question for mods and/or KB !!!

is there any reason that this site does not have a for sale section ?

i think it would be very beneficial to all (and the best part is that its NOT tied to fakebook)...

you could even "suggest" that sellers agree to send KB 5% of any sales to help cover forum costs...
(which might need to be on the "honor system" as it might otherwise be difficult to monitor)

just a thought

Given that this is an international site with members almost literally from all countries, we took the decision some time ago (and recently revisited) that a sales section just was too much trouble.  Whether or not it sets out that way, it is too much of a risk that it would fall to the moderators to do a lot of the work. I personally don't want to moderate the inevitable disputes between a seller and an aggrieved purchaser and I certainly don't want to spend my time worrying in case the items for sale were, shall we say, not so ethically sourced. There is also the issue of international shipment and all the restrictions involved.

There is also the issue that the whole IBC might just degenerate into an auction site with folk signing up just for that.

That is my thoughts anyway.


btw What is KB? Did you mean Kevin? There are actually very few running costs for the forum and these are already well covered for the foreseeable future.

yeah,,, kev baily as the admin...

i dont see how any disputes would be any problem of the mods/admin as that is between buyer and seller and could be clearly stated for all to see... i dont see any problems on bonsai nut's sale section and if i got a bum deal on craigslist, i certainly couldnt go to craigslist to complain, nor if it were through an advert in the newspaper... but like you said, it has been discussed and recently revisited... i was just wondering what the reasoning was... and i was prompted to ask, in no small part, by yet another 2 bonsai sales/auction sites being set up on fakebook

thanks for the reply and hopefully it will be again revisited before everyone bails out entirely to fakebook and not just for sales & auctions, but for everything else this forum provides...

Facebook is certainly "flavour of the month" these days, although history seems to be repeating itself over there with groups with thousands of members and still only a handful of active ones. I sometimes think some folk see it as a challenge to join as many groups as possible.

indeed... you are probably right.

fiona wrote: I sometimes think some folk see it as a challenge to join as many groups as possible.

I am probably one of the lurkers on FB. i just have a quick browse once or twice a day through the timeline to see whether something fun/interesting has popped up. I see the problem mainly in all the closed FB groups; You can only see what happens inside once you join the group. So you join, realize after a bit that nothing interesting is happening, and you do not return. (Yet figuring out how to remove the group is not worth the effort, in case you want to have a second peek at some point)

leatherback wrote:Yet figuring out how to remove the group is not worth the effort, in case you want to have a second peek at some point)

Just for any needed action in the future, you click on where it say Joined and you get the option to leave a group.

fiona wrote:
 Just for any needed action in the future, you click on where it say Joined and you get the option to leave a group.  

{Pick any random comment involving teaching granny how to suck eggs }

 


Thx though

leatherback wrote:

fiona wrote: I sometimes think some folk see it as a challenge to join as many groups as possible.

I am probably one of the lurkers on FB. i just have a quick browse once or twice a day through the timeline to see whether something fun/interesting has popped up. I see the problem mainly in all the closed FB groups; You can only see what happens inside once you join the group. So you join, realize after a bit that nothing interesting is happening, and you do not return. (Yet figuring out how to remove the group is not worth the effort, in case you want to have a second peek at some point)

Not much different from these forums, really. Take a look at the total membership list of ibc or bonsainut and compare that to the number of people who post on a regular basis. The vast majority of members of all these places are lurkers. People join to ask a question or two, then disappear.

The nice thing about facebook bonsai groups is that you can just log on one place (facebook, obviously) and have access to everything at once. The potential problem comes somewhere down the line if facebook changes its policies, starts charging, etc. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out. Certainly the facebook format is not as conducive to the kinds of threaded discussions that take place on the forums, but the convenience factors seems to balance that.