Dealers/Resellers/Traders: New Limit of 25 Posts/Month

Over the past few weeks, we have been observing that a few members have been posting an inordinate number of items for sale. While this forum is essentially free, in the interests of balanced representation, there is a need to ensure that items are not reposted too frequently and no seller hogs too much space in this forum.

This is especially so for Dealers/Resellers/Traders (DRT). We strongly feel that DRT should only post a 'reasonable' amount of items, the rest being posted in their own websites. This concern has also been echoed by a few members as well.

Effective July 2009, we will be implementing a rule that each member can create no more than 25 posts in a single month (1st till month-end). The moderators will manually monitor the amount of posts from each member. If any member exceeds the allowed 25 posts, the latest posts will be deleted and be warned. Failure to adhere to this guideline may result in the temporary ban of 30 days.

This limit only applies to the 'Audio & Video Equipment: For Sale' forum.
You may be able to contribute as many posts as you wish in the other forums in Hi-Fi 4 Sale.

Related to this, we would also encourage that responses to for-sale posts be related to questions and suggestions specific to the items being sold. This could also be in the form of advise to sellers to put up more details, or photos, etc, or to ask for more information about the item, e.g. any repair, age of the valves (for tube amps), etc.

However, if members are interested to discuss about other, more general details about an item that have been up for sale (e.g. new members might be interested in feedback on the sound quality of an amplifier being sold. Maybe an older model that is no longer marketed and thus something they might not have experience with before. Or maybe there might be questions about fair prices for similar items, etc), they are welcomed and encouraged to discuss in the general discussions forum. This is so that members who are genuinely interested in the items being sold will be able to get a fast answer. We would also like to avoid any unpleasant exchanges in the for-sale forum. Related to this however, sellers are reminded that it is within the rights of other members to discuss anything about the items that they put up for sale when it is done in the general discussions forum.

Also, eventhough we are all matured adults here, we do appreciate very much that this forum be kept courteous, without any vulgarities (i.e. 4 letter words) and also without any intimidations. Remember, the hifi community is already so small and it is for the best of the community for us to be friends in this forum.

I thgink it is too premature to impose the limit.

The new item for sale is just to few yet .Give it a year or 2, once the postings becomes too big than I think it will be ok ..

Just my 2 cents

1.Group traders/dealers into another category. Known traders and dealers are doing it continuously for commercial gain.
2. Encourage them to list all their sales items into one topic thread. They can edit or update to add on items or make known on sold items. Lock the thread and any comments or enquiry by Personal Messaging or contact number provided on the advertisement.
This will reduce clutter on the category. Moderator will delete any "extra" threads.
3. Allow only personal individual sellers or buyers on the main [WTS] or [WTB] media, equipment category.

cmboy,

Excellent idea.

Admin, I really like this one.The common man like me ought to be given a choice and know whether I'm dealing with an individual or trader.
That way I know what to expect.
As it stands, it looks like the resellers & dealers/traders have been hogging the thread for some time now.Sometimes it gets to be a bore
Just my dua sen's worth

teleman51

I agree with teleman51 and cmboy.
Sivaguru
PS I have nothing against honest and genuine dealers who "cari makan" through this forum.

good idea & I agree but I think Moderator will not buy this idea...they just don't.

Some traders with lengthy sales advert..i.e review, tax here & there, shipping cost etc. with way way too high on pricing...

Hi

I personally don't see any real logic in "capping" things at "whatever" if one thinks thru it sufficiently.

As WongKN says, "Remember, the hifi community is already so small and
it is for the best of the community for us to be friends in this forum." I do agree with him here. But how does capping help that, and how do we further grow an "audio community " here?

If there are those in the "trade" that wish to sell things here in large numbers, then they should be allowed to do so but charged a sliding fee based on the quantity of items they advertise.

The small income generated from trade sellers could be put to use to further improve the site. As an example....why not develop a companion website? It would be good if it could attract some advertising revenue and the proceeds of that be used to try and fund something beneficial.

With regards to thread cleanliness, Im sure there must be some modifications available for a phpbb forum that enables only the authors of a "for sale add" thread to be able to add to it thus saving moderators from having to continually lock and prune threads. Im fairly certain they don't enjoy unneccesary housekeeping.

Some random thoughts...

Regards

charging fee for ads? this is the last thing u want to implement, Echoloft forum are popular due to it free for all, i still remember b4 Echoloft, Singnet is the one that everyone post to sell the Hifi, but Singnet decided to chrage fee, this is the reason why sudden Echoloft get popular...

The ads for sell already in the dwindle due to various measure took place, why limit the seller number of post? If this is due to the cost associate to each post, then dealer should allow to consolidate all items to one ad.