Trading Section - Rules

I think a 25 post minimum should be there. It would stop people taking advantage of the forum for the for sale section. Those who only sign up for a quick offload or looking for a nice bargain would be put off.

Just my opinion.

Wayne

maggy88 wrote:

I think a 25 post minimum should be there. It would stop people taking advantage of the forum for the for sale section. Those who only sign up for a quick offload or looking for a nice bargain would be put off.

Just my opinion.

Wayne

+1

Thers should be some auto method of ensuring a member has the adeauate number of posts before he/she has access to post in the for sale section
Maybe this should be utilised?
However this will cause bs posts to get their numbers up!
However once they reach the desired number of posts there is an option from what I remember that they dont get instant access, and a flag pops up in an admin pannel somewhere for apporval to use the newly opened up section too them

I think it should be a combination of posts and time registered on forum eg 15 posts and 3 months membership, you could also offer an advertisijg fee if someone would like to bypass this and put it towards site running costs

anglecichlid wrote:

maggy88 wrote:

I think a 25 post minimum should be there. It would stop people taking advantage of the forum for the for sale section. Those who only sign up for a quick offload or looking for a nice bargain would be put off.

Just my opinion.

Wayne

+1

+2. Increase min post count to between 25-40.

Is it possible to restrict access to the buy/sell section?If so then grant forum access to members that have proven they are not just using the forum in a business sense.It might take a lot of work on the admins side of things to sort through current forum members, but once that is done then it will be just a case of screening new members who wish to buy or sell.There could be a sticky in the general rules informing new members how to apply for access to the buy/sell section and then they can contact the admin in charge.

And I also think the minimum posts should be at least 25 like the guys said.

Stuart.

Gonefishy wrote:

anglecichlid wrote:

maggy88 wrote:

I think a 25 post minimum should be there. It would stop people taking advantage of the forum for the for sale section. Those who only sign up for a quick offload or looking for a nice bargain would be put off.

Just my opinion.

Wayne

+1

+2. Increase min post count to between 25-40.

+3

I think 10 posts is enough. I don't see the issue with people using the board as a means of selling fish related items.

25 posts (or 10) should cut-out the BS posts helping the person to the limit.
It shouldnt be difficult to just restrict access the the section until the quota is reached
and maybe require admin approval from there ?
Or maybe only restrict the buying section ?

@Mike, Imo the for sale section is a bonus for the members of the forum to advertise equipment/stock etc to people directly in the hobby . Why should people who contribute nothing to the site/hobby be given this kind of access? There are countless sites out there (adverts.ie/buy and sell/free adds/ done deal) where people can advertise.I wouldn't like to see new members joining just to get a good bargain or something for free on here only to stick it up on deal the next day.Maybe it's just me.

Stuart.

wylam wrote:

@Mike, Imo the for sale section is a bonus for the members of the forum to advertise equipment/stock etc to people directly in the hobby . Why should people who contribute nothing to the site/hobby be given this kind of access? There are countless sites out there (adverts.ie/buy and sell/free adds/ done deal) where people can advertise.I wouldn't like to see new members joining just to get a good bargain or something for free on here only to stick it up on deal the next day.Maybe it's just me.

Stuart.

I agree. there are plenty of other forums for people to make a quick sale if they want. this site is essentially a club and like a club the members have a right to expect certain things from other members ie civility, clean language, rules for advertising or a contract signed in the fresh blood of a young virgin (sorry, wrong forum!). as long as new members understand these rules I see no problem in applying that exclusivity. it's not like they're being denied the vote!

There are alot of people on here not in the club who take liberties with the for sale section so why not charge non club members 10e each for use of the forsale section? I think that would be a welcome contribution towards the upkeep of the site

davey_c wrote:

There are alot of people on here not in the club who take liberties with the for sale section so why not charge non club members 10e each for use of the forsale section? I think that would be a welcome contribution towards the upkeep of the site

and i'd be prepared, as a good forum member, to hold the money in my account until requested. now if everyone would just give me their credit card details....

davey_c wrote:

There are alot of people on here not in the club who take liberties with the for sale section so why not charge non club members 10e each for use of the forsale section? I think that would be a welcome contribution towards the upkeep of the site

Not sure what you mean by "take liberties". Most of the people that use Trading Section do so within the current rules so don't know how they are taking liberties? Restricting access to the Trading Section until a new member has enough posts is what a lot of forums do. As for a 10euro charge, people just wont use the Trading Section, i certainly would not.

