Rep System on Classifieds - Our Forums are suffering

[limbo]

Hi i've restrained from commenting on the rep system for a while but i have noticed that since the forums are now up for a while it has greatly reduced the traffic of people around.

Being an old user of the forums i rem that the Classifies use to have heaps of items for sale. Now i know the idea is so that not just everyone flogs their goods on the site, but it is a benefit for members when the site is actually running with things that they can buy to fix/modify or improve their rides.

I would have thought that the main aim of this forum is to help with the enjoyment of Toyota Enthusists with their cars? Not try and make more members.

I understand that you are trying to encourge people to become full members but at the end of the day everyone seems to suffer more from less posts. The classifieds show less than 5 items or so a week. Now that's pretty pitiful. If this continues most people are just going to look elsewhere for their items and then come on this forum even less. I now notice this forum, which i was proud to come to, has hardly any people posting.

I think there needs to be a change to the posting limitations otherwise this forum is going to suffer.

[slide86]

toymods is not here to make money for others

its here to make others smarter and help each other out. check out the top of the page....

"ToyMods provides a friendly environment for Toyota owners and enthusiasts in which they can learn how to modify their car and improve their automotive skills. "

Now, i admit i have a few items for sale on here. if they dont sell im not fussed, if they do, then thats all good to.

i am on here to increase my knowledge and help others out tho. im pretty sure that 80% of others are here to do the same thing. I too was a user of teh old forum. It had great info and alot of ads.....but thats not why i was there.....I never had any money!

I like the new forum the way it is, have you noticed that there is a lot less stupid questions and statements now the tools can be weeded out.
The rep system benifits us all and just shows those of use that are here to help out, not just to make a quick buck.

You will probably find that a great deal of the people who are posting in the classifieds section are also posting in the tech section. I know i do...

Perhaps ebay or tradingpost can help you out...
let people look else where for their items, in the end they will probably come back here to ask how to fit the part they just bought!

End rant

[RONA]

I prefer the new classifieds section the forum is not being raped as a free advertising source and I find it far easier to find parts that I want as I don't have to sift through thousands of shit fights to find a part.

I have bought far more parts off this forum in the time its been running compared to the 2 plus years I was on the old ones.

[Cuzzo]

yeah i have bought a few things of people and nothing but top quality service and delivery. im quite happy. I would like to see somehow having a good trader system quite like the rep system but im sure this has been brought up alot, so ill quiet down now.

[Joshstix]

Not try and make more members.

I understand that you are trying to encourge people to become full members but at the end of the day everyone seems to suffer more from less posts.

As has been explained on countless occasions this is the last thing that the rep sysetm is aimed at. The Toymods Car Club does NOT want people to join the club just to be able to advertise on the forums.

The rep system for the classifieds is to:
A) Stop people abusing the site as a free classifieds
B) Protect people from shady advertisers by needing the advertiser to have been around for a period of time contributing to the forum
C) Reward those that actually make a useful contribution to the forum

The classifieds show less than 5 items or so a week. Now that's pretty pitiful.

Telling the truth would be a lot more effective for your argument. There are currently 1586 threads in the classifieds section of the forum. Now if they were put up at a rate of 5 per week the forum would have been open for ~320 weeks rather than the few months it has really been running for.

If this continues most people are just going to look elsewhere for their items and then come on this forum even less. I now notice this forum, which i was proud to come to, has hardly any people posting.

I think there needs to be a change to the posting limitations otherwise this forum is going to suffer.

I have to say that if people only use the forum as a place to buy and sell then having them not come back is not exactly a great loss to the community. There were 790 posts on the forum yesterday, not really what I'd call "hardly any people posting".

It's no great surprise that people who start threads like this all seem to have not earned enough rep to advertise on the classifieds section. I'll let others draw their own conclusions as to the motivations involved.

[no_tofu_speed]

I understand your stance Joshstix...
The spam advertising from commercial type sales sucked.
But the scenario of "someone has something that they know specifically toyota enthusiasts would perhaps like to buy"; for him to let us know that it is for sale.. rather than not being able to find a place to sell it so it sits in his shed. Wouldn't more things to buy be only a benefit to Toyota enthusiasts? This is the known Toyota comunity/forums of Australia...
As suggested before there are other forums..... but to search through the many many other forums and the fact that it possibly wont turn up anything for Toyotas, or not much at least because it isnt a Toyota forum...
I can see and understand that the admins don't want the board used for others profit.... but I think there is just as much profit for Toyota enthusiats with finding a good item to purchase that maybe what they are after, rare or a good price. Alot of items are discontinued or hard to get.. and in general cheaper for thsoe who can't afford brand spanking new bits.
Maybe open a "guests' classifieds"? Or some way to remedy this????
================================================== ============
The way rep is gained..... well alot of rep, is if you have alot to say that is respected, especially on a technical nature.....
So those who are eagerly learning, or have not yet had much experience to share on modding cars etc. RARELY GET REPUTATION! As obviously it is given for making a contributing post.

