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So I'm not a user of the Swap Shop myself, having only done one transaction through communication on this site, which is not yet complete. I am also aware that a system was being developed for this but never came to fruition for whatever reason. However, looking at the Reputable Traders List and how difficult it is to utilise, I thought I may have a decent and straightforward idea to replace the current system.

My proposal is simple - why don't users just have some kind of "Trading Rank" to represent how good a trader they are? This could be seen and listed in the same way as Gallery Votes and Images, and could increase each time someone presses a button at the bottom of your post or profile just like how you'd Exalt a post or thread. Then people would not only be able to keep track of their own rank as well as other's, but they'd also be able to see this outside the Reputable Traders List since everyone's rank would be on display underneath their Avatar, and possibly open up new transactions after noticing them across the forums.

I don't know if such a system would be worth any time and/or effort to put in place, especially when you consider loopholes such as spamming a "+1" button need to be closed, but I thought it'd be an idea that could be considered nonetheless. I know it'd be great for people like me, who are not only sceptical of people on the internet, but who are also not frequent visitors to the Swap Shop who both are open to trading things and who may not quite know what kind of things they are looking for until they are approached by people or who see people discuss certain items that spark interest.

G.A

How would you stop people who weren't ever involved in a trade with someone from hammering their rep?
Say someone makes a topic in 40K General and is dogpiled there, and the users who dislike them then go and ruin their sales rep?

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
How would you stop people who weren't ever involved in a trade with someone from hammering their rep?
Say someone makes a topic in 40K General and is dogpiled there, and the users who dislike them then go and ruin their sales rep?

Well they wouldn't be able to downvote them in any way, since there would only be a +1 button similar to the +1 Exalt. Of course the opposite should be prevented too, though I am no code monkey myself so am unsure how that would exactly work.

The bigger concern I'd have is someone potentially racking up a very good reputation through their first trades, and then becoming a scammer because they know they can draw people in with their good trade rank. Perhaps a downvote system would be needed in that case, but like you said, some measure would have to be taken to prevent its abuse. This is also a problem with the Reputable Traders List imo, as people could read many +1 posts for a certain user and find that they are fobbing people off now because they are supposedly "trusted"

Turning any forum into a popularity contest is always a bad idea.
If you're happy to set up a trade with someone then be sensible and go for it.
It's a tricky thing for the forum to deal with, and why should it?
Dakka wants no blood on it's hands.

But even without a +1 button you still have the problem of people who aren't involved in a trade hitting +1 on people they like for other reasons. For example, I have never made a trade on this forum but I'm clearly the best and most popular poster here. So my legion of adoring fans hits +1, I get ridiculously high rank, and then the only thing stopping me from exploiting everyone's trust in my artificially inflated trade rank and scamming people is my own sense of morality. You'd need some way to implement ebay-style feedback where you create a transaction and then only the people involved in it can see the +1 button. And that's almost certainly more effort than it's worth.

I do wonder if there was some way to use the same system as Bartertown does, seems to work really well and hard to abuse.

Peregrine wrote:But even without a +1 button you still have the problem of people who aren't involved in a trade hitting +1 on people they like for other reasons. For example, I have never made a trade on this forum but I'm clearly the best and most popular poster here. So my legion of adoring fans hits +1, I get ridiculously high rank, and then the only thing stopping me from exploiting everyone's trust in my artificially inflated trade rank and scamming people is my own sense of morality. You'd need some way to implement ebay-style feedback where you create a transaction and then only the people involved in it can see the +1 button. And that's almost certainly more effort than it's worth.

Good point. You could theoretically have this problem with the Reputable Trader List, but I see how pushing a button is much easier than making a post. Either way, a Mod could probably read the data or simply read any of your posts and realise that it's probably us lovers of Peregrine, the true God Emperor, who have given him a track record of 156 successful and good trades in the space of a week, and act accordingly, after questions about possible brainwashing have been answered, of course.

ingtaer wrote:I do wonder if there was some way to use the same system as Bartertown does, seems to work really well and hard to abuse.

I guess it's tricky to implement a water tight system since this site itself does not deal with money transactions. Something like Bartertown's contract system would be good, but ideally more simple and easy to set up with just a few clicks, rather than a clunky process that has to be typed by hand. An online form would be ideal, since it could also be moderated in case someone says you never wrote and sent a contract to them via PM.


Again I'm unsure if these concepts would be easy enough to set up, but I think it'd be beneficial to the Swap Shop in terms of making it much safer and simpler to make transactions.

 yakface wrote:


This forum is an informal meeting place to allow like-minded individuals who are looking to trade/buy/sell gaming related items to find each other.

Dakka is NOT a trading site and there are absolutely no safeguards in place to guarantee that your transaction will be successfully completed. In all cases when making a trade or sale set up using this forum, Caveat Emptor (buyer beware). The owners and moderators of Dakka cannot and will not help you in any way if something goes wrong.

There are many steps you can take to help improve your chances of making a successful trade or sale, please read the other sticky threads in this forum for advice from other users on the simple steps you can take to better protect yourself. Ultimately, however, there are no guarantees. If that makes you wary, there are many other trading and selling sites on the internet that do specialize in sales and trades, such as Ebay and Bartertown (just to name a few).

As Yakface notes in the Swap Shop Rules, this isn't an area that he & Lego want Dakka to specialize in - they aren't interested in the headaches involved in running a formal trading site, preferring instead the headaches of running a discussion board. As such, the "solutions" in place tend towards the light-weight - things that don't require significant coding or moderator effort.