thank you John, for bringing this subject up ....
It does work, Jim. I just sold a flatcar and Morton Salt Building. Posted at 8PM, got a response at 8:10, emailed a few times, and sold them and removed the ad at 9:20. No bumps and made room again for yours.
C W Burfle posted:It's comical how many members actually believe being a "member" helps the occurrence of non-members being able to read other member info.
If you don't think there is any value to the protection, then why not put your contact information in your signature?
You might as well...
CW - you are conflating membership with participation - obviously, if the member has a lot of activity - its a better bet. A new member who just registered last week - not so much.
But just being a member does nothing to protect you.
I feel for the site owners - they are too far down this road to change to a better forum software.
With something like Simple Machines Forum software - they have plugins for on-site sales, reputation system, etc. (Open source vs Hosted platform)
But the fact is - your trying to drive a nail with a screwdriver...this forum software - no matter how many rules, etc - is the wrong tool for the job.
Hoop.la is not setup to accommodate sales in any way. As far as I can tell - Hoop.la can't even hide certain forums from non-members (that would be helpful, no?) - and don't seem to offer any mods or plug-ins to add commerce features to the site.
Well again I'll say it again "Private Messaging" would eliminate these problems. This is the only forum I'm on that doesn't allow PMing. I know that HOOPLA has a PM feature because my boating forum is powered by HOOPLA.
And email isn’t private messaging?
John H posted:And email isn’t private messaging?
If the individual has his/her eMail listed in their personal, i.e. "Private", profile, such would sure seem pretty "private" to me.
wild mary posted:Well again I'll say it again "Private Messaging" would eliminate these problems. This is the only forum I'm on that doesn't allow PMing. I know that HOOPLA has a PM feature because my boating forum is powered by HOOPLA.
Digital Subscribers can use Private Messaging here. It's one of the "perks" of purchasing a Digital Subscription.
An email address in your profile (your "Display Email") cannot be seen by non-members, or anyone else for that matter.
John H posted:And email isn’t private messaging?
Semantically, yes.
But when we talk about Forum Software - "Private Messaging" is sort of a built-in email system for members - common in many Forum software packages.
CW - you are conflating membership with participation - obviously, if the member has a lot of activity - its a better bet. A new member who just registered last week - not so much.
I don't think so. As far as I am concerned, there is no legitimate reason to join a forum if you aren't going to actively participate. No need to join if you only want to read others posts.
Joining the board just to sell your trains? ...... You can sell them to someone else, not me.
Thanks Rich, didn't know it was available just to digital subscribers.
C W Burfle posted:CW - you are conflating membership with participation - obviously, if the member has a lot of activity - its a better bet. A new member who just registered last week - not so much.
I don't think so. As far as I am concerned, there is no legitimate reason to join a forum if you aren't going to actively participate. No need to join if you only want to read others posts.
Joining the board just to sell your trains? ...... You can sell them to someone else, not me.
I joined - and didn't post for quite a while - maybe a year.
And it's not impossible for long-time unregistered "lurkers" to register - maybe they saw something for sale the wanted, and decided to pursue it by registering.
And I can completely understand if someone joined just to sell a collection...doesn't inspire confidence - but I could believe it.
Try selling an automobile on eBay sometime - it will flip every instinct you ever had! Most car bidders are new accounts with no (0) feedback. Why? Because the car is probably the only reason they signed up and the only thing they will ever buy. Kind of freaky...when you're used to dealing with everyday buyers who have been using ebay consistently. I resorted to language like - "if you have no feedback please contact me before bidding"
That said - I would never buy or sell anything here - same policy on the audio forums I'm part of...you're all a bunch of great guys and all - but I prefer the reputation system at eBay.
I think were more in agreement than not, CW...
Just a gentle reminder. If you sell your item(s) you have posted in the "For Sale" section, and there are no replies, you can delete your own post in the "Take Action" dropdown. It makes more room for the other posts and takes a load off you know who that makes this whole thing chug along. Make it your way of saying " THANKS!"
