Sythe offers

I've come up with an idea that would completely change how we change how we trade here on sythe. Currently when you want to sell something you make a thread in the appropriate thread and users respond by posting. Most of these responses are normally spam, or offers that don’t end up going through. Not only is the spam a pain but it’s a hassle to go through tons of bogus offers so I’ve come up with something called sythe offers. When someone posts an item up for sale there will be an offer button where you are allowed to offer either cash or other specified items. The seller has the option to show all offers on their thread or have the offers privately pmed to their inbox. Offers will include the syhe user that’s making the offer, the amount of the offer, what there offering on ,contact info and lastly that members offer history. Every sythe member will have an offer history and with each offer you can see whether the offer was denied accepted or if the buyer has bailed on his offer. This would allow others to see how legitament that members offer really is. I understand that this is somewhat under a rep system but it is vastly different from other’s suggestions, however if you feel this deserves a lock go ahead, but remember this is just an idea that I feel would better our community as a whole.

 

Do you know how drastically this would affect how many members post in the market and even as a whole?

 

wouldn't less posts = to less spam and it would make the trading sections way easier to moderate plus posts like I'll buy it would now be considered spam

 

I support. But I doubt this will actually go through because they would probably have to do a lot of work in the VBulletin coding....but hey, you never know.

 

Less posts= less activity from people. Sure they may all be lurking but no one would be posting in the market, and if someone is spamming, then just PM a market mod or global and tell them which posts to delete and they will delete and infract the person who spammed said posts.

 

As someone above has stated, I doubt that even with massive support this'd be implemented. I like the idea though, it's a market section so why not make it professional.

Support.

 

Another thing is, if they aren't spamming in your thread, who's to to tell them to not be able to spam your inbox with fake offers?

 

well thats the reasoning behind the offer history if they give you fake offers and end up not going through you can state that next to the offer, and if a member continually does this their rep will be very low and unreliable

 

not really instead of posting they could be offering and what exactly do those people contribute to the community by posting spam or irrevalent info in the trading sections?

 

I'll admit I have no experience in coding I just think that even if this took a month + to code it would be worth it for the community in the end

 

This is a good point Gohan. @OP; This would reduce legitimate posts too. There'd be no reason for anyone inside the market forums to have more posts than accounts sold. Your system gives no attention to private messages. I know some moderators that receive ridiculous amounts of PMs per day, I can completely understand when they don't get around to responding to 2-3 days later, or perhaps not at all. Some popular sellers receive the same sort of spam, me personally, I average about 30-40 a day. Most are less than four sentences "5$ for that account? MSN is : x" I wouldn't mind if they posted it on my thread. If they don't end up buying they don't end up buying, one unnecessary post isn't the end of a thread.

Another thing, you act as if bids that arn't accepted as the price the seller will accept are a sign of illegitimacy, i'd have to disagree. I've backed out of plenty of purchases; but i've accumulated over 40 vouches and not had a single scam report filed against me. Hell, i'd say i've backed down from more trades then i've followed through. Do you consider me illegitimate?

Finally, the complications of even implementing this. It would be A LOT of coding, glitches in the beginning, etc. Not to mention the timing of your suggestion is simultaneous with the work being done on SytheIRC, Sythe client, and attempting to find a new way to handle PayPal donations; i'm trying to say a lot of technical/coding work is already being done.

It was a good thought, but I believe spam vs your system...we need to select the lesser of the two evils and just keep the old system. Having a "Sythe offers" system really just isn't practical.

 

I'll admit that sythe offers has flaws as the way I've explained it, but they could be fixed.

First things first I don't see how the amount of legitimate posts would decrease, ya the amount of posts overall in these sections would decrease but comments would still be welcome unless sellers specify otherwise. The only posts that would no longer be welcome would be those that contain offers.

As for the pm inbox thing, you could simply either have two separate in-boxes for offers and private messages or you could code it so offers could be seen on that thread by either both the buyers and sellers or just the seller.

Backing out of buying items would be a thing of the past, imagine if sythe came to the point where 90%+ of offers would be legitimate wouldn't that be alot easier for the sellers? Plus you could put an expiration on your offer say 24 hours or 2 weeks, that way if the seller decides to accept your offer after a few weeks you won't be affected.Plus in the end backing out of a trade would not be the end of the world to your rep, as long as you don't consistently do it.

Lastly as for the time it would take the code of this is definitely worth it , I mean if their taking that much time building sythe irc, and the sythe client wouldn't this be just as helpfull if not more? Plus this could be something they do in the near or even far future just because I suggest it today doesn't mean it has to be made by tommorrow.

 

This

And this.

There would be no way to prevent the "fake" offers anyways, because an offer that you consider bogus or fake may be considered legit by a different seller. Too subjective really.

 

Like stated before offer history and separate in boxes would fix both of these plus would it be any worse than it is now.My suggestion not only would reduce illegitimate offers but it would also clean up the forums

 

You're suggest something similar to Ebay offers, right? The problem is that we're a forum. We want posts to help expand our reach in search engines to gain more members.

 

1) ...what posts would be welcome then?

2) Impossible. This might make it to a 500$ donator perk, having two totally seperate inboxes.

3) Yes..but it would be horrible for the buyers? It would put unnecessary, unwanted economic pressure based on maintaining a respectable reputation. If you bid on an account, you feel obligated to end up purchasing it or you would end up being looked down upon.

There's also a argument fallacy error in there..

"as long as you don't keep doing it."

Who's to decide how many times is too many?

4) Short answer, no it wouldn't be nearly as beneficial.

 

I understand sythe's a business like any other and depends on these links to search engines but how many "offer" posts bring in people to sythe,aren't the sellers post normally the ones that get linked? plus should we put a thing like this before the happiness of our members?

 

They will bring in alot, surprisingly.

 

1) normal comments on items such as questions about the item or simple admiration of that persons character or item

2)why whats so bad about 2 seperate inboxes one would be for strictly offers, i doubt this would have to be a perk

3) the offer history would only show how many offers you offered, accepted, and declined it would be up to the other member to decide if you were trustworthy

4) as for this that's simply up to your opinion

 

I won't respond to any other points but these two as I think your argument is pretty stable there. However...

1) Posts saying "nice account" or more related to your template "I admire the item you're selling!" are treated as spam...saying that those posts are okay due to the Sythe offers system being implemented would change the whole way spamming is treated...which leads to a lot of restructuring.

2) It's not bad, I didn't say that. It's hard to do, and it's near impossible to do on a mass scale. Every single account needing one? I don't think it's feasible.