What are people’s thoughts regarding two new dedicated threads that would live in the "Goods For Sale/Trade" sub-forum:
Thread 1: All positive for-sale interactions
Thread 2: Serious negative for-sale interactions
The basic idea is to create a more centralized/organized place that users can easily search when they are evaluating whether or not to do business with another DDF member.
Anticipated FAQ:
Q: Why do we need this / Why is this an improvement over how things currently work?
A: Currently people only report positive/negative interactions in the specific for-sale thread where the interaction took place. That isn’t a great way to do things because 1) it makes it harder to do research on someone you’re considering doing business with 2) if for example someone has multiple positive sales in the Hyatt thread, but no experience doing business in the Hilton thread, that person is still probably relatively safe…and the converse is true if that person had negative DP’s in one thread but not the other
Q: What should qualify as a negative DP?
A: I think we should lean towards giving people the benefit of the doubt. For example, if someone is just a bit slow to respond that shouldn’t qualify. Perhaps we could brainstorm a list of things that could qualify. For example:
-Theft (i.e. agreeing to buy/sell something and then not paying for/delivering the service/product)
-Gross incompetence that cannot be easily fixed: For example, if you’re selling a hotel certificate and the seller makes the reservation for the wrong location/dates and fixing it requires payment of a penalty to the hotel/airline/etc.
-Extremely Poor Communication: I.E. Agreeing to buy/sell something and then disappearing for weeks with zero communication
Q: What about extenuating circumstances?
A: Lets say something crazy happens - Maybe you get into a car crash the day after you agree to do business with someone…well first of all these situations should be very rare, but should they occur maybe we have some sort of appeals process to a moderator where you provide some proof of the extenuating circumstances and the mod decides whether or not to over-rule/remove the negative reference you received. (I know this creates more work for the mods...but hopefully it's rare enough that it's not too much of an issue).
