New Members: 20 Posts in the Open Forums are Required Before Selling here.

[Tom71]

Thanks, Bartenders.

Let´s not over-"What if" this idea. It´s a pretty low threshhold to keep a minimum check on the Classifieds.

Let´s all work on keeping TFL a place that´s different from all the Social-Media absurdities out there.

 

[Harris HTM]

Another two places that I joined some two years ago, Discord channels, have a mandatory fit pic & short introduction requirement that the moderators then verify.

This doesn't, of course, need to be a proper WAYWT photo & people often upload silly things like their baby photos or photos of pets or stuff like that because the whole point is only so that the moderators can see that they're real people.

Until they have provided this, new members are given a limited access to the forum that still allows them to use all the less sensitive sub-forums & interact with others, which basically acts as a (number) post count verification and can eventually grant them full access.

Another way to prove their legitimacy is to contact the mods with references, such as their eBay or Grailed accounts or their IG that is often a very good character reference in itself.

For example, this forum and the insane post count that I have here had often served me as a major reference source, when I'd sell something elsewhere.

Scammers are mostly always extremely dense and clueless about what they're selling and are absolutely not capable of passing the vibe check.

yes, this would help to filter out the scammers.
A minimum number of posts however, together hopefully with a minimum period of membership, would encourage new members to ask and provide information, engage in coversations and discourage people who think that TFL is an amternative to Ebay - because it is not.

 

[Kevin O'Sullivan]

Another two places that I joined some two years ago, Discord channels, have a mandatory fit pic & short introduction requirement that the moderators then verify.

This doesn't, of course, need to be a proper WAYWT photo & people often upload silly things like their baby photos or photos of pets or stuff like that because the whole point is only so that the moderators can see that they're real people.

Until they have provided this, new members are given a limited access to the forum that still allows them to use all the less sensitive sub-forums & interact with others, which basically acts as a (number) post count verification and can eventually grant them full access.

Another way to prove their legitimacy is to contact the mods with references, such as their eBay or Grailed accounts or their IG that is often a very good character reference in itself.

For example, this forum and the insane post count that I have here had often served me as a major reference source, when I'd sell something elsewhere.

Scammers are mostly always extremely dense and clueless about what they're selling and are absolutely not capable of passing the vibe check.

This is the way

 

[Zoltan]

This is the way

Well there is an other way. The forum I am on you pay an yearly fee (I think is around £12/13?) and you have access to classifieds plus other subforums. This is a bike forum not a Club. Rarely the Mod' had to get involved in a sell dispute which was resolved. They do have the contact details of those in the sell section. The rest of the forum is free. It does stop fraud, but there are few bad apples.

 

[Kevin O'Sullivan]

Well there is an other way. The forum I am on you pay an yearly fee (I think is around £12/13?) and you have access to classifieds plus other subforums. This is a bike forum not a Club. Rarely the Mod' had to get involved in a sell dispute which was resolved. They do have the contact details of those in the sell section. The rest of the forum is free. It does stop fraud, but there are few bad apples.

This is another way but I don't think it's a beneficial way. Anyone with a grain of street smarts will buy into this forum on numerous alts, listing fake jackets and burning people one by one. Most of us may recall the face tat guy saga maybe a year ago where a guy on here had ripped off some physical store seller by claiming product never arrived and getting his money back while keeping the Y2, then turned around and ripped off a guy on this forum by taking the money and never delivering product. Classic.

To avoid scams you kind of... need a robust moderation team, which I think with the level of work involved would require compensation, or you need to use the forum with trusted members vetting sellers, etc. It's not fair to ask mods to be full time police here. Buyer is taking on all risk in vast majority of transactions on this forum- you will even see in many posts, last sale/no return/etc. So the guy could measure the jacket wrong or list wrong specs and you're out of your cash. This is why laying tape is kind of mandatory imo for a prospective seller.

Ultimately I don't know if there is a good solution here. Most people don't follow @scotrace rules/suggestions bolted onto MKs original post anyways. Are mods going to come on here for an hour every day and issue out 1st offense/ 2nd offense/ ban for violators? Feels like a lot of work. It's on us as members to ferret out suspect posts and comment in them/ report them.

Bolded, first post on forum: buy at your own risk. I don't buy from anyone that hasn't been on the forum for a year+ and has a healthy, consistent post history or vetted by other members.

 

[Peacoat]

It is a simple matter for us to see a seller whose name we don't recognize, click on his name to see his post count and then to look at his messages to see if they are bona fide messages or just simple replies made for the purpose of increasing the post count. If the latter, just delete his listing and keep an eye out for him in the future. Or, depending on the circumstances, ban him.

Yes, it takes time, but so do the reports of possible scammers. That takes a lot of time.

 

[cbez]

There were scam listings with stolen pictures from before I joined. In fact that's how I found my way here investigating a jacket.

 

[jeepTj98]

Am I good?

On FB I am part of a BMW bike group, the level of scam attempts is mind blowing. They don't shy away ripping off other peoples pictures.

oh yeah Facebook is awful.. I’m in a trans am group and it’s the same way.

 

[photo2u]

Well, let me share what just happened to me yesterday. I made a deal on a Goodwear A-2 with aerolover. I tried to pay via PayPal several times but PayPal decline the transaction 4 time. I contacted aerolover. He suggested sending to wife's e-mail with a German address? Raised a flag because I have communicated with KBlake before, I knew he was in the Continental US. I did not know that aerolover had some history about him. I still in the dark as to the full extent of his story.

End of my story, I communicated with aerolover and informed him that I will not be buying the A-2.
Even members with solid history can sometimes be unreliable sellers? KBlake's profile has been hacked? Someone else is using his profile to list items here?
No bueno.

 

[hd3kmize]

FWIW, AI could solve a lot of these problems. It could easily automate much of the manual due diligence required to determine if a sale post is a scam or legit, flag the exceptions, and even identify if a user's profile has been hacked. I don't know enough about the Lounge to determine if AI would be a feasible solution, just offering it as an option to consider. Of course, nothing is 100% full proof, but the technology is becoming more sophisticated and more prevalent for use cases such as this.

 

[churam88]

To clarify - I just posted something which would be my first sale item on here (I've bought 3 pieces since joining about a year ago). Are "posts" all of my correspondence or specifically group posts? I have very little to offer outside of asking questions and want to make sure I understand the requirements.

 

[BikerMan]

With an uptick in new members who are here either to just sell things or to relieve other members of their cash without supplying the goods, we will remove any classified post by anyone who hasn't taken the time to get to know the forum and all it offers. You'll need 20 posts at a minimum to participate in the classified forum as a seller from here on out.

Sounds good to me

 

[Liam_Og]

This is a good start!

The classifieds have become tiring with all the new in town members selling and bumping all the time(and generally never posting outside the classifieds), it makes it difficult to see ads from longer term members that are more interesting(to me).

I’ve noticed a few who’ll post a pic or question in the fit thread or ask a question thread but then never respond to answers and further queries. The jacket then immediately goes into the classifieds.