For sale section

[Niall]

Evening all,
We originally introduced a 20 post limit to selling, buying and using the PM section to stop people signing up to sell and then bugger off. The idea here was that it helps a little to stop people being ripped off and also, we're not interested in quantity but rather quality. I don't want people signing up just to sell and then never use the forum again.
As we know, this just introduced a lot of new people spamming their way to 20 posts so the limit was upped to 100 posts. This stopped the spamming (with exception of a few!) but i know its now become a sore subject.

So, I'm putting the future of this to you guys. There are a few options in the poll which i would like as many of you as possible to choose which you think is most suitable.
Just a few points to make though;
There will always be a limit to how many posts there are to SELL. This is not negotiable otherwise we end up with lots and lots of dormant accounts.
The forum WILL NOT guarantee any sales. If you are scammed on a sale with a newbie, the forum will try and help you but we are in no way responsible. We purely provide a platform for selling. You're all big enough and ugly enough to decide when something is too good to be true!

Im going to leave the poll up for a week from now. Please do vote, its your forum and we want you to have an input. Please keep chat on here to a minimum but if you do have any genuine suggestions or questions, please feel free to stick them here

Niall

[bigcheez2k3]

What poll?

[Niall]

^That one that took me a few minutes to write

[Iceman299]

Let newbies buy from regular members but not sell until 100posts/1month

[ginge191]

Let newbies buy from regular members but not sell until 100posts/1month

That
It's nice for newbies to be able to PM, it does hell things sell

[bashbarnard]

Selling limit the same as people can be caught out. if someones on here to buy though you dont really have an issue

[Mattcheese31]

Voted, it needs revising Niall, well done

[Seb_Ryan]

Let newbies buy from regular members but not sell until 100posts/1month

That
It's nice for newbies to be able to PM, it does hell things sell

X2 people often come here looking for stuff quickly and then cant do anything til they have 100 posts.. I would vote but im on tapatwat

[Eeyore]

everyone should be able to PM. Buying should be allowed. Selling should be 50 posts imo. 100 is high and im not sure why we jumped from 20 to 100

[WiNgNuTz]

everyone should be able to PM. Buying should be allowed. Selling should be 50 posts imo. 100 is high and im not sure why we jumped from 20 to 100

This was my thought tbh...even with a 50 post limit, we should easily spot people spamming their way to the limit, especially if people use the report button and don't just rely on the staff to notice.

[Connor]

Everyone shouldn't be able to pm, whats stopping someone from signing up, reading the wanted section and sending those people a message saying they have something to sell. IMHO tie selling and private messages together and if a newbie wants to pop on, buy something and buggar off then that's happy days

[WiNgNuTz]

Everyone shouldn't be able to pm, whats stopping someone from signing up, reading the wanted section and sending those people a message saying they have something to sell. IMHO tie selling and private messages together and if a newbie wants to pop on, buy something and buggar off then that's happy days

Well, nothing really, but I suppose it all comes down to Niall's comment in the OP:

The forum WILL NOT guarantee any sales. If you are scammed on a sale with a newbie, the forum will try and help you but we are in no way responsible. We purely provide a platform for selling. You're all big enough and ugly enough to decide when something is too good to be true!

Also, if we say newbies can buy, but not PM, how do they arrange for delivery/payment without posting details in public?

---

The least we can say when buying from/selling to Newbies would be make sure everything is done above board (I.e. no paying by bank transfer or by gift on paypal), then at least you should have some way's of recovering anything lost due to scammers.

[1616six]

I voted wrong.

Remove buying limit
Keep PM restriction in place
Selling to 50 posts & 1 month

I'm with Connor, nothung stopping someone signing up and catching someone out via PM, it's been done in the past on countless forums.

[Iceman299]

Also, if we say newbies can buy, but not PM, how do they arrange for delivery/payment without posting details in public?

The seller can still use PM to send their paypal/collection address details.

- If the buyer wants it posted, seller PM's paypal address. Buyer can then add their address into paypal notes when paying
-If the buyer wants to collect, seller PM's them the address. 

Sensitive info can still be kept private and other info can be discussed in the thread

[Toms306]

People should be able to make their own choice about whether or not to trust someone with no posts over PM.

This exact scenario happened to me on another forum last month. I'm fairly naïve but even I had the sense to check the guys posts (weren't any), check his profile (seemed odd) so instead of throwing money at his paypal I just flagged the message/user to the admin.

Personally I'd rather be given that choice.

[Mattcheese31]

They need to be able to PM if they're buying stuff, I voted; Remove the PM limit, remove the buying limit and lower the selling limit to 50 posts*

[Poodle]

I'm agreeing with Tom, if people are daft enough to trust somebody selling something over pm with no post count, that's their lookout. Perhaps a more specific warning could be added to the stickies at the top of the section, just in case someone doesn't make the connection for themselves.

I must say i wouldn't have too much of a problem leaving it as it is, we barely see any scams compared to what it was like before the limit went up, pms do open it up to abuse and there are a lot of tits about who won't think about consequences before sending money.

