New rules

yogoshio said:
Personally, a short time frame and a legit post count isn't a bad idea, but bad rules thrown up arbitrarily are only going to cause confusion.
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You're right...that's not a bad idea. Its something that we could definitely consider. But until we come up with a final draft, we still need to have rules. Its never been an issue to the members before, only now because it's new. No organization or ideal was correct at first, but thru trial and error, it got better. We all know of sites and businesses that's been around for some time, and still need work and improvement. :)
 
I found this and thought it was funny...

8eze7aby.jpg
 
Herbie said:
What sort of standard are you looking for? (Truly honest question Dave) We're still young enough as a community that "willing to pay", and "being an actual business" are looking pretty good to me throwing in a discount, a promotional item, or some expertise just adds aditional value to the group. With your experience in web stuff, do you find that sites looking for commercial sponsors in their infancy are doing a ton of due diligence on the actual product lines they advertise on their banners and such? At least all of our sponsors are in some way fish related:) I think the beauty of CR is that we do the "caveat-ing" as a community and we protect our own. Fear of a damaged reputation will do a lot more to stave off predatory sales practices than Smitty, ETR and Mike can ever do. MHO completely, but I just don't think this is that big of a deal.
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No they dont do any due diligence for the most part that is just too burdensome, but I know we would deal with vendors that had complaints and if it was proved that they didn't offer the level of customer service that we would expect for ourselves or there was problems with their products we would yank them from the site. To me if your building a community oriented site, the vendors you allow are being endorsed by you. I would hope that if there was a predatory vendor that even if they were paying sponsor fees, that they would be removed to protect the community. I guess the way Smitty worded it caught my eye (nothing against him), it looked as to say, well they are sponsors you are on your own. Of course we all know when we buy online we need to research, but I like to think of this as a pretty tight knit group including the site admins, and if a vendor is on here I want to think that they are part of that also. If thats not the fact and its all about getting them to pay sponsor and we are on our own so be it.

Now that being said I run plenty of information sites that are just about money, so I dont want to be hypocritical without disclosing that, I am looking to be paid and I dont care about building a community, in fact I have a youtube video right now, (around 500K views) that sends good traffic to a site I made just for making money http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EASPkAFOv70 I haven't updated it in probably two years but I get checks every month for some good income because of it.
 
Saledo said:
No they dont do any due diligence for the most part that is just too burdensome, but I know we would deal with vendors that had complaints and if it was proved that they didn't offer the level of customer service that we would expect for ourselves or there was problems with their products we would yank them from the site. To me if your building a community oriented site, the vendors you allow are being endorsed by you. I would hope that if there was a predatory vendor that even if they were paying sponsor fees, that they would be removed to protect the community. I guess the way Smitty worded it caught my eye (nothing against him), it looked as to say, well they are sponsors you are on your own. Of course we all know when we buy online we need to research, but I like to think of this as a pretty tight knit group including the site admins, and if a vendor is on here I want to think that they are part of that also. If thats not the fact and its all about getting them to pay sponsor and we are on our own so be it.

Now that being said I run plenty of information sites that are just about money, so I dont want to be hypocritical without disclosing that, I am looking to be paid and I dont care about building a community, in fact I have a youtube video right now, (around 500K views) that sends good traffic to a site I made just for making money http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EASPkAFOv70 I haven't updated it in probably two years but I get checks every month for some good income because of it.
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You definitely know your stuff Dave. I envy your knowledge. I think you make a good point and I hope I am not incorrect in my assumption/hope that CR will make the correct choices if there ever is an issue with a sponsor. Whether you look at it from a community or commercial standpoint I think it would always be better for CR to remove a bad sponsor than to risk losing members. Fortunately we have a great group of members and sponsors and this issue hasn't been of major concern. On other sites you can't even mention certain websites or vendors in the industry without risking a detention or something. So far, CR has protected and fostered our ability to use this community to make educated decisions about all aspects of the hobby (sponsor related or otherwise). As long as the conversations are respectful and constructive, they are allowed to continue. I personally value that ability to speak freely more than I value the for sale section, but I respect that other may not. I'm sure that, over time, CR will find the right way to handle it so it causes the least negative impact on anyone and still protects the community a large.

