Reseller Bumps

[wowdosman]

I would like to address the reseller bumps mainly in the US WoW Account Buy and Sell forum; I have not really looked into the EU section, so I cannot comment on how the situation is. The problem is that the resellers bump every single sell thread they have to the top at the same time. However, the forum has a rule for every 6 hours bump. I feel like when I bump my sell thread to the top, it doesn't stay more than like 2 minutes on the first page because a reseller will bump about 7 sell threads that he/she has posted. This results in my bump being practically useless: what is the point of bumping if your thread cannot stay on the front page because several resellers just bumped about 12 threads to the first page within a span of 10 minutes.

I understand that the resellers have a lot of accounts to sell, but I feel that the way they are using the bump system currently hurts individual sellers - like myself - because our threads simply do not get the same amount of "Front page time" compared to the resellers' threads. I mean, at any given time, I see the front page of the US WoW Account Sell forum with so many orange letters, and sometimes completely covered with the reseller threads.

I just would like to address this problem so that we can make MMObay a friendly buy/sell place for everyone.

 

[UnholySonata]

Resellers are above the law, you should know that by now.

 

[DarkDeserter]

Pretty much.

 

[Ash]

Banned - failed to resolve dispute - http://www.epicnpc.com/threads/566183-Ash - hacking into a member's epicnpc account

^^^^

 

[Whambulance]

I agree this needs to be addressed and we're working on it but is welcome input and I also have a few ideas I'm going to run by mike as well. Also feel free to pm mmobay on forums and give him ideas. Sorry for late response, I was out yesterday.

 

[gman]

If you come across this, please use the report button.

 

[Whambulance]

If you come across this, please use the report button.

Yea what he said to. It is against the rules to bump that many threads at once, and we will take action if we see it.

 

[EpicNPC]

Everyone is subject to the same rules, if a reseller is bumping too often or has more than 5 threads, they will receive an infraction. Keep in mind Sticky threads do not count as those are paid advertisements. .

The 5 max thread rule was updated last month (http://vbforums.mmobay.net/mmobay-n...5393-forum-rule-update-5-max-thread-rule.html) to address the issue for resellers take advantage of it.

I check the USA WOW buy/sell forum daily but have yet to see any violations first hand. If theres a time when this happens more often, post the time and your timezone and I'll monitor it over the next few days to see for myself.

However the best way to handle this is to report one of the threads or PM a mod or myself.

 

[drewdenman]

Banned - possible hacked account - used in a scam - http://www.epicnpc.com/scammers/448501-possible-scammer-drewdenman.html

You have forums for:

US buying/selling
TWV/MMO verified buying/selling
Professional buying/selling.

How about you make it so no more than 3 threads by one person on the front page (bumped by themselves) and you make a reseller buying/selling thread. That way resellers post in there forum and individuals post in theres. If someone is affiliated with or posting an account that is sold on/buy a reseller in the individual forums, thy receive an infraction. Enough infractions and all linked to that reseller get a temp ban or something.

Makes it a lot easier. You want "safer more secure" accounts? Go to the reseller forum, you don't want t over pa by hundreds of dollars in an account? Go to the individual seller forum.

 

[wowdosman]

Thanks for the replies: Mike, Wham, Swtch and drewden. I understand that the forum has a rule about resellers only bumping 5 threads at once, but that still seems a little excessive. I mean 3 resellers bumping 5 threads at once results in 15 threads that completely block out individual sell threads. As I said before, I almost see no point of bumping my thread in the sell forum because within 20 minutes, my thread is off the first page.

I like drewden's idea about creating a separate reseller only and individual only forums. I don't think that the purpose of the Sell forum is to allow the resellers to flood it with their accounts only.

Thanks.

 

[EpicNPC]

I don't like the idea of 2 separate forums for individuals and resellers. I feel that penalizes resellers into putting them into their own forum, where there will be a dozen or so users postings the same threads in rotation. It also would make it hard to regulate because I can see resellers trying to get other people to post their accounts in the individual forum.

This would lead to infractions and bans on sellers that are just trying to sell their accounts.

However I can understand your point as well with threads being bumped off the page too fast.

