Comments in sales threads

Lots of money flows through DP every day in the sales threads.

Lets admit most people are here for business and for a lot of thto protect these people and keep the sales threads professional.

Bumping threads is definitely annoying and not fair to some degree, so it's great the mods are taking care of that and issuing the infractions, but a much more important problem is still there!

Plenty of sales threads get trashed by people posting totally irrelevant comments, which by most part do a lot of harm to the sellers.

Frequently you can see someone selling a domain/site etc and then a few people posting the price is too high, or the domain/site is not worth it, or that he bought similar one for much less etc. No one asked your opinion! Just pass on. Sales threads are just that "sales threads", not for discussions or comments. A lot of people here simply don't realize it and don't understand the damage they cause by posting crap like that.
A person can sell for whatever he wants, even if the price is obviously too high it's his prerogative to ask what he wants. Posting comments in sales is extremely unprofessional.

Finding examples is very easy here, just go to domains sales section and you'll see plenty.

This is not just a rant, what I'm suggesting is that there should be strict rules about that. Infractions for unrelated comments in sales, or trashing sales threads and sticky posts in the sales sections to explain that and people should know and report such offenses and together we can make this place clean and more professional

What do you think?



~MG

 

Don't these people get penalized already? I've noticed comments in the BST threads from time to time (when it's not relevant, it's more annoying). Worst would be if they promoted their own site in the post.. p)

 

Absolutely right! Especially the quoted part of your post Micheal.

Though mods give infractions to every one bumping threads or making useless comments but still we need proper care of this.

Great thread IMO

 

Hate to bring this up again.. I really do, but things don't change much.
This is simply not enough. And don't get me wrong I appreciate the effort you guys (mostly gals ) are doing, but most members simply don't know/don't get it.


Almost every time I open a sales thread selling a domain or something I get some replies like "This is too expensive", "try lowering the price", "It's not worth it" and stuff like that. This is extremely unprofessional and simply disturbing and annoying, besides being blatantly damaging to the business people are conducting here.

The rules are there and the report button as well, but these members, posting the comments, don't know it and don't consider their action as being against the rules.

What I suggest is to make a sticky right here, along with "Type posts subject to bumping infractions" and "Asking For or Offering Reputation Not Permitted" and Call it something like "Comments in Sales Threads Are Not Allowed"

~MG

 

Good suggestion MG. I have to admit that in my youthful naiveity I did pick up an infraction for leaving a comment like those you mention. I still can't help myself sometimes but I confine my opinion to words in a reputation comment - the best of both worlds!

 

sticky won't work. Best way is that mod remove any comment upon OP's request..

bumping will never die. I see people with 2000 post, 4000 post or even higher bump their own thread. I saw a guy who was banned because of bumping bump his thread today...1 or 2 point is not enough to prevent it

 

ahkip, sorry, but you're wrong.

Bumping has decreased significantly. I used to see lots of threads with endless queues of lame 'bump' posts. People didn't even care to make their bump look decent, they just posted bump.
Now you can see bumps like this very very rarely.
Sure there are some little bumps here and there, but nothing like it was before. BST became much cleaner after the bumping rules got properly commented in sticky threads and employed by the mods.

Posts offering reputation for services are no more, after the sticky (I admit here I did that myself before, when it was allowed, but now - no more of course ).

Most people simply don't realize what damage their comments can do. And believe me even after getting an infraction they would still do the same.
Although if there was a sticky thread explaining clearly what and why is allowed, or not - that would help solve the problem

~MG

 

bumper #1
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=427004

bumper #2
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showpost.php?p=4267936&postcount=15

I report more than 10 today ..i spend quite sometime in BST for domain and link...and these people make me sick because my thread buried in less than an hour..

