Poll to determine future policy on posts promoting eBay Auctions

[Richard]

I'll try and keep this short, simple and hopefully as neutral as possible. There has been a fair amount of discussion of late as to what what we should do with posts promoting ones own eBay auctions. 

 

A few of these started to crop up in the classifieds section. This I believe was not what that section was originally intended for. 

 

The aim of this poll is to determine should we allow posts promoting ones own eBay auctions in the forum and if so where should we put them.

 

I'll leave the poll open for a week, maximum 10 days. 

 

Based on the results we will review and take action.

 

Thanks for taking part.

[slugbahr]

I believe eBay auctions belong, at best, in the 'eBay related minidisc listings' thread.

If one is constantly spruiking their own 'eBay only (or priority)' stuff, maybe they should just place the links in their signature?

I know full well how to use eBay. If I want to have a look for minidisc auctions, I am capable of searching on there directly.

If I am using this site, I would like the content to be relevant to THIS site - otherwise it is essentially spam.

If the members of this forum are too 'cheap' for eBay sellers, why advertise here?

For the record, I spend A LOT of money on my MD obsession :-P

I hope my opinion has value to others

:-)

Danny

[Sony_Fan]

I think ebay listings of any kind should go in separate 3rd party listing section, this includes ebay listings, amazon, craigslist or interesting finds.

[Sony_Fan]

I'll try and keep this short, simple and hopefully as neutral as possible. There has been a fair amount of discussion of late as to what what we should do with posts promoting ones own eBay auctions. 

 

A few of these started to crop up in the classifieds section. This I believe was not what that section was originally intended for. 

 

The aim of this poll is to determine should we allow posts promoting ones own eBay auctions in the forum and if so where should we put them.

 

I'll leave the poll open for a week, maximum 10 days. 

 

Based on the results we will review and take action.

 

Thanks for taking part.

Richard, are ebay links in our signature allowed? There are no rules against that yet the moderator keeps deleting my signature. He is upset that I blocked him on ebay and I wont sell to him. This a personal attack on me.

[Richard]

Richard, are ebay links in our signature allowed? There are no rules against that yet the moderator keeps deleting my signature. He is upset that I blocked him on ebay and I wont sell to him. This a personal attack on me.

 

I don't believe there are any formal rules to that effect. Thankfully we have never really had to resort to a long list of do's and don'ts unlike some other forums I have frequented over the years. That said I can see that some people may get annoyed by people posting links to sales in their signatures and it may be portrayed as spamming - the reason for this is that your signature is something that appears on every single post you make and if every single post you make has a link to some commercial activity it can rub people up the wrong way...

 

Hence the reason why things like pointers to eBay sales are usually confined to a single thread which people can add to over time - that way for those who are interested they know where to look. For those that are not interested they don't have that link in their face every time they see one of your posts (even if that is not the intention).

 

Therefore to sum up,  I would say maybe give it a miss..

[slugbahr]

Changed my vote from in the off-topic section to not at all.

If you had attempted to sell (not necessarily exclusively) in the classifieds, and no deal was done for whatever reason, the forum members had their chance.

Reading Richard's post, I now realise my idea of links in signatures is a bad idea - sorry for bringing it up guys!

And, to say it again, MY BELIEF is that this forum is about THIS FORUM first and foremost. Couldn't care less what other forums do with their classifieds or whatever.

Just had a thought - do people post links on their eBay listings to buying through other means?

To 'money'_fan - are PMs to moderators blocked as well?

Oh, and I apologise if this thread is supposed to be about placing a vote, only - rather than relevant discussion/debate.

I think our reasoning are an important aspect, compared to a simple multiple choice interpretation.

But I'm not the boss, so I understand if I'm in the wrong ;-)

[kalkie]

Welcome "Mostly MD" or are you.......(lol)

[sfbp]

Quite right, Chris (Mostly MD/Sony_Fan) voted twice twice. It will all be taken into account when the "votes" are counted.

[Azureal]

I agree with the majority of those who have posted so far.

 

I am capable of searching eBay for new toys on my own. 

 

I do like the thought of fellow users in our community offering one another the chance to buy, sell and trade among ourselves.  I would personally enjoy the opportunity to make a trade or sale to a fellow insider forum member.

 

If things don't work out, I'll move it to eBay and say "Hey, I moved it to eBay".

 

I hate to see our classified section become nothing more than a repository for links to stuff on eBay ...

