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Suggestion Petition to revise the 'likes' system or remove it

Discussion in 'Support & Feedback' started by evershawn, Mar 20, 2013.

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  1. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #121
    It's one of those things where the *best* solution is probably something that users can already do, they just choose not to. We already show you the geographical location of anyone who sends you a private message. When someone from Pakistan is claiming to be from Dallas, TX... it's probably a pretty clear indication they are a scammer. Or even if someone from Pakistan accepts PayPal (PayPal isn't allowed in their country).

    In addition we force domain ownership on sellers anytime it's possible (selling sites, domains, links, web hosting, etc.) to verify they actually own whatever they are trying to sell.

    Ultimately probably the best solution would be to disallow people from posting "Buying" threads, which I'm considering already. Just getting tired of people posting "Buying" threads, then complaining that people send them messages about their thread. If you don't want scammers/spammers sending you messages, just buy from people Selling to begin with... then you are messaging THEM (and depending on what it is, you have verification that they even *can* sell what it is).

    It's closer to 2.5% if you are basing it all every user.

    But if you want to be more realistic, and base it on the number of users that were "established" before the change and then were not after the change, it's more like 30%.

    Of the remaining 70%, I sampled a few hundred of them, and didn't run across a single one that after looking at their posts felt they contributed anything useful. In fact, after reviewing them, a lot of them ended up permanently banned because the quality of their posts were very poor.

    It's certainly not a perfect system, but it's infinitely better than the old system.

    Then the system was working exactly as designed. By your own admission, you had no interest in any part of the site other than Buy/Sell/Trade. Buy/Se//Trade was never (at any point, ever) open to all users. It was always (from day 1) ONLY a benefit for contributing users.

    Because like I just mentioned, the marketplace was always strictly for contributing members. It would be rather silly to require all users to get some sort of marketplace rating in order to gain access to the marketplace when they couldn't get those ratings because they don't have access to the marketplace.

    "Likes" is a good measurement (at least better than quantity of posts or time since registration like before) of a user contributing something useful to the site. Since Buy/Sell/Trade was always only for users who contributed something to the site, it's actually a very good measurement.

    As far as iTrader being flawed, yes... it was very flawed, which is why it was replaced back in 2010. Totally different topic though. See this thread: https://forums.digitalpoint.com/threads/transition-away-from-itrader.1942652/

    Buy/Sell/Trade was always only for users who contributed to the site. The only thing that changed is we have a better measurement of what is considered contributing now.


    There was never a point in time where a user could sign up and list anything in Buy/Sell/Trade the same day (or even week)... because they needed time to contribute to the site. Again, now it's just a better way of measuring who is a useful user. And FYI - useful doesn't mean they bought or sold something. We have never bought or sold something, so it benefits the user involved in the transaction, not us or the site.

    Overall, there are less threads in Buy/Sell/Trade now, which means established users are selling more because their threads aren't buried as quickly. In addition, higher quality things are being sold (higher average selling price), plus there are actually *more* things being bought now and more bids being made. So it all comes back to should we be more interested in quantity under the old system, or quality under the new system?
     
    digitalpoint, Mar 24, 2013 IP
    ryan_uk likes this.
  2. EddieC

    EddieC Active Member

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    #122
    I'd like to congratulate both Evershawn & DP - Evershawn for his persistence in still pushing the issue six pages later, and DP for having the patience to continue dealing with it!

    I can understand the frustration with the new system - I have posted up two guides that are actually making me money & not got a single like for either of them. I get pissed off that I can't rebuff some of the ridiculous views in the politics board so I can imagine the frustration of someone with a product to sell that's trying to get likes! No system is going to be perfect though & the old system definitely attracted quantity over quality.

    I know the general tone of this thread has been that it's not open to negotiation, but I will say that in my personal opinion it would do no harm to reduce the number of boards that have this restriction applied. I can completely understand it for the proper BST boards, but I do think it's a little harsh to restrict people from posting contests/giveaways or the politics board for example, simply because they don't have enough likes.
     
