PM harassing someone elses customers

Hey,

It recently came to my attention that there are users who PM people that have posted on someone else's thread, in order to try to buy their gold/sell them gold/swap gold with them/etc.
This is in regards to users who did NOT create a thread of their own (as that would make it fair game).

The PMing is basically harassment, as they did not ask for others to PM them. Also, it's exactly the same as thread hijacking, and this is written in the rules about that:

"Users will receive 1 infraction for the following:

Thread Hijacking: Offering your services/Sales on the thread of someone else's services or sales"

The only difference here is that they do it without the thread creators knowledge.
Everyone should have the same chance of trading on Sythe. Having someone stalk the pages of others, and trying to steal their clients is a completely unfair way of trading.


I would also suggest increasing the severity of thread hijacking for repeat offenders (not another infraction but a week ban or something), as hijacking a good trade can make a significant difference, and it is very, very easy to learn to avoid.

 

it should be threatened like thread hijacking in this case. I'll support this suggestion. As long as customer didnt create his own thread he shouldnt get unwanted offer-pm and every single market member should have equal opportunity to gain customers.

 

I will support would seem very annoying as a customer and as a seller to have this happen.

 

Completely agreed - this is exactly the same situation as thread hijacking and should be treated as such.

 

i support also! As Service provider i wouldn't like it if my customers were lured away from me.

 

This is impossible to monitor, Do you know how many houndreds or thousands of pm's and times people do this?


No-one is going to care if they get 1 infraction, and ur just wasting more sythe staff's time.


I dont support this suggestion.

 

This was really annoying for me when I was in the market, but it is an open market and while mass advertising via the PM system would be considered spam if the posts are reported, I don't see making it a rule not to PM "other peoples customers" as everyone has the ability to decide who they want to buy from or sell to. Competition never hurts, it helps people decide whether or not they want to continue buying from someone or look elsewhere.

 

Staff would only look at it if a receiver of a PM notifies them of this occurring, they wont be looking for it. From that point on it won't be that much extra effort.
And as to the severity of an infraction: That is also why I suggest harsher punishment for hijacking.

If that is the case, thread hijacking should also be allowed.
A clear ruling on it would be nice in either case.

And with other people's customers I do not mean a site-wide PM to online users, but targetting people who posted in someone else's thread that they were interested in doing business with them.

 

Completely agree, it's super annoying. I got a pm not that long ago just from browsing divica's rs3 buying thread lmao I never responded to it obv but If I had been the buyer in this case, that would've definitely bothered me. There's competition and then there's just way too pushy.

 

You can't enforce this. The best thing to do is if a mod/admin adds to a sticky under the rules that they cannot PM people and it will be TREATED like thread hijacking. The person who was PMed can then report the PM, but there is really nothing else that can be done.

 

Thread hijacking is advertising that you're selling something on someone else's thread. That's not the same as PMing someone letting them know you're selling something that you know they are buying. Besides that, how would the staff know if the person who sent the PM knows the user was buying a certain item because of a post on someone else's thread?

 

I personally would consider posting "Hey leanbean, I can sell it to you for $0.35 instead of 0.45$/m" on R2Pleasents thread hijacking, if you posted that you wanted to buy some gold from him.

And to the second part: If the only related post would be on someone else's thread, it would become quite clear. If they were in previous contact, and simply reconnected over skype via a sent out msg that would be different.

Seeing as the recipient of the PM would have to report it, he'd probably know if there could be another way of the PMer finding out about it. And in those cases, he wouldn't report it.

 

There's no way to enforce this as a rule. Staff have enough things to deal with.

 

I've had people add me on skype asking if I wanna sell them gp because they saw I bought off another person's thread. I wasn't even aware it happened via PM's, but since it does I'd support it.

 

^^^
This. That's the way I can imagine it working. It'd work on posts I guess, maybe screenshots of recent activity

 

Pretty much this, as the buyer has the RIGHTS to decide to buy from A or B if the B's price is less than A's, if that makes sense. Why wouldn't you buy gold from a guy who offers it for less when the other sells it for more? It's not like you're the one that needs more money or such, people have the rights to buy stuff from where they please. As a perfect example, if IKEA offers you a better price than another market who charges you more for X stuff and you see while going to the OTHER market that IKEA has better prices for the SAME PRODUCT, would you still buy the said thing in the other market, who I repeat sells it for MORE?
No support.

 

I can see how this would be good for the customer but bad for the person running their thread on the market. I personally work in a very slow part of the Sythe market where gaining customers is very difficult, so simply being available is usually enough to get a customer.

In that respect, if someone were to spot on my thread that someone wanted to buy a torso and offered it to them for cheaper when I wasn't available then I'd be happy for them. I may lose out on a customer but it'd mean someone else is able to establish themselves and potentially be someone I can rely upon when I'm not available.

 

Eh... I agree with leanbean.

Nothing wrong with competition. This is micromanaging honestly. If i see someone posting on lets say r2's thread saying he's selling 100mil GP, why shouldn't i be allowed to PM him about it? If i want to buy it from him at a better rate shouldn't he hear my offer?

Seems silly to try and enforce a rule like this, its an open market and thread hijacking is NOT the same, PM's are private.

 

No support. User has a choice of who to trade with. If I was looking to buy something and someone PMS me with a better offer than what I posted on someone else's thread, what's wrong with that? The buyer wins and so does the seller.

 

No support. If you can offer someone a better deal, why not offer it to them to save them money and make yourself some.

It may be annoying but it's how a market works. Real life stuff like this happens. Don't see the need for this implementation.