70-442-W30

This was mentioned by me a little in the other thread relating to the high dollar parts that someone is peddling and it being looked into as a possible scam.

I was wondering if it would be beneficial to the community here to edit the post count required for the "For Sale" section of the website. That way people here could get an idea of who they are dealing with before they choose to send any money. Something reasonable, like 50-100 posts should do the trick. After all, there is no fee to post in the for sale section here or any post requirement barriers, so some scammers probably view it as easy entry.

VI Cutty

Post requirements like that tend to lead to an influx of spam posts. Not advertising spam, but people making posts just for the sake of making a post to get their count up.

It won't stop scammers like the one being looked at now, it will just slow them down a day or two. And we'll wind up with countless worthless posts to sort through on our way to the valuable ones.

I've seen similar restrictions on other forums and the results tend to be as I've described.

lshlsh2

It also would hurt the family member who just inherited a olds and wants to sell it. I have some large format darkroom equipment I wanted to just get rid of. Turns out needed a post count of 25 to sell. Wasn't interested in putting up some dumb posts that nobody cared about and wasted my and everybody elses time. my.02

70-442-W30

Most of the problems seem to come from the parts for sale section, not the cars for sale. In general, people aren't going to fork over $30,000 for a car sight unseen outside of eBay where they have some protection, but a $2000 to $3000 rare part...yep, I can definitely see that happening.

70-442-W30

And you don't think you could tell anything about anyone from those posts? I bet the community could very well judge who is posting just to get their post count up vs who is posting genuinely.

I understand what you are saying, but I have a hard time believing how putting a measure like this in place would not benefit the site. If there is a roadblock, new users generally won't try to get around it, they will just move on to another venue.

oldcutlass

We've done it both was, frankly I like the current way better.

Allan R

I know your motivation is well intentioned and it might go somewhere in general discussion, but the imposition of minimum posts is a decision that Internet Brands would need to impose, not the moderators or general Olds community. We did have an incident in the past 2 years where a well recognized, respected and high volume poster got caught selling fake high value parts. That said, he's no longer on this site as his credibility took a real spin into the crapper. It's just one example of how posting numbers isn't the way to identify complete trust in a seller. Yes, it's an isolated incident, but that's all it took to arouse the anger of the community and motivate this person to leave.

Transactions are a 2 way street. When someone is offering high value parts for sale, there's also a buyer/seller relationship set of expectations. If I wasn't close to the point of sale, I'd want documentation, pictures, references, and maybe someone I know in the area to go have a close look at the part. There are always responsibilities in a contract, as well as remedies. Isn't this a lot like a seller just starting out on, say fleabay with zero feedback? There are opportunities and there are risks. As always, a buyer has the opportunity to walk away from something that seems to good to be true, or doesn't pass the smell test. Most of the transactions we see here on CO don't require second mortgages or break a bank account. I don't think your looking so much at caveat emptor, as much as I see you wanting a well informed, honest buyer and seller scenario?

Another thought? I'm not sure a minimum posting limit gives the exposure you're looking for. I've been on this site since 2008 and have a few posts to my credit. I've sold exactly nothing through this site though, and I do have some high value NOS and OEM parts I may decide to get rid of one day. That may happen here, swap meet, or fleabay. I seriously doubt my posting numbers will influence a buyer. On the other hand, how it's marketed/presented/described will. I have sold items through other venues and the buyers have all been extremely pleased with the overall transactions.

I do applaud your desire to see a stable and trusted seller forum though. We do have such a forum though, buyer/seller feedback specifically that provides what you may be seeking? Also there are 'rules' to live by as seller/buyer. must read buyer seller feedback forum rules

IMO, the target of your concern are people who don't read the Rules and just post whatever/whenever, and a moderator ends up moving their FSBO thread to the appropriate area to keep the site better organized.

70-442-W30

Well, I would just go with what you say then because you have seen and lived through both scenarios here. I did not know you guys had this in place before. As with anything else, I know there are both advantages and disadvantages to every control effort like this. And if you are saying that this current way is better then I have to believe that because I don't have a long term history here like you do.

Let me also say, that this is one of the most spam-free VBulletin forums I have ever visited. So thanks to the admins and mods for that. You really don't know how bad it can get until you see some of these other forums. This place is a gem.

oldcutlass

Just a note, the offending member has been banned including another account under the same IP address. The 3 classified ads have been locked out and noted at the end. The members and mods are really good at weening out offenses, scams, spam, etc. Its not tolerated on this site.

70-442-W30

If you had the same part as someone who had 500 posts here and it was the same price, I would definitely go with yours. Post numbers to me mean seniority. As with real life there are the loose screws who seemed to rise to the top, but those are few and far between. Ok, I can think of 1 or 2 here... But in general that also means that member should have real life Olds knowledge and not just posting in the "Good Morning" thread. ha! But as you just mentioned someone with a really high post count was selling bad parts.

Anyway, yes, your reference to the buyer/seller feedback is a good place to check up on some...just like the rest of the internet, people often talk about their negative experiences, but the good ones probably aren't reported as much.

These posts I'm talking about can be a huge problem though. And user account blocks and IP bans don't do much. Just was trying to add an additional hurdle. But like I said... Good --- Bad --- weigh. If history shows that it is better to keep the way it is then I have no problem with that.

m371961

I'm not sayin yea or nay. But we shouldn't block out someone who inherited, or happened to come by a parts collection, and ran across CO on the net as a source to sell it in. Some people come across parts when someone else pays them to "haul away that junk".

Koda

I am more concerned about people who think their stuff was part of a limited production run of option 24K (made of gold) and then get miffed when it doesn't sell. While I understand the point of not bashing someone's thread, some people would get a world of benefit out of an occasional "does it come with a 442 attached?"

Joffroi

I also don't think limiting the post count is going to really be a benefit. In fact, I think it would harm due to many reason posted about (people would have a car/part they want to get rid of). Limiting the post would filter that entire group of people out.

With the internet being around for a while now and scams not really a new thing, I would hope that people interested in a car/part posted by someone with a post count less then 5 do their due diligence and trying to find they validity of a product. Many people have a rule to not buy things from ebay with less then 5-10 feedback. People can have their same personal guidelines here. Overall... just be careful.