Me too. It really should prevent scammers because they won't know about the Marketplace for a while. I think it's the best overall solution.
Exactly.
MR's marketplace shouldn't be an ebay replacement; trying to make it so can lead to disaster.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Marketplace's Future
- Thread starter CalBoy
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
Me too. It really should prevent scammers because they won't know about the Marketplace for a while. I think it's the best overall solution.
Exactly.
MR's marketplace shouldn't be an ebay replacement; trying to make it so can lead to disaster.
There appears to be a consensus, which is good. If agreed upon, when would all of this become effective?
what now my posts are losing their value too??? i thought the dollar was bad enough haha
my thoughts
500posts and membership for a year
marketplace should be pretty selective as its online and best among those who have a history here
i agree 100 posts is waaaay too little in my opinion
as mentioned, there is always craigslist and ebay for those that dont qualify.
my thoughts
500posts and membership for a year
marketplace should be pretty selective as its online and best among those who have a history here
i agree 100 posts is waaaay too little in my opinion
as mentioned, there is always craigslist and ebay for those that dont qualify.
sorry, I meant the consensus that something should be changed and in its current condition the marketplace is not sustainable (Ie: mods have extra work, we have to be more careful).
oh i know. i was replying to the op not you per say
Inflation is inflation.
Remember, this thread wasn't to cast votes or anything (such an attempt would be futile anyways, as the mods/gods don't care what we vote for
), it was to brainstorm ideas and thoughts about the marketplace as it is now and how it could/should be in the future. So far AmbitiousLemon has come up with a very solid idea as to how to prevent scammers from even approaching the site (the invisible aspect of MP). I think this is a great idea, and even if it isn't used, I think it has some very good merit behind it.
Any other ideas? This can't be the bottom of the barrel yet!
(such an attempt would be futile anyways, as the mods/gods don't care what we vote for
I have an extremely weak personality and am very easily persuaded.
Nah, but really. We do take onboard what y'all say.
In that case,
you are getting very sleepy,
you want to give me all your money.
I know, but we've got to give our reasons don't we? *Sigh* Logic is hard work!
We need a way to organize that feedback into user specific lists, otherwise it'll bee too cluttered.
edit: it's possible but it takes time.
I don't use the marketplace, but I read through this thread out of interest. It occurs to me that the slate could be wiped clean - no marketplace whatsoever for six months. Then, if you really want it back (and since it's obviously creating headaches for our mods, who work for free, this should perhaps be discussed), start it up again with strong restrictions. At least three months membership and 500 posts, as well as a rating system in place for seller/buyer feedback.
But to be honest, I don't think this is what MR is all about - it's a place to discuss Apple products and help each other with advice and problem solving. At some point, it is perhaps useful to decide how many headaches are worth keeping this one particular sub-forum. There are other places to sell things.
Most people will probably disagree with axing it completely, and that's fine, but since no one has so much as mentioned the possibility, I thought I would.
But to be honest, I don't think this is what MR is all about - it's a place to discuss Apple products and help each other with advice and problem solving. At some point, it is perhaps useful to decide how many headaches are worth keeping this one particular sub-forum. There are other places to sell things.
Most people will probably disagree with axing it completely, and that's fine, but since no one has so much as mentioned the possibility, I thought I would.
That is an interesting idea. Suspending MP for a few months would certainly give the mods/gods breathing room to figure new things out, and it would certainly send the message that the MP is a privilege, not a right.
An interesting question though is how current sales would be suspended.
An interesting question though is how current sales would be suspended.
Easy, just stop all new threads, so no new merchandise is put out there, and make it clear people have 7 (or 10, or 14) days to finish up anything that's begun.
