Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeJuleas
While I like your idea as it would deter so-called "sell-and-run" users and perhaps cut down on on potential fraud, you might also be causing people who are just here to sell an item and not join a forum. I've purchased things from people with less than 10 posts and received my goods no problem.
Buyer beware, I suppose.
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I am aware of plenty of people that sell parts but never participate on the forum... and I'm also aware that people can make random posts on the forum to get over a hurdle/minimum requirement.
There's plenty of venues to sell parts at (if one solely relies on FT86club.com to sell parts, then that person isn't doing a very good job of trying to sell the part), but from the perspective of the site admin, vendors pay to sell/list parts/buy threads to members, and in return the members participate and generate traffic for the site to sell ad space or make money off of.
As a perk of being a "good member" (maybe 1 month of membership and/or min number of posts, min number of thanks, etc), perhaps new members get to sell parts also?
If not, there's always places like Craigslist or other forums that are free.
That's my line of thinking, and there's so much more upside to this than just preventing fraud, some of which include:
- increased value for vendors by reducing the amount of non-paying commercial posts
- encourage meaningful posts by new members to get over the threshold of posts/thanks to sell product
- discourage members from posting to sell only, driving member to member confidence in purchases and exchanges
- provide long term value for FT86Club and the members, as well as other stakeholders such as admin, moderators, and sponsors
About the biggest drawback I see are the regional "FS/FT" threads. Those can be kept open in my opinion.
In the end, it's simple: 3rd party sites require you to provide some type of authenticating information (credit card, etc) so you can be listed as a seller. The buyer can come in without any verified info and buy an item as long as you provide verifiable payment methods... this site should treat sellers in the same fashion, but instead of verifying the seller just needs to meet a minimum threshold to be eligible to sell.
10 Thanks or 25 minimum posts. Something low to weed out the "1 post and done" members.
-alex