A pro-active approach to the BOI

[Mickey_TLK]

I understand what your saying Rich.

I guess I will run a test, and let others know how it goes. Im not saying it wouldnt work without use in adds, ect, I just figure for it to be fully effective, that would be a great place for its use. My only concern is, in the past, KS has pulled anything with faunna attached to it, as such I wouldnt doubt if he would do the same here. However it also seems you two have burried the hatchet so I figured it wouldnt hurt to ask.

 

[bcfos]

I was thinking of makeing an account on kingsnake at the same time as fauna*when fee starts. but if kingsnake will delet ads with the link I will not be giveing them my money

At least the one forum is more stable thant the other one. You can guess which one is more stable now can't you?? The one that won the lawsuit.

 

[WebSlave]

At least the one forum is more stable thant the other one. You can guess which one is more stable now can't you?? The one that won the lawsuit.

Oh I don't know about that. Maybe if enough rats jump ship thinking a crash is imminent, we won't be riding so low in the water....

 

[WebSlave]

I understand what your saying Rich.

I guess I will run a test, and let others know how it goes. Im not saying it wouldnt work without use in adds, ect, I just figure for it to be fully effective, that would be a great place for its use. My only concern is, in the past, KS has pulled anything with faunna attached to it, as such I wouldnt doubt if he would do the same here. However it also seems you two have burried the hatchet so I figured it wouldnt hurt to ask.

I've been thinking about this. Actually I would prefer that people NOT post that Certificate banner in their classified ads. This would increase traffic to my server substantially since every view of that ad would mean a call to my server and a returned image. That might cause me more headaches then it would be worth if I have to wind up getting another server just to handle the processing of those image requests.

But thanks for pointing that out to me. I may want to put them all into their own domain just in case I find that I need to do that in the future. If they are all in their own separate domain, it would be a simple matter of just moving that domain instead of having them all integral with the main FaunaClassifieds.com site.

 

[Dachiu]

I agree with WebSlave here. This image is a representation of ones business ethics and the overall viewpoint of previous or existing customers. I believe the idea was to streamline the many posts about "Good Guys" by converting them into poll format and inter-linking the more definitive posts on the BOI.

For most people, their web site is afterall, a "home base" when advertising on the internet, not any particular classified ad. That being said, the image would be expected to be placed onto the web site of the 'certified' party.
Almost everyone (truely interested) who views a classified ad will follow a link provided to the advertisers web site for further information and/or knowledge of the person placing the ad. Once there, the image will be in plain sight and if they choose to, they can follow up on it.


My suggestion for seperating this program would be to set it up similiar to the TopSites program. Land it in its own domain for maintenence and management purposes. This way if there's a need to move, upgrade, restructure or re-program in the future everything is tucked neatly into 1 domain. Plus you can keep a close eye on the bandwidth.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

question...

Originally Posted by Webslave:
If at any time, one or both of those rating vehicles drops below zero (0) and you have a negative rating, your permission to display the provided certification banner will be withdrawn and you MUST remove it from your site immediately.

What happens when a scammer gets exposed on the BOI and they in turn post a negative rating point in retaliation? This happened to me with Mitch Garlow when he tried to rip me off claiming he had his collection stolen. If it were not for that, I would have a 100% positive rating. I am sure something similar has happened to many Fauna members who would otherwise be "Good Guys".

 

[WebSlave]

What happens when a scammer gets exposed on the BOI and they in turn post a negative rating point in retaliation? This happened to me with Mitch Garlow when he tried to rip me off claiming he had his collection stolen. If it were not for that, I would have a 100% positive rating. I am sure something similar has happened to many Fauna members who would otherwise be "Good Guys".

There is no perfect system. The whole working theory behind the BOI in general is that the truth will come out in time. So even with a couple of malicious activities, the bulk of the evidence will win out. And along that same line, it has been my experience that in cases where a bad guy makes malicious attempts to smear a good guy, it only really reflects on the bad guy, exposing them further for what they really are.