[Sony_Fan]

I'm sorry, but I think they are doing this simply out of spite because either I won't sell to them on Ebay or I have them blocked or I won't sell cheap on this forum.  It takes a lot of time to search craigslist for MD or Hi-MD items that are sold for very little. If you want to buy MD or Hi-MD items for low prices, then search craigslist yourself.  I've already explained how I search, to help some of you guys.  But if you're not willing to do the work and search, don't expect others to search for you and then sell to you for cheap.    

[sfbp]

And it was spite caused you to vote twice? I rather think that was dishonesty.

[Richard]

I'm sorry, but I think they are doing this simply out of spite because either I won't sell to them on Ebay or I have them blocked or I won't sell cheap on this forum.  It takes a lot of time to search craigslist for MD or Hi-MD items that are sold for very little. If you want to buy MD or Hi-MD items for low prices, then search craigslist yourself.  I've already explained how I search, to help some of you guys.  But if you're not willing to do the work and search, don't expect others to search for you and then sell to you for cheap.    

 

I don't think anyone is doing this out of spite or expects you to "sell cheap" on this forum. Some people may or may not agree with your prices, but I think the crux of the question was whether we want to see the classifieds section fill up with pointers to eBay auctions.

 

I created this poll to at least try and arrive at a consensus in a transparent manner. Maybe that was being over optimistic...  

[slugbahr]

Who are the 'others' in your opinion?
If there are three or more (others is at least two), it's a little unfair to only target a moderator specifically.
Do you search craigslist for only MD-related stuff, or other bargains as well?

Maybe, if you can't start threads at the moment, you can post responses to the various questions members have put to you in various places?


There's a 'mostly-md' on eBay, based in the UK. Sells internationally. More irony??

[Sony_Fan]

Who are the 'others' in your opinion?

If there are three or more (others is at least two), it's a little unfair to only target a moderator specifically.

Do you search craigslist for only MD-related stuff, or other bargains as well?

Maybe, if you can't start threads at the moment, you can post responses to the various questions members have put to you in various places?

There's a 'mostly-md' on eBay, based in the UK. Sells internationally. More irony??

I'm not the only ebay seller who is a member of this forum. There are many others.

[slugbahr]

You really enjoy not answering questions asked of you, don't you?
Or are your reading comprehension skills a little lacking if it doesn't involve getting a bargain off craigslist?

'I'm sorry, but I think the moderator and others are doing this out of spite ...'
WHICH OTHERS??
And I'm an eBay seller and buyer too. But that is irrelevant!!

[kalkie]

I'm not the only ebay seller who is a member of this forum. There are many others.

Yes, indeed but the others don't act like spammers and they are not the reason of this poll.

For most members it is a hobby and you try to make money out of it, that's okay but use Ebay for making money and this forum to exchange information about minidisc with other minidisc lovers.

[slugbahr]

Kalkie, I agree with you 100%

[MDietrich]

No one should be 'coerced' into buying MD related stuff for inflated prices. For Christ's sake, this technology simply isn´t worth that much money. And it certainly isn´t suitable for promoting a sale on a forum that mainly deals with information. So I´ve voted for the last option.

[Sony_Fan]

Wow guys, this community is harsh. Why is everyone being so mean to Sony_fan? This is the basis of capitalism which all of us endorse on a daily basis. If he puts hard work into finding items and researching them, and just displays them for sale it is only those who are interested in the item who determine what it is worth to them. Whenever I bid on an auction I make sure I know what it is worth both monetarily and also to myself, there is no coercion. 

[sfbp]

Chris this is beyond a joke. We know it's you. You won't get three votes when we count them.

[Sony_Fan]

Hey, I know that I share an opinion with someone, but I assure you my name is not Chris, and I expect my vote to be counted like the rest of yours regardless if another member voted too many times.

[sfbp]

Enough! This entire poll has been about accommodating (or not) you, and now there's content on both sides of this issue which nobody wants to read. Especially not three votes by you in support of your own POV and pretending to be three different people.

 

It will take very little to convince us to remove every one of your 1200+ posts. Don't push it......

[Richard]

Ok, well our 10 days are up and it's time to count the votes. Not a massive turnout it has to be said, but for those who did vote, the results are in...

 

So with a score of 11-5 (or 11-3 if we eliminate the duplicate votes) the result and policy of the forum going forward is that "We won't allow topics promoting ones own eBay auctions at all on the forum"

 

Any such topics will be deleted. We will update the Classifieds forum to include a sticky to remind everyone.

 

*Thread closed