Feedback

[Ritmas]

After i was not able to start more threads and coudnt edit threads marked as SOLD on first page , i was able to salvage one thread that was not marked SOLD from second page, bump it and edit.
I've put all my offers into this one thread (as i cant start/buy more) and results after more then a week are not good.

As i usually try to update, show what accounts can do, what they got, how they performed at certain activities - there is a wall of posts with text and screenshots of "Account 1", "Account 2"... etc.
I try to edit/remove screenshots and text of accounts sold. But as i can not remove posts in my thread, just delete posts content - there is still a wall, as new content i need to post in new posts, otherwise people will think that there is no new content in my posts and wont check.

Anyway, results are obvious to me - my sales dropped significantly (estimate ~50%) and as i always prefer to use Epic Middleman - so does your revenue.

Making people scroll the wall of text and pictures, trying to figure which content is from which account is not user/buyer friendly.

My suggestion would be:
- remove thread limit all together (best option, as it would attract more serious sellers, who are in game account trading)
- do not count closed threads such as marked SOLD (which can not be edited) towards 6+1 thread count on a first page.

 

[iAccomplish]

I understand your feedback.

More serious sellers would choose to upgrade to "Epic Member" or "Verified" which further enhances their trust among potential buyers. These perks also come with 6 month edit time and unlimited edit time respectively.

A seller who does not upgrade generally only are here to sell 2-3 of their personal accounts and then eventually leave or come back if they have more things to sell, so there is no point in providing them with unlimited edit time.

Someone who is constantly selling and updating their threads would choose to upgrade as they know they will be here for a long time and by also purchasing an upgrade you get to gain buyers trust and potentially gaining more customers/sales. Therefore, it wont hurt to upgrade as you'd benefit from it in the long run.

1. If we removed thread limit, it would cause chaos. One user could fill up the entire front page with just their threads and that is unfair for the other sellers.
2. I'm fairly certain we are not counting the sold threads as threads on front page.

 

[Ritmas]

Well, i have bought unlimited edit time and see no reason why it should be given to all users. Its good as it is. Lets Epic generate some profit. i do not suggest changing it.

And i absolutely agree that someone who is constantly selling should try to gain buyers trust, including buying various upgrades. Do not dispute that or argue otherwise.

But i disagree with assumption that "If we removed thread limit, it would cause chaos ".

1. I am using other sites where is no such limit. There is no chaos anywhere. It would increase competition for certain, most active/most paying customer threads would be on top as everyone can Bump their threads for free or money. So the system would be more fair - as those who actually use Epic more often & pay - would have their threads on top. Now the system is rigged against big traders who are more active and able to pay in favor of threads that are not paid for and are inactive.
For example now i can create new threads as fast as slowest and most inactive threads on my forum. As it stands now - its ~2 months or more.

... if i am a paying customer who could have many threads and can pay extra for bumping them or even buy sticky thread it seems no brainer that website should let me do that as its good for everyone - increase traffic to Epic (as people would come more to bump their threads), increase revenue from bumping threads, sticky threads and of course increase revenue from Middleman as more accounts would be sold.

2. My case clearly shows that closed threads (marked as SOLD) are counted as threads on front page. Its 100% true fact.

 

[EpicNPC]

Thank you. I appreciate the feedback as we are always looking for way to improve our site.

- remove thread limit all together (best option, as it would attract more serious sellers, who are in game account trading)

This would not be possible. Large sellers would flood the categories with their threads and all other smaller sellers would be lost in deeper pages, page 2, 3, 4 etc. We limit threads from 3-7 threads on the first page depending on the activity in each forum. We want small sellers to be able to list items and compete with larger one's without having to spend money.

- do not count closed threads such as marked SOLD (which can not be edited) towards 6+1 thread count on a first page.

There has already been abuse of the "sold" tag, so we decided to include it in the thread count. New sellers were posting many threads, then immediately marking some of them as sold so they can pretend they're a good seller. Making an exception for "sold" would be the same thing as having no limit. Sellers would simply abuse the system to flood the forums with their threads. It's not always about listing their own items, often it's about controlling the forum, making sure you're threads are more visiable then your competitors or pushing yoru competitor threads off page 1. It's also about advertising and views. Even sold threads get views, so indirectly that helps those seller to sell more by redirection customers to their other threads.

