I've noticed that there are many sellers often use "someone bid through PM" to bump and increase the bid amount. My suggestion is to force the seller list down the name of the bidder who bid through PM so that "virtual bidder" will not exist. To prevent seller to random list a DP member name, a better way is to refrain members from bidding through PM.
I can understand the problem, but don't think that's a solution. Here's why: 1. It won't actually stop phantom bidding. You'll just see more people saying there were bids on other sites (many auctions are run across several) - and we have no ability or right to say that bidders on those other sites have to be public (they could have privately been made there). So instead of seeing "Private bid via PM for $xxx," you'll see "Private bid via PM on Sitepoint for $xxx." 2. Some bidders don't want a public record of sale for valid reasons. Let's look at websites. Personally, I have several domains and a few sites that no one knows about, because they're private projects, and don't necessarily "mesh" well with my other sites. For instance, someone may be buying a site on a controversial topic - anything from adult sites to political sites, where they don't want their name directly associated with it publicly. If someone plans to have a site be private after they buy it, they're not going to do business publicly on a forum - and that's a basic level of business that I don't think a simple online community should be trying to control (and a waste of our time, since it's so easy to get around). 3. At the same time, we don't have the right or ability (again) to tell anyone they can't do business with certain people. So if we ban the use of one of our functions for bidding, they'll find another. We can't force a DP user to sell the site to one of the DP members that bid publicly. If they get an honest bid elsewhere, they have the right to sell it to whoever they want. If we don't allow it via PM, they'll simply start using the email function, or find another way to contact the buyer - if they want a sale private, they'll find a way to keep it private, and we have absolutely no control over who anyone does business with. 4. We allow any other kind of business to be done via PM. To justify doing things differently for certain types of sales, it would have to be a huge problem - and who are you (or I) to say that the majority of these folks are liars? I haven't run an auction in a while, but I used to get my fair share of private bids with site and domain sales. I don't think assuming most people are dishonest is a smart move.
Every words you punched brought a significant meaning. Nevertheless, the rights of buyer must be protected in all cause. (Regarding owner intend to keep themselves anonymous) Since the thread has been made, every bit of the site(e.g. revenue,traffic,domain registrar) will surely get exposed, regardless the site is masked or not, it will be known by people. After the seller has notified the site has been sold, by curiosity people(like me sometimes) will check who is the new owner through whois or something else. Therefore, the suggestion I stated above could narrow the percentage and chances of buyers being ripped off at a price where they are not supposed to pay for. Even if the unfortunates fall for it, at least the mods have tried their best . In conclusion I'm just giving a proposal if sellers could state the name of bidder which has made through PM. If it's from other auction sites like sitepoint, giving the link to the auction(as a proof) isn't really hard . After all, setting certain rules and closing certain threads is just to ensure the bucks of buyers will not be gone by reckless seller, isn't it?
The bottom line is this - if you believe someone is artificially inflating the price of their sale, WALK AWAY. You don't have to buy it.
Indeed, but the problem is you're not going to give random statement towards the "bid". And since one click on a thread, it is certainly that he is interested towards the offer, and probably he is not going to walk away easily . Well just I'm seeing such "PM bids" post a lot, so as well as giving a suggestion I would also like to ignite the awareness of DP members, good luck there .
It's the buyer's job to protect the buyer's rights... not DP's. We're a platform where you're welcome to do business at your own risk... that's all. That's why we don't get in the middle of private business disputes (which is what most of these claims would amount to - accusations w/o proof). And not all details are public during a sale just because it's been posted in a thread. This is why not all sellers give things like the site URL and stats directly in the thread. And as long as the buyer doesn't post in the thread, it's completely private between them and the seller. So it's not like anything is forced to be public now in that sense... people do private business here all the time. And who says a lot of buyer's are being ripped off b/c of this? Again, there are a lot of valid private bids. You can't begin to know what's real and what's not. Again, it's a risk when you do a deal with anyone anywhere... just as there's a risk they're lying about a bid, there's a risk someone is going to give you stolen content when you order, a risk someone's going to not pay after you deliver a product or service, etc. Auctions don't get special treatment. And giving a link to an auction on another site doesn't address my point - people in a lot of other communities can still bid privately via PM, and people elsewhere can still bid directly via email. The seller has absolutely no obligation to expose private bidders from elsewhere, and we can't make them do it. So if we say no private bidding here, the group that IS lying is just going to lie throwing a different community name out there (or say they got the bid via email). There's absolutely no benefit to buyers here as far as protection goes - a rule like that could hurt some legitimate private bidders while protecting absolutely no one b/c it would be far too easy to get around.
Just from speaking to our customer support department, most of the dodgy bidders and problems happen with people who bid through private message. Often people put in a high bid via PM to force the auction holder to end the sale, and then they change their mind and lower their offer or withdrawing it together. Since they didn't bid through the system, there's often little recourse and you can't even leave them negative feedback!
1. They don't have to post in the thread for you to leave them negative feedback, as long as they participated in the deal (such as if the deal was closed b/c of them, and then they backed out and don't pay you, pay less than the bid amount, etc.). 2. People also often retract and change bids quite publicly - nothing different there. And Matt... please refrain from promoting your forum and marketplace system in a support and feedback area of this one. You're welcome to advertise in the BST area like all members... not over here. The S&F area is also not a place for you (or anyone) to solicit feedback and advice on your own services, sites, etc. Next time I'm treating it as spam.