I'm not sure if this ever came up before, so I apologize in advance if it's been done.

After following the multi-page thread over in the B/S/T forum regarding bad trades with a certain individual, I have to wonder if having a subforum under B/S/T for positive and negative feedback wouldn't be beneficial and add some peace of mind to those who want to do business on the forums.

The idea would be this: Members who plan to do business could start a thread in subforum and as the deal completes, the buyer/trader/seller would briefly posted their experience. Ground rules for using the forums would be stickied at the top and posts violating them would be deleted.

I'm not sure if there are legal concerns over this, or at a minimum, a challenge in moderation. I have seen this system work very successfully on a paintball site that I used to frequent and I never read of any major problems with it.

Just thought I'd throw it out there. Thanks for reading!

- Frank

My personal opinion, and not the site's, is that bad trader posts are a necessary evil. They help assess the depth of the bad trader's crime (that's what it is) by bringing out others who thought "they were the only ones." It always takes the first poster quite a while before outing the bad trader though.

Also, without fail, several unaffected members come to the bad trader's defense without knowing anything about the particulars of the deal just because they think of the bad trader as an online friend. However, after numerous people post the same/similar stories, they tend to quietly slide away from the discussion. Unfortunately, the uninformed defenders tend to make some online enemies by defending the crook who eventually disappears from the site.

I try to sticky the topic to draw infrequent members the chance to see the post and reply.

Sometimes a bad trader alert is just an honest hiccup in a deal between two parties. It can sometimes spur the slowpoke to mail out the kit, although there's no excuse to not mail out your kit within a week of receiving payment or the exchange kit. There may be valid reasons, but it's not an excuse. Communication between parties is key here. A quick e-mail letting the guy know you had a family emergency or just flat out do not have cash in hand to post the kit would suffice.

Having a feedback subforum may set someone up and invite problems. Most of the bad traders probably started out as honest traders who were liquidating because of financial problems. Eventually, they may fall behind and deem it more necessary to pay a bill than it is to spend that money to post the kit.

I guess I'm trying to say the good trader today could potentially be a bad trader tomorrow. There are several online names that I would never do business with. I've seen their names pop up too many times to risk a sale or trade.

Robin - good points, all. I agree that when a trend with a particular seller/trader comes up, stickying it helps bring the affected together for whatever resolution that can brought forward.

My thought was to have feedback that people can view up front. Yes, there's concerns over abuse. It seems to be held in check on the paintball site that I go to. I did a significant amount of selling there and had a link to my feedback thread in my signature line. That way, people could easily review my status.

It's just a thought, and maybe more of a potential legal bite than Jim wants to chew. Not that I can blame him at all.

- Frank