A pro-active approach to the BOI

I have just opened this new forum up as READ ONLY to everyone so I can get some comments about my latest hare-brained project.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...play.php?f=813

Actually, I have had this on the back burner since sometime in 2002 when I first thought about implementing it. But for various reasons, I held off, mostly because I felt it would be more headaches then it would be worth.

But now with the paid membership levels imminent here, this is a much more feasible idea to approach with some slim hope of success.

Anyway, I am still working on the WELCOME message, so bear that in mind as you read it. Things may change as I think about them further. One particular point that I haven't quite decided on yet is whether or not I should tie participation completely to some level of the paid membership plans. Voting, of course, will be enabled ONLY on the paid (verified) member levels, but I am not certain about the participants themselves. It will take some work on my part to implement this fully and do the management and maintenance, so I am more inclined to have this a paid member level perk then not.

But I am open to suggestions, pro and con.

Thanks......

perhaps it's just my computer but the link seems dead

Seems somewhat complicated.....maybe it's just late and probably need to read again. But from what I am getting from it....It looks like a great idea.

Bthacker

Originally Posted by Bthacker

Seems somewhat complicated.....maybe it's just late and probably need to read again. But from what I am getting from it....It looks like a great idea.

Bthacker

Well if you can come up with some ideas to simplify it, please let me know. I have been thinking about this for quite a long time, and have tried to look at it from every angle I could think of. I have seen people who were perfectly capable of abusing an anvil with a rubber hammer, so I am trying to make this as foolproof as I can. I do admit that one stumbling block is going to be that the member (user) is going to have to plug the code into his/her own website. From my experience with FaunaTopSites, where it is a similarly acting system, some people cannot paste in the code, either from shortcomings in the code generator they use, or the fact that they are not at all familiar with what is needed in order to be able to do this. This is unfortunate, but I see no way around it.

The images need to be serialized because otherwise anyone can scrape the image and put it on their website. So there has to be some manner of accountability for each image out there on someone's website. Of course, one obvious weakness is the fact that I don't have much leverage at all legally if someone decides to just steal the image and put it on their own website. The best I can do is to just take steps to show publicly that such an occurance has taken place and leave that as it's own indication of the type of person or business someone would be dealing with.

So anyway, yeah, help me out if you can to simplify things. Most of this is going to be a manual process, so it is going to be rather a pain in the butt for me. But if I see it being used as it is intended, then I think I could get this mostly automated. A lot depends on the paid membership project flying or not, since that will tell the tale as to whether or no I even have the funds to carry this out as it is.

One simple question, would you're address you submit be visable to the public?

I think it is an excellent idea. It looks like a quick and reliable way to get a general idea of how a vendor does business prior to making a purchase. I myself, if this plan went into effect, would put great store by a business who had this certification. I particularly like the displayed name poll feature, too.

I have a question about those who have multiple purchases from one vendor. There are exceptions to every generalization, but I have noted three broad classifications of people who do business in the reptile industry:

There are those who are low life scamming slimeballs (and the BOI has been a pioneer in exposing these guys and educating consumers so that they may make good choices and not deal with such people).

There are good, honest vendors who from day one of their business operate with integrity and make quality animal care and good customer service their highest priority.

It is the third category that my question deals with. There are new vendors who start a business and begin not from either of the above two classifications but instead fall somewhere in the middle. We have all seen on the BOI stories of those who have missed a ship date, or accidentally shipped an animal that did not conform to expectations. These guys can end up going either way with their business. They can immediately send out a replacement shipment if warranted, or otherwise clean up a shaky start, or they can deteriorate and become one of those vendors best not dealt with.

Will there be a way for those who have had more than one experience with the same vendor to address the middle classification of people and vote more than once in the poll, or in some way address their personal experience, if they have had separate experiences that have had separate outcomes?

If not, the overall picture would still be a good measure of the vendor, as each completed experience by a purchaser generally ends on either a positive or negative note and all of these wotes taken together will give a good picture of the overall quality of a vendor, over time.

