[DENIED] Lets start using the Vouch forum properly and stop the bumping loophole?

I agree with @FlyingToast and his suggestion that only the bump button would move a thread to the top of its section, and replies to the thread would not impact its position.

 

I have mixed feelings on this whole issue. I think that @FlyingToast's suggestion is the most fair to all of the users in the marketplace.

The other part that I see is that shouldn't people who worked hard to get customers and have been at it for months / years have an advantage versus someone who just started? Although to be fair this could be countered with that they have lots of vouches from their transactions.

 

Worked hard. L. I disagree with this. It's not like they are grinding hard. This isn't fair because it makes all of the other sellers/buyers who are using vouches correctly have a unfair advantage because they are always bumped out of the top. And the whole reason theres a bumping system is that it's "Suppose" to be fair.

 

They got to the point where they are today, it's not like they didn't do anything to get an advantage. When you say people that using vouches "correctly" have an unfair advantage, I slightly disagree with you. Anyone can do it the same way that they do it and it isn't currently against the rules. With regards to the bumping system so its "suppose" to be fair, I understand and agree with you.

Overall I am in favor of Flying Toasts's suggestion, I am just playing devil's advocate.

 

But it’s dumb. And causes spam. And floods the forum twice as much as it should.

 

I agree with you that it floods the forum with quite a bit more posts then it would be otherwise. Would you also want it to be banned for people posting order forums? (Such as I want to buy X gold from you, this is my Skype contact info, ect).

 

No, because that’s not what I was talking about. It looks more clean, efficient, and professional to have vouches on one thread and one thread only. That will not only stop allowing large gold-sellers to monopolize their business, it will allow other people to utilize the forum the way it should be.

 

I know that isn't what you were talking about, I was just curious on your thoughts about the subject matter.

 

That’s fine because there is a logical reason behind the use of the order forms.

 

You are 100% correct about that, was just curious on your thoughts and opinion on it. I don't have really anything else to add ^^

 

I support this, but at the same time its brings Alot of advantage to my workflow, unfair to smaller competition.

 

Update @moderators. Need. To. Implement. Rule. Fast.

 

I support the implementation of the "Bump" button being the only way to bump the thread.

 

I don’t think this should be changed for the following reasons:

1. Why does everyone want to make Sythe an even as possible playing field? Those who have been in the game for years and/or dump large amounts of money into advertising will become bigger. As such, they’ll receive more feedback, more bumps and thus more exposure. They’re a larger business, this is how the real world works.

2. Consumers often choose the largest shops simply due to trust. They’ll pay a higher price in order to have a “safer” trade and larger threads due to feedback posted on them help indicate such.

3. Sythe is a free market.

4. The vouches subforum, in my understanding, is a place to collect the total vouches for a final number and total USD amount. If you were to suggest that those who claim 1,000 vouches need documented proof of at least 1,000 vouches collected in a single location, then I’d for sure agree.

5. By doing so, you’re punishing larger businesses. They use this as a marketing tactic to help them get business. They’ve put years and/or large amounts of capital to build their brand and as such have higher amounts of traffic which equate to more feedback. This is a means of competing with the other goldsellers. The more you limit them, the less competition there is.

 

I understand your point of view but I shall contest it:

1) "everyone" - this is too speculative. As is your speculations on the amount of money invested into ads. Just because Arcus has the top banner every month and drops probably 15-20k on banners across forums each month, doesn't mean he's also investing the most into google/facebook, if at all. Most of these spammy bumps are from profiles that do nothing else on sythe other than post vouches. Even if an account is registered in 2014, 2015, or 2016 on his topic, most have only ever posted on his topic. Same applies for the other examples shown.

2) Also speculative. This is also becoming less true. There are large amounts of customers who are in to the bargaining culture which western countries like the USA and UK sometimes take offense to, and are unwilling to understand. Lots of these said customers open 20 goldsite tabs and try make each site bargain against each other on price.

3) A free market doesn't mean an unregulated market.

4) This is a fair claim. And yes,it was suggested by somebody else to stop merchants claiming to have 4000 vouches but only having 1000 recorded. This is slightly out of context. It is indeed a vouch issue, but the issue I have is that merchants are clearly abusing the bump rule here. Sure, people can argue with me here, but the majority can see in plain sight that this is exactly what merchants are doing. Especially when they are bribing customers to vouch with the incentive of receiving free gold.

5) Yes it is a marketing tactic, but it is also market manipulation. I would place bets that if a bump button was applied and the only way to bump, then "coincidentally" these merchants would suddenly stop their 1M vouch bribe deals, and 30 minute vouch bumps.


Again I understand your point of view, and I also understand lots of people think I am crazy for suggesting this for the better good of the market because they believe its some magic loophole they could abuse themselves.

However I have seen this happen on other markets and for a while it works, you have a fake super active section due to constant review posts every 30 minutes. Then after a couple of years the section starts dying off as only the monopolies remain. Then the monopolies begin to milk the forums and stop investing into them. It's a downward spiral that never has the opportunity for resurgence.

 

1) I think it’s common sense that the more you spend into advertising, the more customers and revenue you’ll generate. I really didn’t expect you to contest that point lol. If you want to compete with them and get the number of feedback they get, then put more money into advertisements and stick with it for longer.

2) I can’t tell you the exact statistics or percentages of customers who choose other Goldshops due to safety, but I can assure you there is a solid number of them there. There is a reason why SEO optimization is important: the shops who appear in the top 5 are seen as the biggest shops and thus the safest options for consumers. This is why they get the most business from google.

3) A regulated free market doesn’t mean disallowing feedback from a place where feedback is logically relevant.

4) The main point is that the vouch forum has been used as the place to collect vouches and total them up. You can quote them into the first post to count them, should you choose to make a vouch claim. The aside at the end is a different point, not sure why I tossed it in there

5) How is this market manipulation? They have more customers and thus get more feedback. A larger businesses will be bumped more often than a smaller business. Why? This is the perk of being larger: you get more exposure. As for bonus gold, you’re free to offer the same incentive. Again, this is a marketing tactic. I’ve been offered money and/or additional perks for leaving feedback to companies all my life. This is a completely normal way of doing business and marketing a business. It’s not unfair, it’s not illegal, it’s not manipulation. It’s just people upset they’re not at the top so they want to make the playing field more level. And that is not how it works.

 

Fair points and i partially agree with some. Rather than argue with you and go in circles critiquing each context in detail I'll just leave it at that and those still reading through this topic won't have as many pages of responses to grind through before making a decision on whether to support or not

 

I hope your not considering stating that gold selling sites don't work hard, I've met owners of them that have permanent physical damages to their body(bad back,arthritis, carpel tunnel, a lot more), mind(depression, anxiety,more) and more over gold selling.

If you think selling gold is easy than I'd like you to open a website with 1,000 16-20 year old customers every day and see how much pressure you can take before you have a mental breakdown.

It's easy to talk shit about them not working hard after they've put a decade of work into it and can now sit back and enjoy those efforts.

-Divine

 

Your talking like those websites who takes on 1,000 customers dont have 100 + employees.

 

Lol. I think you would be hard pressed to find any gold site with over 8 employees at this time, I can only think of 1 with 10 RN. Most have 4-5.