[LeeRoy]

It is like anything really, in a sense that it has both good and bad qualities.

The only people it bothers are those with insufficient rep, the problem here being alot of people who have little rep are quite keen to learn and just havent been around long enough - everyone's gotta start somewhere right?

As mentioned above though its like people want a large selection of goods but they don't wanna have to weed through peoples crap who are using the forums as a free trading post. Problem being you can't have both - if you run free selling forums they offer a service to people who return nothing to others on the site whereas if you put in a control mechanism such as the rep system you will inevitably reduce items for sale.

Can't members with low rep put up posts in the wtb section?

The new forums are only in their growing stages and eventually i'm sure everyone will have a higher rep along with greater repping power and as more people get rep and more members join, it will take both less time and effort to get to the required rep to sell.

My 2c - LeeRoy

[oldcorollas]

But the scenario of "someone has something that they know specifically toyota enthusiasts would perhaps like to buy"; for him to let us know that it is for sale.. rather than not being able to find a place to sell it so it sits in his shed. Wouldn't more things to buy be only a benefit to Toyota enthusiasts? This is the known Toyota comunity/forums of Australia...
As suggested before there are other forums..... but to search through the many many other forums and the fact that it possibly wont turn up anything for Toyotas, or not much at least because it isnt a Toyota forum...
I can see and understand that the admins don't want the board used for others profit.... but I think there is just as much profit for Toyota enthusiats with finding a good item to purchase that maybe what they are after, rare or a good price. Alot of items are discontinued or hard to get.. and in general cheaper for thsoe who can't afford brand spanking new bits.
Maybe open a "guests' classifieds"? Or some way to remedy this????
================================================== ============
The way rep is gained..... well alot of rep, is if you have alot to say that is respected, especially on a technical nature.....
So those who are eagerly learning, or have not yet had much experience to share on modding cars etc. RARELY GET REPUTATION! As obviously it is given for making a contributing post.

1)the scenario of "someone has something that they know specifically toyota enthusiasts would perhaps like to buy"...
how often does this occur in real life? the majority of the time, a person with something of special interest to toyota enthusaists... is a toyota enthusiast themselves.. if they have something to sell and don't want to get rep up, and it is a one off, they can PM the board. simple.

2), yes, there are not many parts on other forums because they are not toyota forums... but they also have a lot of shit and scammers. toymods is not an advertising service.

3) rare parts will either be owned by enthusiasts or will go to ebay/similar... there are many parts out there owned by people who are not even on the net actively.. shall we try and get them to sell them here too? for a cheap price? who is more likely to sell a good condition part for a good price? a toymodder to a toymodder? or a random person who only wants to sell things?? i would prefer to only buy from trusted and contributing toymods members. things can always sell via PM and many things already do

4), guests classifieds... like.. trading post? or ebay? or yahoo? or or??? not necessary. as always mentioned, classifieds are a BONUS to contributors and members, not a right for those passing through.

5) i often give rep for good questions, or thoughtful insights into a particular discussion. even a newb can ask a good question. people who ask stupid questions will not have a very good reputation in the real world. and nor should they here...

think of rep not as rep points, but AS YOUR REPUTATION, ie, HOW OTHER PEOPLE SEE YOU. if you repeatedly ask me dumb questions in real life, i will think less of you. same goes here. you ask me good questions, my respect for you increases.
thats how life goes.

[stahlz_ae86]

The classifieds section is still growing slowly, but these forums will no doubt get greater with time as everyone makes their contribution and their rep gets greater.

I think this site will be excellent in 12 months time.

[willwal98]

Just some backup here for limbo . I have been a forums member of Toymods for a very long time, i'd have to guess around 7 years or so. I love to read a lot of the posts, as many as I can in the limited time I have and I do try and post usefull information where possible. But the sad fact for me is that even though I am on here every day, it's only for an hour or so most nights a week so what little information I can share has already been given by someone else so no rep for me. Also most of the mods I do and most of the toyota information I have is from the toymods forums so it's difficult for me to offer something new, hence the low rep.

