Jynx

One thing I think this forum is really lacking is an active marketplace. On a lot of forums I visit the marketplace is what makes the forums so great. Buying, selling, trading parts from all different members. I understand it is locked for only red stars so you know you are dealing with a more trustworthy member and are less likely to get scammed. The thing is there are for trade and free stuff threads everywhere so non red star members can still buy/sell/trade. So locking the marketplace is pretty useless. I think we should get rid of all the for sale/trade/free stuff threads in all the forums and just open up the market place. There is no traffic in the marketplace because there are so many threads spread out throughout the whole site. I went through the forums and these are the threads we have:

Northeast Forum
Sticky: Northeast For Trade Thread....NO MONEY EXCEPT FOR SHIPPING ( 1 2)

Northern California Forum
Sticky: Local pay it forward ( 1 2 3 4)

Classic and Vintage:
Sticky: Pay it forward... ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... Last Page)
Sticky: eBay / CraigsList finds - "Are you looking for one of these!?" ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... Last Page)
and even a
Classic and Vintage Sales Subforum

Clydesdale & Athena
Sticky: Clydesdale & Athena "For Trade" thread

Commuting
Sticky: Commuting's 'Pay it Forward' Thread ( 1 2)

Folding Bikes
Sticky: The For Trade Thread- Folding Bike Forum ( 1 2 3)

Road Cycling
Sticky: The For Trade Thread ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... Last Page)

Singlespeed and Fixed Gear
Sticky: Anyone wanna trade ? No cash offers, or "for sale" if you want to keep this thread ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... Last Page)

Touring
Sticky: Touring... For Trade List... ( 1 2 3 4)

This seems a bit excessive to me. The For Sale forum only has 26 threads yet there are 10+ stickies on all the forums.

I really think the marketplace should be opened to all members and all the transactions should be done there. If I want to sell something I feel like I should list it in every forum so people can see it. It is unnecessary to lock the market place too. I bought a fork from a member here about a month ago. He had 2 posts and lived in australia. I sent him over $125 and the transaction went fine. Many memebrs also have dealings with other members so you know you are dealing with trust worthy people. This is one of my biggest complaints here. I hope we can atleast get a discussion going or something other then a No for an answer. Thanks

rankin116

I agree. I think it should be free.

AEO

I agree partially, way too many threads to shuffle through.


how about just dumping them all into the same spot, but organize them like 'clothing/apparel', 'parts, wheels & frames', 'accessories', etc. and auto delete thread after a month of inactivity.

people can add tags like (C&V), (clyde apparel), etc. to the titles to make it easier to sort.

Tom Stormcrowe

The individual For Trade threads are kind of an organic outgrowth to trade within their individual communities....look at them as a "Farmers Market" that's barter based. Clyde's is fairly specialized in nature as well, for an example and came about to make the heavy duty needs of the Clydes more easily findable. It's not really all that active, either...but needs to stay where it is, basically.

Jynx

Then any possibility of leaving all the specific for trade threads in their respective forums and just opening the marketplace? I take all my buy/sell/trade business to weightweenies because there is zero activity here. Even the for trade threads are not that successful. I have reposted and reposted stuff and barely move any of the stuff I have. I gave up on selling and trading stuff here and just post what I have for shipping since barely anyone sees the classifieds.

Tom Stormcrowe

I'm working on some ideas here. Let me think on it a while. It's not likely to be opened up though, as of now.

StrangeWill

A-La online marketplace, basically e-commerce between individuals.

I'm not sure if there is a vBulletin mod that does just that, but I think there was something similar...

Siu Blue Wind

Don't forget that it seems as though there are less threads in Marketplace because we delete them as the items sell. So you won't see them.

Jynx

There are not that many threads total regardless of the fact that the sold item threads are deleted. There are only a couple of threads posted a month.

Siu Blue Wind

Okay I see what you mean.

rankin116

I would post everything I sell here before I go to Ebay, but I won't pay $25/year to do that. To me, the only benefit of an 'upgraded' membership is the For Sale forum. I don't care about any of the other junk that comes along with the membership. If the red star option were still around, I would do that. Yearly fee? Absolutely not.

Jynx

I agree that I would like to take all my selling and buying here over places like eBay and other forums. The thing is I have a red star and am able to sell here but it is not worth it. There is no traffic. We need to open the marketplace to all users.

If they are not willing to open it up to everyone for money issues or whatever there a still plenty of solutions. Shut down all the previously mentioned for sale/trade threads and make people do that in the marketplace. That way if they want to buy or sell they would need to do it in the marketplace (and buy the appropriate membership). Also maybe make a new colored star option that gets you access to the for sale forum for a 1 time $10 fee or something but not the other benefits.

