[intoflatlines]

I think there should be at least a wait period of a month. It will probably deter many impulsive scammers out there.

 

[momomo6789]

Quote:

Easy to say until you, yourself get scammed.  No need to blame the victims.  Yes, there are no guarantees, even long standing members and Members Of the Trade have completely gone off the deep end and scammed a lot of people.  But it's still a good idea to have some sort of entry level protection to at the very least weed out the quick drive by scammers. 
 
-Ed

 
 
i was thinking more in the context of people with low post count / 0 feedback
 

 

[frenchbat]

As exposed on the other thread, post count would probably not make it as it's quite easy to post for the sake of rising the post count. I'd refer to this as the best way :
 
Quote from jp11801 :

at one time there was a posting minimum and it simply encouraged new members to race to 50 posts. The simply meant that for many of the new members their initial posting behavior was "+1" , "times two" or other non content oriented posts. 
 
I am not if favor of a post minimum but am in favor of a minimum membership time, say 60 days, prior to even seeing the FS forums. This avoids the spam posts and you don't even know the FS forum is there until your 60th day.
 
I do encourage all that buy and sell in the FS forums to research the person you are dealing with. Most problems could be avoided if people did their homework.
 
My statement in this thread is my opinion and not reflective of my role as a mod

 
60 or 90 days would probably do the trick and it's easy to automatize the lock. It would probably also make sense to limit the amount new members can trade, maybe only when they're the seller, for a set amount of time. That would deter any attempt of scam by lowering the potential gain, but this would be difficult to enforce and require a lot of work from the Mods.    

 

[rawrster]

That's actually not a bad idea. Having a time limit and before that the member can't even see the FS subforum. That would probably lower the number of shady deals but of course one has to use good judgment when involved with transactions with others.

 

[ljokerl]

Quote:

That's actually not a bad idea. Having a time limit and before that the member can't even see the FS subforum. That would probably lower the number of shady deals but of course one has to use good judgment when involved with transactions with others.

 
It would also greatly lower the number of sales. About a quarter of all of my transactions (probably close to 150 so far) have been with low-postcount (<25) members. Some people stumble on the site looking to buy a more or less rare piece of equipment (head-fi sale threads rank pretty high up on google) and others are lurkers who will only buy gear on occasion. Forcing them to post before they can even see the subforum is IMO not cool. I will venture to say that sellers get scammed far more rarely than buyers, especially if they exercise some form of common sense.
 
I think a minimum delay before starting FS/FT threads is reasonable; blocking all access to the FS forum is not.

 

[frenchbat]

Nevermind.

 

[KingStyles]

Well by hiding the for sale forums you would be eliminating a lot of potential buyers, so I would be probably against doing that. A time delay before posting a new thread in it dosent seem to be a bad idea though.

 

[markkr]

Quote:

Well by hiding the for sale forums you would be eliminating a lot of potential buyers, so I would be probably against doing that. A time delay before posting a new thread in it dosent seem to be a bad idea though.

I wasn't suggesting we hide the forum, or prevent anybody from purchasing items... I would like to see some of the EXCELLENT suggestions above put into practice to prevent new members from SELLING items immediately.
 
In my opinion, someone who joins a forum such as this and their very first post is a For Sale item is a very high risk.  I understand I do not have to buy from them... and common sense must be exercised... but we are a community and we must protect the whole community, not just ourselves. (man that sounds like something a politician would say, sorry)

 

[KingStyles]

 
Quote:

I wasn't suggesting we hide the forum, or prevent anybody from purchasing items... I would like to see some of the EXCELLENT suggestions above put into practice to prevent new members from SELLING items immediately.  

Other people had suggested newbies not even be able to see the FS forum. Thus my reply. Other than that the suggestions have been good.

 

[markkr]

Here is a shining example of WHY WE NEED THESE RESTRICTIONS NOW
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/492755/apple-iphone-3gs-32gb-210-apple-ipad-64gb-299
 
edit: looks like the Mods deleted this post...

 

[ManBeard]

I was pretty surprised there were no for sale posting requirements when I first joined. Most other forums I've been to have some restrictions though they have been less than ideal...like post count requirements. I think the most reasonable solution is a minimum wait time after joining.
 
Another pet peeve of mine is pictures. If a for sale post doesn't have pictures its an instant pass for me and IMHO, pictures should be a requirement of making a for sale post.
 
Also agree with IC posts being silly.

 

[rawrster]

Ah I didn't see it as taking away some potential buyers. Even if there was just a time requirement it would be hard. A bunch of people have gotten scammed without a post by the scammer and even good judgment isn't foolproof to not getting scammed.

 

[JeFFz]

true there should be a certain requirement to post on the FS forums; some people with 2 post posting there just doesn't seem right. Will boost buyer's confidence, though there aren't really that much scams here in head-fi.

 

[bhjazz]

Time requirement, at the very least.  Then, time requirement + useful post count.  Useful post count (also at the very least) would need to be > 3 words.  Although, that would likely cost us in processing power eveyr time we click post.  OK, then.  I need more coffee.

 

[hazardous]

I guess I should preface this by saying that I've done 3 successful transactions before reaching 20 posts (though I'm still trying to get feedback from some) . Knowledge speaks but wisdom listens...you can read and learn without ever posting or even joining.
 
As for being a member for x amount of time before you are allowed to buy/sell...that's a much better idea, but it still would have prevented me from doing business with several people. All in all I guess I'm just in favor of common sense...