Now I rarely want to sell anything and the stuff that I do want to sell is for toyota related (namely old celicas). Currently I want to sell my 12" sub boxes custom made to fit an RA28 but I don't have enought rep. Bit to big and heavy to post around the country so the area I would prefer to sell to is limited and the item is very specialsed so ebay and the local papers would be a difficult sale. I have emailed the admins to see if I can have a one off sale and have not yet got a response (2 weeks).

Maybe there could be rep for amount of time spent on the forums, or rep could build up over time since a member has joined. Something along those lines would cater for readers.

Just to end, if I were closer to a capital city or could benefit more from being a financial member I would do so but the truth is all I would get out of it would be the items recieved from joining and the ability to sell stuff.

Theres my 2c

[Fujiwara_ToFu]

I agree with limbo as well. I'm an old forums member and while i don't have much knowledge i can share i try to help out as much as possible (melb cruises and events)...

which means i don't have a lot of rep or others in similar situations who wishes to lighten up their house to the benefit of other toyota enthusiasts.

While i will post my ads somewhere else it's a shame the people who only surf this forum will miss out on other bargains.

Restricting the classifieds because of some minority party who abuse the system is at the detriment to the majority who are honest toymodders in terms of a bargain (perhaps?) or toymodders trying to lighten their load.

-Jay

[oldcorollas]

Maybe there could be rep for amount of time spent on the forums, or rep could build up over time since a member has joined. Something along those lines would cater for readers.

that already happens.

Restricting the classifieds because of some minority party who abuse the system is at the detriment to the majority who are honest toymodders in terms of a bargain (perhaps?) or toymodders trying to lighten their load.

but.....
it's not restricted for toymods members.....
as it stands.. the forums are provided by the toymods car club for members and enthusiasts.
the FREE classifieds are provided by the toymods car club for members and enthusiasts.
it appears that actual toymods members are in the minority of forum members, meaning that a lot of people are enjoying these benefits provided..... by the toymods car club.

the number of people who cannot post in classifieds yet are (as it appears from reading frums everyday) IN THE MINORITY of active posting members. those who actively contribute will be able to post in classifieds very quickly.

think of it this way.
you start with 10 points.
you only need 30 points (for now)
i give 8 points.
Rona (the post whore..jk ) gives a substantial number of points, as do the other members who are now well over 100 or 200 points..

so you may only need 1 good post, repped by three members with high rep, to be able to post in classifieds.

is it really that hard to do?
add to discussions. if you can confirm something someone else has suggested, do so. if you can suggest something useful in a thread, do so.

however, the most important thing to remember is that rep isn't everything.
so you can't sell something just yet. big deal, your life will go on.

if the toymods car club did NOT provide you this FREE forum in which to contact all these other enthusiasts, you would be stuck with other forums and classifieds anyway.

so.. appreciate the fact that you have a massively targetted audience (a marketers dream really ) and that it only takes a couple of GOOD posts that others appreciate before you can abuse the classifieds
actually.. if you had one good post that EVERYONE appreciated.... and get an average of say... 2 rep points .... thats 4810 rep points.

with 2400 members, you would think getting 3 or 4 to give you rep when you post wouldn't be so hard

and as before, all the people opposing the rep system, as it stands, in this thread, are not able to sell things because they don't have enough rep... it's a very common theme.

[roadsailing]

I think the system is a good one overall.

Maybeye having an un-restricted wanted section would be a good idea, but i'm sure there are reasons for not having this. this would mean people with rep too low to post for sale ads could answer these posts and sell their surplus gear.

I found it a bit irritating that i had to build rep before i could sell anything, but i find selling things to be a pain in the ass unless people can pick up.

[willwal98]

Hey I think it's a good system, just has that small flaw that people who read alot and get most of there information from here, hence find it hard to add decent information instead of regurgitating everyone elses info, can't sell. Not that big of a deal really, just annoying. Hey if you are feeling generous you could check out some of my postings recently and if you think they are good you could contribute some rep for me since only one other person has (one point, yey).
http://www.toymods.net/forums/showth...p?t=832&page=2
http://www.toymods.net/forums/showth...?t=5417&page=2 (I thought the bus idea was great)
http://www.toymods.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1254 (old but good nooby question)

[AJ_AE82]

As a relative newbie to the forums (was not on the old ones) I think this system is very fair. I am only really starting to learn how to work on my Ae82 and I dont expect to really contribute to the main forums until I learn more. I read these forums to gain knowledge. If I am never able to get to the reputation level to post in classified's it doesnt bother me.