svtb15
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- Mar 22, 2004
- 13,004
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- I play it all. Whatever works for the gig. Q+
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Should the Wanted forums be viewable by Supporting Members only?
- Thread starter paul
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.. hahahah
A lot of people like to read the forums, but don't necesarrily have anything to contribute. I spend probably 90% of my time here in the classifieds. I just don't care to read or talk about a lot of the same topics that come up again and again, everyday in the main discussion forums here. But I love playing bass and buying/selling/trading basses and gear. And I do participate in the discussions here too, it's just not the main thing I use the site for. Honestly, it seems like for every one discussion thread that pops up that I'm interested in, there's probably 50 or 100 that I'm not.. mostly lots of beginner questions about what bass is best for what.. should I buy a Vintage Modified or a Classic Vibe Squier, etc.. And nothing wrong with asking those kinds of questions either, I just don't care. And there's a ton of sensitive bickering that goes on around here for whatever reason, but not in the classifieds, haha.
How about a fifth option: A seller's asking price for any given item must be proportionate to the amount of positive feeback they have.
So a new user with zero feedback couldn't just list a Fodera, no matter how many "me too" posts they have made in the last month or two, but they could list a pedal or something. Obviously this could be overridden by admins if enough people chimed in to acknowledge that the user in question was legit.
Not to insult anyone, but you really need to do your homework here. It's not TB's responsibility to police this. The options outlined above would only deter casual thieves. They would not have stopped the scenario where the seller had "the perfect bass" with pictures etc.
So a new user with zero feedback couldn't just list a Fodera, no matter how many "me too" posts they have made in the last month or two, but they could list a pedal or something. Obviously this could be overridden by admins if enough people chimed in to acknowledge that the user in question was legit.
Not to insult anyone, but you really need to do your homework here. It's not TB's responsibility to police this. The options outlined above would only deter casual thieves. They would not have stopped the scenario where the seller had "the perfect bass" with pictures etc.
I could see that. I just think it helps you to get to know people better.
Honestly this is not avoidable no matter what you do. There will always be those ******** that are out there just to rip people off. It's sad.
I hope paypal returns all funds. :
Honestly this is not avoidable no matter what you do. There will always be those ******** that are out there just to rip people off. It's sad.
I hope paypal returns all funds. :
In fairness to supporting members, I think you should be a SM to view the Wanted section in the classifieds.
I see it this way; If a supporting membership is required to sell items on Talkbass in the For Sale sub-forum, then a SM should be required in order to "sell" items on Talkbass, via the Wanted ads. To not require a SM allows non-supporting members to still "sell" on Talkbass. This sort of loophole in the rules is disrespectful to supporting members. It's a double standard, simply put.
As far as scammers responding to Wanted threads, anything to deter them is a plus. A scammer responded to a Wanted thread of mine recently. Brand new member, odd syntax, wanted my email addy to send pics. Obvious fraudster, sounded just like the infamous Nigerian/Russian/wherever scammers. I just shut down the thread in disgust.
Aside; Personally, during these times of economic duress, I think it may have been wiser forTB supporting dues to have been lowered from $20 to $15, instead of being raised by a whopping 50% in one fell swoop. The extra $10 means nothing to me, but I suspect the increase will discourage many potential new SM's, and terminate some previous support. Perception is reality....$15 sounds like "peanuts"....$30 sounds like "real money". Hopefully I'm mistaken.
I see it this way; If a supporting membership is required to sell items on Talkbass in the For Sale sub-forum, then a SM should be required in order to "sell" items on Talkbass, via the Wanted ads. To not require a SM allows non-supporting members to still "sell" on Talkbass. This sort of loophole in the rules is disrespectful to supporting members. It's a double standard, simply put.
As far as scammers responding to Wanted threads, anything to deter them is a plus. A scammer responded to a Wanted thread of mine recently. Brand new member, odd syntax, wanted my email addy to send pics. Obvious fraudster, sounded just like the infamous Nigerian/Russian/wherever scammers. I just shut down the thread in disgust.
Aside; Personally, during these times of economic duress, I think it may have been wiser forTB supporting dues to have been lowered from $20 to $15, instead of being raised by a whopping 50% in one fell swoop. The extra $10 means nothing to me, but I suspect the increase will discourage many potential new SM's, and terminate some previous support. Perception is reality....$15 sounds like "peanuts"....$30 sounds like "real money". Hopefully I'm mistaken.
$30 Is still a bargain for TB even if all you use is the classifieds.
As to the scammers going after 'wanted' pp, well, it is always going to be buyer beware on the net. I've been scammed on the net, and scammed face to face by people. You just have to be careful and if the deal looks too good, or the seller comes out of the blue with no history, your radar better be up!
As to the scammers going after 'wanted' pp, well, it is always going to be buyer beware on the net. I've been scammed on the net, and scammed face to face by people. You just have to be careful and if the deal looks too good, or the seller comes out of the blue with no history, your radar better be up!
