Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Dear Yakface, I think swapshop is a nice place, and the following changes can make Swapshop an even better environment for its users..

1) Allow people ( buyers / people with interest ) to respond to a thread without bumping the thread. Without been able to know where and when scammers will hit,
this is an easy and direct way for buyers to know, how many are currently dealing with the purchases from seller.
No more simultaneous scams this way.

2) User must have at least 50 ( or more ) post before making ebay threads.
Swapshop should be a privilege shared among its users. With the front page been constantly crowded,
its really not fair that someone creates an account just to start 1-2 ebay threads, and only ebay threads.
Better, and fair flow of threads per page.

3) Clear photos should be encouraged when something is built, primed, and painted.
This coincides with #1 above. Because sometimes a seller would go to great length to dodge providing a clear picture.
Sometimes they are scammers with no actual tem, sometimes they are trying to sell off something is extremely bad condition.
Hence we sometimes see the seller say things like... " give me your email and I 'll respond to you guys through emails, or PM "
etc etc.
Caveat emptor is important, but less tragedies this way.

4) Faulty / inflated fake pricing. I have often see people selling still in production products in an army,
and attempt to muddle the price ( I guess people get lazy when dealing with large amount and doesn't bother to check if seller is been honest )
I used to help the buyers by calculating 2 prices. 1 which is items purchased separately. The other, if done by battle force / battalion.
However, such posts are constantly been deleted by mods, I see no reason to do so.

There are more, which I'll add later. But the bottom line is, alot of the swapshop users are still not 18,
nor are they experienced in protecting themselves, or sometimes they make honest mistakes and not deliver ( if they are seller ).
Since alot of such transactions cannot warrant any legal actions ( we do so at our own risks ), shouldnt we take greater care to lessen the damage?

Thanks for reading yakface :")

As a seller, I only use an email account as I am selling it for my friend and i'd rather the potential buyer contact my friend in person!

LunaHound wrote:
2) User must have at least 50 ( or more ) post before making ebay threads.
Swapshop should be a privilege shared among its users. With the front page been constantly crowded,
its really not fair that someone creates an account just to start 1-2 ebay threads, and only ebay threads.
Better, and fair flow of threads per page.

I don't use SwapShop, however, this is not a hurdle.

I can make an account and join some spammy "What Happens Next" threads and get 50 posts in no time. Wouldn't "Length of Membership" say 6 months, be a better hurdle.

Not that I'm saying it's needed. Just offering my 2 cents.

OK so to address some of your points/suggestions:

LunaHound wrote:

1) Allow people ( buyers / people with interest ) to respond to a thread without bumping the thread. Without been able to know where and when scammers will hit,
this is an easy and direct way for buyers to know, how many are currently dealing with the purchases from seller.
No more simultaneous scams this way.

Not sure what you mean by this - people already can respond to threads. The 4 day bump rule applies to the thread starter not other people posting in it. So if someone starts a trade thread and people start dealing with him, there is nothing to stop said users posting a reply in the thread saying 'I am currently negotiating item A' or words to that effect. Of course, this requires a change in people's behaviour so they do that; as we have seen with the title format rule - it is easy enough to ask people to do something, difficult to enforce it.

2) User must have at least 50 ( or more ) post before making ebay threads.
Swapshop should be a privilege shared among its users. With the front page been constantly crowded,
its really not fair that someone creates an account just to start 1-2 ebay threads, and only ebay threads.
Better, and fair flow of threads per page.

We have discussed this in the past and the consensus is it just encourages spam elsewhere in the forums and that is definitely not something we want to see. This is a certain proportion of Dakka users who only use the Swap Shop and don't post elsewhere; if they all suddenly had to hit some post count barrier before being allowed to post trade threads then we would see an upsurge in low quality posts to the detriment of the rest of the site as a whole. This is not something we wish to encourage either directly or indirectly.

3) Clear photos should be encouraged when something is built, primed, and painted.
This coincides with #1 above. Because sometimes a seller would go to great length to dodge providing a clear picture.
Sometimes they are scammers with no actual tem, sometimes they are trying to sell off something is extremely bad condition.
Hence we sometimes see the seller say things like... " give me your email and I 'll respond to you guys through emails, or PM "
etc etc.
Caveat emptor is important, but less tragedies this way.

Good idea but see above; easy enough to suggest but a different story actually getting people to do it. The bottom line is that the onus is on the buyer; if the pics aren't good enough or clear enough for you to see then either ask for better pics or don't deal. Simple as.

4) Faulty / inflated fake pricing. I have often see people selling still in production products in an army,
and attempt to muddle the price ( I guess people get lazy when dealing with large amount and doesn't bother to check if seller is been honest )
I used to help the buyers by calculating 2 prices. 1 which is items purchased separately. The other, if done by battle force / battalion.
However, such posts are constantly been deleted by mods, I see no reason to do so.

Because it isn't your or anyone else's place to argue what someone should or shouldn't ask for their items. No-one is under any obligation to buy; if the price is too high or an attempt to sell something for more than it is worth then it is up to the buyer to decide if they wish to buy it. Users are entirely free to set whatever price they deem fit for their items. Posting in someone else's trade thread that they are asking too much is off-topic and likely to cause argument. Again, if you don't like the price, don't deal; no-one is holding a gun to anyone's head demanding they buy.

Well said Filbert - indeed!

Trader ratings system like the one used on BArtertown.

col. krazy kenny wrote:Trader ratings system like the one used on BArtertown.

That would appear in the side <--- profile?

I would personally find that more useful than the reputable buyers page which is long enough to trigger a TLR episode.

Ma55ter_fett wrote:
I would personally find that more useful than the reputable buyers page which is long enough to trigger a TLR episode.

Slightly nitpicky, but the Rep Traders thread isn't really designed to be read in the conventional manner. It is supposed to be there for when you are considering a trade with someone, you can open the thread up, Ctrl+F and search for their user-name to see if they have completed successful trades already; it isn't really something you are supposed to navigate by hand otherwise it very quickly becomes unwieldy.

Bartertown is a site dedicated to trading and therefore it makes sense to have a trader rating be something integrated into their basic user profile.

On Dakka proportionally very few people use the Swap Shop forum at all, so it doesn't make the same kind of sense to clutter up the user profile even further with a system tracking trader rating, especially when determining said ratings adds a whole heap of other craziness to the mix.