I want to make everyone aware of a change I've made to the Marketplace section of the board, and explain why I felt the need to do this.
SUMMARY:
REASONS FOR THE CHANGE
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
HOW TO REGISTER AND PAY FOR A PREMIUM (SELLER) ACCOUNT
FREE PREMIUM ACCOUNTS
SUMMARY:
I've created an optional, paid, "Premium" account level on this board. Anyone wanting to create a new thread in the Marketplace section, to list an item for sale, will now need this "premium" account status.
Note that this change will only impact the ability to create a new thread in that one forum area. Replying to posts in the marketplace will not be affected, so this means that buyers and potential buyers should not be affected in any way, only sellers will need a premium account to list an item for sale.
This change is only for the Marketplace section. Creating posts, replying to posts, sending messages... all work as normal for everyone in every other section.
REASONS FOR THE CHANGE
It's always been my wish to create an area for people to exchange ideas, tips, and advice on the equipment and to ask questions of owners or dealers. I've never wanted or asked for money for membership. While running the board does cost me ($800-$1000 per year for software licenses, hosting fees, domain fees, and bandwidth), I've done the work and spent the money because I like having the community, I've met great people and learned a ton, and I know others have too.
Recently, about 95% of the posts here on the forum are in the marketplace, and the vast majority of those are from dealers or owners who register here JUST to list their item, get it sold, and they never come back. They aren't contributing any content here other than their for-sale listing, and once sold, they're gone. They register and sell their stuff here because it gets to the right community of course, but also because it's been free, unlike Audiogon or Ebay, where they'd have had to pay a substantial fee.
Over the past year, the amount of time dealing with registrations has become significant. Today I woke up to find that I have 4,283 pending registrations to sort through and approve. That will take me at least 10 hours of emailing people to see if they're real and not spambots. Most are spammers, some are these one-time sellers, and maybe 3-4 will be real users wanting to join to help or ask questions or just learn about the equipment.... the kind of people this board was really meant to serve.
Lately, more of these "drop-in" sellers have been astoundingly rude... demanding that I get them registered faster than the once-a-day or once-every-other-day when I usually tackle this work, so they can get their free listing up on the site. Yesterday I got an email 5 minutes after someone registered asking what's wrong with me and why they were still waiting to be approved. They want their account right away, so they can sell their stuff, pocketing thousands of dollars in most cases, and avoiding the fees they'd pay on other sites. I get nothing but grief from most of them, almost never a thank-you, and they're gone. Many of the rudest ones, incidentally, are Kaleidescape dealers or "professional sellers" unloading older equipment or customer-returned equipment.
It's become such a hassle that I've decided to institute a small fee. Again, it's for sellers only, and therefore shouldn't affect the many people who have been here a long time and contribute, learn about the equipment, and help others out when they can. For those that put me through the time and expense of handling their registration and only wish to sell an item here, I feel that asking for a small fee is reasonable.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
I've started with what I think are extremely modest fees.
- $10 gets you 30 days of "Premium"... more than enough to list an item for sale and conclude the transaction.
- $50 gets you 6 months of "Premium" so you can sell multiple things and conclude several transactions.
- $80 gets you 1 year of "Premium"
- $100 gets you "Patron" status, and gives you a year of seller access. And a big THANK YOU for supporting the forum!
- Your posts and profile will get tagged with a special designation ("*Premium*" or "**PATRON**") to others will know of your support for the forum.
To get to the Paid Subscription page, go to your "User Control Panel", and on the left side near the very botton you'll see a link for "Paid Subscriptions". Click that. Or just click this link to get there now.
For now, the only payment type accepted is PayPal. If you need a premium account and don't or can't use PayPal, drop me a note and we'll find some other way.
FREE PREMIUM ACCOUNTS
Last point - anyone here who has >50 posts on the board has already been given premium status on their accounts. These super-members do not need to pay to list items for sale for a year.
--josh
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