Classified Rules. Is it time for a tweak.

Downeast

Downeast

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Recently I have noticed some items being sold by new members with few posts at what I consider in my opinion to be "modern day prices". Don't get me wrong because I do believe in the market, buyer be aware, and so forth but it does bother me a bit. I'm not sure what can be done but I think this site is more than just another avenue for selling stuff. Could there be a minimum number of posts before you can advertise an item, or a specific time period after you become a member before you can advertise and sell items?
 
Most other forums I am a member of, have a minimum set, before you can post in the classifieds. I think thats a good practice.

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Downeast said:
Recently I have noticed some items being sold by new members with few posts at what I consider in my opinion to be "modern day prices". Don't get me wrong because I do believe in the market, buyer be aware, and so forth but it does bother me a bit. I'm not sure what can be done but I think this site is more than just another avenue for selling stuff. Could there be a minimum number of posts before you can advertise an item, or a specific time period after you become a member before you can advertise and sell items?
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Is it the price or the “newness” of the seller that bothers you?
 
I ask to say that I think this has been discussed before. Some folks are merely “browsers” in the forums but might have something interesting to sell. I have been here since 2017 but have way less posts than many others, even with shorter time.
 
DRFury said:
Is it the price or the “newness” of the seller that bothers you?
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I guess you could say both. I just wonder if the prices ever come down to reasonable levels whether they would stay or simply disappear? I checked one new member's posts and after his introduction nearly all of his posts were classified ads. :rolleyes:
 
It's a strange time. Guns related purchases have become emotional. Some are taking advantage of that, no doubt.

BUT, we're all grown here. For every person who sold something at a ridiculous price, there's someone who BOUGHT it for that same ridiculous price.

Frankly, that's none of our business.

In every forum there are awesome, friendly, responsible people who see this for the community you and I do. Then there are those who simply show up to buy or sell what they need and bug out.

I have been helped immensely since I got here. I hope I've contributed something. I've done three square-to-great deals and one where I got emotional and overpaid a little.

But, again, I'm grown. That's all on me.

We gripe a lot about over regulation regarding guns here. Let's not be what we gripe about. It's not "pretty". But I don't think new members swooping in to sell high needs to be policed. Like you said, the market sort of automatically polices itself. It also seems like a burden the staff here doesn't need.
 
I don't do much trading here, but when I do, I definitely take into account how long someone has been here, feedback and how active. I even look up post content. Yes, some people's activity here is exclusively in the classifieds. I take it all into account. Some sites require a post count or paid subscription in an effort to deter scammers or people backing out of a deal and not keeping their word. How is that working out for Armslist and Gunbroker?

I think our policy of one strike and you're out is one of the great features of this site.
 
The boards I frequent most have a min post requirement before you can post in classified. As I understand things--the primary purpose here is gun talk and gun related issues, classified is a section of convivence for established well known members.


With that said: I have been a member since the beginning when it first branched off from the old palmetto board. (new shooter) I browse and have never post in the for sale. (that will change soon) But it would not take long for someone to search me and find my trading status. That cannot be said for some new members who it was impossible for me to discover their trading status. I have bought from members but not from someone who was new or I could not discover any trading information on the seller. The same is true on gunbrokers and other auction sites for me.

As to prices--- I have always generally found asking prices to be high here. Maybe I am just a cheep arse. Of course it is for the seller to set their prices at what ever they want. If it sells good for them. If its to high, it will not sell and the seller will learn a lesson. Sometimes uneducated buyers will learn a lesson.
 
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This has been discussed many times amongst the membership and amongst the staff and ownership all the way back to the first iteration of the site.

There are many members, myself included, who first joined the site to read and to buy and sell things. It wasn’t until we made a few deals and met a few people that we felt comfortable enough to share our views.

Other people got comfortable first and then traded.

There are some who never trade on this site and post only. Then there are others who only use the site to trade.

As a member, staff member and owner of the site I take no issue with any of these categories. So long as they adhere to the rules and don’t act like asshats.

As far as new pricing versus old pricing it just is what it is. If you want to sell items that you own for what you paid for them a year ago, knowing full well that you can never replace them in the future without paying 10 times that price then go ahead. Hell, shoot me a pm and I’ll buy it all.

This isn’t rocket science. If you think something is unfairly priced then don’t buy it. The seller will either lower the price or he will withdraw the item. There’s no sense in getting upset over what someone else lists their goods for.
 
Chdamn said:
This has been discussed many times amongst the membership and amongst the staff and ownership all the way back to the first iteration of the site.

There are many members, myself included, who first joined the site to read and to buy and sell things. It wasn’t until we made a few deals and met a few people that we felt comfortable enough to share our views.

Other people got comfortable first and then traded.

There are some who never trade on this site and post only. Then there are others who only use the site to trade.

As a member, staff member and owner of the site I take no issue with any of these categories. So long as they adhere to the rules and don’t act like asshats.

