[approved] De-regulate Infernal Cape Section - Open For Everyone - Allow Cape Requests

Hello there,

Thank you for reading my suggestion. I realize this is not a 1 sentence suggestion, but if you do not agree, please at least take the time to read it in full before replying. It will take you 2 minutes at the most.

Describe the problem:

1) Infernal Capers with less than 100 vouches and 6 months of good trading history are not allowed to post their advertisements.

2) Customers are not allowed to post a thread requesting or inquiring about a cape.

This is a barrier to entry for skilled people who have worked for other established businesses, or run their own business off-site, or are just new to the black market but are able to complete the mini-game, or employ a skilled caper.

Not everyone provides other - quick to complete - services or trades gold, so getting 100 vouches can take some time, and I believe this requirement is no longer reasonable and we should no longer require it.

Example: @Ripe @Ace Services - neither had 100 vouches when I approved their threads.

I have unfortunately deleted many threads that requested capes.

Less competition generally means lower quality or higher price. More people advertising on our forums is good for sythe.

When the Infernal Cape section was created in 2019 (or earlier, correct me if I'm wrong), the gold price was around $0.60-80 USD/m and high-end RuneScape gear was worth over 1b, roughly the same as it is today in 07 gp.

Since then, the gold price has dropped to around $0.20-0.24 USD/m, more people are able to complete the minigame, and with less expensive gear (within 100m 07gp).

This means that the risk has dropped from around $800 to possibly (but very realistically) under $20 if done with cheaper gear.

What current rule(s) tackle this problem:

- Requirements to post in this section

Explain the change: Remove the requirements entirely and allow anyone to offer & request.

Explain why this change will solve the problem: By removing the requirements, we will allow all market users to advertise their services, or request services/ask providers to quote them, allowing for a competitive bidding process.

Side effects: There may be an increase in scammers advertising in this section.

/

Possible thoughts you might have and my response:

I feel like if someone wants to offer an Infernal Cape service they should take their time to gain at least 100 vouches. It is not a big requirement.

This articifial number was set back in 2019, when people were generally using very expensive gear that was worth significantly more USD. The gear standard and the price of gold have since lowered significantly.

You may also consider, that there are no vouch requirements to provide services on trade-restricted, (HC)IM accounts, or to trade accounts of any value.

Let me be the judge of who I want to allow to play on my account and let me post my own thread and have them competete for my money.

Thank you very much and have a blessed day! ^^

 

I'm in favor of lowering but not removing fully, I think obtaining vouches also helps to bring individuals to the site.

 

I think we should allow WTB threads. Nearly all threads in the section require people to either visit their website or Discord server. Allowing WTB threads will allow for some healthy traffic.

I do think that instead of the current requirements, we could instead require proof of having completed a cape instead. This would be similar to proof we used to require for fire capes. We can also only require this for users with <100 vouches.

VPN capes have become pretty common as well, which indeed require very little trust in the seller. Not much more than with any other service.

Good suggestion @BlackBlasses

 

You naturally go to the worst possible (extreme) case of someone buying a cape from a new user through remote connection. It is not likely that anyone would buy a cape from such user, if the price wasn't siginficantly better and even then would practice caution. In a rare case of someone offering such services, someone buying such services and not practicing enough caution, then that's really on them, but I wouldn't appeal to extremes.

This suggestion is more about people that have been around for a while, people trust them, but have never asked people for vouches, or have rarely done business on their own.

Yes, vouch requirement for the sake of increased traffict, through people linking their vouch threads to their customers, or providing extra services to people in order to obtain vouches would be beneficial, but is not reasonable and this argument can be applied to any section.

 

ironically this was a requirement before the vouch requirement and what people would do is kill an inferno on rsps and post the picture, ill post an old example from years back in a deleted post

 

I would be ok with it being treated like any other service section.

 

Thank you for reading the suggestion and for your insight.

I suspect that people are not allowed to post WTB threads mainly because an approved WTB thread can be edited into an advertisement for services without staff noticing for hours or days, which is long enough for a scammer, and that's partly why I wanted to remove all requirements completely - because it's ineffective to have a posting requirement for sellers but not for buyers if scammers can simply ignore this rule and edit their WTB thread into a WTS thread once their thread has been approved by staff and is visible to the public.

It is pragmatic to remove the requirements completely, but if your suggestion is that we approve all WTB threads and require 25 (or < 100) vouches for WTS threads, then that is still better than the status quo, but I personally don't think it makes much sense as scammers will just ignore the rule and edit their WTB threads. Your suggestion is good, I just think my suggestion is better. If someone can make a compelling argument for prioritizing lowering the amount of vouches over removing this requirement completely, I'd be willing to change my mind.