Indeed, and sorry for the delay in posting.
I came to a decision that for the time being it's not something that I feel really fits in with the current plans that I have for the forum. I want to ensure that at this rather important stage of the forum's development we don't stray too far from the forums main focus, which is of course wholesale business. Having analyzed this idea in detail I feel that it would be something that will divert us too far away from our main objectives which again is to be the best wholesaling community in the world and in the long term to stay there!
Giving the under 18's a section of their own isn't really something that I feel could really work for the forum. We as a collective community encourage members of all ages to contribute to the forum in whatever capacity they can and want to. Members under the age of 18 shouldn't feel that they cannot ask specific questions without feeling they may be frowned on by older, more experienced members of the community. We are all here for a number of reasons but rest assured nobody here knows everything, so I can assure you that those of you who feel like that, shouldn't! In addition to that, and from a personal point of view, I myself am still very young and also as such inexperienced, so please don't feel that you cannot ask questions that you may think are silly or questions that you feel may demean your reputation here because that isn't and won't be the case.
One must say that this forum has become what it is today because of the high quality of content and community of differing experience and business backgrounds. Not only that, but because of its driven objectives; which is of course to the market of wholesale business. For us to succeed further and to sustain our development in the long term it's important not to stray too far from our original objectives. Some of the ideas that came out such as a general chat room for under 18's in my honest opinion would be something that differentiates us from our primary focus and target market. I would like to pick up on something that Dave said, and that is; "The forum is to talk business and wholesale, there are plenty of forums around that talk just games etc, there is also a huge forum that young guns use where everything is talked about(non-business)" - Some food for thought.
With regard to entrepreneurs, I do have some plans to try and integrate a more of an entrepreneur feel, but this may or may not include the forum as a whole. I may well launch it as a separate identity/project. We shall see ..
The for-sale section idea unfortunately would be something I could never allow. Considering the trouble we have had previously with under 18s selling on the forum and why we have recently had to enforce an over 18's policy would be the primary reasons why this wouldn't be something I could support. It would require a lot more moderation and again fall away from our primary focus for the forum.
Finally, with regard to networking. We don't have a problem with the youngsters getting together and exchanging MSN emails and having a chat about business, certainly in my experience you can learn a lot from each other and its an integral part of the 'learning process'. So feel free to get in contact with fellow youngsters and chat about business. (Not just the youngsters either, when opportunities arise, discuss business with older members of the community.)
I think I have covered pretty much every angle, but just in case I haven't I'll leave this thread open and answer any questions you have about this site suggestion.
Thanks
Linear Mode
December 2008
