment regarding their purchase experiences. Overread also recently updated the Buy/Sell forum rules too.

 

[Overread]

People who will scam will scam. A post or time limit really offers no protection against those sorts of people. Post counts can be upped easily with simple "nice shot" comments thrown around, whilst time limits are beatable just by waiting for the time limit to expire.

Furthermore both of those measures, whilst offering no protection against scammers, they also hinder legitimate users of the buy and sell section who might be below one or more of the imposed limits.


As KmH has said, the section is very much one where you have to exercise your own caution. Read the stickies and follow the advice given (if you've any suggestions for more I'll gladly read them and consider adding them). Also do please make use of the good and bad trader lists; this is a new feature and we will keep an eye on them as they grow.

 

[o hey tyler]

People who will scam will scam. A post or time limit really offers no protection against those sorts of people. Post counts can be upped easily with simple "nice shot" comments thrown around, whilst time limits are beatable just by waiting for the time limit to expire.

I think it would be quickly apparent what a potential seller would be doing if there were a bunch of one or two word comments on a slew of posts in a short time frame. It's quite easy to look at a user's posts and see what their train of activity was. If it was just to post "Cool," or "Nice pics" as fast as the forum would allow, I am pretty sure a lot of users would know what was up when their 51st post was "Hey buy this Hassy Digital Back for $10k."

Furthermore both of those measures, whilst offering no protection against scammers, they also hinder legitimate users of the buy and sell section who might be below one or more of the imposed limits.

That's the thing, IMO. Who is to deem any one of the buy and sell users to be a "legitimate user?" If a legitimate user wants to sell an item, I don't think it's without reason to have them be above a post count of 50. I personally think that it's quite lame of people to make an account purely to sell items. They don't contribute anything to the community, they just want a ROI. Heck, Fred Miranda forums charges a fee if you want to sell anything there... And I am fairly certain that it weeds out 99% of potential scammers.

As KmH has said, the section is very much one where you have to exercise your own caution. Read the stickies and follow the advice given (if you've any suggestions for more I'll gladly read them and consider adding them). Also do please make use of the good and bad trader lists; this is a new feature and we will keep an eye on them as they grow.

I wasn't aware of a good/bad seller reputation list. This is a good idea. However, I still don't think a post count restriction would hinder the buy and sell forum. Even if it were 25 posts, it would still be enough to deter a potential scammer from signing up and posting a listing for equipment they don't have.

Would any moderators be willing to attempt a 2-week trial period of a post count restriction for the buy/sell forum? Perhaps a 30 post count or greater for two weeks? See how things go, and what the quality of postings are.

I think it would be a good trial basis to see if it works or if it hinders, and hey, compromises are always good right?

 

[Ernicus]

Wether it's their 1ts post or 51st post, it's irrelevant. Scammers will scam.

All you will see with such limits is more post counts in here at 51 instead of 1.

 

[Overread]

Imposing a trial would be something only the admin could impose upon the section.

I can see merrit in charging a fee, although Ebay shows that even with fees attached there are still scammers, it would cut down on the problems. However it also makes it a paid for service and I'm just not sure if we get enough trader activity on the forums here to really benefit from setting it into the subscribers account setup. Remember if its cutting out sellers it will also cut out buyers, which means you could potentially kill the trading forum as a usable feature of the site by limiting the potential number of traders too harshly.


Remember the trading section here is much like the adboard in your local post office/supermarket. We provide the space for you to advertise your trade (for free) and its up to each person to then do their own checks and protect themselves as they trade with the independent parties.
Costed trading can work, but it would mean that we'd have to invest time and (likely) money into significantly promoting the trading aspect of the forums to drum up sufficient interest to keep it running as a costed service.

 

[o hey tyler]

I was thinking that the post limit would be only a restriction on the sellers of items. As that appears to be the most common way for members to get scammed (by the seller). I did not mean it to sound as if I wanted even the buyers to be limited by a post count, as fraud appears to be less common coming from the buyers PoV.

 

[412 Burgh]

People who will scam will scam. A post or time limit really offers no protection against those sorts of people. Post counts can be upped easily with simple "nice shot" comments thrown around, whilst time limits are beatable just by waiting for the time limit to expire.

Furthermore both of those measures, whilst offering no protection against scammers, they also hinder legitimate users of the buy and sell section who might be below one or more of the imposed limits.


As KmH has said, the section is very much one where you have to exercise your own caution. Read the stickies and follow the advice given (if you've any suggestions for more I'll gladly read them and consider adding them). Also do please make use of the good and bad trader lists; this is a new feature and we will keep an eye on them as they grow.

I'm not talking about scammers really, but more spam... No one is going to take him/her up on her offer. But if you put some kind of limitation whether it be post limit or supporting member it will slow down the spam/scam. No one is gonna take their time and post random things like "nice shot" or "good photo" just to try and sell something here. The screenshot I posted has about 20 replies and they are all insulting the OP (pretty much)