Lately, I have witnessed first hand and been part of 4 transactions that were ... shall we say, a little risky or had zero rep/trust in the community(ies) - requiring a larger effort to research and vet the individuals independently, and in one case I used escrow before I would trust the transaction. I'm more than happy to share these stories publicly (without naming names) if it will help.
One case required a Jamaican passport photo, and a picture of that individual outside their house showing the address in Jersey before I would trust them - yeah, vetting guys. That person had zero posts here, and PM'd me directly. Another one came down to the only level of trust I could find - them providing me with 3 recent ebay sellers who they bought from (which 2 vouched for the buyer in good standing) - and I had to list it on eBay and incur the hefty 12.5% FEE !! Yowser.
I feel the vast majority, if not all of these cases could have been avoided if STH had some stricter requirements in the For Sale/Trades section, and maybe a few more requirements in the forums overall that would vet the user's first and weed out the flakes. Thereby increasing the level of trust.
I don't like to list another forum; but, there is one that had a set of rules I think are reasonable defaults (unlike other forums that go too far in requirements). forums.evga.com is the one I would like to outline what they do overall.
As for their Marketplace, their rules are:
For STH management, to keep it lightweight on the admins, I suggest just putting in some basic post count requirements:
One case required a Jamaican passport photo, and a picture of that individual outside their house showing the address in Jersey before I would trust them - yeah, vetting guys. That person had zero posts here, and PM'd me directly. Another one came down to the only level of trust I could find - them providing me with 3 recent ebay sellers who they bought from (which 2 vouched for the buyer in good standing) - and I had to list it on eBay and incur the hefty 12.5% FEE !! Yowser.
I feel the vast majority, if not all of these cases could have been avoided if STH had some stricter requirements in the For Sale/Trades section, and maybe a few more requirements in the forums overall that would vet the user's first and weed out the flakes. Thereby increasing the level of trust.
I don't like to list another forum; but, there is one that had a set of rules I think are reasonable defaults (unlike other forums that go too far in requirements). forums.evga.com is the one I would like to outline what they do overall.
- 10 "approved" posts before you can send a Private Message
- First 10 posts must be manually approved by mods/admins
- 30 posts before you can embed a link
As for their Marketplace, their rules are:
- Their Marketplace is hidden from anonymous/new users. (Google doesn't have access to index, not sure how STH members would feel about loosing 'searching landings' on their FS posts)
- After you have 50 posts, then it becomes visible to "Join" the Markplace
- After you click Join, an administrator must review your account/postings/standing, and then manually approve you.
For STH management, to keep it lightweight on the admins, I suggest just putting in some basic post count requirements:
- 10 posts, and account age for 30/60 days, before you can PM
- 30 posts, and account age for 30/60 days, before you can embed a link
- 50 posts, and account age for 30/60 days, before you can post to Marketplace / Great Deals
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