I agree with this... perhaps what we can do at a minimum is emphasize this more strongly. My only relatively negative market interaction on Macrumors involved a time when I took someone's status (multi-year membership and reasonably high but not spammerish post count) as enough evidence and was too lazy to require Heat or eBay or whatever. In that particular case, it turned out that this was a child selling through his father, and communication was very poor (the son sent me a PM asking if I'd received the product, and the father hadn't even shipped it yet), and it turned out later that the product was defective (a feature I had not bothered to test immediately, but did want, turned out to not work when I tried it a few weeks after I got the product). Since so much time had passed, I just let it slide.
Anyway, in that situation, I don't think anything short of past buy/sell feedback would've helped me much, since all this ambiguity (e.g. that there was a father and a child involved) was concealed.
That works.
I am really interested to hear more about AmbitiousLemon's idea of making it invisible though.
As I've previously mentioned, most issues which i have encountered of this sort, for some reason, involve members under 20... it would be great if we required something of these members, although it's clearly not possible to implement such as system.
Perhaps we could make it invisible to members under 20 (who volunteer their age on their profile?)? Under 18? Some sort of compromise?
When buying from someone I usually try to ask the seller about themselves so that I'm not stuck buying items from a kid selling Dad's RAM so that he can purchase an xbox
I don't think mkrishnan would have fared any better though. Remember, it was the father's account the child was using; surely the father is over 20.
i don't know if this has been suggested yet, so, how about only allowing users with let us say, 200 posts, 6 months minimum membership and ones with paypal accounts (or similar) to buy and sell in the marketplace?
re: paypal. mr can seek out the "bad apple" if necessary. or at least warn buyers and sellers that they can be caught...
re: paypal. mr can seek out the "bad apple" if necessary. or at least warn buyers and sellers that they can be caught...
I see that everyone in this thread but me has an avatar. Says something, doesn't it? I am a long time reader but only recently bought a Mac in October. I have been a member since then. I would like to sell things in the marketplace, but can't because I'm not above the required 100 posts. (I think this one is around #25.) I enjoy reading rather than commenting. Is there any possibility of upping the required membership time and lowering the required post count in regards to starting a marketplace thread? Six months? Or would this make hell for the moderators?
Edit: what about allowing a limited number of marketplace thread starts to members under 100 posts? Maybe even just one. Apologies if I'm invading.
Edit: what about allowing a limited number of marketplace thread starts to members under 100 posts? Maybe even just one. Apologies if I'm invading.
Don't be shy about commenting. We need opinions from new members, because this affects them too.
I say 500 and 6 months + of membership..
Yes i know it narrows down the seller's, but i think what's needed to trim down the pyramid scheme posters etc..
Yes i know it narrows down the seller's, but i think what's needed to trim down the pyramid scheme posters etc..
On the other side of things...
I've visited this site since 2002 and regularly visit the forums, but seldom post. I only post when I have something to add to a discussion, unlike the bulk of the posts in the forums that can often be quite mindless.
I still haven't acheived 100 posts. This is annoying because if I was posting mindless banter over these last 6 years, I would have a few thousand posts by now.
Why should I not be able to post in Marketplace? (I have 100% postive feedback on eBay, since 2001.)
I've visited this site since 2002 and regularly visit the forums, but seldom post. I only post when I have something to add to a discussion, unlike the bulk of the posts in the forums that can often be quite mindless.
I still haven't acheived 100 posts. This is annoying because if I was posting mindless banter over these last 6 years, I would have a few thousand posts by now.
Why should I not be able to post in Marketplace? (I have 100% postive feedback on eBay, since 2001.)
Because merely reading a forum is not publicly engaging with it and its participants; the current rules are in place to provide some form of reassurance to forum members that the member posting a sale is 'known' to some degree and the direction that we will probably move in is towards making those rules even stricter.
Posting to the Marketplace here, because of its relatively unrestricted nature, should be a privilege earned, not an automatic right. Especially as it often represents a considerable amount of work for the moderators in relation to its size and importance to the board as a whole.
Why not just have everyone use eBay. Wont that just save everyone time and be safer? I think the marketplace has outgrown its usefulness. When there weren't as many members it was easier to maintain. As the site has grown isn't it just better to have people go elsewhere.
- Status