Bartertown.com

Having been inspired by ONE result in the following thread ( viewtopic.php?t=9876&sid=fcdd78d62791ff ... f632921375 ), I offer a challenge to Adam, Lin and the rest of the Mod's.


I challenge you to contact the moderators/admin's of all the trading sites you know of and offer to come up with a way to compile a database of scammers. All of the admin's and mod's from each site involved could have access to it to alter and add information, if desired.

It would allow the trading community to help EACH OTHER in their efforts.

I know it would be a bit of work so, perhaps someone will step up to volunteer their time to arrange it.
I'd offer, but I don't know enough about databases and setting up web sites to be of any assistance.

What do you think?

Eric

I've been doing this for the past year and a half, nearly. Not a week goes by that I don't dedicate some time to informing people on other sites and such.

By myself, to my knowledge.


And so I counter-challenge you and the other members of Bartertown to 'pound the pavement' so to speak and make sure all the gaming forums and trade sites you guys know of are aware of the scammers we have information on.

You members are a lot more in number than us Admin and Mods.

As far as databasing all of it, I understand what you're saying. It's a good idea.

Just not sure how we'd arrange such a thing as of yet.

I'm not really sure why this would require moderators/admins of various sites to get together and arrange it. Is what you want basically a website where someone can go, enter a name/address/whatever and see if it rasies any flags?

Something like this:?
http://gabtraders.com/main/search.htm#bad

That site seems to be focused on CCG, but the principle is the same, right?

Vesrian, that is, pretty much, what I had in mind.
Why I said to have admins & mods from other sites involved was to make trading safer for everyone, not just BarterTowners.
If they all had access, then any one of them could go in and update info.

Sid, I knew you kept your eyes and ears open... making lists, etc., but I didn't know you regularly updated other sites. Another Kudo's to you.

And so I counter-challenge you and the other members of Bartertown to 'pound the pavement' so to speak and make sure all the gaming forums and trade sites you guys know of are aware of the scammers we have information on.

Where the above in concerned, I'm not sure that they'd take our word for it. Thus, I suggested Mods, etc. Not to mention that this is the only trade site I use & know of.
I mean, I know others exist... I just don't know the names, etc.


Eric

MagickalMemories wrote: I challenge you to contact the moderators/admin's of all the trading sites you know of and offer to come up with a way to compile a database of scammers. All of the admin's and mod's from each site involved could have access to it to alter and add information, if desired.

It would allow the trading community to help EACH OTHER in their efforts.

Ok, so we need a place where anyone can show up, for free and without logging in or registering or being inconvenienced in any way, search to see if the person on the other end is a scammer => Click Here.

I guess I don't quite understand exactly what you're looking for.

I take this very seriously and there are a lot of sites out there which don't. Some sites don't even bother posting a sticky at the front of their ads saying "Hey, post any bad trader here", and if you ask me, that's a bit reckless. Some sites go so far that when you find a scammer, don't even acknowledge it or delete all of their ads or ban their IP address or notify their users or anything.


If you have any ideas on how we can improve the reference system, please let me know. We're going to try a couple of new things in the future which I hope will help reduce the possibility of fraud. Of all of the little pieces which make up Bartertown, that is the one where I spend 75% of my time or more.

I'm working out a couple of new things for the reference system, post any thoughts you have for it here. I've got a couple of bad ideas on paper that I'm trying to work through.


Thanks,

TrademasterAdam

MagickalMemories wrote:

And so I counter-challenge you and the other members of Bartertown to 'pound the pavement' so to speak and make sure all the gaming forums and trade sites you guys know of are aware of the scammers we have information on.

Where the above in concerned, I'm not sure that they'd take our word for it. Thus, I suggested Mods, etc.

Ahh, now i see your reason for mod involvement instead of just traders. If such a thing were to be created, i think it would be better to let anyone submit a report. As Adam points out, many trade sites don't have the strong commitment to tracking bad traders that bartertown has. If you restrict reports to site mods/admins, there'd be no reports from many sites. So, i'd say if you're going to create a place to report bad traders, make it open to all. Yes, there'll be people making up reports as part of some vendetta. But there's no gaurentee that restricting posts to admins from trading sites would stop that.

I do think a unified place to post these things could be a good idea, though i have no idea if it would catch on. I'm guessing that would depend on the policies and publicity of the site. If someone does work on such a thing, i'd be happy to discuss ideas. However, at the moment, i don't have the money to support such a thing, or the time to develop it.

I have mixed opinions about Insidius's suggestion. I've seen posts from insidius in several other forums, and i've made similar posts in 1 or 2 places when i thought it was necessary. But i'm not sure how appropriate it is. As i recall, everytime someone tries to post reports here about trades from other sites, they get deleted. If those sorts of posts are not wanted here, is it really a good idea to make them elsewhere?

Well, that's usually because the people in question who post don't have any supporting evidence. They just show up here, say their thing, and vanish.

I am a very firm believer in supporting allegations and arguments. If it can be supported, then sure. Otherwise, no chance.

Yea, seriously we delete and take out the ones that show up and say

"user is a bad trader.... rip off THIEF" and then spam the hell out of thier trade rating....

Ok, so we need a place where anyone can show up, for free and without logging in or registering or being inconvenienced in any way, search to see if the person on the other end is a scammer => Click Here.

I guess I don't quite understand exactly what you're looking for.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the feedback system. Many sites don't offer it. It is an incredible resource for this site. I appreciate its existence.

I think the point I didn't properly make is this:
(If your name is John Doe, I apologize. No offense intended)

John Doe has scammed people on another site. Say, the WHFB site that Ticknor was recently found on.
Then, he comes on HERE and, posing as a new user with no trade history, &begins trolling for newbies. He lures in a few trades, then scampers.

Following THAT, he visits a third site, then a fourth.

Let's assume that all of these sites take scamming as seriously as THIS one does (maybe that would be a prerequisite for invitation or something).
If a central database was available, the FIRST site that had it's members scammed could have had a Mod go on there and posted a thread on Mr. Doe.
Assuming that BTown and the following 2 sites made their members aware of the centralized scammers site (otherwise, it defeats the purpose), the members of the site could have checked John Doe's history, or lack thereof, on the central site. It would have saved the people who were scammed, after the initial ones, from being duped.

Essentially, it would be a "Bad Traders Forum" that could be viewed by anyone, but updated only by Mods (with verified Bad Traders from their own sites).

Anyway, it was just a thought.
It seems that some of the Mods and the like might be a bit offended by my sugestion... as if I was, perhaps, saying that you weren't doing enough.
If that is the case, please accept my apologies. I have a lot of respect for each and every one of you. If I didn't think you were doing your jobs, I'd have stopped coming here.

I've said it before and I will again.

I appreciate the job you are all doing.

Eric