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Stew

Bushcrafter through and through
Nov 29, 2003
6,446
1,284
Aylesbury
stewartjlight-knives.com
So someone mentioned iTrader being added to BCUK and rather than discussing it in there off topic, i thought that a new thread may be better.

I've been a member of British blades for about as long as BCUK and I've never seen it as a bad system.

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/itrader.php

Would it be a good thing to have here? Personally I think it would be a good thing but I'm interested in the counter arguement too.
 

decorum

Full Member
May 2, 2007
5,064
12
Warwickshire
To be honest I'm not sure we get issues often enough for it to be helpful or needed :dunno: .

But I do think it'd be a good idea if sales / swap threads stated who the trading party was and that the recipient(s) actually stated in the thread that the item was received (and when ;) ). And, possibly, leave some kind of feedback as to how the deal went? At least then anyone interested in looking into whether they want to deal with someone can do a check on the specifics rather than look at an anonymous score.
 

ozzy1977

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
8,558
3
46
Henley
Personally I don't see the need for such a system, problems with sales/trades are few and far between
 

demographic

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 15, 2005
4,691
710
-------------
So someone mentioned iTrader being added to BCUK and rather than discussing it in there off topic, i thought that a new thread may be better.

I've been a member of British blades for about as long as BCUK and I've never seen it as a bad system.

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/itrader.php

Would it be a good thing to have here? Personally I think it would be a good thing but I'm interested in the counter arguement too.

Never heard of it and that link takes you to an area where you need to sign in to read it.
Any chance of an explanation of it?
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
I am with that :)

I am with it, as well; the only trouble I've had or heard about seems just to be minor. Less policing of stuff like this is a good thing, in my book, otherwise the whole essence of this place will change for the worse.
 

Modchop

Full Member
Oct 17, 2013
293
16
Shropshire
I must admit I made my first purchase via the classifieds here this week and once I'd received the item the first thing I looked for was the itrader rating link to leave (positive) feedback.

I assume leaving a positive comment in the original sales thread would be ok?
 

Stew

Bushcrafter through and through
Nov 29, 2003
6,446
1,284
Aylesbury
stewartjlight-knives.com
Never heard of it and that link takes you to an area where you need to sign in to read it.
Any chance of an explanation of it?

Oops, didn't realise.

Essentially it's a feedback page, just the same as you get with ebay.

Mine looks like this:



It would not be a place to police people but would instead give a summary page for people to see what positive or negative transactions have taken place.
I don't see how that would negatively impact on the feel of the site but could give some assurance to people as well.

While a note can be left in the original sales thread, that would involve you searching through a person's old posts trying to work out what trades they have done - surely not practical unless they are a very low poster and they have actually posted in the sales thread (they could have agreed the sale by pm)
 

Robbi

Full Member
Mar 1, 2009
10,226
1,026
northern ireland
Stew,

Thats all well and good mate but it is just adding more and more control and opens up the possibility of "wrongful" feedback left that could unfairly damage a persons reputation.

I know that some site owners / admin / mods revel in the control side of things but what Tony and Admin along with the Mods have here has worked very well for years and is in effect self moderating with 99.99% of folk standing by their word.

I don't see that we have a problem here, and if there's no problem, why try and fix it ?
 
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Stew

Bushcrafter through and through
Nov 29, 2003
6,446
1,284
Aylesbury
stewartjlight-knives.com
Stew,

Thats all well and good mate but it is just adding more and more control and opens up the possibility of "wrongful" feedback left that could unfairly damage a persons reputation.

I know that some site owners / admin / mods revel in the control side of things but what Tony and Amin along with the Mods have here has worked very well for years and is in effect self moderating with 99.99% of folk standing by their word.

I don't see that we have a problem here, and if there's no problem, why try and fix it ?

Fair enough Robbi.

Personally I didn't see it as more control but then that was one of the reasons for putting the thread up to see other people's views.

I did think it was a more appropriate palce to talk about it in it's own thread than in the one about Cowboy. I do find it interesting that you yourself said in that thread that you had three poor trades with him yet don't like the idea of a feedback system. I wonder if there was such a system if he wouldn't now be banned/other people having lost out. It's not a pop at you - just helps highlight how few bad trades there are (don't think I've had a bad trade on any forum myself as I can recall either but then I am relatively cautious)
 

Robbi

Full Member
Mar 1, 2009
10,226
1,026
northern ireland
Good point Stew, yep, it was 3 trades before i wise'd up but in the interest of fairness, i did give the lad 3 chances, it was a pain 'cos he later had stuff up that i was interested in. I did warn one other member by PM about the hassle i had so maybe that is the self regulation we need.

