minimum posts

[Steve (VapeStorm)]

May I suggest a members have a minimum number of posts ie 30? Before being able to post in the classies? Would deter people joining up just to sell
Chrissie

[theinhaler]

people would just spam the forum to get the post count up , maybe 30 posts and 3 months probation

[Deleted]

Wasn't this debated before? The spamming issue was raised.

Steve (VapeStorm) do you have a specific problem(s) for suggesting this? or is it a general idea?

[Steve (VapeStorm)]

Just a general idea and I dont know if its been debated before as im fairly new myself. I used to be part of other forums when I was into my cars and they had a minimum post limit to stop people joining just to sell.

[Super-Shiny]

There are legit and well known members on other forums that may not contribute on AAEC that much but does on other forums so i don't think we should penalize them.

It's always gonna be a tricky subject, if it was say someone posting for the first time then if anybody is a bit weary then you can offer to not use paypal f+f but use the protected version.

[DiscoDes]

The seller can always stipulate that they will only sell to low post count members, like I did in my recent sale of a Penelope so nothing really needs to be changed IMO.

[poochops]

Don't think people buying is necessarily the problem DiscoDes, it's newbies selling that might be an issue. Someone buying is bound to get caught out sooner or later.
I bought (well, swapped) for a Rose in the week from a new member; it went fine but despite checking him out via PM, my arse was twitching for 48 hours!
I'm on a photography forum and they stipulate 3 months and 100 legitimate posts, the mods discount and moderate spam posts as well! That pretty much gets rid of any chancers and that forum classifieds probably turns over a couple of million quid a year.
Having said all that, as shiny says there are legit members from other forums looking to sell kit, it's a problem.

[Raffles]

At the end of the day, it's always 'buyer beware'.

Anyone can up there post count on such threads as 'Word Association'... (have to admit I did that myself, to just get off 'Junior Member') and we are all adults... to make our own decisions. Would you buy 'something' from someone in a pub that you'd never met before? At least you would have been able to see it.

We've also noticed 'bad' deals with previously regarded solid members.

So, my view is that no external constraints would help, we all just take the risk, and feedback on sellers also helps.

[Chrissie]

This has indeed been debated before & I'm always in two minds about adding a minimum post count before anyone can use the classies.

My main reason for not having one is that I don't want to exclude new members (they are often the ones that could benefit the most from classies) & as others have said, new members that only join the forum to sell will just quickly & meaninglessly post anywhere to up their post count.

[Deleted]

At the end of the day, no one is obliged to buy - if you don't fancy buying from a new member that's fine. There is too much interference in classified threads as it is from people who have no intention of buying but always feel the need to comment if they consider the price too high or it can be bought new from Fasttech for less for example - if it doesn't appeal to you for whatever reason then just walk away.