BTW: How many times do you want me to click on that video? :)
 
thanks guys, so you just deleted one of my 4th threads...hahahh. that's ok.
I'll update those old threads.
you wont see me anymore in the future after all my stuffs are sale..will stop by sometime to say hi..and see anything new..
never know if I'll come back later when my kids are grown up.
thanks
 
What are you talking about Matthew, after I sent you a polite pm explaining why I closed your thread because you had 6 active for sale threads, I reopened your latest one back up and changed the rules in your favor, so that you could have another thread open to sell your stuff. If you've noticed, your thread is still active, and was only closed for 5-7 minutes. So please believe that I was looking out for you.
 
youngreef said:
thanks guys, so you just deleted one of my 4th threads...hahahh. that's ok.
I'll update those old threads.
you wont see me anymore in the future after all my stuffs are sale..will stop by sometime to say hi..and see anything new..
never know if I'll come back later when my kids are grown up.
thanks
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:a17::violin:
 
Smitty said:
What are you talking about Matthew, after I sent you a polite pm explaining why I closed your thread because you had 6 active for sale threads, I reopened your latest one back up and changed the rules in your favor, so that you could have another thread open to sell your stuff. If you've noticed, your thread is still active, and was only closed for 5-7 minutes. So please believe that I was looking out for you.
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I'm sure his tone was less whine and more "I'm sad to leave the hobby". Nice guy from my exp. I don't think he meant any disrespect.

Prov3:5-6 said:
:a17::violin:
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Really? He's breaking down and getting out for a bit, not being over dramatic...maybe you're just a violinist :p
 
Saledo said:
, but I know we would deal with vendors that had complaints and if it was proved that they didn't offer the level of customer service that we would expect for ourselves or there was problems with their products we would yank them from the site. To me if your building a community oriented site, the vendors you allow are being endorsed by you. I would hope that if there was a predatory vendor that even if they were paying sponsor fees, that they would be removed to protect the community.
.
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Now that this discussion appears to have run its course, I'm going to point out a few things regarding a few points that have been brought up.

First, regarding your comment above, the answer is an affirmative, yes. In fact I can think of 2 scenarios in the past where there were shady businesses trying to do business on this site and the members ran them both off very quickly. Perhaps this was before you were a member. This is a tight-knit community that won't stand for anyone preying on its members. To put your mind at ease, the team would absolutely protect the community from a predatory sponsor.

The second point I'd like to address is the concern over how many FS threads members and/or supporters are allowed. One of the things we are attempting to curtail with this rule is the prevention of non-active members from using the site as their own personal advertising site. Another thing we are trying to avoid, which appears to be causing the most commotion, is that we don't want this site to be over-run with FS threads. We made the decision to limit FS threads based on Team discussion and MEMBER feedback that there were too many of them. Selling on this site is and always will be a secondary benefit of being a member and these new rules were created to curtail those whose think selling is the primary purpose of the site. There is nothing stopping someone from selling 20 corals in a single thread and doing it 4 or 6 times a month. What we don't want is someone creating 20 individual FS threads and clogging up the forum, hence the entire point of limiting the amount of FS threads. If people don't understand this then I really don't know how to explain it any better. Heck, if you already reached your 4 or 6 and have more stuff to sell, then simply edit your existing FS threads and add the new stuff to one of them. We are not trying to limit how many things you sell, just simply trying to keep the number of FS threads at a minimum.

Next, I'd like to address some of the comments about sponsors and their photo skills and how they don't list prices (and members are required to do so.) First of all, see the first response above. If a sponsor is going to do shady things with their photos or charge absurdly high prices then the word will get out and their business will suffer. This is a self-regulating system. Regarding the prices, I would like to direct those of you who seem to be so keen on rules to the sticky post with the subject line - Simple Courtesy for Seller, Buyer and thread browser. Did you notice that I highlighted the word "courtesy"? It cracks me up when I see members making snide comments and pointing out the "rules" when a seller forgets to add their price. If the seller forgets their price, or some other info then they have not broken any "rule". They simply have not created a courteous FS thread that is going to give them the best shot at selling their goods. And this could be said for sponsors as well. So as a member, if you are upset that sponsors don't generally list their prices then feel free to request prices as a courtesy and maybe they'll start adding them for you.

It was also brought up in this thread that we have too many restrictions on this site. I don't know whether to laugh or get angry about this comment. Perhaps members who feel this way can create a thread in the Site Bug/Suggestion forum so we can make a careful and critical examination of our oppressive ways. All kidding aside, I'm scrathing my head here wondering how members could possible feel restrictd on this site? Other than not allowing people to swear, attack other members or, now, curtail the number of FS threads, I really can't think of any other rules that would cause someone to think that we are "restrictive".
 
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