It is better than not having. Why keep outdated useless threads. It just doesn't make sense. The forum is intended for trading links and not an information/resource base like other forums, so it makes sense to just dissolve the threads once they've been claimed closed. 3 months is short time maybe 6 months.
That would require 1) common sense [to realise it's a good idea] and 2) effort [that's really asking a bit too much from some people], but it's easier for people to cry. But yes in all seriousness, I agree with you that it's a good idea to have a searchable history, even if it's a bit messy. It's worth the time. Maybe a ban history would be nice as a user tab, too?
Well, very good point indeed... I have never ran a forum of any kind, but is it not possible to archive these as "done" like the old iTrader system, so that they stay somewhere - visible for members with two ways transactions only (sold/bought or otherway around)? I am not a coder at all, so I cannot come up with a nearly bit of exact solution...just guessing/asking.... MAybe that will be too hard as I think now...or I am just too drunk now.... Sounds pretty hard, but here come the discussions In any case, CHEERS to Shawn and entire DP team for all the respect to anyone around here for starting that thread publicly, so we are able to discuss it all together !
Well purely for transaction history (buying/selling/refunds/disputes/unpaid, etc.) it's a really, REALLY good idea to use Instant Pay for stuff. Some examples of that users who use it as designed over here.
I will do that sometime - I am aware of it! Forgot to mention something else before - in regard of the buyers, are they so many? I have been searching A LOT for particular links for clients (wont share sites/niches here), but there arn't so much? Maybe the spammy dealers with same again and again sites could be the problem? How many threads they can create - as much as domains they have or can admin/access such? Maybe some IP tracking? Or for some REALLY serious link/ads sellers/buyers, maybe some higher form of domain ownership? I am still drunk, but think the last sentence could get rid of lot spammers....
Sure. -------------------------------------------------------------------- My suggestion, limit only selling threads not buying thread. -------------------------------------------------------------------- no need to delete any right and proper old thread, can stop its reply posts.
Replies or any quotes in the BST forums' threads have been long ago forbidden! Only PM's due to the ridiculous amount of thread bums once....again long time ago, smth that was really boring. Now in my opinion getting rid of those was very good idea, though there are still some smart asses that do it..., but here come the mods
We welcome feedback though - and it's a good way to find out if either party have been trustworthy or deceitful.
That's for sure. But still in my own opinion the old i-tr was way more effective, simply because not many people would go back to the thread to post their impression.... In the paste I have got few very positive such(in the thread itself) and also did few when I really liked some service - you know among it all there are a lot of very cool guys around here Surely, the deceitful ones are nowhere to go but get reported/rumored around so that no more people get scammed... Back to the main topic, anyone? Or maybe it is too early/late for most?
BTW - for those that think this forum survives off what I deem "problematic" forum areas, here's some stats (forum use by unique visitors, out of 125 forums). 1. The Digital Point -> General Chat 2. Programming -> PHP 3. Payment Processing -> PayPal 4. Design -> HTML & Website Design 5. Business & Marketing -> Payment Processing 6. Development -> Site & Server Administration 7. Programming -> JavaScript 8. Development -> Programming 9. Business & Marketing -> General Business 10. Business & Marketing -> General Marketing ... 28. Buy, Sell or Trade -> Sites ... 50. Other -> Link Sales 101. Other -> Vouchers 106. Buy, Sell or Trade -> Other 107. Other -> Adult 113. Link Sales -> Template Sponsorship 115. Link Sales -> Link Exchange 122. Link Sales -> Template Sponsorship So... Out of ALL the Buy/Sell/Trade areas, the Site marketplace is the most popular, but it's still only the 28th most used section here (and General Chat sees about 8x more usage). Only a single "problematic" area is even in the top 100 most used forum section here (Link Sales), and General Chat sees 15x more usage. The next most popular problematic area is (Vouchers), and General Chat sees 109x more usage. And for the record, it's not like General Chat has an extraordinarily higher percent of usage vs. the PHP programming forum (the #2 section here). General Chat sees about 17% more usage than the PHP area. If you combined all the traffic from the 7 "problematic" areas into a single area, it would be the 44th most used section here (and General Chat would be used 12x more).
Vouchers and Adult section is not that important and nobody cares about it anymore. For the Buy and Sell links section, I still see some useful threads from reputable members offering their sponsored blog posts which help much, not those threads offering crappy links in non-found websites! At last but not least giving more features and privilege to premium members will turn the site to a private club not a public forum.
About the 1.1M posts in the link exchange section, would it be an idea to prune older threads? Older threads in the selling/buying are are irrelevant anyway imo. Maybe prune everything older then a year?
Did you read the thread? Anyone responding with suggestions to prune needs to include in their response how we get around the due diligence once the evidence of wrong doing has been removed.
Right sorry, I missed that. Maybe instead of pruning, archiving would be the second best option? E.g. moving it to a less powerful machine just for the admins and moderators.
The issue is not resources and you are still missing the point. The audience - people posting/buying services/etc - want to do due diligence!
Right! @deam - it's not the moderators and admins who do the due diligence - it's the people making the trade. How are the mods supposed to know your risk tolerance?
This morning I set Google Analytics to track the forum areas people use just to double check my numbers as being accurate. There isn't a ton of data since it's only been about 6 hours worth of data (only showing the top 71 because that's how much I could fit on my monitor at once), but this is what it looks like so far (from Google Analytics):
I'm blown away that PHP comes in at #1 when it's a relatively quiet forum compared to some of the others. Obviously lots of people find their answers from existing posts.
Me too actually... I'm surprised by a lot of them myself. But *personally* I like that the programming areas are actually so widely used, but still surprising nonetheless.