My compromise is this

1) Lower the limit for max threads to 4, maybe 3.
2) Create a new "Reseller forum" where each Premium Pro Seller Member gets their own thread (1 thread per site) where they talk about their website and what accounts they sell.
3) The new forum would be added to the Navigation for added exposure, so resellers don't lose traffic to their threads due to the limit being decreased from 5 to 4 or 3.
Depending on what happens I am also willing to add a banner somewhere to advertise the reseller forum as well.

Let me know your thoughts on this. This was just off the top of my head.

 

[drewdenman]

Banned - possible hacked account - used in a scam - http://www.epicnpc.com/scammers/448501-possible-scammer-drewdenman.html

I think 3 would be the best, but again, you can advertise a reseller only forum for as a "more safe, secure forum by professional resellers", giving someone the option to browser individual selling forums at a risk, or go for the reseller forum for added security.

 

[wowdosman]

I think that 3 would be the best number. Assuming that 3 resellers bump their thread, we would only see 9 threads on top. This allows other individual sellers to put their thread on the first page without penalizing the resellers too much. My second reason is that the resellers already advertise their websites through their banners. This means that regardless of how many threads they have up on the forum, they always have means to advertise their accounts. I mean I personally clicked on their banners to go and see their website to browse through their accounts. I don't think 3 threads per resellers really hurt their ability to sell.

Now, I'm going to address the reseller separate forum, and why we need it. The problem with the resellers is that they often mark up the price higher than the individual sellers; they claim that their accounts are safer than individuals. If I were to accept their claim, the fee that I pay to the resellers is for the safety of the accounts, not just the goodies on the account. However, what this does to individual sellers is that they see it as means to inflate their price. The fact that the reseller threads juxtapose the individual seller threads negatively influences the market price: price inflation. This lowers the volume of transactions because no one wants to pay ridiculous sums. Because of this, the resellers indirectly hurts the amount of account traffic on the US Account Sell forum. By separating the reseller forum and giving it a blurb saying, "Experienced and Trusted Sellers", I think we can solve this issue.

 

[MaskedArmory]

dumbass post #1

 

[wowdosman]

@KH,

I understand that economy and the number of people who play WoW have decreased. But the fact that you have so many orange special names posting accounts in the same sections as individual sellers give already edge to the resellers. I mean personally, if I am a noob, and I see a special colored name compared to dull text, I would definitely go with the orange-colored name. My point is, then, the forum seems to give already a big advantage to the big sellers compared to little guys. KH, you also seem like you see the reseller group as an exclusive group; you are claiming the MMObay has allowed people who you do not see as deserving of their reseller status to become one. By creating a forum for the resellers, you guys can be in your elite club. What Drew and I saying is that we give a blurb on the reseller only as "Trusted and Secure".

Second, I think you are throwing some red herrings on the thread. I made this thread to solve the ridiculous reseller flood on the front page of sell thread, not to criticize what MMObay is doing. If you want to change how MMObay awards the reseller status, please make a separate thread for it. I am trying to address how to solve the bump problem, not who gets to be in the "elite" club.

 

[MaskedArmory]

dumbass post #2

 

[EpicNPC]

I don't see the correlation between Premium Sellers and bumping of the threads. KHA you say there were only 6-7 Pro Sellers on MD site with the upgrade, but I think we can agree there were more than 6-7 resellers on the site. I'm sure the number of resellers is about the same on both sites, the only difference is that it's more noticeable here as there are more resellers with the upgrade.

What is being discussed is the speed of which threads are being bumped off the frontpage. You're saying if only 6-7 people had the upgrade it would be slower? That makes no sense. Just because less people have the upgrade doesn't mean those resellers disappear. The bump rate is completely independent to the Pro seller upgrade, the only thing it does is make it more noticeable.

The mods and I have discussed this further and we will try the new rule of 3 threads as the new max for a limited time and see how it goes. If it works well, we'll kept it, if not we'll try 4 or go back to 5.

I'll make an make announcement and create a new Reseller forum shortly.

 

[MaskedArmory]

...,.jhgftrgyhfesgyt

 

[GameSupply]

Resellers are above the law, you should know that by now.

Why ask why.