I’ve been thinking a lot this week about what role Admin/Mods should have in dealing with vendors, and where we should draw the line.
(I’m also admittedly a little tired of seeing @mmaner have to be the one carrying our water on these issues, and getting roasted while he tries to protect us from ourselves.)
This forum is predominantly adult, full of mature individuals who deal with their own tough decisions on purchases like homes/mortgages, businesses, cars and all manner of things. None of which, obviously, they seek advice on from the people who run this forum.
So should your esk8 purchases be any different?
Does the community want the Admins/Mods to run interference on vendors, or leave it up to you, using the current vendor trust tools and each other’s experiences?
Let’s talk about this, and I’ll be keeping this thread clean and focused. (I might also add a poll at a later date.)
I say this having been involved with a few prior scam/scandals in the esk8 scene: the mods have never asked to be placed into this role but when shit goes wrong they are inevitably placed in the position of mediator/adult.
Fair or not, that’s what I’ve observed on multiple occasions.
I feel like we have all these badges and things maybe a verified vendor program, ala if they provide proper verifiable contact details, Proof of identity addresses and a good track record for delivering product almost like how coinspot verify accounts it would alleviate some worry
In my opinion, I think the Admins should be free to step in as long as it’d under their own volition. As long as no one is taking money or making baseless accusations I have no problem letting you all self police yourselves and the vendors who come here with the intention of making a profit off our community.
While many here are older and have life experience, there are also a growing number of newer and/or younger members that could benefit from Admin guidance/input/opinion - me included.
If the vendors, admins, and users are all playing by the current rules, I have little issue with how things are working around here.
Well well, here we have come full circle again from what we were talking about 6 months ago @BillGordon
I too have wondered quite some time how to keep track of all of this nonsense. Indeed it is a difficult situation we’ve been put in. I don’t know enough about discourse to formulate an idea of how to best manage the vendor trust besides what we have already.
It really is just difficult. Part of trusting a vendor comes with time. FAR too often we have these weird pre-order things that happen and end up with undelivered product. I don’t know if this needs to completely stop outside of group-buys but that has definitely caused issues.
In the case of the late vendor issue, well. It’s hard to say how this could have been forseen, much less, avoided. I think the best way is what Damon mentioned @longhairedboy (I think) about having mods pre-screen vendors and verify details. It’s a lot of work but if we want to prevent this awful public shitshow of drama, it might be necessary.
There is no possible way anyone would have thought the late vendor was associated with the individual that scammed everyone. I guess we just need to think some more and figure this out.
But what I’m hoping to get out of this is a sense of whether the majority of the community wants our full attention and assistance on their forum purchases and the vendors selling here (in which case we will take the next step with verification); or whether the majority want to take full responsibility for their own research, purchases and decisions with the tools we have in place.
Personally I think it can be a combination of both, whether it be having a few more members join the moderation team (trusted ones obviously) to help verify things and create a new “verified vendor” badge. Maybe with something like that in place, and our lists that exist, which can be updated to match the verified vendors, it will help the majority make their decisions.
There should be a set process that every vendor (people consistently selling a product) should go through. With all the vendors right now, the task initially would be tough and time consuming, but it might pay off in the long run.
Being a verified vendor does not stop said vendor from turning into a shit cunt tho.
@BillGordon you guys have done a great job of revealing truths in this situation among others, but it remains that some people are still willing to gamble their dollars.
I feel that by giving vendors ‘badges’ then in a way you guys are accepting some level of responsibility for those vendors and in my eyes that’s not good.
Every vendor that has sold on here and turned out to be a nightmare was at first accoladed. All of them. To be active in prevention is impossible but some hefty penalties regarding forum use i n the event of a problem would be a good reactive measure and to be honest its only ever going to feasible on reaction.
You’ll never stop the drama. People thrive on the shit. But I do feel like these drama threads probably need to be more heavily moderated. Far too much speculation and bullshit.