 

I know I'm pretty new around here, but I have to admit, that's just part of the dynamic of the site, people are quite accountable if they mess something up or aren't doing enough 'good'. Sure we need rules and enforcement, but I feel like the mods do a good job where they can.

anyway, JMHO

 

This just proves my point.. a year ago there were hundreds of these

 

Nice thread, i hear you loud and clear. I mainly post in the Contest's section, (BST) however, as a designer, it does offend me how people offer like $5-10 for the creation of a logo that could potentially take hours to do, normally these threads get buried as people ignore them, but from time to time the right thing to do is tell them this price is too low? Or am i being a total dick towards these people. I know some people may not have a lot of cash, but when they claim to be a big company making big profits, surely they could splash out more than $10 on a logo..

 

This has been suggested before, and I think the response was, if you have nothing to hide, it shouldn't worry you.

 

Certainly some comments are inappropriate in a sales thread; however, I would like to point out that this is a forum, and a discussion of the product in question is often relevent. For example, in Service threads, I never contact an OP unless there is positive feedback and I often wait for negative reviews on new theads. I consider this valuable info and part of the risk of doing business in an open forum is comments on your product.
Obviously this can go too far, and doesn't apply to many types of sales threads. I agree, uninformed opinions have no place in a sales thread. However, there are many relevant comments which are totally on point, even if they damage the flow of the sales thread, because potential buyers have a right to all the information that the seller may not be providing (That PR is fake...these hits are not Adsense safe) and no one should fear confronting an OP with legitimate evidence of misrepresentation.
It may be your sales thread, but it belongs to the forum, and I believe that legitimate comments are integral to the buying decision. If you have nothing to hide, answer the objection and the hijacker will be the foolish one.

 

There is no discussion. There is just a sale. You have no right to openly question the seller's integrity.
If you think he's a scammer, or a liar report to mods and they will take care of it and ban him etc.
You can't just post your suspicions open.

There's a HUGE difference between a suspicion and a fact.
One thing is if the seller is lying in the facts. Like he lists a fake pr domain for sale claiming it be legit - then of course you should post that.

But it's a completely different story if you just suspect something. You can't consider a person a scammer just because he has no itrader.

You should understand that if you post one negative comment that pretty much ruins the sale and/or at least causes financial loss to the seller due to lower prices because of less interested buyers.

If you do confront a seller, without enough HARD evidence that the seller was LYING and it turns out to be wrong - then what you did in totally inappropriate - it's personal attack, and you should either be banned, or get a few infractions. Think twice before posting anything that can damage the sale!

With that said, of course you can ask questions about the sale, stats, facts etc. but not unrelated stuff, or things that can damage it.


~MG

 

I am forced to reiterate my disagreement. A sales thread is not simply a medium for the OP to sell the product. It is also a place for potential buyers to pose questions, particularly about the veracity of the posted claims. Many, if not most, sales threads fail to include some unattractive detail about the service in question, and part of the purpose of the thread is to include feedback, positive and negative, from buyers and those who have researched the offer.
Baseless accusations and suspicions are one thing. However, a good rebuttal to a hostile comment can actually improve the thread. It's a matter of gracefully settling objections.
You can't censor legitimate discussion of a service and the financial threat to the OP is relative to the ability to deflect the potential aspersion. Open discussion usually sets the issue straight.

 

amanamission, I agree on that. If this is a valid question about the sale, then of course you can ask.

But there's a difference between that and posting unrelated comments, accusing the seller of dishonesty, or simply stating your opinion on the price/ or product - which I believe is not appropriate and would be useful to put in a sticky in BST sections.

Also note that you can always send a question by pm..

~MG

 

Negative comments can kill a sale thread and the one posting it may do it on purpose (a competitor) and there comes dirty business practice.

It happened with me and I reported the post twice then PMed a Mod and couldn't get the post deleted.

So yeah it should be clearly made as a rule not to post things like (this is too expensive or this is cheaper at xxxxx site)

simply because if you think it's expensive because you can't afford it, then there is another buyer who can!

 

Comments in sales threads are not permitted, especially stuff like:

"I would buy it if I had more money"

"Looks great"

"Maybe I'll buy later"

Basically if you are not buying / have already bought stay out of the thread.