Lack of traders & performance parts

[Genner]

I've owned loads of performance cars and been on loads of forums where they've been rammed full of traders offering great upgrades at good prices. This place and the GTI scene seems dead ?

[Top Cat]

Traders are not allowed to advertise on here. 

[wigit]

Traders are not allowed to advertise on here. 

Long may they remain the case as well

[M7AXB]

Any decent traders about? Used awesome GTI before but, seem a bit overpriced compared to others.

[Kalpsn2000]

If you're looking for traders check out the R32OC forums, a number of them on there.

http://www.r32oc.com/

[flashp]

If they did advertise it would generate revenue for this site, enrichen users/members experience and probably also give us access to better deals/group buys etc. They wouldn't need to appeal for donations either.
Advertising can work if it's managed.

Speaking of being managed...the for sale section here is a shambles compared to some forums. It shows up when you have a popular item as it's absolutely impossible to know who got in first with an interest or offer on what as it goes to PM straight away then it's up to the seller to decide who buys.

This is a great forum, but needs moving up to the next level. It's already good but could be brilliant.

Have a punt around on this forum http://www.avforums.com/ and I think you'll see what I mean. Particularly the rules for advertising if you can be bothered. If not don't ask me why it's better 

Only my opinion and I'm sure others will disagree.

[George]

If I as aloud to sell coilovers on here I'd donate a percentage of every sale to the forum and in turn members would receive KW/AP and Weitec coilovers cheaper than anywhere else 

[Tortaruga]

Monty: About how you came to Chelsea and your arrest in the Tottenham Court Road. He told me about your problems, how you feel.

Marwood: Problems, what problems?

Monty: You are a toilet trader! Go with it boy, give into to it. It’s like a tide. Don’t let it ruin your youth as I nearly did over Eric.

Marwood: I’m not homosexual, Monty

What a great film

[vRS Carl]

If I as aloud to sell coilovers on here I'd donate a percentage of every sale to the forum and in turn members would receive KW/AP and Weitec coilovers cheaper than anywhere else  

It might be better in the short term to scrap the donation and put it towards spelling lessons  

To the question though. I don't see how it would enrich the forum. You would end up with loads of people who register just to get the discount the traders offer. You would end up with people becoming keyboard warriors saying one trader is better than another, even more so than they do now. You would end up with a lot of biased reviews were people get something for free (as a trader tries to drum up business after all they are a business and want to make money) and then say it is the "BEST suspension, remap, ARB, turbo EVA innit" even more than some do now. I have seen this happen on other forums and I have my suspicions about it on here too.

So for me it should just keep going as it is.  

[M7AXB]

If I as aloud to sell coilovers on here I'd donate a percentage of every sale to the forum and in turn members would receive KW/AP and Weitec coilovers cheaper than anywhere else  

It might be better in the short term to scrap the donation and put it towards spelling lessons  

To the question though. I don't see how it would enrich the forum. You would end up with loads of people who register just to get the discount the traders offer. You would end up with people becoming keyboard warriors saying one trader is better than another, even more so than they do now. You would end up with a lot of biased reviews were people get something for free (as a trader tries to drum up business after all they are a business and want to make money) and then say it is the "BEST suspension, remap, ARB, turbo EVA innit" even more than some do now. I have seen this happen on other forums and I have my suspicions about it on here too.

So for me it should just keep going as it is.  

+1

I used to go on the lancer register forum frequently and this happens a lot. The forum also got greedy and lets cowboy traders advertise on there as well. As long as they make the most money they don't care! They even removed post's if anyone put up a bad experience or service at certain traders

[sub39h]

there are a lot of traders here. but they are also enthusiasts, really know their stuff and sell cracking products/provide cracking services at a fraction of what it would cost you to either research it yourself or to get similar elsewhere. a few cases are (in no particular order): R-Tech (tuning), DaveB (resident brake guru), vRSAlex (VAG specialist and all-around nice guy), Midlands Car Care and Detail My Ride (detailers)

i only learned of these talented individuals by being a member of this forum. my car absolutely would not be as good or looked after (imho) if it weren't for the above. and i have definitely saved money.