Brian

Remember, the fee is to protect members. It's the only way we can provide a bit of accountability on the part of sellers. If we opened the marketplace to everyone, then scammers would start listing items.

And yes, it would probably benefit users to consolidate all the For Sale threads in one location, using expiring redirects.

Jynx

I understand the fact that it is there to protect members but there are a lot of inconsistencies with that reasoning. First, look at all the for sale/trade threads I posted in the first post. They are open to anyone. Scammers included. Second, it is the buyers/sellers responsibility to do research as to if a buyer/seller is legit by looking at previous transactions, posts, ect.. Third, it is not bikeforums.net responsibility for the transactions done here. They are done between the two people and any problems that happen are through those two people only. Again I am on another IB forum where there marketplace is probably busier then this whole forum. I have seen people get scammed out of $5000+ in one transaction. Those issues are between the people and not the site. Does each IB site have a different set of rules? Like I said in the OP

If it went bad that is not bikeforums responsibility. It would be mine. I just used the site to contact him. If the issue is protection that is not bikeforums responsibility. If it is money that is no problem either. People have expressed they have no problem paying for this but you would then have to stop all the "free" posting allowed in every other forum and consolodate it to the marketplace.

Also if there is still a concern about scammers I know the forum software can implement the reputation system where people can provide points based on a person. Obviously a scammer wouldn't have reputation good enough were people would feel comfortable buying any high price item from them.

Brian

This goes back to when Joe started the site. He didn't want to facilitate scammers.

You should start a poll. If the results indicate that members want a centralized marketplace, you can bypass the current admin's position, and present it to IB as an enhancement that would generate more traffic.

neilfein

I prefer using the individual threads. I know people in the forums (Clyde, Touring, Commuting, etc). The marketplace is posted in by various BF folk.

So far as free accounts not being able to post, I really thing this should be left as-is. No offense to non-paying members, who have a lot to contrinute, but anyone who pays for an account has demonstrated at least a small commitment to BF.

Jynx

That is fine with me (to only allow paying members) but the fact that everything is so spread out leads to so little traffic and so little people posting about items for sale. If it was all located in the marketplace (where it should be) it would have more exposure leading to more people buying and selling.

That is a GREAT idea! That makes perfect sense and is DEFINATELY THE BEST THING TO DO! However when I did that a week before I made this thread it was LOCKED, DELETED and I was PM'ED saying WE DO NOT ALLOW POLLS IN THE FORUM SUGGESTIONS & USER ASSISTANCE. I agree 100% that is how it should be done but apparently that is not allowed.

Brian

Well that's silly. This particular forum is for members to make suggestions. I'll look into it.

rankin116

To Neilfein: The current membership setup is a complete ripoff, IMO. Charging a yearly fee for an 'upgraded' membership is by no means worth it. I couldn't care less about a special forum, or a bigger avatar, or anything else besides being able to sell in the marketplace. I use Ebay, and of course every time I do it costs a little bit. But I have been using it for 5+ years (or so, I don't feel like looking) and there is no way I have paid $125 in fees.

I don't mean to make this all about the memberships, but I have a strong suspicion that if the marketplace were to be opened, or a different membership option made available that allowed sales, the For Sale forum would see a huge increase in traffic, and the members here would be better off for it.

Jynx

Definately!

Also rankin116 does not have a red star and I could guarantee that I could buy something from him without getting ripped off. The red star is not the answer to the marketplace. It should be opened to everyone. If you don't feel comfortable buying from someone without a red star you dont have to but give the others the option.

Brian

I tend to agree with that. Sometimes people lose track of the fact that if not for the members (and lurkers) there would be no forums.

JuCo

Thanks for bringing this up.
Tom Stormcrowe brought this up to me about a month ago and it’s something IB has been considering. For now, though, we don’t plan on making any changes to posting rules in the marketplace.

Brian

Why not? From what we're being told, it would increase traffic, and it would bring the site inline with other IB owned sites.

miamijim

Well put.

I'd like to know the real reason why the market place cant be opened up. Seriously, whats so hard about giving each section its own market place?

C&V gets one, RC, Mtn. bking, BMX, Fixie SS etc.....

StrangeWill

Oh really? Because $25 is going to keep me from stealing $200 in bike parts? To be honest the reason you haven't been scammed is because of probably higher traffic of marketplaces elsewhere and the general lack of interest in the marketplace here.

Just tell the truth, it's about incentive to get a membership. E-bay doesn't claim their $0.17 is to stop scammers, neither should you.


Anyway I think a viable model would be a pay as you sell model, it will get rid of annual fees for the marketplace (keep the membership of course though), and seems to be more market standard.