TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun May 23, 2004 5:09 pm

Sick of me yet Everett? Two thoughts.... First off, a few other sites I belong to have a "community chest" where members can donate money to the webmaster to help defray costs, pay for bandwidth etc. Those members then get an icon next to their name that shows they are site supporters. It seems to encourage donations, and gives noobs an idea who the tried and true members are.

Second, how about assigning people who buy/sell often a simple rating system to show how dependable a buyer/seller they are. I see some ads on here, but I'm reluctant to purchase anything from somebody that signed up two weeks ago. I also don't want to have to post a "what kind of seller is John Doe" thread each time I see something I want to buy. If I knew they'd been around a while, and had many successful transactions I'd be much more likely to purchase something from them. Maybe they could even pay a small fee to you to become a "featured" or "recommended" seller.

Thanks for letting me add my 2 cents!

Mon May 24, 2004 7:59 am

Paying to be a "recommended" seller is a potentially corrupt and contemptible practice.

I am too easily swayed by the lure of big money to chance it. :twisted:

Mon May 24, 2004 8:04 am

I agree with Jen on the money bit. And while having a feedback system like Ebay might be helpful it would also nudge thesamba further away from its community-oriented roots by making it harder for "ordinary" folks to sell some spare parts odds and ends.

Mon May 24, 2004 8:47 am

Tin_Pusher wrote: First off, a few other sites I belong to have a "community chest" where members can donate money to the webmaster to help defray costs, pay for bandwidth etc. Those members then get an icon next to their name that shows they are site supporters. It seems to encourage donations, and gives noobs an idea who the tried and true members are.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/donate.php

I'm not sure I like the idea of identifying the money donaters as I don't like to pressure people. There are a lot of people who donate time answering Forums post or tech. information for the site and I feel those people are just as important.

Tin_Pusher wrote: how about assigning people who buy/sell often a simple rating system to show how dependable a buyer/seller they are. I see some ads on here, but I'm reluctant to purchase anything from somebody that signed up two weeks ago. I also don't want to have to post a "what kind of seller is John Doe" thread each time I see something I want to buy. If I knew they'd been around a while, and had many successful transactions I'd be much more likely to purchase something from them. Maybe they could even pay a small fee to you to become a "featured" or "recommended" seller.
The money thing is impossible, that would appear to put some liability on the site as it's "buy & sell at your own risk".

The feedback thing is a good idea and I'm still thinking of a better method that the one currently in place. The problem with doing it right now is that there is no feedback to item traceability like eBay has. At one point, eBay let you leave feedback for anyone at any time with no traceback to a particular auction. It got out of control. The same would happen here.