Marketplace: Member Feedback Forum

There was someone complaining to me the other day about a deal gone wrong on a forum, and it got me to thinking how most forums have a Member Feedback Forum as part of their classifieds section. In it, members can post about sales and trades that went right and went wrong, and that includes for members who are resellers. UU is growing by leaps and bounds and we don't always know everyone anymore.

As for extra rules - like if a deal goes bad then the responder gets one shot to state their case and the thread closes, or something like that - well that's for mods and admins to decide. But I think a lot of "This person did this to that person" type backstage gossip and grudges might cease if the post-transaction feedback was there for all to see.

It doesn't need any extra coding, someone just starts a thread for a username. Then as the forum grows, people search it for a name before posting a new thread.

I think this protects buyers and sellers not only in the UU marketplace, but on the entire forum. If a scammer pops up then they can get a sticky in that forum.

On a more positive note, it allows people to sing the praises of the awesome transaction they just had, and a good time can be had by all.

I've seen this done on other forums and it works very well.

Great idea, but one concern...
A while ago I had a bad experience with a well known reseller here. If I were to post something negative, I know for a fact that certain "fans" of this seller would simply drown me out by lavishing pages of praise on the reseller. Is there any way to keep these kinds of posts in check?

Sure, you can only post if you've had a transaction. In regards to posting about reseller, there's a bit of an honor system involved there, admittedly. If people had good dealings then they should be allowed to post about them, the same as you should be allowed to post negative experiences. What would not be tolerated would be posts directed at you. No "Well I don't know about him but.." or "That guy is full of crap..." They can only post their experience and that's it, anything else can be reported and then removed.

I think it follows Wheaton's First Rule of the Internet: Don't be a dick.

I don't like finger pointing and more drama.... not really a good idea, only good if you are talking about company/party names which are professional reseller(like HMS or ukefriend) but get the individual name out is not what really helps.

I think Plainsong's point is that a number of other websites use the system he describes and or works quite well—no reason why it couldn't here. It should help reduce the risk of bad transactions, making sellers and buyers feel more comfortable.

Plainsong said:

Sure, you can only post if you've had a transaction. In regards to posting about reseller, there's a bit of an honor system involved there, admittedly. If people had good dealings then they should be allowed to post about them, the same as you should be allowed to post negative experiences. What would not be tolerated would be posts directed at you. No "Well I don't know about him but.." or "That guy is full of crap..." They can only post their experience and that's it, anything else can be reported and then removed.

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I think it would make a nightmare for the mods to have to police it. Do you expect them to have to verify those transactions?

itsme said:

I think it would make a nightmare for the mods to have to police it. Do you expect them to have to verify those transactions?

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I'm not sure how they handle it on other sites. Plainsong, any idea?

Aloha Plainsong,
Good idea. How about feedback, i.e., ebay. Buyers could rate the transaction 1 - 10, and keep the comments civil........

In another forum I frequent this concept is in a section called Good Traders List and it does not require extra moderator time. Most posts are postitive with just the occasional warning thread.

In theory this is a good idea, and certainly it's one that has worked well in similar circumstances.

But what exactly needs changing? (I guess mine is more of an "if it ain't broke..." perspective.)

Are there really that many repeat sellers that it would even be worth while?

I've seen Good Traders threads on other forums. I think a Naughty Member's List would be better. The best version of this I have seen where a moderator edits their original post to include the names of the naughty members so people can remain anonymous if they choose to.

It would require a bit more moderator time, but I think if you designate one mod to watch the list it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe have their only job be to keep the naughty list going?

Then again, I think UU weeds out the bad eggs on its own. It's something to think about though.

Aloha K,
Sounds like a good idea in theory, however it could open the door to alot more severe negative issues that we
may not need at this time..if you weight it out, it may not be feasiable....we need to keep harmony good relations
here.. I believe in the old method, handle things priviately and hear through the grapevine..

mikelz777 said:

Are there really that many repeat sellers that it would even be worth while?

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Probably not. The repeat sellers/buyers here are usually well established members. I've bought three ukes here and all of the transactions went smoothly.

What I'm leery of, though, are those unestablished new members trying to sell something right off the bat. Caveat Emptor!

There's a way to keep n00bs from posting in the Marketplace or even seeing that subforum until they meet certain criteria (e.g., length of membership and/or postcount). This could be done by setting vBulletin usergroup permissions and promotions. I think that would be a good protection against potential drive-by scammers.

Personally, I think of the Marketplace as a service to UU's regular members. I think most of us would be more comfortable buying from a regular here than from an unknown ebay seller, and I'd rather not see n00bs using UU just to sell when they have no intention of being part of the community.

Just my two cents.

Things can go south quickly even with established members. Over at Head-fi, there was a guy with a pristine reputation. He participated in all the subforums, lots of people met him at local meets, and he was a wealth of info for the DIYers. But then suddenly he started taking people's money and sending either nothing, or an empty box, or maybe sell something he bought used as new, and it got to the point where police got involved. That's when he finally just started switching usernames, and this guy with the best reputation on the forum suddenly found himself the subject of the first warning sticky in the history of the site.

Without a feedback forum, the pattern would have been more difficult to search.

The feedback forum at Head-fi is now very complex, but back in the day, when it was a site about the size that UU is now, it was a simple subforum with simple rules, that you can only post about your own transaction, to please search a name before starting a new thread, and no witchhunting or flame wars. In transaction that ended badly, the rules are debate style. The person whom the post is about gets one rebuttal, and then the one giving the feedback gets one more response and that's it, case closed in terms of forum posts.

There's also that interesting idea of taking away the usernames that Skitzic mentioned, but yeah that could take more time and might be subject to more abuse of the system... like the old karma system the forum used to have. I guess it depends on the rules and how they're enforced.

Anyway, it's just something I've seen at lots of other places, and it can be simple or complex, and I thought it would be handy here. It's not like I myself do a lot of buying and selling there, but like everyone I've had good and bad dealings in the uke community in general.

Can I just ask, in the case of an out and out scammer, what would stop them simply rejoining with another username and e-mail address and doing it again? I agree with 'itsme' I dont like the idea of new members simply joining and trying to sell something right away. You have ebay for that.

Check out talkbass.com . They had a feedback system similar to ebay. Works pretty good.
Here's my feedback rating over there.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/itrader.php?u=6021
You have to link the page where you made the deal to post feedback so there is no way for a bunch of friends/enemies to file false feedback.