Stephen.

I think a post count check before allowing the post or requiring approvals would be good and prevent these posts being up until an admin has time to notice and remove them. You may still get posts just to get the numbers up but that is usually obvious and these items may simply not get replies.

Bit more work for Darragh for the post count for admins to approve posts.

Perhaps simply leaving things as they are and if members see posts that should be removed the poster can be referred to the rules section without further comment and an admin can delete the post when available.

I would suggest if any post that appears to break the rules is being allowed for some reason it should be added to the thread so that everyone is aware, there have been some posts allowed for returning members etc but this has not been immediately stated on theads.

In my opinion it should be open to anyone to post a tank or equipment for sale on here cause if im looking for something second hand this is were i look first and then if its not their i go looking on the likes of gumtree or whatever is available on the net to buy second hand aquarium gear and their for if its all here the irishfishkeppers is going to get more hits and make this site bigger than it already is

JohnH wrote:

A great bunch of replies so far - please keep 'em coming.

Just one thought comes to mind, that is that - regardless of what is finally settled upon - any Forum software will not be a consideration until Darragh changes over servers when he has the time.

Also, Darragh has often stated that he is happy to bear the financial burden of the Forum so, as long as this situation remains, a charge will not be an option either.

More opinions sought.

John

One suggestion regarding running cost would be to have a "Donate" option. Where you can send money via Paypal to help with the finances. A lot of free forums seem to have this feature.


Stephen

I'm not computery type so dont know about the setting up of a section were people can pay to sell fishy stuff, all monies could go towards the upkeep and improvment of the site. Does not have to be in the main section an any other business section, €3 an add would deter alot of people just selling because there are enough free selling forums around. Minimum posts can and will be abused, timeframe would be a good way of curbing the problem aswell, six weeks and certain amount of logging on to the forum, this would do away with qucik sale mentailty, if someone is persistant enough to log on every day for 6 weeks let them at it.


John

It would be a great pity to see the forum fall into the "flog it" league.

One of the good things I note here is that the "recent posts" feed on opening the site are split into normal forum posts and buy/sell; some forums you look at new posts and can't see the discussions for "selling-up".

So I support some form of restriction on the ability to place Buy/Sell ads here.

I don't, however, feel that those restrictions should be overly harsh though.

Is 10 to 15 posts enough? probably.
Do we really want someone who is onyl determined to trade to add 40 posts of or "Nice" or "+1" simply to gain access to the buy/sell section ?........ I recon I could stomach about 10 such posts.
I think others here would soon see such a pattern, and that might go against the newbie when they do decide to "Selling-Up".

Should there be a minimum time that someone is a member before placing buy/sell ads?
Yes. But I'm not convinced it needs to be overly long......if they are a buy/sell spammer, then they want a quick fix anyway.

Money?
Nope. That is just a personal thing, plus I also think it would then give a sell-spammer more power (as they paid for that right in their heads) and it may cause admin problems.

For anyone who happens to know, I have banned buy & sell & trading altogether off any website or FB forum that I have the final say on.
So, here I'm being quite liberal and "seller-friendly".

ian

igmillichip wrote:

It would be a great pity to see the forum fall into the "flog it" league.

One of the good things I note here is that the "recent posts" feed on opening the site are split into normal forum posts and buy/sell; some forums you look at new posts and can't see the discussions for "selling-up".

So I support some form of restriction on the ability to place Buy/Sell ads here.

I don't, however, feel that those restrictions should be overly harsh though.