My fear would be that if someone is not happy with the way a trade / sale has gone, they could leave negative feedback just out of badness and it would all turn into a bun fight that the "staff" here would have to control / moderate / arbitrate.

You could counter that by saying that we would rely on the honesty and integrity of members not to do that.......

To which i would reply, we rely on the honesty and integrity of the members to ensure that trades / sales go smoothly anyway, why add another layer of possible conflict where it is not needed.

Interesting thread mate, i 'spose there are pros and cons for everything really.
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
Good point Stew, yep, it was 3 trades before i wise'd up but in the interest of fairness, i did give the lad 3 chances, it was a pain 'cos he later had stuff up that i was interested in. I did warn one other member by PM about the hassle i had so maybe that is the self regulation we need.

My fear would be that if someone is not happy with the way a trade / sale has gone, they could leave negative feedback just out of badness and it would all turn into a bun fight that the "staff" here would have to control / moderate / arbitrate.

You could counter that by saying that we would rely on the honesty and integrity of members not to do that.......

To which i would reply, we rely on the honesty and integrity of the members to ensure that trades / sales go smoothly anyway, why add another layer of possible conflict where it is not needed.

Interesting thread mate, i 'spose there are pros and cons for everything really.

I agree entirely with this post, and I also see the value in Stew posting what he has posted to get it away from the other, more specific thread; that was the right thing to do and the opinions thrown up have been interesting.

I still think the honesty and integrity of members can just as well be applied to things as they are, rather than to something new; it'd just complicate things. And the law of unintended consequences comes into it, too!
 

Tony

White bear (Admin)
Admin
Apr 16, 2003
24,128
1
1,875
53
Wales
www.bushcraftuk.com
I must admit I made my first purchase via the classifieds here this week and once I'd received the item the first thing I looked for was the itrader rating link to leave (positive) feedback.

I assume leaving a positive comment in the original sales thread would be ok?

I would encourage it to be honest, we like reading that things have gone well and so and so is a gentleman for the way he sent stuff so quickly etc.



As for the other comments there's no problem at all starting a new thread on this subject, it's great to get the opinions of people regarding things like this. I personally see all sides of this (well I think I do) and there's pro's and cons to each, I think I'm coming from it with the perspective of 'if it ain't broke' and even though we have the odd issue come up such as the catalyst for this thread it's fair to say that it's actually quite rare for there to be an issue that doesn't get resolved. One of the reasons that we only allow FM's etc to sell is that generally they're committed and they're planning on hanging around which lessens the chance of a mishap. There's also relatively few that sell a lot of stuff on here so although some would get a lot of feedback via a trading system most would just have the odd comment which proves very little, issues nearly always come from someone that's traditionally been dependable and something goes wrong in their lives which messes things up for all involved.

Anyway, like i've said, i've no problem with this discussion and I do read it to see if my opinions need to changed which i'm open to happening if it's needed.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
One of the most interesting experiences I have had on this forum was passing on some open pollinated seeds. I basically said to people "you can have them without payment, but if you want to send something to cover postage and packing that's great - just send what you think is fair".

Almost everyone sent something - some sent more than I would have charged had I been "selling" for gain. Overall I probably received at least as much as I would have done if I tried to work out a price.

That gave me a great feeling and re-affirmed to me that most people are kind souls who wouldn't dream of ripping anyone off. Of course there are some with an altogether nastier mindset, but its a shame to rigidly control the many over the actions of a very few.

Red
 

Essexman

Forager
Jul 26, 2010
213
23
Essex
I've been using iTrader at BB for some time. I'm not 100% sure it's worth while.

The only members I've seen have a negative comment left for them have been banned/account closed. To achive that mods would have had to be involved, thus causing extra work for site admin.

On the positive side I've had some nice comments left for me by others, and never had to leave any negative comments for anyone I've traded with.

There used to be a iTrader top ten to veiw on BB for both postive and negative comments, or maybe was for number of trades, can't remember and I can't seem to find it now.
 

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