1 Bump per day and per thread will not harm.. Then only the member can make the thread live again. Make the 2 hrs and 2 hrs into the time which can be chosen by the seller ?
that would kind of be like selling links though. since its changing something that used to be nofollow to "do follow" for the premium membership cost.
i think the phone verification does not add any credibility to a member, since its incredibly easy to get hold of phone numbers for such a purpose. i myself have about 50 sim cards for various uk phone networks, all of which i use to verify my ever growing network of skantily clad teenage girls on facebook after they have been used once the sim's just get thrown in the bin.
And we know (and report) if it's a disposable (prepaid) mobile since we know exactly the type of phone line it is. Click the icon on the map and you can see the phone I verified was a Non-Fixed VOIP line... http://forums.digitalpoint.com/phone.php?u=1
Another quick question on the premium memberships. Does this also omit all the inline (in post) google ads? They get to be a bit confusing and cluttered at times. The other premium / paid forums I am a part of remove all advertising for the premium members. Thanks.
I though am yet to see any non-forum leader who is phone verified..... $50 is too expensive IMO, specially since no buyer in BST values it *yet*
I really think that BST in and of itself would be better served to be subscription based PERIOD (for sellers). The problem is not whether someone's location/phone is valid. In reality, when someone goes to someone's web site and sees NO CONTACT info, like no address, no phone, no 800 number, its fairly obvious that the place is suspect. If someone gets screwed as a result, all they have is themselves to blame. Those of us that have actual legit businesses post all of our personal and business info over here already. From our names in our signatures, to our numbers and address. If someone does not; they have something to hide. Eliminating all this OFF SHORE bs would thin out a lot of crap too!
I know all these recent changes were created to help combat spam, but it seems to be creating MORE from what I've observed in the BST section. When the settings were changed to no longer allow bumped threads to show at the top by default I noticed MANY people simply created new, identical threads once their first one dropped off page 1, sometimes as soon as only a couple hours later. Duplicate threads have now become common practice in the BST. Yes, I know they can be removed by mods, but won't more dupe threads create more work for the mods? Also, Shawn stated he is against selling sig links, but cutting it back to only allowing 2 has now created a system whereby selling sig links is almost exclusively done by premium members and mods (at least 3 that I've seen today alone), so it's now ok as long as you can afford the perks? I think that it may be worth going premium if you have a lot of business on DP, but I'd like to see what happens after a few weeks when the "dust settles" and some of the issues raised have been ironed out.
Ads are removed from within premium member's posts (in cases where there would otherwise be one). For example... Premium User (no ad within their post): http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1534794 Normal User (ad within their post): http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1534788
but this method is untraceable - i just go on o2, tmobile, orange and so on's website and order 6 pay as you go sim cards. then use them as needed. if facebook cant catch me i doubt you could how can you tell?
Magic. I'm not saying it's not a valid phone number, just saying we would know it's a prepaid mobile number.
ok, but there is still a flaw, how does the knowledge that a number is pre paid make the individual any less or more credible? i have 2 mobile numbers, 1 is pre paid and totally legit and used for sites i have that have people calling me. the second is my personal number which is a contract number. lets say i used my pre paid number to verify my account, would that have a negative effect on my DP status?
It's up to the user viewing it to decide/judge for themselves. We only report the information, what end users choose to do with it, is not in our control. But yes... if I bought stuff in B/S/T (which I should clarify that I don't), I certainly would take someone with a verified land-line more seriously vs. someone that verified their number with a payphone (just as an example).
what about verifying somebody with a mobile number? how will they be displayed on the map? would the listing look different from that or a land line verified number
You can choose to use it as a selling point: "verified, premium member". To potential business partners that probably looks better than "anonymous gmail or yahoo account holder with no identifiable business information who is selling blogspot links and posts using an alternate paypal email address"
The icon looks the same (for now), but if you click on the icon, you get the details on it. Down the road the type of phone may be reflected with the icon graphic itself, just have not had time to create a bunch of new icons.