[approved] Bogus Posting/Irrelevant Advertising

Feels like a slightly pointless change;

"Users will not be able to bogus post while maintaining plausible deniability." - This will indeed still happen. Gfx will change, yet you'll still get the same offerings on each section. Users aren't forced to state prices on their threads, therefore they can carry on offering a 2277 ironman and only when you reach their server will you realise it costs $10k+ (by which point, you're already in their server).

I see the issue Sythe are trying to tackle here, however I feel like the 'easier' option is what you're going after right now. This is potentially seen as a way to stop bogus posts, however it won't. The only way to stop misleading posts is to enforce pricing (which is unrealistic, unachievable and an admin headache).

The fixing of pricing means potential customers do not have to join the Discord (the poster's intent is almost certainly to just get them to join the Discord) - however it's previously been suggested and shut down, and rightfully so.

Therefore, I don't see a solution to this problem, and this certainly won't fix it.

 

100% support, I get what @Jelovic is saying and it kind of is a cat and mouse game however it would be a step in the right direction and at the very least, the first step, because the issue at hand is real and it's annoying.

 

support. anything to help the consumer and make it easier

also, i personally am tired of browsing threads and all people have in the post is a graphic linked to their discord server

 

Support, it would be the best update in years!

 

Support.

 

Support!

 

Support, will require some extra effort to post for some of the service providers who'll need their gfx remade but will be worth it.

 

Support. Imho threads should contain at least vague info on what they're selling that's relevant to the section.

I was looking into buying some miniranks recently, and a bunch of the threads in that subforum just have a graphic that says "BLAH BLAH'S ACCOUNT SHOP, GOLD AND ITEMS JOIN THE DISCORD" or whatever, and doesn't even mention the word "miniranks" anywhere besides the thread title. That's wack.

 

Support. As a customer who has come back year after year I've seen the degradation of the "community" aspect of peer to peer interaction here on the forum and it's slow transition to just becoming an impersonal, no prices upfront, advertising funnel to discord servers with less direct oversight. Often the adverts and individuals you interact with on the sythe forum are not the same individuals taking orders and deliveries in the actual discord.

Obviously businesses need employees and we understand this as veterans of the rwt market but this aspect of not stating this upfront in the advertising can give new, nervous, potential customers who aren't as familiar with the rwt market process a feeling of being "funneled away from the oversight of the sythe forum".

Scammers only continue to be successful because of lack of reporting. Most scams go unreported simply due to the fact of lost time. If you try to buy once and get fd once what are the chances your gona make the effort to read about how to make a proper report and know beforehand to record evidence incase they ban you from the discord server? In many cases even if they wanted to they don't see the value in making any reports because it's easier to just say "welp I already got fd, im never gona even try to rwt ever again" and get back to grinding the game as they previously were and put the whole experience out of mind. But here's the important part that affects the consumers you want to atract the most aka new consumers. And when other new potential customers ask about the rwt experience and how it went it's crucial for the growth of the market and individuals buisness that they have positive experiences to share that will lead to more new customers and thus more revenue and stronger reputation for the seller.

We should not allow our beloved sythe to turn into a sellers majority community (although it already basically is) that's blind to new consumer complaints. I don't think we pay enough attention to this issue because it's simply not voiced by those most affected. Newer members can be hesitant, intimidated or just not knowing in how to make a report against a well known repped member for something as vauge as "buying and pricing process was complex and non intuitive due to inaccurate (though not completely) advertising that allows for genuine plausible deniability". Even a veteran customer may not want to make an official report because we dont beleive the punishment is ideal for a problem that doesn't truly cause any real direct harm, it's just annoying and only has the most serious impact on the people who have the least ammount of knowledge and experience to express their viewpoint on this specific topic. These new customers who don't even know that we take their concerns seriously are the biggest demographic for future revenue and spreading positive word to other real players and thus I think sellers and all members of the sythe community should see this as a larger problem worthy of being taken more seriously.

As previously stated the problem is a real one and I beleive one thats drastically understated due to the fact that the most impacted group is least likely to report or share experiences. These are mostly small time, new customers. (Wich should be your most targeted audience for gaining new customers and having them spread word to friends and others who might not have previously trusted rwt markets and are hesitant to step into our own little world here.)

I beleive the path to fixing this problem lies not with what should the punishment be or how to make reporting easier but to put other rules in place such as easily showing ballpark prices and if you are the owner operator handling all transactions or if you employ trusted others to handle certain aspects of the buisness under your name. Many advertisements read like you are dealing with one and only one trusted individual but once you jump through and join the discord just to ask "price?" You learn that you can't get a sythe pm because the owner of the buisness is not online yet they are clearly auto posting that they are live and taking orders only it's not them live and taking orders it's their employees. Ive been told by 4 large sythe businesses that they wouldn't know when they'd be able to get me a sythe pm due to owner not being online or too busy and that they have so many vouches that sending a sythe pm to them was simply not something they did often (atleast this is what I was told) yet in their advert it would clearly say "don't hesitate to ask for a sythe pm to confirm!" Only once I jumped through every hoop of first finding the add, then joining the discord server, then making a ticket all just to ask "how much for x?" And then getting a reply from some random worker when I thought I would be speaking to the same vouched person who was making the sythe posts. If you weren't aware of the sythe rules that hold owners accountable for anything any worker does (like most new customers who don't read the rules) I could see how learning that your talking to a worker who can't verify via sythe pm because they are not the owner when you thought you were talking to the owner operator could increase hesitation of new customers.

As for my main suggestion to decrease the ammount of hoop jumping and discord clutter surfing I suggest atleast some minimal form of general pricing should be expected in an advertisement for a specific offering. That's the main thing newer customers that I've talked to complain about that they end up cluttering up their discord with many potential stores to buy from just to compare pricing. This makes just the act of browsing an overly time consuming effort to them that I think could be streamlined atleast in the slightest. I understand every account is different but atleast a general ballpark figure shouldn't be too hard to state (between x and x ammount depending on acc stats for x).

Some may beleive im overstating but if we pollute our forum and funnel the most important aspect of this industry (the next new paying consumer) away from thr community aspects of this forum then we serve only to weaken the future of our industry. As jagex continues to crack down on in game gambling/gamblers (our strongest customer base) we will need to grow and shift with the times wich may include targeting more new customers while relying less on repeat customers.

Tldr; new customers very important but have smallest or no voice. We should put more effort to streamline price browsing here on sythe along with increased transparency about worker presence under advertised ownership.

 

This

 

Support, it's ridiculous how many subforums are abused to post the same thing everywhere possible.

 

Support

 

Support, nothing more frustrating then seeing an account for sale post with 80% of it linking to everything apart from the account, then at the bottom of the page a small "Spoiler" that you can click to see 2 pictures.

Massively abused and makes it far to easy for new sellers/buyers to get lost in the constant pages of bumping.

Additionally, I think sellers should be required to check there postings regularly to ensure the pictures and information is accurate. Far to many times I am looking at postings and most the images don't work but the post still gets bumped. I understand we have an Auto Bumping system for donators but negligence isn't accepted in any kind of business.

A suggestion could also be to limit the size of the discord advertisement? This might change the focus from funneling into a discord to maybe actually selling a product?

 

Support

 

What's considered 'bogus' is a grey area, leading to discussion, controversy, and potentially arbitrariness

Outruling this might reduce site activity—if true, I'm not sure that's a favorable outcome

 

Support

 

Support