Attention New measures to stop scams and dishonest behavior in the Exchange

Spark

Spark

HPIC - Hatas gonna Hate
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Effective immediately we are implementing two new rules to help curb scams and dishonest behavior in the Exchange

1. All for sale threads must contain a picture of the knife with a note showing the username of the seller, the date the thread is being made, and BladeForums or BFC mentioned on the note. To prevent photoshopping this should be hand written but if you want to print it out and take multiple pictures from angles, be my guest, but you must show the knife is in hand and available when listing.

2. The For Sale areas now have a time limit on editing posts of 30 minutes, and threads of 1 hour. After that, the post cannot be edited to remove information. If you need to make price drops? Post them in the replies; since threads don't get bumped this will not harm anything or break rules. This will prevent people from breaking relisting rules by deleting items from posts and relisting them the next day.

People continue to be scammed by fraudulent sellers demanding Paypal Friends & Family. We cannot prevent you from foolishly sending money without buyer protection that Goods & Services provide, but hope that these measures help prevent people from offering knives they do not have using pics harvested from the web.
 
I'm absolutely in favor of immediate adoption of Rule 1. There is no reason why any legitimate seller would not be able to implement that.

Rule 2 is unfortunately needed. We have a number of folks who try to skirt the 14-day rule.

Frank
 
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I support both, as an aside I like that rule 2 removes the ability to delete the sale price. It’s a good reference.

I’m still a believer that 99% of scams could be avoided by requiring a paid membership to access the sales area. Granted there are paid members who have previously plastered their email everywhere but often it’s someone who’s not a member.
I get it times are tough, but if you can afford a $500 knife, maybe you can afford $10 for a basic membership and deal through pm
 
Spark said:
You can mark it sold in the replies and if needed a mod can lock and change the thread prefix
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We'll have to see how this goes as we move forward. There are literally hundreds of sale threads posted at any given time across categories and only a few mods who have to handle a variety of issues. It will be unrealistic to expect the mods to sit for hours at a time to edit sales threads to "Sold".

So, please help us out by posting in your sale thread in large, bold, letters that the item or items have been sold so that anyone interested can clearly see that the items are no longer available.

If the software still allows you to lock the thread at that juncture, do so. A moderator can still open or post in it if necessary.
 
My first response was to applaud these new efforts to reduce the scammers and save us from ourselves.

My 2nd response is less of a full endorsement:

1) I wish these rules could be exempted for folks who have a long and stellar feedback record. We are all potential scammers now. :rolleyes:

2) So if you can't EDIT does that also mean you can't delete the thread and photos after the sale/trade has ended? The deleting photos was part of the strategy to reduce image loading.
 
RayseM said:
1) I wish these rules could be exempted for folks who have a long and stellar feedback record. We are all potential scammers now. :rolleyes:
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The problem with that is that anyone's account is potentially a target of being hacked...especially if "best practices" are not followed.

It's not a question of historical trustworthiness, it's about verification.
 
Greatly appreciate the timestamp and picture rule!!!! I’ve been asking almost all sellers for a timestamp through PMs.

Also, lots will agree and disagree with this but I like the second rule so sold prices stay shown. I know that wasn’t the primary goal but still sounds good to me.
 
Sounds good... However... I've always locked the FS thread after I sold the knife in order to block onlookers or the buyer posting untrue "impressions" and/or insinuations in the thread, such as "where's my knife" "I paid you" (no you didn't). The good news is, this behavior is rare and most onlookers mind their own business, but it's always the margins that cause problems anyway.

Spark, people are people and enough of them are impatient and get set off by the slightest "feeling" whether their feeling is correct or not. We need to be able to block these impulses because they do cause problems. So, moderation can be contacted and they'll lock done deals?

The hand written, dated, and owner identification next to the knife is a good idea.
 
other memory said:
Sounds good... However... I've always locked the FS thread after I sold the knife in order to block onlookers or the buyer posting untrue "impressions" and/or insinuations in the thread, such as "where's my knife" "I paid you" (no you didn't). The good news is, this behavior is rare and most onlookers mind their own business, but it's always the margins that cause problems anyway.

Spark, people are people and enough of them are impatient and get set off by the slightest "feeling" whether their feeling is correct or not. We need to be able to block these impulses because they do cause problems. So, moderation can be contacted and they'll lock done deals?

The hand written, dated, and owner identification next to the knife is a good idea.
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Maybe I missed it. Why can you not lock your thread with these rules?
 
Apparently I didn't have permissions set for all user groups to be able to lock their own for sale threads. I have changed that - if you can post a for sale thread, you should be able to lock it now.

When the knife is sold, mark it as such and lock the thread
 
I ask again -

Do I understand correctly? We will no longer have the option to delete old sales photos, as we will not be able to edit these threads?

Not long ago we were being asked to purge older/irrelevant photos (sales thread photos in particular).
 
RayseM said:
My first response was to applaud these new efforts to reduce the scammers and save us from ourselves.

My 2nd response is less of a full endorsement:

1) I wish these rules could be exempted for folks who have a long and stellar feedback record. We are all potential scammers now. :rolleyes:

2) So if you can't EDIT does that also mean you can't delete the thread and photos after the sale/trade has ended? The deleting photos was part of the strategy to reduce image loading.
Click to expand...
The first rule is a response to several hacked long time user accounts which happened recently.
Also, it's very difficult to have different rules for different people.
 
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