Whats everyones opinions of people who sign up to enthusiast forums, without even bothering to introduce themselves and then use their first and only post so far as an advert for possibly the most expensive thing you could imagine thats part of that enthusiast world ??
On most the car clubs and photography sites I am a member of you have to have been a member for 50 posts, a certain period of time and possibly rack up some minor trades and generally contributed to the forum before even being able to read or post in the for sale sections. If it is seen that you are just post whoring to bump up your count then they get deleted so that it forces the new user to be more a part of the scene rather than treating it as a captive market for their wares. It also helps cut down on unknown randoms fleecing people with potentially dodgy or stolen/counterfeit goods, obviously someone could still do this after a years membership but its not normally a long term thing for these sort of people so its very rare.
Of course you could argue that by stopping this practice you stop the members of the site perhaps being offered something they would not have seen otherwise, but you have to assume these new users would have to sell their wares somehow, so eventually you would have the choice of whether to drop a couple of grand on ebay or not, so I personally think this argument is moot.
I think you pretty much nailed the common mindset here. After 8+ years, we've been down a bumpy road, and tried many things. For the first couple years, it was a free-for-all. Then the classifieds went away, then people wanted them back (and things just ended up in the main forum). Then I made the Credit based classified, which basically didn't cost a whole lot, but weeded out the casual and opportunistic postings of that nature. I believe I went the usual route of requiring a mininum number of posts before the classifieds section was available, but once they knew that number, you got the typical one-word responses to threads.
While we do we a few once in a while, I can't say it has been an issue really. And if they want to waste a dollar, than so be it. The great majority of the members here have been active for a long time, and I've certainly helped, and been hlped by a great number of them, so the trades have certainly been a good thing.
Jumping into a forum to sell something off the bat, does come off as a faux pas to a degree, but it really just ends up only looking bad for the person in question, and life goes on. Look at the member count for 8 years of activity here compared to the member count on the 'other forum', and the quality vs quantity argument paints itself quite well.
Long story short, I don't think anyone likes that kind of member, and even influence the closer of membership here for a few years, but seeing as it's not really the problem it once was, I don't sweat it.
Good having you by the way. Always looking for a few good members that have something to contribute and share the passion.
My forum etiquette tends towards lurking for a while first before joining, keeping a low profile and respecting senior members omce joined and not rocking the boat too much, and then once you have been kinda accepted and people start to understand who you are a bit more then start to post more freely.
I hesitated writing this thread, but its probably my number one pet hate and when I saw the thread that sparked this I thought I would ask what the consensus view is.
Wish more were like that, but no harm just chiming on in here. I don't bother posting who the Mod's are, and seniority tends to only show up with the ability to answer questions and contribute to the knowledge-base. Can't even remember the last time we had anything close to a flamewar or falling out. Tends to be due to the generally older crowd here (and by older, I mean more than teens to early 20's).
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