Is 10 to 15 posts enough? probably.
Do we really want someone who is onyl determined to trade to add 40 posts of or "Nice" or "+1" simply to gain access to the buy/sell section ?........ I recon I could stomach about 10 such posts.
I think others here would soon see such a pattern, and that might go against the newbie when they do decide to "Selling-Up".

Should there be a minimum time that someone is a member before placing buy/sell ads?
Yes. But I'm not convinced it needs to be overly long......if they are a buy/sell spammer, then they want a quick fix anyway.

Money?
Nope. That is just a personal thing, plus I also think it would then give a sell-spammer more power (as they paid for that right in their heads) and it may cause admin problems.

For anyone who happens to know, I have banned buy & sell & trading altogether off any website or FB forum that I have the final say on.
So, here I'm being quite liberal and "seller-friendly".

ian

Well put Ian

How do people feel about "selling on behalf of a friend" or "i know a lad selling"? Is this circumventing the rules?

Stephen.

Hicker12 wrote:

How do people feel about "selling on behalf of a friend" or "i know a lad selling"? Is this circumventing the rules?

Stephen.

Not sure about it circumventing the rules, for me the more important issue is accountability when selling for a "friend"
What happens if the tank leaks, or the filter you bought does not work? Is it the member or the friend who is responsible ?

Hicker12 wrote:

How do people feel about "selling on behalf of a friend" or "i know a lad selling"? Is this circumventing the rules?

Stephen.

If their friend is too lazy to sign-up, then......(fill in the blanks).

If, however, it were something that cropped up in a normal discussion on something (eg P1:"I lost my female x last week after the spawn" to which person 2 said "my friend has a female he is not wanting/for sale") then I think that is fine as it is part of a good community feel.

It is the specific 3rd party threads that I would have an issue with.

ian

The way the forum is constructed where the for sale section is not shown in the same post feed as regular posts at the front page I personally don’t really care how many posts a seller/buyer has (except that I would rather buy from someone I know on the forum).
Who knows maybe some of the first time buyers/sellers would become active members after a while.

Saying that I’m not very active in this section of the forum and might have missed issues such as the for sale/buy section being clogged or misused.

I presume there were problems of this sort before the 10 post minimum was implemented?

Oh and Stephen suggestion about donations towards hosting fees sound like a good idea. I presume that the advertisement from the sponsors is not enough and it’s a shame that one individual has to pay this from his own pocket.

Andreas

JohnH wrote:

Melander wrote:

The way the forum is constructed where the for sale section is not shown in the same post feed as regular posts at the front page I personally don’t really care how many posts a seller/buyer has (except that I would rather buy from someone I know on the forum).
Who knows maybe some of the first time buyers/sellers would become active members after a while.

Saying that I’m not very active in this section of the forum and might have missed issues such as the for sale/buy section being clogged or misused.

I presume there were problems of this sort before the 10 post minimum was implemented?

Oh and Stephen suggestion about donations towards hosting fees sound like a good idea. I presume that the advertisement from the sponsors is not enough and it’s a shame that one individual has to pay this from his own pocket.

Andreas

Just a quick response Andreas.
The Forum receives nothing from Sponsors, although I do request an occasional prize voucher for the Photo Competition and the ITFS gets some assistance from the more generous of them in the form of Raffle Prizes for Shows and lots for the Charity Auction.
(Putting the record straight).

John

Thanks for the clarification John. I just assumed otherwise, my mistake. This makes the suggestion about donations even better.

On the topic, I would like to hear a few more views before making up my mind. At the moment I’m somewhere between leaving it as is or having no post minimum requirement.

Andreas

My Opinion,

Minimum Posts-10-15 that's fine, But also minimum length of membership should be 3 months..

Any idiot can come on in one day and type under 10 random topics 'nice'-'cool' etc and within 10 mins have the privilege to use the buy and sell section.. with little or no input on the matter.

Like many people on here, if or when I look to buy or indeed sell something this is the first place I come to do so, Its always better to buy from a fish keeper that everyone knows has some knowledge of the hobby..

Donation Section/Button-again- Agreed

Stephen M.