Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions
Showing 1 of 39 conversations about:
payodpanda
958
Jun 20, 2016
bookmark_border
I wasn't sure if I should start a new thread to ask this, but I thought not. Maybe you should start an FAQ / meta thread where people can ask these questions rather than on the community guidelines page. I also wanted to make sure that this would be on a thread not specific to a certain community, I hope this is the right thread for that.
Okay, so one thing I've been wanting to ask but keep forgetting. What is your take on buying / selling / trading threads on Massdrop? I feel that as a community, this is something that would really help us, especially for the things that have sizes and people end up buying the wrong size. This is a big and important question that needs to be answered and discussed, as MD is moving to a more community-based platform rather than just a market place.
I know that you're a market place too and this might be against what you want / wish, but I thought I'll put this out there. Maybe you could have these threads moderated, and only allow things bought on Massdrop to be sold to other members, with a price cap of what it sold for on MD during a drop? This would make me at least more willing to try new clothes / shoes, knowing that I'd probably be able to exchange them for the correct size or sell them to others on Massdrop.
But this would also apply to other communities as well, not just men's style - what if you bought a pair of headphones and didn't really like them? What if an amp doesn't pair very well with your existing audio gear?
I am certain that things being final sale on MD really holds some people back. You cut on inventory costs, pass on the savings to us. If something like this happens, the community of buyers could become your inventory, so to speak. Thoughts?
(I'm tagging names of MD people I remember mostly from Men's style and audiophile communities)
@IanAnderson @ChristopherJ @steve @cee_tee @danny_liu @alexpeterkin @kunalkumar @nicpope @mikemd
Jun 20, 2016
AlexPk
7196
Community
Jun 22, 2016
bookmark_border
payodpandaExcellent insights and feedback!
Community selling/trading is near the top of our wishlist of things to bring to the site and one of the most requested features by users. We see this being solved by a peer to peer marketplace, but to get to that point we need to have certain features in place first.
One of the first steps we’re taking to get this going is to implement user profiles for community members to increase community awareness and accountability. Once that is implemented we can begin taking further steps along the lines of a following system, reputation, and fraud prevention.
At the end of the day we want to provide something that enriches the community and improves it. Adding in a peer to peer marketplace is definitely one of those things, but it has to be done right. Once we have all the prerequisite features completed, we’ll definitely bring it to the community.
Jun 22, 2016
payodpanda
958
Jun 22, 2016
bookmark_border
AlexPkReally nice to see that it's on the radar to be implemented as an "official" feature. I'll look forward to that, certainly.
But, what about community-started threads? With this discussion system opening up, what if somebody started a thread wanting to sell something? Say I go and start a thread right now (before you implement any of the features you described), trying to sell a pair of shoes I got that don't fit me (hypothetical situation), would this be allowed / in keeping with your T&C? Would this be allowed but discouraged? Neutral? Encouraged?
Also, don't you already have a community profile, following, and reputation? That said, > fraud prevention is where it's at. Other fora necessitate the use of PayPal, sending to PayPal verified addresses only, and only selling via PayPal with the 3% service fee (no gifts). However all this is recommended, and can't be enforced with the kind of structure these fora have. I'd love to see how you integrate fraud protection into the system here.
I can never decide if I should use forums or fora. Fora sounds like flowers (flora) and I like flowers.
Jun 22, 2016
DannyMilks
4557
Jun 23, 2016
bookmark_border
payodpanda@payodpanda - You are asking some really great questions. I'll let Kunal or someone else answer them from the Massdrop perspective, but I personally wanted to echo your sentiments that I too would love to see the ability to sell stuff. I am in the Ultralight Community, and I wouldn't trust reddit for selling stuff, I don't want to pay the fees and have the hassle of ebay, and craigslist isn't a good avenue for most of my gear. The leading Ultralight forum - Backpackinglight.com - charges a fee to post in the forum, and it could do a better job of the whole community profile/reputation aspect. So I know my community members would take advantage of a selling platform here, should it ever happen.
And I personally would prefer it to be more like craigslist, which has no involvement in the transaction, rather than Ebay, which is critical to each transaction and therefore must charge high fees to cover the fraud protection.
Jun 23, 2016
kunalkumar
3939
Outreach
Jul 18, 2016
bookmark_border
payodpandaThanks for your patience on this one @payodpanda. As @AlexPeterkin mentioned already, we consider a peer to peer marketplace that is devoid of fraud a big tool for any community.
At this point, I'd say that we want to keep a neutral point of view to community started threads especially when trading is involved. However, we want community members to be extremely careful with any transactional posts because of the possibility of fraud.
All that said, I think the community can come up with creative ideas on how to prevent themselves. We'll also be keeping a close eye on any threads that are created along these lines and trying to make sure everything's kosher.
Here's an example of a trading thread that has been created in EDC: https://www.massdrop.com/talk/226/any
Jul 18, 2016
Nathan_S
7
Jul 2, 2019
bookmark_border
payodpandaI agree with what you're requesting. I'm the outdoors type. HammockForums.net has a buy/sell system and only people that have been proven as legit members are allowed to post sales there. Such as a minimum membership time, activity level(?), minimum posts(?). All intended to weed out scammers. Their guidelines might be a good staring point for Drop to consider. And I definitely like the idea of only verified Drop purchases to be sold. I also think a maximum time between purchase and sale would be good. And certainly no ability to profit. Shipping details would be an exception and up to the buyer/seller. Also a feedback/rating system for buyers and sellers. Of course Drop should not be held liable for anything. It would have to be an "at your own risk" sort of thing where I believe Paypal would be the wisest payment option. I am slightly concerned about the size/fit of a backpack I just ordered, but I know I'll have no problem selling it for what I paid if I have an issue.
Jul 2, 2019
View Full Discussion
Related Posts
Trending Posts in Drop Hub