Suggestion To Disable Posting Messages In "For Sale" Threads

[ryder]

I have seen the chronicles of events in the thread below with much amusement.

https://www.hifi4sale.net/audio-video-equipment-for-sale-f1/mission-77ds-dipole-surround-speakers-nos-t2742.htm

Previously I have read similar heated exchanges between sellers and potential buyers(which turned out to be those just seeking to have some fun of some sort), and I reckon member "sollehah" is the one that has taken an antagonistic approach to most of the playful remarks. I can understand the frustration of some sellers especially when irrelevant comments were made in the threads. I remember reading some World Cup football matches in one of the "for Sale" threads although I don't know how it ended up in there!

In order to prevent any unnecessary arguments, in my opinion it is a good practice to disable folks from posting comments in the "For Sale" threads. It is inevitable that some childish comments or questions with bad taste will pop up once in a while as there are all sorts of people around. Of course the admin can delete these comments if any of them appear but to make things simpler it is worthwhile to just disable folks from posting any subsequent messages in the thread. Potential buyers can always send a private message to the seller, and in most adverts the contact number is already published. Of course, it will help if members cooperate and refrain from posting irrelevant questions or remarks that can irk sellers, particularly hot-headed ones like sollehah.

Just a thought.

[Hi-Fi 4 Sale]

Thx for the suggestion, Ryder.
Have just made some changes. Try it out to see if it works. We've basically disallowed replying to messages.

[ryder]

Dear admin, thanks for taking my suggestion into consideration. At least now the standard is similar to that practiced in Echoloft and Audiogon.

[ongaaron]

Good suggestion, ryder. I did not join this net to read all the negative and childish exchange of very unkind words. You guys want to fight PM each other please. I just want to buy/sell and discuss about hifi and only hifi only. Lets not spoil the fun of our hobby. Big hooray admin !! for acting at the soonest.

[WongKN]

Very good suggestion. Now I don't have to spend my precious free time moderating silly flame wars or postings in the for-sale thread.

[Hi-Fi 4 Sale]

Firstly, we would like to apologise for not putting much thought about this earlier. That said, we wanted to create an environment of trust & respect. Sadly, this is not the case here or perhaps, we are all very new to foruming, including us as moderators.

This forum was not created to please everyone, but for us to have fun and share knowledge. As usual, in anything we do, there will be barriers, mistakes made, things we wished we would do better etc. However, we intend to stay focused on maintaining a good atmosphere here, even if it means causing short-term discomfort by pruning a few things for the long-term betterment, so to say.

Once again, our apologies.

[JayJay]

Dear HiFi Admin & Moderators

Thank you for the initiation and selfless thought in creating this forum for everyone.

To err is human, to forgive is divine..
Bumi mana tidak ditimpa hujan. Lautan mana tidak bergelora..

Let's listen to Human League’s song entitled “Human”..

Cheers.

[auronthas]

Very good suggestion from Ryder.

Sorry to fellow forumers that you are no longer able to enjoy reading good interaction between seller and buyer due to recent misused of posting reply which is regrettable.

If you have any technical queries on equipment, feel free to discuss them in 'Equipment Discussion' thread.

To overcome our weaknesses and our wish to improve this forum to maintain a harmony environment, we always welcome positive feedback and good suggestion from forumers. To quote admin's word 'This forum is to share knowledge and have fun' !

[sting]

I have brought up this suggestion before...but admins not paying attention at all except for few users.....

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Re: Howdy folks!


by sting on Thu Jan 22, 2009 1:38 amYes,
the old blog is much better but we've got no choice. So, in order to
make this web fun like before, let's do it like the previous one.
Photos on every posts for item for sale would be great and admin must
disable post reply function so that the thread will not be too cluttered.

Thus, all the details such as price, contact, conditions, photos must be emphasized on every post

[WongKN]

Sting, you need to be fair. The number of people who does not follow the posting rules in the for-sale forum is very large. And the admin have really been, all by himself, doing all the checking, warning those sellers and often helping to correct their postings. So he needs to allow the reply option so that sellers can update their thread or buyers can also help make specific requests (like asking for photos, etc). Many sellers even ignore the admin's recommendations and when their thread was removed, called the admin unfair. So all the while he was just trying to run this forum hands-off as much as possible. But I think all reasonable people by now fully agrees that disabling the reply option is simply the best solution. I notice there is no official notification about this in the for-sale forum so I will be posting 1 up afterwards.

[sting]

WongKn,

I'm not fair?....so the echo loft buy/sell not being fair either. Why do we faced so many problems in the first place?. Because we don't follow example from other website, we need to learn from others..it's ok to do that.

I suggested photos on every post is a MUST, but before this admin only say recommended. But now almost seem to be a definitely MUST...but it's good.

Honestly, it can be a problem free & happily ever after affair (well, almost). Disable the post reply for Item for sale or wanted add from beginning. That's what I mentioned before as the problems will occurs eventually.

Some may reply with zero input as to get to senior ranking as fast as possible.

[sanguine]

Hi,

Just an observation.

I am not sure what is being achieved here by stopping replies on For sale postings and if I have missed the point my apologies.

I can understand if replies on For sale and WTB posting are being stopped if it serves to ease the workload of the moderators/admin or reduces the potential of lengthy threads, clutter etc.

It seems to me to discontinue replies to avoid confrontation between buyer and seller or those who want their 5 sen worth of say doesnt make sense.

Confrontation will always arise even on friendly forums. What do you do then? I am of the view that your setup and procedures should not be changed for this reason.

If there is something offensive in the replies, issue a warning and if it persists then bar/ban the person from the site if it is at all possible for a period or indefinately.

