Rules..

[NaturesPixel]

This is the new Digital Photography School "trader" section for members. In order to make things easier for everyone, we have a few rules.

General Guidelines

Please don't post your address or phone number in the thread. You don't want that information floating around the internet, so it will be edited out if it's in there.

You also probably don't want your e-mail address floating around the internet either since spambots regularly crawl for these sorts of things. Please consider using the communications tools built into the forum (and consider turning on the ability for members to send you an e-mail in your profile).

Spam, as always, will be deleted.

Starting threads

Please include the following when posting an item that you want to sell or an item that you are looking to buy.

• A good description of the item and its condition.
• The location of the item and where you are willing to ship it to.
• A photo of the item if possible (medium flickR only please or a link to hi-res images)
• The price you want to sell the item for or the price you're willing to pay if you're looking for an item.

Sellers

Please make a post in your thread if / when the item has been sold to avoid confusion.

Buyers

All good common sense applies when you are buying something. Make sure you know who you are dealing with because the responsibility is yours if anything goes wrong.

All the Legal Stuff

Please remember that the Digital Photography School, the moderators or administrators, are not liable or responsible for any losses that you may incur in the event that the sale goes wrong (wrong item, condition, postal issues, etc).

We hope that all forum members will act in good faith, but it is your responsibility in the event that the transaction is not completed. Any dispute resolutions are the responsibility of the buyer and seller.

E&OE

[smc1377]

Can we also have a rule that limits the conversation that goes on in a FOR SALE thread?

It's almost certian that there will be people to say things like "Ohh, that's not worth $200! That lens is a piece of crap! You should buy brand XYZ instead!"

I'm not sure exactly how to word it, but I think you know what I mean. Us internet people are probably smart enough to do our own research and come to our own conclusions about products that we don't need others killing the sale by imposing their views.

[wulf]

I think that would be reasonable, limiting posts to questions to the buyer and their answers (although I think it would be fair for someone to start a "XXmm lenses I like and loathe" thread in the appropriate section, although without making a direct link).

The benefit of using this place for trading should be the degree of knowing who you are dealing with - people aren't going to be impressed if someone sells a bit of kit of an inflated price or offers to buy it for one that is too low and then starts boasting. Ebay is an open market but here we should be helping each other out.

We may also want to think about how frequently it is reasonable to bump posts back to the top of the list.

Early adopters - please set us a good example!

Thanks,

Wulf

[PunkRockDad]

You may want to start to think about how you're going to deal with the scam artist.

I'm a moderator for an automobile website that deals with my community only and once we opened a for sale/trade section, we were flooded with reports of people being ripped off.

Now this site is much larger and feeds people all over the globe their daily digest of photography related news and information. I can only assume there will be trolls that will try to make a quick buck here as well. Especially with the prices of high end cameras and equipment.

[wulf]

We have discussed a "minimum number of posts" limit before people can post here.

Personally, I don't expect to use it much anyway (buying and selling gear is not my favourite part of any of my creative hobbies) but, if I did, I would only look to deal with people who had enough of a posting record for me to trust them - not just a certain number of posts but also good content in those posts revealing good character on the part of the poster.

If someone turns up and immediately starts posting items for sale without having built up their "credit" elsewhere on the site, I'll be pressing the zap button because that is still spam even in the market area.

Wulf

[Sime™]

Me too - no posts.. no sales.. "Hi, I've no idea about photography, but here's a new CANON LSRD for sale!...it comes with an 80gb flash......ZAP!..."

I hope we don't get too many scammers, but I will be watching closely... so...um... yep

[NaturesPixel]

I can SAY that the admin and MODS will read the thread(sale) before it will actually be posted all new threads in this section will be moderated first soo even if thier is spam posted here you guys wont even see it

[Sime™]

wow... tricky!... yay!

[waffles]

There's always the iTrader thing I've seen on other vbulliten fora. That's one way to keep tabs on who follows through on deals and who doesn't.

[Sime™]

Hey Waffles, thanks for the suggestion... I guess we'll just keep a close eye on for now and see what the traffic is like and if it gets used much. Sime