As far as new pricing versus old pricing it just is what it is. If you want to sell items that you own for what you paid for them a year ago, knowing full well that you can never replace them in the future without paying 10 times that price then go ahead. Hell, shoot me a pm and I’ll buy it all.

This isn’t rocket science. If you think something is unfairly priced then don’t buy it. The seller will either lower the price or he will withdraw the item. There’s no sense in getting upset over what someone else lists their goods for.
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I feel the same way.

There are many dedicated members who simply don't post often but still make up a large portion of our membership...........and they never cause any problems. A large number of our members only post in the BST section and perhaps a little in other areas of the forum. The specific post requirement would affect members like that in a disproportionate way in my view.

I do understand and acknowledge that other forums and internet sites follow different established guidelines to weed out problems that we don't mirror here on CFF. The difference in us is that when members don't keep their word, welch on deals, and otherwise poop in the sandbox we take decisive action that fairly addresses the problem at hand.

We pledged to use very loose and liberal moderation on here when we stood this place up........some may think we're too loose and maybe not heavy-handed enough. We'll take that as constructive criticism and keep on keeping on.

Bottom line is that when our staff reviews a situation as a group and makes a decision we act upon it. Sometimes we even ask a member of staff to "sit this one out" because we feel they got too personally involved. That's how we roll.

Simply put "We're so much more than a firearms forum" and the BST section is a very important part of who we are. We will continue to address problems one at a time as we have in the past and that will include our fair and consistent review of reported actions by new members and more seasoned members. Our goal here is to try and coach them as adults into complying with the forum culture and established ways of CFF without losing them. We all know that each of us was allowed to make mistakes on here as newbies but yet allowed to tweak our ways to fit in better inside this firearms community of members.

We're not perfect and know that we can improve in some areas at all times. Please know that we're committed to making this the very best internet hangout that can be found while still trying to balance time with our families, jobs, and other obligations in life.

Wishing all on here the very best in life as it is very short when you take a few steps back to reflect. Live it to the fullest while you can. That is something all of our staff is expected to do on here.
 
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I am not bothered by pricing or having a class of member who are only here for the BST. I am deeply bothered by the trend I am seeing around negative feedback and members backing out of deals because they found a better deal than the one they committed to.
It is time to decide what is most important. An audience of potential friends who share an interest, or an audience of potential buyers/revenue.
Those options don’t have to be mutually exclusive, as the mods are doing a good job of policing the negative feedback. It is simply that I see a time of them getting overwhelmed and I don’t want their use of the site to be so centered on policing.
 
Ferrisfan said:
I am not bothered by pricing or having a class of member who are only here for the BST. I am deeply bothered by the trend I am seeing around negative feedback and members backing out of deals because they found a better deal than the one they committed to.
It is time to decide what is most important. An audience of potential friends who share an interest, or an audience of potential buyers/revenue.
Those options don’t have to be mutually exclusive, as the mods are doing a good job of policing the negative feedback. It is simply that I see a time of them getting overwhelmed and I don’t want their use of the site to be so centered on policing.
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I’m not sure I understand the revenue aspect of your post. Quite honestly the people who use this site to simply buy and sell things are very rarely likely to contribute to the sites maintenance costs.

We don’t host for google ads or anything of the like so an increase in membership does nothing for us in that aspect either.

Quite simply, more members equates to more posts which equates to more data usage which in turn increases the cost to run the site. Well we actually have a bit of cushion before an increase will occur. But still.

We want to grow. Not to make more money because we won’t. We want to grow because the more people we can engage with and discuss the real reason for the second amendment the better chance we have to actually defend it if and when the time comes.

There will always be growing pains and people who just are not cut out to be part of this group. And when they raise their heads we lop them off.

We have a fantastic group of mods and admins that assist us in policing the site. Honestly we are over staffed for the traffic just a bit but that’s by design. So that no one person is spending too much time on here policing instead of enjoying.
 
Post counts, behavioral conditions, money support requirements, arbitrary opinions of appropriate pricing, a mod standing guard 24/7..
These are all reactions of emotion.
Emotion is probably the weakest argument that can be made in defense of change.
The mods here are doing fine, and I applaud their resistance to emotional pleas for more regulations.
New guys join and don't color within the lines sometimes and some members are ready to take all the crayons away because feelings? :confused:
murmur.

Me. said:
If you have any doubts about whether you meet the criteria for using the classifieds, pm a moderator and ask them review your posting history. It's that simple.
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I don't see anything simple about this at all, regardless of whether someone says it is.
Look at this. I mean really look at what Me posted. Is this where you-all want to end up? Seriously? This crap has Karen written all over it.

Many of you seem to think that new rules will never affect you. Oh hell yes they will. Someday it will be used against you, since rules can be instantly changed by the minority who's in charge of emotions that day.