 

[Ritmas]

Yes, you made valid points.
But maybe situation could be solved in some other way. Because if forum is not active, being able to post new thread every 2-3 months is... disappointing to say the least (limitations actually "kill" that forum).


Maybe different forums could have different thread limits based on their activity. For example if forum is active and last thread in front page is not a week old (or was not bumped for a week) it could still have the same limits. If front page last thread is older then a week - it would remove thread limit until last thread would be younger then a week.
This way smaller users would still be protected and could idle their thread on front page for a week. And big sellers would be limited in thread amount on front page when forum becomes active.

Or... keep the same limit, just add exception that additional new thread could be created every for example 7 days (after last one was created).

Another thing could be that threads marked SOLD could not be bumped. This would decrease abuse. Also they could automatically be moved to second page.

... also if intention is to give less active sellers more opportunity on first page - reduction of number of free bumps to like one per day or even one per 72 hours could help.

There are just a few of ideas. Limitations that you implemented have their reasons in very active forums, but in inactive forums where last thread is two or more months old is hurting both: sellers and Epicnpc.

 

[EpicNPC]

But maybe situation could be solved in some other way. Because if forum is not active, being able to post new thread every 2-3 months is... disappointing to say the least (limitations actually "kill" that forum).
Maybe different forums could have different thread limits based on their activity.

We already do this.
https://www.epicnpc.com/threads/max-threads-on-first-page-rule-updated.1492858/

Inactive forums allow for 6 threads, 7 if you purchase an extra one. If a forum is inactive, then I'm not sure I understand why you need so many threads.

Normally you can created 1 main thread for each type and use them as stores.

1 - Account store
2 - Service store #1
3 - Service store #2
4 - extra thread
5 - extra thread
6 - extra thread
7 - extra thread

By "store" I mean a thread where you list most of your accounts or services. You can edit the thread to remove sold accounts or add new accounts. You also have extra threads to sell individual accounts for high-value accounts you want to highlight.

I just don't understand why someone would need more than 7 threads for an inactive game or small market.

 

[Ritmas]

For each account to have a separate thread is good as it lets to post content, updates and achievements in it and its separated from other account content. In one thread all content is mixed up, so when people want to check information just for one account they have to go through all of the posts with content from many different accounts.

Problem gets worse when there are many posts with account content updates and some accounts are sold. As i've bought unlimited editing - i can remove content of accounts i've sold from posts, but posts themselves and posts with questions from other users about that account stay, i can not remove.
This way number of post that are outdated, empty and irrelevant in one thread grows to a wall and buyers (ever time they open my thread) have to scroll through when they look for information/content for one specific account.

I just don't understand why someone would need more than 7 threads for an inactive game or small market.

This actually has a very easy answer. Different games have different communities which use different Middleman websites. For example here Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes game has a very small market, but on ******** (https://www.************/accounts/swghaccount/ ) is one of the main markets. SWGOH players go there to buy and sell because it has many accounts to choose from, has lots of traffic, buyers (which is important for sellers).
As in my opinion Epicnpc has much better Middleman system in place so i was talking with other big sellers about moving here or at least listing accounts for sale here too. At first they show interest, but start to doubt if this work of posting accounts for sale on two sites is worth after seeing inactive forum, and after i tell them about thread limit - they loose interest. They just say - yes, ******** is a bad site but this is where buyers come and we can post all our accounts without limitations.

Personally i try to update/post new content once per day for each account. Now it is just one thread so there is not much action in forum, if i could post more threads - it would show forum as more active, thus increasing its appeal to buyers and sellers.



And just a final note: I do not think you understand how unique and good your Middleman system is in comparison to all other Middleman websites there are around And as i am big fan of it, for me its frustrating to see that you are diminishing your growth and popularity by limiting yourself. You are the best, but not the biggest... yet.

 

[EpicNPC]

I appreciate the compliment and insight.

I'm going to contemplate this over the next few days and see if a solution can be found or possibly a complete rework of the current thread limit system.