I like the idea.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Of course, one obvious weakness is the fact that I don't have much leverage at all legally if someone decides to just steal the image and put it on their own website.

(Upside) Unless you had is copyrighted. Then you could go after them with both guns a blazing.

(Downside) Of course that would cost time and money.

...Or would that fall under Trademark protection?

Sort of a "Seal of Good Housekeeping" for herp breeders and dealers. I believe you said that the icon would lead back to info on your site regarding the dealer /breeder. If the icon was a clickable link, you could work something into the design of the symbol that said something like "invalid unless link is working" or something to that effect. Then if somebody steals it, one can easily tell there is no link and it is stolen.

If enough businesses started using it, of course it would bring a lot more exposure to the BOI. Newbies would see the seal on some sites, but not others, so would probably try to find out what it is all about and discover this site much sooner than they might otherwise.

I will be interested to hear whatever pros and cons others might think up about the idea.

Originally Posted by lucille

It is the third category that my question deals with. There are new vendors who start a business and begin not from either of the above two classifications but instead fall somewhere in the middle. We have all seen on the BOI stories of those who have missed a ship date, or accidentally shipped an animal that did not conform to expectations. These guys can end up going either way with their business. They can immediately send out a replacement shipment if warranted, or otherwise clean up a shaky start, or they can deteriorate and become one of those vendors best not dealt with.

Will there be a way for those who have had more than one experience with the same vendor to address the middle classification of people and vote more than once in the poll, or in some way address their personal experience, if they have had separate experiences that have had separate outcomes?

If not, the overall picture would still be a good measure of the vendor, as each completed experience by a purchaser generally ends on either a positive or negative note and all of these wotes taken together will give a good picture of the overall quality of a vendor, over time.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, a member here can only vote on a poll once. So of course, there are drawbacks to that based on the scenario you painted. Yes, we have seen good guys go bad, and have also seen bad guys go good. There is nothing at all that can be done to prevent that. Bad guys going good is a good thing, and probably a real tough road for the bad guy trying to get onto the straight and narrow after having been exposed for their wrong doings. But it IS possible to do.

Good guys going bad is very problematical. People WILL get burned because of the initial good reputation and there is not a single thing that can be done about that. But my suspicion is that not only repeat customers will be getting burned, but new ones as well. So as for the reporting poll is concerned, I believe that the balance of points will begin to move into the red zone pretty quickly to call them out. Plus the regular BOI will always be there for the astute buyer to check out for fast paced developments. These will likely be automatically linked as similar threads to the poll thread, but if not, then either myself or the mods, depending on time available, may put in referring links to the BOI within the thread to alert people of a possible problem.

One thought that popped up was that I probably don't have too much to worry about concerning bad guys just swiping the certificate and putting it on their site. Many people seeing it on their site will probably be curious enough to come here to FaunaClassifieds to check it out anyway, and within a very short period of time would be able to determine the bogus nature of what the other site where they saw the certificate was doing. So in effect, this person would wind up shooting him or herself in the foot by doing something like that.

BTW, I am already taking reservations from people who want to participate in this program when it is implemented. The early birds get the worm for the lower numbered slots. That forum has been altered so that it is sorted in alphabetical order via the certificate numbers, so the lower numbered slots will ALWAYS be on the first page.

Numbers will be recycled if people drop out of the program for one reason or another. This can happen under a couple of circumstances:
(1) The member drops into the negative reputation zone and resigns from the program accordingly, or

(2) The member allows their membership to this site to lapse and they are no longer a member of the lowest permissible level to take part in this program.

(3) The banner certificate has been removed from the member's site. Periodic audits will be done, so any listed website that does not any longer have the banner will be requested to re-install it or be removed from the listing.

Yeah, there is going to be some grunt labor associated with this, which is why I am making the minimum level for participation being a paid membership.