 

[WebSlave]

My suggestion for seperating this program would be to set it up similiar to the TopSites program. Land it in its own domain for maintenence and management purposes. This way if there's a need to move, upgrade, restructure or re-program in the future everything is tucked neatly into 1 domain. Plus you can keep a close eye on the bandwidth.

Yeah, I agree. I've already moved the certifications image folder to my FaunaAds.com domain on my other server. I set this other domain up because I'm pretty sure that I am going to have to move the banner ad software onto it's own server to take the load off of the main server that handles this forum software. Unless my paid membership plan really sinks this ship (in which case it will be a moot point anyway), I am projecting that this will happen within 1 year. I'm a firm believer in distributed processing, so as much as possible, I try to put everything I can into it's own little compartment that can be moved around at will as the need arises.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

still looking for answer...

Originally Posted by Webslave:
There is no perfect system. The whole working theory behind the BOI in general is that the truth will come out in time. So even with a couple of malicious activities, the bulk of the evidence will win out. And along that same line, it has been my experience that in cases where a bad guy makes malicious attempts to smear a good guy, it only really reflects on the bad guy, exposing them further for what they really are.

Originally Posted by Webslave:
If at any time, one or both of those rating vehicles drops below zero (0) and you have a negative rating, your permission to display the provided certification banner will be withdrawn and you MUST remove it from your site immediately.

So, I guess my question still remains... Since I have a negative feedback rating (point), does this means I cannot participate in the certification banner?

 

[reptilebreeder]

So, I guess my question still remains... Since I have a negative feedback rating (point), does this means I cannot participate in the certification banner?

You have a negative point, but you don't have a negative rating (total) your rep points is 14 (+). So I don't think it would apply. At least that's how I'm interpreting WS statements.

 

[DAND]

So, I guess my question still remains... Since I have a negative feedback rating (point), does this means I cannot participate in the certification banner?

Marcia,

I believe you are misunderstanding. You are in the green (positive) over all right now. It is only when you go into the negative that you will be unable to participate.

Also, (I'm not positive about this, Webslave will have to clarify) but to me it is sounding like this will be something new and will not be including the past feedback left.

 

[WebSlave]

Marcia,

I believe you are misunderstanding. You are in the green (positive) over all right now. It is only when you go into the negative that you will be unable to participate.

Also, (I'm not positive about this, Webslave will have to clarify) but to me it is sounding like this will be something new and will not be including the past feedback left.

First part is correct. I expect abuses. Some people can abuse an anvil with a rubber hammer. There will always be disgruntled people, cretins, malicious personalities and troublemakers. But it is very doubtful they can sway the balance in the wrong direction. And I WILL be monitoring this and auditing it as necessary. I will not spend every waking moment correcting the occasional problems, but I will make sure that the abuses will not damage the functionality of the system as a whole. That is why I am not fully implementing this until both the polling system and the Traders Ratings is limited to input from verified (paid) members only. If I have to clean up some abuses at that point, I wil do so.

Second part is incorrect. I am not starting a new Traders Rating system. Part of this system will include an active link to the current Traders Rating system that will be utilized in the overall rating. As I mentioned before, I will clean up obvous abuses, but I will not put myself in the position of having to judge the merits of all votes and ratings placed. Minor abuses will just have to be lived with. As long as the overall rating is in the positive, then you are qualified as a Good Guy in this system. And yes, perhaps someone would be willing to pay $10 a hit in order to get multiple logins to damage someone's ratings. But I figure that the money they are paying will also be paying me for my time to investigate their abuses. I think in the long run, they will tire of the time and expense long before I will. And I will be laughing all the way to the bank at their expense.

I expect some rough edges, but I do believe that with some patience this could be a very positive thing for everyone that deserves it.

 

[progeckos]

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

I have the same concern. I do this out of my house and I don’t want people to be knocking on my front door. Rich, can we just omit the address but provide all the other detailed info?

