Disclaimer: I'm not writing this because of any current problem, but out of a sense of what could happen in the near future. I'm also just throwing out ideas for the purposes of brainstorming.
Ok, now for the meat and potatoes:
The MR marketplace is a lovely place for established members. It allows us to buy and sell a myriad of goods with a small sense of safety that's derived from the fact that those who post threads there have been here for at least a little while. Hence the 100 post requirement, as it helps establish a sense of familiarity and community.
However, I question how strong 100 posts is for 2008. When I first started to read MR religiously back in 2004, there were nowhere near this many threads/posts in one day. There has been a gradual and consistent growth in posts, threads, and posters. I'm sure Doctor Q can provide more specific numbers, but I think we can be fairly safe in assuming that the site has seen explosive growth over the past couple of years.
This presents an interesting problem (in my eyes at least): 100 posts ain't what it used to be. With the expansion of Apple's product line, we've gained the iPhone, iPod touch, and now the Macbook Air, all of which will attract more posts and threads (a good thing to be sure!), which also means that a determined poster can easily climb to 100 posts in short order, without having been on MR for any real time at all.
Now, as I wrote in my disclaimer, this isn't a problem yet (at least from what I can see; the mods/gods might have a different story to tell, and I would love to read their insight into this). However, I think the opportunity for abuse is present, and that there should be some kind of preventative measure taken (an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure).
As such, I propose 2 ideas, one I like and one I don't:
1) Increase the post count requirement to 125, 150, or 200, or some other "round" number. This is a very simplistic way to handle things, and I view it largely like countering inflation with a COLA; rather than address the problem, we would merely react to it.
I'm not a fan of this idea. I think it will only lead to more spam and useless posts that will create more work for the mods and generally cause more problems all around. As such, here's my second idea:
2) Keep the post count the same but establish a "minimum time" requirement for the marketplace. For example, the marketplace might require one to have 100 posts and have been registered for 2 weeks (or ten days, or some other easy to remember interval of time).
I like this idea because I think it would present a road block to those who register here just to use the marketplace. There have been a few posters like that (rare, but they might increase as MR becomes even more popular) and I think this would make a spam marathon pointless and force that poster to seek a different route to sell their wares, or wait out the 2 weeks and post more diligently. Either way, I think that this idea would really help preserve the "community" feeling of the marketplace while not creating new work for the mods/gods to deal with.
Now, there is a question of software technicalities, but I'm not sure how that could be addressed.
I look forward to your thoughts.
Ok, now for the meat and potatoes:
The MR marketplace is a lovely place for established members. It allows us to buy and sell a myriad of goods with a small sense of safety that's derived from the fact that those who post threads there have been here for at least a little while. Hence the 100 post requirement, as it helps establish a sense of familiarity and community.
However, I question how strong 100 posts is for 2008. When I first started to read MR religiously back in 2004, there were nowhere near this many threads/posts in one day. There has been a gradual and consistent growth in posts, threads, and posters. I'm sure Doctor Q can provide more specific numbers, but I think we can be fairly safe in assuming that the site has seen explosive growth over the past couple of years.
This presents an interesting problem (in my eyes at least): 100 posts ain't what it used to be. With the expansion of Apple's product line, we've gained the iPhone, iPod touch, and now the Macbook Air, all of which will attract more posts and threads (a good thing to be sure!), which also means that a determined poster can easily climb to 100 posts in short order, without having been on MR for any real time at all.
Now, as I wrote in my disclaimer, this isn't a problem yet (at least from what I can see; the mods/gods might have a different story to tell, and I would love to read their insight into this). However, I think the opportunity for abuse is present, and that there should be some kind of preventative measure taken (an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure).
As such, I propose 2 ideas, one I like and one I don't:
1) Increase the post count requirement to 125, 150, or 200, or some other "round" number. This is a very simplistic way to handle things, and I view it largely like countering inflation with a COLA; rather than address the problem, we would merely react to it.
I'm not a fan of this idea. I think it will only lead to more spam and useless posts that will create more work for the mods and generally cause more problems all around. As such, here's my second idea:
2) Keep the post count the same but establish a "minimum time" requirement for the marketplace. For example, the marketplace might require one to have 100 posts and have been registered for 2 weeks (or ten days, or some other easy to remember interval of time).
I like this idea because I think it would present a road block to those who register here just to use the marketplace. There have been a few posters like that (rare, but they might increase as MR becomes even more popular) and I think this would make a spam marathon pointless and force that poster to seek a different route to sell their wares, or wait out the 2 weeks and post more diligently. Either way, I think that this idea would really help preserve the "community" feeling of the marketplace while not creating new work for the mods/gods to deal with.
Now, there is a question of software technicalities, but I'm not sure how that could be addressed.
I look forward to your thoughts.