I've been getting a lot of inquiries on trades lately from non-member users w/ no commerce history
nostrils open
nostrils open
I feel like this:
If you restrict the classified ads to supporting members only, you are charging them to pay for something they may or may not want. That alone deters me from being on this website. I am always looking at what is for sale, and many times i wanted to buy something or trade, in fact i bought a pedal off of this forum and it was a great experience.
If you had a threshold of how many posts must be made in order to see those posts then i feel more comfortable with that. However its still restricting, and may deter more people away.
With these scenarios HOW were they scammed? did they receive the money first? did they send in good faith? i mean there is a lot of things that people need to understand when posting on forums about selling or acquiring items. Some people do not see that far into the situation, others do.
Perhaps a form of authentication such as proof of address must be provided in order to use the boards for selling or buying? I suggest being organic about it, as opposed to relying on methods being used by tech.
I realize im "not that well known" here. I love this place, i would hate to leave because of poor policies in place from bad people.
If you restrict the classified ads to supporting members only, you are charging them to pay for something they may or may not want. That alone deters me from being on this website. I am always looking at what is for sale, and many times i wanted to buy something or trade, in fact i bought a pedal off of this forum and it was a great experience.
If you had a threshold of how many posts must be made in order to see those posts then i feel more comfortable with that. However its still restricting, and may deter more people away.
With these scenarios HOW were they scammed? did they receive the money first? did they send in good faith? i mean there is a lot of things that people need to understand when posting on forums about selling or acquiring items. Some people do not see that far into the situation, others do.
Perhaps a form of authentication such as proof of address must be provided in order to use the boards for selling or buying? I suggest being organic about it, as opposed to relying on methods being used by tech.
I realize im "not that well known" here. I love this place, i would hate to leave because of poor policies in place from bad people.
Sure but the dollar amount is always relative, depending on an individual's money situation. I'm sure that some would think that "$30 is a bargain ONLY if you use the classifieds". Otherwise, without some other incentive, paying for a SM is an act of altruism.
I wonder....of all the thousands of TB members, how many actually regularly use the classifieds to sell stuff? Or for that matter, how many have EVER sold anything in the classifieds?
Still further, it would be interesting to know what percentage of members are SM's.
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Well, without supporting members, I'm guessing this site would dry up and blow away.
There will always be those who refuse to chip in. The idea is to garner support by offering incentives.
I think the limitation should be x number of posts AND x number of days. Someone could probably be motivated enough to reply to 30 threads in one day if they were going to scam someone. And also it's possible that they would just sign up and add a reminder to check back in 30 days to begin scamming.
Another advantage of adding both time and post minimums is that it would encourage actual users to participate more in the forum. And knowing they have 30 days to post 30 times they might not rush to get it done quickly with useless posts. If they want to use the wanted section, they might motivate them to be more active which be good for TB and it's members.
And to limit confusion, when someone signs up for TB the "welcome" email explains the limitation and when they look at the forum if they don't meet the criteria they see another forum named 'Wanted Section' and when they click on there they see only one post explaining the rules. Maybe give it a different name like "Wanted Section - Please Read".
Oh and Paul, please change my vote for the 3rd option. ;-)
-Dave
Another advantage of adding both time and post minimums is that it would encourage actual users to participate more in the forum. And knowing they have 30 days to post 30 times they might not rush to get it done quickly with useless posts. If they want to use the wanted section, they might motivate them to be more active which be good for TB and it's members.
And to limit confusion, when someone signs up for TB the "welcome" email explains the limitation and when they look at the forum if they don't meet the criteria they see another forum named 'Wanted Section' and when they click on there they see only one post explaining the rules. Maybe give it a different name like "Wanted Section - Please Read".
Oh and Paul, please change my vote for the 3rd option. ;-)
-Dave
I dont disagree with having supporters. Supporters should be required to sell, but not view, And if i wanted to support, i want to support because my investment goes towards the community and not the ability to look at a thread.
If you want incentives, add something that people want in addition to whats already here.
The unfortunate thing about the net is everyone thinks everything should be free.
I once started a small forum to support a person I admired on the net. It never really took off but the costs of software and a year of web hosting with minimal use were over a grand. I could afford it. It was worth the try. And it was very small with little use. Costs go up significantly with greater storage and user accesses.
$30/yr is $2.50 a month or two candy bars. For that price I think anyone should be able to pony up for this good a resource.
+1. Or even limit access to those with a certain amount of feedback from previous dealings.
I hope scammers can't read this post because we've just taught them how to scam from WTB adds. Option 3 is good.
You can always BUY from the classifieds despite not wanting to contribute to the community. But no one should be able to SELL on TB, by sneaking in the back door of the Wanted ads. That benefit should be reserved for SM's. Isn't that how it was before the format change?
Are supporting memberships free from advertising?
I posted looking for a Fender case in the WTB section shortly after joining, and never heard from anyone - ever. You've think a site of bassists would have a case.
I posted looking for a Fender case in the WTB section shortly after joining, and never heard from anyone - ever. You've think a site of bassists would have a case.
Yep, and $30 can also be a week's worth of gas for some people to commute to their crummy job. Or lunch money for students.
Well, TB could always go to a Pay-As-You-Go system, whereby sellers Pay a Fee when/if their item sells. I've seen that system go down in flames before.
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