    EddieC, Mar 25, 2013 IP
    evershawn likes this.
  3. wonay

    wonay Well-Known Member

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    #123
    I give Digital Point less than 3 months before they change or revise this LIKE system they have currently.
    There is always room for improvement but sometimes even the smartest minds on this forum cannot see what most others see.
    It would be a real shame to see DP go down the way it is going down currently.
    Sources tell me that advertising revenue has gone down by 35 percent over the last 4 months.
    And, it is predicted that DP's revenue will go down further by another 30 percent over the next 6 months.
    Wow! And the owner of this forum still wants to stick to something that is completely and fully responsible for this downfall.
    Wonder why? Maybe it is because the owner of this website is trying to sell it off quietly or discreetly.
    And, if this is the case then I sure hope the new owners are smart enough to go back to the old system before just a couple of thousand people a day visit this dying forum.

    I get the feeling that the OP has something invested in this thread or somehow connected to Digital Point directly.
    He sure has taken a lot of efforts and time to construct this thread from page to page, and without being a seller too.
    Would really like the owner of this forum to at least take some of the suggestions outlined by the OP and do something quickly.
    I have heard that more domains and websites are being sold now. LOL. I don't know which members are selling those domains but the ones I have seen listing sales threads are certainly not selling anything much there.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 29, 2013
    wonay, Mar 27, 2013 IP
  4. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #124
    Lol... your sources have no idea what they are talking about. There's also not a single person in the world that has any idea what our advertising revenue is or was. So you can absolutely tell them they don't know what they are talking about. lol

    If I was trying to set this site up for sale, do you *really* think it makes sense to somehow cause revenue to plummet so quickly before the sale? Your logic there is pretty flawed. "The owner is trying to ruin the site... he must be trying to set it up for someone to come along and buy it." hah

    In fact, yesterday was the single highest traffic day in our history with the exception of one day (September 8, 2010) when we were on the front page of reddit.com.

    I can undoubtedly say we will never be going back to the old system of becoming established. It might change in the future if someone thinks of a better way, but 100% certain the old way is not better.

    It's pretty easy to see the sites/domains being sold... scroll to the bottom of any page in those areas. The sold ones are greyed out and pushed to the bottom of the page).

    https://forums.digitalpoint.com/forums/sites.52/
    https://forums.digitalpoint.com/forums/sites.52/page-2?order=post_date
    https://forums.digitalpoint.com/forums/sites.52/page-3?order=post_date
    https://forums.digitalpoint.com/forums/domains.59/
    https://forums.digitalpoint.com/forums/domains.59/page-2?order=post_date
    https://forums.digitalpoint.com/forums/domains.59/page-3?order=post_date
     
    digitalpoint, Mar 27, 2013 IP
  5. Aleksa Miladinovic

    Aleksa Miladinovic Active Member

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    #125
    I think you guys are going too strong about this, and for a hundredth time.

    There were many topics regarding this, and usually the bottom line is that the 3 likes system is a quite fair solution for anyone around here. I mean you are really getting a good marketplace, and I must admit it is quite good, I've done a couple of jobs already, and the communication was fast and flawless, and I didn't have to be bored with thousands of verification entries, and huge profile making like other websites out there who are specified for trade and freelancing, and I still haven't reached the established members title to start selling.

    I don't know how it was before, but from the comments of other people I heard that the Buy/Sell/Trade section was pretty piled up with all kinds of low quality services and goods.

    What I want to say is that you don't have to be a genius in order to see that the administration of this forum is doing a solid work, especially if you look the number of people who are located here. And one more benefit is that DP, opens up a good business market for you for free.

    Don't get me wrong I was also worried about people going around and posting spam and stuff, but ok, there is some amount of it, but not that much that it bothers or destroys the conversations. I mean even after all, when you start reading somebody's post, you can see from the first sentence if they are a quality poster or a rubbish guy. :)

    Mostly it is about perception when it comes to rules, like in any other community out there. So chill out, it's not a Sisyphus's work, just 3 likes. :)
     
    Aleksa Miladinovic, Mar 28, 2013 IP
    ryan_uk and FreeFun4Every1 like this.
  6. ryan_uk

    ryan_uk Illustrious Member

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    #126
    Speaking of post count (I've been away for a couple of weeks due to moving apartments, so just catching up and I might be very out of date), how about BST not counting towards post count? In theory, it would be a better reflection of contributing posts. Although still that problem that people (or use bots) could spam their way to xxx post requirements and it would be like before. Sometimes, things end up being the lesser of two evils, so in this case likes. Not a perfect system, but post quality has certainly improved since the change (I've seen other people mention that, too). It's hard to please everyone.
     
    ryan_uk, Apr 1, 2013 IP
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