It has come to my attention that some members of the community think that they can by-pass becoming a Forum Registered Seller by offering their products either in private (by way of PM or Email) or by spamming the forum with their offers. Most regulars know that these spammy offers are usually deleted within minutes and action against those responsible is quick and effective.
The reason why I feel it is necessary to make an announcement like this is to not only make the people who are breaking forum rules aware, but also to alert other community members that this is happening and that you can do a lot to help us!
One of the primary reasons why we have
Forum Selling Memberships is so that we can vet the sellers individually to preserve this community from scammers and fraudsters! Another reason is to also invest in building this community up by gathering first class traders and making this place even better than it already is.
When dealing with a seller that is registered to this forum you should understand that that seller has had to commit his/her details to the forum and be personally vetted. You can see what checks have been made by looking at the relevant thread in the For-Sale section of the forum.
Now, should you
"the buyer" engage in transactions with members of the community that are
NOT registered to the forum you have to ask yourself some vital questions:
1) Why are these people not registered sellers on the forum?
2) Are they too cheap to buy a membership? - What does that say about how they do business?
3) Do they have something to hide? - Why the secrecy?
4) Am I safe when dealing with them? (Think hard about this!!!)
5) Do they have any past transactions I can look at?
6) Have they been checked out by the Forum Admin? (If they are not labelled with Forum Registered Seller, then NO they haven't been checked by us!)
I will let you fill out your own answers to the above questions..
To those of you breaking the forum rules:
- To those of you who think you can get away with doing this I would like to remind you that when caught (which you will be should you partake in breaking the rules in this way) you will be permanently banned from the forum and will never be allowed to return. No Exceptions! No second chances!
To the rest of the community:
- Help us preserve the safety of our community by making a stance and only dealing with members that have been granted a Forum Selling Membership (labelled members have "Forum Registered Seller" under their usernames. A full list can also be found here:
Forum Registered Sellers.
- Alert Moderators by reporting those who have offered you items that have not been granted Forum Registered Seller accounts. (You can use the "forward" feature if it was via PM or Email)
- Help yourself by not entering into transactions with members that have by-passed the systems that this forum has!
- Protect yourself by dealing with members that have track records and have been checked by the Forum Admin.
Thank You for reading..
Linear Mode
March 2010