I'm tellin ya..don't ever vote your freedoms away. Ever.
And if someone try's to take them from you, fight like hell.

I'm trying to be polite about it, but I'm growing real damn weary of a vocal few whose panties are wadded up about these temporary conditions and want to enact permanent restrictions on everyone.

Yeah it can suck sometimes, but damn son..man-up.
 
Chdamn said:
I’m not sure I understand the revenue aspect of your post. Quite honestly the people who use this site to simply buy and sell things are very rarely likely to contribute to the sites maintenance costs.

We don’t host for google ads or anything of the like so an increase in membership does nothing for us in that aspect either.

Quite simply, more members equates to more posts which equates to more data usage which in turn increases the cost to run the site. Well we actually have a bit of cushion before an increase will occur. But still.

We want to grow. Not to make more money because we won’t. We want to grow because the more people we can engage with and discuss the real reason for the second amendment the better chance we have to actually defend it if and when the time comes.

There will always be growing pains and people who just are not cut out to be part of this group. And when they raise their heads we lop them off.

We have a fantastic group of mods and admins that assist us in policing the site. Honestly we are over staffed for the traffic just a bit but that’s by design. So that no one person is spending too much time on here policing instead of enjoying.
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So glad to hear that about the mods! That eliminates a big concern! My apologies for not being clearer. I did not mean revenue for the site, I meant sellers who only come to the site because they see the site membership as a source of revenue for their sales.
 
Downeast said:
I guess you could say both. I just wonder if the prices ever come down to reasonable levels whether they would stay or simply disappear? I checked one new member's posts and after his introduction nearly all of his posts were classified ads. :rolleyes:
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I get what your saying i guess.I am new here and havent had anything to toss in the classifieds yet but will sooner or later. But with that said some of the new “wheeler dealer” members could potentially have something your interested in and you may miss out on it is another way to look at it.🤷‍♂️
 
Only thing I can say on the subject is with every member who wants to sell is a gun to buy and don't forget about the rare under price guns that last one minute on the forum before being snatched up we were all new at one point on the forum I say the more for sale the better I enjoy looking through the for sales
 
Me. said:
Look at these sweet rules from the Brian Enos forum......






Congratulations forum member! You finally have your 50th post!

Now that you have your 50th post, before you decide to place that ad here in the classifieds, look back on your posting history and see if you are within the forum guidelines for using the classifieds. ..I.E., no post count bumping, no flurry of single sentence posts, is your profile filled out completely as per forum guidelines, have you meaningfully contributed to the core mission of the forum, which is the discussion of the shooting sports? If you cannot definitively answer "YES" to ALL of those questions, perhaps you may want to reconsider posting your ad.

Why, you ask?
Well, an answer of "NO" to any of the above questions can get your post count reset to zero, and then you will have to get 100 meaningful posts before you can ASK to be allowed to use the classifieds. And we all know how you struggled just to get to your 50th!

So, step back, take a look at your posting...Do you really need to post that ad as the very next post after your 50th? Do you want to take that chance?

If you have any doubts about whether you meet the criteria for using the classifieds, pm a moderator and ask them review your posting history. It's that simple.

Follow these guidelines and all will be well in your classifieds forum use.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge of the shooting sports and helping grow the forum,

Benos Forum Moderating Team.
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I've been on other forums with just as strict rules. It was a turn off to even use the forum. Being judge by the quality of my post was always a thought. The problem with a lot of forums is there is some very knowledgeable people on them. So every post I would have made, would have already been covered. Because no "dupes". So be part of the elite, or don't post at all.
There are 2 sides to the coin, the posts that were present were of high quality, with good info. But joining the discussions were almost discouraged with so many rules in place.
 
I am on this site because I’m interested in guns and other things on this site. I like the fact that it is local to my state. I like how it is being run by a group of people with common sense, commitment, sense of humor, and fairness.
I don’t care for some of the comments from some members, but to each his own until it takes away from another. It’s an adult forum and sometimes as adults we need to put on our big boy pants and suck it up. We don’t always get what we want. That’s life, real life.
I have many post that are one word, two words, one sentence. Big deal. I have some that are quite long and hopefully helpful to someone. I joined this forum in part BECAUSE of NO post count requirements in the BST.
I was a member of gunco, years ago. I missed out on an AK build kit in the BST because I didn’t have a high enough post count. I posted a ,respectful, comment about it and got flamed heavily by a moderator. I was given a complete rundown of all my post.
I ask too many questions and didn’t contribute to the forum like I should. I let him know this sounded like bs and wouldn’t use the site. Got another pm about how that is my problem, fault, etc.
I haven’t had an issue here that couldn’t be solved easily. That’s more than my 2 cents
 
I have to say for some freedom loving folks y’all certainly want to have a ton of rules. I get it, I don’t won’t anarchy but our rules page already has 1600+ words.
 
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