[Top Cat]

If they did advertise it would generate revenue for this site

Nope it would generate revenue for the trader.

Advertising can work if it's managed.

I dont agree! it just creates a sh*t storm every ten minutes, what is wrong with discussing parts you want to buy with fellow members recommendations then go find them if you want to buy it. If something is good or bad it will be found out on here without a paying advertiser telling us we cant let people say that about are products.   

Speaking of being managed...the for sale section here is a shambles compared to some forums. It shows up when you have a popular item as it's absolutely impossible to know who got in first with an interest or offer on what as it goes to PM straight away then it's up to the seller to decide who buys.

I agree the for sale section is crap, but it is up to the seller who they want to sell their items to. If all for sale threads were locked from the start you wouldn't know any better and half the problems would be gone, but again we leave it up to the members to decide how they sell their bits.
I personally would be happy to drop a hand grenade into the whole for sale section as it just causes lots of work for us who have to deal with it all the time, from members ripping each other off to the constant spamming by new members to get 25 posts. 

And finally it has been proved time and time again, keeping traders from advertising on here keeps this place friendly and balanced. I am sorry if you would like it to be something different but it is not going to change any time soon. 

[edd666999]

some small points about avforums for sale section that makes it so much better.

If your interested then you say so on the thread, if a deal is to be done you dont move to PM until a price has been agreed. If you sell in PM you get a strike....3 strikes and your out (its a sports metaphor)

If a price is haggled down THAT becomes the new asking price.

The thread recently where loads of people were PM'ing that guy and posting on the thread, no one knew who was getting what, he was taking a while to respond. I was one of the 1st to show interest but got ignored due to the mass of pm's.

If everything is done on the thread, its harder to rip someone off as you cant sell the same thing multiple times and a payment method is in the thread, if it sounds dodgy mods question it.

People cant sell on at a profit.


BAD things:

Requires mods to be looking at the threads making sure the rules are adhered to. so pretty time intensive.


If the forum gets bigger and we have mods for different sections it might be worth a 2nd look i think.

[sub39h]

Requires mods to be looking at the threads making sure the rules are adhered to. so pretty time intensive.

i think that's the problem really. the mods and admin here do an admirable job considering they are otherwise in full time employment and have busy lives yet keep this going for our benefit.

having to sort through the classifieds like that just sounds like a chore, and is more responsibility than (imho) the powers that be should be burdened with. plus adding additional resources as you're suggesting then makes them somewhat culpable when things go wrong instead of it being a free market place where the onus is on the seller to be honest and on the buyer to be prudent.

the only exception to the above i feel is if there are known scammers or repeat offenders active on the forums. i feel there is some responsibility on the part of mods/admins to bar those people from posting in the classifieds (if not the forum all together), which from my time here they have done very successfully and effectively thus far *touch wood*.

[edd666999]

Requires mods to be looking at the threads making sure the rules are adhered to. so pretty time intensive.

i think that's the problem really. the mods and admin here do an admirable job considering they are otherwise in full time employment and have busy lives yet keep this going for our benefit.

having to sort through the classifieds like that just sounds like a chore, and is more responsibility than (imho) the powers that be should be burdened with. plus adding additional resources as you're suggesting then makes them somewhat culpable when things go wrong instead of it being a free market place where the onus is on the seller to be honest and on the buyer to be prudent.

the only exception to the above i feel is if there are known scammers or repeat offenders active on the forums. i feel there is some responsibility on the part of mods/admins to bar those people from posting in the classifieds (if not the forum all together), which from my time here they have done very successfully and effectively thus far *touch wood*.

yeah i agree hence why i think it should be looked at when we have a bigger forum or more mods