[Niall]

I'm agreeing with Tom, if people are daft enough to trust somebody selling something over pm with no post count, that's their lookout. Perhaps a more specific warning could be added to the stickies at the top of the section, just in case someone doesn't make the connection for themselves.

I must say i wouldn't have too much of a problem leaving it as it is, we barely see any scams compared to what it was like before the limit went up, pms do open it up to abuse and there are a lot of tits about who won't think about consequences before sending money.

That's my thinking and I'm happy to change the header notes in the for sale sections to make people aware that they need to fend for them selves and the club is in no way liable if they send money to a one post wonder for it or the goods never to be seen again.

[highwayman306]

I know I moaned about the post limit and stuff before but I really can't see the problem in it. The 100 posts rule seemed fair to me and it keeps the scammers and '1 post wonders' out. By actually contributing to the forum with quality content helps other users/buyers see that you're not just some dodgy cockney trying to shift some gear.

Spammers can be spotted a mile off and Mods can delete inane, pointless posts they make to cheat the system. I'll be using the report button to highlight some when I see them which is what the serious users should be doing, as it is a community. Although I don't like describing myself or others as 'serious' though lol I suppose 'legit' or 'honest' could be a better term to use.

Keeping it the same could still help the newbies out when they ask problem questions. They can still come back and ask more questions when they get the help they want and, in time, they could exceed the limit and then buy and sell. 100 post limit is a deterrent to the scammers and it works...doesn't it?

[Mattcheese31]

It works but I think 50 would work fine too, there's a fine line between spamming your way up and putting comments that are almost relevant lol, I think 50 is enough personally

[highwayman306]

Yeah I guess so, all I'm saying is that it didn't take me that long to get to the amount of posts that I have from when I joined...

Its not like I'm a covert spammer of anything

[Mattcheese31]

Yeah I guess so, all I'm saying is that it didn't take me that long to get to the amount of posts that I have from when I joined...

Its not like I'm a covert spammer of anything

From experience I know some people are members for years and don't make 100 posts, not us regulars that chat shit all the time lol but some people differ, that's my angle, also it's annoying people bumping old threads to get their post count up

[highwayman306]

Yeah true...Maybe seeing it that way, 50 seems a bit more on the money. I guess it would also deter decent folk too if they came on and saw 100 post limit, they might just think "f*ck it!"

as for bumping up old threads....you aren't taking a sly pop at me are you Matt?!

[Mattcheese31]

Yeah true...Maybe seeing it that way, 50 seems a bit more on the money. I guess it would also deter decent folk too if they came on and saw 100 post limit, they might just think "f*ck it!"

as for bumping up old threads....you aren't taking a sly pop at me are you Matt?!

No mate lol, I bumped my old project thread for you, anyway I don't need to boost my post count so I'll leave it there lol

[Dum-Dum]

I think keeping it as it is isn't a bad shout as there is some terrible buyers out there who claim they never received it, claim it's damaged, return a different item and generally muck sellers about.

The limits are a pain in the arse some time when you want to PM someone with 50 posts but there is a whole lot less nonsense about sales gone bent on here than other forums.

Also I don't think 50 posts will be enough of a deterrent and it's certainly spamable. IIRC at one point Piggy's average daily post rate was somewhere near there.

[highwayman306]

Lol ok and cheers for that again, search function wasn't returning anything...

IIRC at one point Piggy's average daily post rate was somewhere near there.

[lolsteve]

Maybe make it easier for buyers but at least have a small limit for Pms, would having no limit get spam bots to sign up and send everyone pms?

[Toms306]

Why should we have a system in place that causes hassle to ~99% of members joining up because ~1% may be assholes...

You can buy from ebay and get messed around. People on here quite often miss out on nice cars because of the selling limit, just last week a low mileage, one owner 306 owner was in the chatbox wanting to sell it cheap due to a few faults. He wasn't interested in the forum as he'd moved on to a different marque and wasn't knowledgeable on cars but wanted the car to go to an enthusiast rather than just scrap. Our system meant both he and us missed out there.

Often people join up because they need a part or need a physical hand with something, being able to buy and PM immediately is useful for both of those. Hopefully then they stick around and contribute, but if not, no great loss, it's still benefitted one or more of our members.


There are assholes in all walks of life, surely it's better to deal with them as and when rather than a complete prevention that also causes hassle to everyone else.


Re spambots PM'ing everyone, hopefully there are already various methods to deter these (capatcha etc?) but maybe a compulsory 1 post in introductions would stop those without deterring anyone genuine? Even if you are only here to buy a MAF, it doesn't take 2 mins to write 'Hi, I'm bob from Somerset with a HDi, after a couple of parts, cheers'.

[Niall]

Maybe make it easier for buyers but at least have a small limit for Pms, would having no limit get spam bots to sign up and send everyone pms?

Cant happen. We have things in place to stop spambots signing up in the first place. They do sometimes get through but as you may have noticed, there is a hell of a lot less spam posts on here since the new forum last December

[Paul_13]

Indeed I haven't seen any