There is a fair amount of mudslinging on echoloft and other forums as well. It would be naive to think confrontation will not arise. If you take the above approach then what do you do when the mud starts flying around? close the site?

Replies from others who have no interest in buying may influence the decision of the potential buyer. So is it better for the buyer to receive these comments and sieve thru them then make his decision or better not to have them?

BTW if another posting similar to this crops up, then it is the one that went missing when Sting beat me to the button.

rgs

[djdyks]

Mind if i join in?
I'm an admin member of another forum too.
I do believe there are certain members purposely create craps postings to increase their member rankings, it really does not make sense or benefit them, not that this forum gonna award them by giving special discounts at certain shops or wanna be promoted as moderator.

[sanguine]

Not at all. If true i cant say i understand the reasoning behind such behaviour. Or it could be for one of many other reasons...boredom etc but point is this site cannot transform each and everytime for the purpose of avoiding confrontation.

[WongKN]

Thanks to everyone for your feedback.

In a way it is true, I myself supports the closing up of the reply option simply because I am not willing to spend time moderating silly postings. And from what I know, none of the other moderators are willing to as well. For the same amount of time moderating the postings, I could have participated in some quality discussions in the other forums and THAT would have contributed a lot more to this board.

So disabling the reply option is the simplest way. I would not say that we changed ourselves to accomodate the trouble-makers, so to speak. But rather it is just a fine-tuning of the way we decide to run this forum.

It is good that some of you are admins in other forums as well. So it makes it easier for us as you guys will understand the difficulty of running a forum. I myself -owns- two other forums (own as in -created-) and I usually run it with an 'iron fist'. In the sense that I found that if I put my feet down and kill off all flame-wars and silly posting, then the forum quickly establishes itself as intolerant of such things and whenever a newcomer tries to cause trouble, the forum members all work together to close him/her out. This, I feel, should be the way this forum is run. We need to establish our no-nonsense approach right at the early stage- while this forum is only a few months old and we need to stick to that approach.

So I do not see any big disadvantage or problem to the disabling of the reply option. As explained in my announcement on the for-sale forum, the members in this forum must be respected as matured adults. And that means if they want to check for price comparisons, or technical specs, etc, they are expected to google or to simply ask. As emphasized many times, this is what the general discussion forum is there for. Price is relative and I feel noone really has the right to dictate if an item is too expensive or too cheap - EXCEPT the buyer him/her-self. If in doubt, then he/she should simply ask - in the general discussion forum.

Nevertheless, all the feedback and comments are appreciated. I know echoloft, the SG forum is used by many as the reference for comparison. But I believe I speak for the admin/founder that he doesn't want H4S to be another echoloft, but hopefully something better. And his idea of the first step to being better is to try to cut off flame-wars and silly postings as soon as possible.

[Hi-Fi 4 Sale]

Obviously, this is an issue that is close to our hearts (and minds). You have a few options:

Option 1: Honour the trust & respect thing. Quickly ban a user who misbehaves by replying with indiscriminate remarks. Iron fist helps us run this forum like a tight ship. However, some may accuse us moderators as bing high-handed at times. This is inevitable because you can almost never get 100% consensus.
Option 2: Lock down the replies in the 'For Sale' section. Just like chemotherapy, it kills off the good & bad cells. You will also lose positive feedback in the process.

Bear in mind though, the current reply lockdown only applies to the 'For Sale' section. The seller can meanwhile continue to edit the post and mark it as SOLD or revise the prices/details etc. As of now, only the moderators can reply to the thread.

Maybe, just maybe, we should run a poll and see the results.

[theotherdude]

A poll would be good to see what forummers think. However, it will still be the admin and moderators who will be doing the work of monitoring and banning. It's always the case that the few problem ones make the silent majority lose out too.

Be high-handed and dictatorial. What's wrong with that? You are running it after all. Most of the people here are matured enough to understand your actions and will continue to enjoy the forum. The few who doesn't like it can go elsewhere to discuss and buy/sell hifi equipment.

[mugenfoo]

poll poll poll !

[sanguine]

Hi-Fi4 Sale,

I empathise with your aspirations to see your "baby" develop well.

As theotherdude said, its your site, its your call to run it anyway you see fit and as it was said earlier, you cant please everyone.

My views on blocking replies as a reaction were given earlier and truly I feel it isnt the solution. Its like cocooning your baby from the ills of the world.


Whatever your decision, sure the majority will fall in line.

All the best.

[sting]

Sanguine, you got the point there but as theotherdude said, they the admins will do the job.

If admins were to buy your idea, perhaps they can appoint few other members to have the extra access to monitor the thread. Not as admin privilege, but sort of assistant....in this case win-win situation.

[tycham]

poll poll poll !

Right! Ours is not an absolute monarchy. It's a constitutional monarchy.

[fizi]

hi all..

i agree with Hf4sale statement this action like taking chemotherapy threatment its kill both side good n bad..for my self its will kill more good sell then bad sell..how many percent only we had a bad senario???

There is small percent that we can call ''TUKANG SIBUK n PENGACAU''

This kind of person they only SIBUK n KACAU this threat..

To whom that kind of person please la dont interfere..X mahu beli tolong duduk diam diam..X ada budget pun tolong duduk diam diam!!!

Please respect the amount that the owner stated..keep it simple,if u feel the price is hi..U DONT BUY IT keep it ur self and dont la CUCUK!! other people...All bolehland surely will survey 1st before buy anything..

Jangan kerana nila setitik rosak susu sebelanga...

[Hi-Fi 4 Sale]

OK people, let's do the poll, see the results & do our best.

Thanks for the sense of ownership displayed and constructive input by all here.

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