I really like this idea and will participate once it’s ready.

 

[WebSlave]

I have the same concern. I do this out of my house and I don’t want people to be knocking on my front door. Rich, can we just omit the address but provide all the other detailed info?

I really like this idea and will participate once it’s ready.

Well. let me answer this with a question or three:

When you ship out boxes to customers, what do you have on the return address part of the airbill label?

Do you have an address on your website for people to send payments to?

Would YOU be willing to buy something from someone who did not provide an address to YOU?

Yes, this is a sticky situation, I agree, and I will handle it in whatever way the majority of people here seem to feel best fits what we are trying to accomplish with this program.

Will bad guys apply for this program using a false business name? Most certainly. How is this abuse going to be best addressed to be in everyone's best interests? How many bad guys got outed on the BOI because multiple names had the same address?

So you guys tell me. What is the best way to handle this?

 

[Vince]

will people be able to post? or just ad a vote? I want to clear on this point, will people who you have not done bussiness with be able to lable you as a bad guy becuse they dont like you personaly? could you change a vote if you change your mind about some one? can you vote more then once if their is a second issue?

 

[Vince]

Second part is incorrect. I am not starting a new Traders Rating system. Part of this system will include an active link to the current Traders Rating system that will be utilized in the overall rating. As I mentioned before, I will clean up obvous abuses, but I will not put myself in the position of having to judge the merits of all votes and ratings placed.
.

how would you determin if their is abuse in the trader rateing? I worked hard to make every deal I did a good one, and have been left feed back by members of this site , some arent very active members, few have more then 10 posts.(i just checked them out) and some havent logged in in months. I dont want to lose that feedback , those are the first deals I have ever done on the internet.

what happens if they become non-members when the tide changes and fees are charged?

also could/should I ask people I have done deals with to vote for me on the BOI poll? or is it going to be a fresh start?

only paying members will be able to vote correct?

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I have the same concern. I do this out of my house and I don’t want people to be knocking on my front door. Rich, can we just omit the address but provide all the other detailed info?

So you guys tell me. What is the best way to handle this?

I have no problem providing my physical address on the shipping labels for my customers, or if someone has an appointment to come look at geckos. I just don't want the curious general population knowing my address. I am here by myself all day, and would like the peace of mind to know that folks don't think that I am a retail business, or set myself up for intrusion. Also, it could leave all of us wide open for theft... something that happens far too often these days.

Why not do something like... leave out the street address on your website, but have it to where we can be contacted by potential customers to provide our address? This way, it would be at our personal discretion who knows where we live.

 

[progeckos]

When you ship out boxes to customers, what do you have on the return address part of the airbill label?

Do you have an address on your website for people to send payments to?

Would YOU be willing to buy something from someone who did not provide an address to YOU?

When I ship packages I do have my address on them. I don’t however have it on my website. If someone wants to send a payment other than paypal I send them my address but everyone doesn’t have access to it. If I had a retail store I would have no problem giving a physical address.

I agree with everything Marcia said. There are some crazy people on the internet and you never know what they might do.

 

[W.Wedeking]

I like this idea. It is a more possitive approach and a good one, especially if used in conjunction with the original BOI.

The only downside I see to this is that someone can give you a negative rating without the situation being explained. I think we have seen a few "Bad Guy" threads started on the BOI where it turned out that the person complaining was either jumping the gun, had unreasonable expectations or just thought they could make someone look bad and get away with it.

 

[WebSlave]

When I ship packages I do have my address on them. I don’t however have it on my website. If someone wants to send a payment other than paypal I send them my address but everyone doesn’t have access to it. If I had a retail store I would have no problem giving a physical address.

I agree with everything Marcia said. There are some crazy people on the internet and you never know what they might do.

OK. I can make the addess optional. That line item will say something like "Withheld by request". That sound OK?

But honestly folks, just how difficult during this day and age do you think it is for someone to find your address on the net?