Ron Earp
Admin
Man, if it has to do with libel, slander, or a problem with selling something on the forum - it comes from the UK......
Guys, the forum can't be everything for everyone but we do want to be useful for MOST people. A couple of fundamentals:
*The forum costs money to operate, that is a given. And, it shouldn't be paid for by me, the forum should be supported by the users.
*If there is a forum that discusses X, there will be vendors that want to use to forum to sell X and products associated with X.
I like the idea of a garage sale that is 100% free to anyone on the forum, that is, you don't have to be a supporter to use the garage sale. Think of it as Craigslist for GT40s without the commercial posts. I devised the Garage Sale rules to eliminate middle men and to prevent vendors from selling wares for free.
I like the idea of vendors on the site. Vendors generate income from advertising and selling on the forum. They benefit from the forum's existence, therefore, they should contribute to the forum's operation expenses and be interested in the long-term viability of the site.
The conflict we have here is that there isn't a specific plan for the "hobby vendor". A guy that makes twenty of something and wants to sell them for a profit (no, profit isn't a dirty word so everyone quit saying they just want to break even). The hobby vendor can't post in the Garage Sale because it is a violation of those rules, and, s/he can't post in the Vendor selling area either because s/he isn't a vendor due to the $395 basic entry barrier. And, who is or isn't a hobby vendor is open to interpretation.
So what to do? Options:
*Do nothing, delete hobby vendor posts from the Garage Sale subforum.
*Allow hobby vendors to post in the Garage Sale subforum.
*Change the Garage Sale to be available for forum supporters only thereby forcing a hobby vendor to contribute to the forum in a small way.
*Remove the Vendor program entirely and run the site only on member contributions, vendors have free reign to post anywhere anytime
*Remove the Vendor program and disallow all commercial postings.
And undoubtedly there are more but I have to get back to work.
Guys, the forum can't be everything for everyone but we do want to be useful for MOST people. A couple of fundamentals:
*The forum costs money to operate, that is a given. And, it shouldn't be paid for by me, the forum should be supported by the users.
*If there is a forum that discusses X, there will be vendors that want to use to forum to sell X and products associated with X.
I like the idea of a garage sale that is 100% free to anyone on the forum, that is, you don't have to be a supporter to use the garage sale. Think of it as Craigslist for GT40s without the commercial posts. I devised the Garage Sale rules to eliminate middle men and to prevent vendors from selling wares for free.
I like the idea of vendors on the site. Vendors generate income from advertising and selling on the forum. They benefit from the forum's existence, therefore, they should contribute to the forum's operation expenses and be interested in the long-term viability of the site.
The conflict we have here is that there isn't a specific plan for the "hobby vendor". A guy that makes twenty of something and wants to sell them for a profit (no, profit isn't a dirty word so everyone quit saying they just want to break even). The hobby vendor can't post in the Garage Sale because it is a violation of those rules, and, s/he can't post in the Vendor selling area either because s/he isn't a vendor due to the $395 basic entry barrier. And, who is or isn't a hobby vendor is open to interpretation.
So what to do? Options:
*Do nothing, delete hobby vendor posts from the Garage Sale subforum.
*Allow hobby vendors to post in the Garage Sale subforum.
*Change the Garage Sale to be available for forum supporters only thereby forcing a hobby vendor to contribute to the forum in a small way.
*Remove the Vendor program entirely and run the site only on member contributions, vendors have free reign to post anywhere anytime
*Remove the Vendor program and disallow all commercial postings.
And undoubtedly there are more but I have to get back to work.