"Vendors with issues in the BOI"

I am in the same boat as Wes to a degree. I dont want a GGC. For myself personally I never believed in the system in the first place.

Matt at MG Reptiles is just one of the reasons why. He has ran around putting negative votes on very respected peoples banners for no reason what so ever. Another reason being is that the GGC, much like the Trader Rating, is available to less than 1 percent of my customers. It is basically a reflection of the thoughts of a very small group of Fauna regulars. Not a true reflection of my business ethics or a reflection of 99 plus percent my true customer base's thoughts.

Wes is dead on, tying the GCC to this is just going to squish the little guy and make people like me who dont believe in the GCC not advertise here at all.

It does seem that if it is linked to the GGC, as it is now, then it limits who can advertise. You would need to implement some way of awarding a GGC without a web site or having sold an animal.

An improved search function, (meaning put it right out front and with instructions) would bring all good and bad guy threads out. Putting it in the Classifieds would work as long as that search leads to the BOI. If I am searching for say "High End Herps" I don't also need to be weeding through the job posting, anything in "Just for Laughs" or anyplace else they are mentioned. I can see the advantage of the Intelligent Fuzzy search but for this function I think it wouldn't gain much. I am more worried that someone typing "Upstate Exotics" without the "and" doesn't get all the posts with just the word "exotics"

Then as Terese says, if I read the BOI and after all the neg. I see still choose to buy thats my choice, if there is a snake for sale on the classifieds and I choose to ignore the bad guy posts then its my choice. You can't make the decision for me on who to buy from or not to buy.

As far as the GGC I don't have a web site and more than likely won't for a long while. Yet if I want to sell one of my animals I should be able to. I don't think tying the classifieds to GGC is a good idea. Paid membership maybe??

Why not a search function in the add itself by the sellers name.Just like the the trader rating function under member names here.
All people have to do is click, and the pertinent info will or will not come up.

Originally Posted by christopher66

Why not a search function in the add itself by the sellers name.Just like the the trader rating function under member names here.
All people have to do is click, and the pertinent info will or will not come up.

Too many change names too often.

Big storms knocked out power here today, and I just got it back. Wanted to follow up on a concern of Lucille's:

Wouldn't it be possible for a couple of determined people to put up some groundless complaints on the BOI and thereby deprive an innocent vendor of his privilege to advertise? Not every BOI complaint turns out to be warranted.

This is where the committee comes in. Again, it would be called something akin to "Vendor's with Issues", although the slang for it may well become something like "The Fauna $hit List", and it would take reliable and proven evidence to get on it. That would be hashed out in BOI threads, just as it is now. The "committee" could debate it back in a mod-forum or such, while a few would likely participate in the regular thread. It will be up to the committee to root out the "groundless complaints", which is not hard to do in a thread, again just as it is done now. It will take 2-3 independent confirmed infractions to make the list. Nothing lightweight. "He said - she said's" won't be good enough. I think experienced members here are very good at separating the weed from the chaff. Right now, I can only imagine 5-10 entities max being on the list. The idea grew out of current threads regarding such as Scott Sanchez and Bobby Pruett still being able to use Fauna and other sites to rip folks off. People would click on that list, if it were highlighted well enough, and get 5-10 names stuck in their heads as to whom to avoid before ever being exposed to them via an ad somehwere. That would be its power. It will generate huge awareness beyond what the BOI currently does. It would become the ultimate list in our business not to be on, and that would popularize it.

Every comment that I have seen indicates that we all want it easier for the BOI to aid newbies as to who the habitual scammers are. My goal was only to solicit concerns and ideas, and maybe plant some seeds for future considerations. I owe a few posts some karma ... thanks

Don't forget too, if someone changes names, such as Ray's Reptilia has done, as soon as it is outed in the BOI, the "new" name goes up in the lights as an "AKA" etc. Puts a little more bite in the sleuthing !

If you can't delete ads from crooks due to liability problems, what about deleting ads for items being sold that are illegal?

These fish are illegal in ALL of NY but here is an ad for them on Fauna from a seller in NY who is willing to ship or sell them locally to another person in NY.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...988#post484988