Being A Trader

[d0p3y]

Wow.. interesting read. What IS it that takes so long for you to get back to people who are willing to help the forums & community out?

I mean, it's win win for everyone at SAU when you think about it

1) Sponsors deliver excellent prices to members, and save them money and hassle

2) Helps pay the SAU bills

3) Trader makes a bit of money enabling them to expand their business, and hopefully the range of great products available to SAU members.

Not having a dig, but honestly, what IS it that takes you guys months on end to approve somebody as a trader? Especially in the case when they are extremely prompt in exhausting all methods possible of contacting the appropriate person(s)?

It does seem, the mods have plenty of time to do the negative work (Deleting posts, etc) but not enough time to do the positive. If this is the case, perhaps you need to re-think the trader approval system because it seems from reading this that the SAU members are missing out on getting some great traders on board.

Food for thought.

[Merli]

It's pretty simple.

The forums are owned by PranK. He is solely responsible for paying forum hosting costs. None of the other moderators or admins have any financial liability.

As such, donations and business trader sponsorship fees are handled DIRECTLY by PranK to help offset the massive cost of hosting and bandwidth that these SAU forums attract. Therefore, only PranK (with the kind help of Blitz) are across the processes of authorising trader accounts.

NONE OF THE OTHER MODERATORS OR ADMINISTRATORS HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE FINANCIALS OF THE FORUMS.

Do you honestly think that some random moderator from WA. should be across the registration of financial interest in the forums? Their roles as moderators are solely to keep the peace, and stop people ruining the boards (major postwhores invading every thread and spammers), fraudulent sellers ripping the users off and dealing with troublesome users.

At any one time, there might be about 10-15 NEW businesses waiting in line, wanting to post all their goods on SAU. Can you imagine if we just let them all go wild and post all over the For Sale forums? When it comes time for you to try and sell that AVC-R that you've just replaced, your thread would be bumped off the first page in 3 minutes, and onto page 10 by the end of the day by the hundreds of trader threads. Lets not forget the existing and long-standing SAU supporters who have been with us for YEARS. They wouldn't be too happy either would they? All this needs to be balanced and taken into account, so please bear with us. There is a method to the madness... It just takes a while

As much as PranK would love to attend to every need of the forum, he has to make a living, and SAU isn't it. That said, we are looking into it, and hoping to streamline the process of registering businesses to make it easier on everyone, most importantly PranK.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

[d0p3y]

Fair enough. Sounds like it does need to be streamlined further.

Perhaps 1-2 Moderators who handle the enquiries and any questions (and can manage to respond to them in a timely fashion) as well as taking the new applicants details, and then the final application should be put through to Prank by the moderator(s) for administration approval as he is the 'final word'.

I do think the choice to not answer any PM's is a bit slack on Christian's part but at the end of the day it is his choice.

To help combat the problem with there being so many for sale threads, as suggested in the other thread multiple times by myself, I think there needs to be further division of the trading section.

Business Traders should definately have their own section and not be allowed to post in the same areas as the personal traders.

Perhaps the long-standing SAU sponsors are the ones who should have their own main forum category under the Classifieds section, with the smaller sponsors having either a sub-forum or a shared forum depending upon level of sponsorship.

[raz0r$harP.UK]

..I think there needs to be further division of the trading section.

Business Traders should definately have their own section and not be allowed to post in the same areas as the personal traders.

Perhaps the long-standing SAU sponsors are the ones who should have their own main forum category under the Classifieds section, with the smaller sponsors having either a sub-forum or a shared forum depending upon level of sponsorship.

If you remember when the forums were upgraded we tried that for a while - inidividual forums for each trader. There was a limit of four sponsors (i.e. four subforums), then it went to about seven. Then it was changed to the current format - I believe that was because there were too many.

The structure you have proposed Ryan is very similar to what NS.com has.. but whereas the trading section drives NS, I believe that's not Prank's intention for SAU..that's what I think anyway.

[d0p3y]

There's gotta be a compromise somewhere, but to be honest I think having a big trading section is awesome as long as its organised in a logical way. I enjoy browsing NS.com because of the wide range of stuff available from all the sponsors. That's my personal opionion anyhow.

Perhaps there could be a public vote on it, but it's food for thought.

In any case, I think that the main issue is that you should respond to the people who enquire about becoming a trader - even if it is to tell them "sorry we're full up." It's a little rude to keep people out in the cold and to keep shoving them around, you should at least have the courtesy to give them a straight answer when they do ask.

Edited June 24, 2006 by d0p3y

[R31Nismoid]

I do think the choice to not answer any PM's is a bit slack on Christian's part but at the end of the day it is his choice.

*sigh*

You deal with a few hundred Admin PM's a week. When your not being paid for it, and doing it in your own spare time.

Its simply not possible

Me as just a mod i get a fair amount week to week and sometimes it takes me 4-5 days to get back to someone in peak times.

I totally undestand C's stance on not checking PM's. It would a mammoth task

[2rismo]

Another day, (today) another 2 trader pm's going unanswered.

I've given up passing this info on (phone calls, pm's, emails etc).

Adrian

[marz13]

At any one time, there might be about 10-15 NEW businesses waiting in line, wanting to post all their goods on SAU. Can you imagine if we just let them all go wild and post all over the For Sale forums? When it comes time for you to try and sell that AVC-R that you've just replaced, your thread would be bumped off the first page in 3 minutes, and onto page 10 by the end of the day by the hundreds of trader threads.

Really? 10-15 new traders at any one time? Jeez thats a lot! Think of how much funds you could rise from 10-15 new people at anyone time!

And secondly, don't business traders have a separate forum which does not affect a private sale at all? I don't understand how letting traders "go wild" would affect someones individual sale.

Anyway, email sent Christian

[Merli]

And secondly, don't business traders have a separate forum which does not affect a private sale at all? I don't understand how letting traders "go wild" would affect someones individual sale.

They do now. This wasn't always the case.

[Blitz]

I have replied to a few more trader enquiry emails this morning.

Basically the system needs to be reworked and there needs to be a discussion about it.

The trader areas on Nissansilvia.com do seem to work very well, but trader management on SAU is proving to be very difficult, and as R31Nismoid said, most of the Admins are flat out and we do have a massive backlog of traders who have expressed interest in getting on board.

There are tonnes of things that need to be sorted out, the majority of which Christian needs to assist with.

In the meantime, people wanting to trade can email either myself or Prank and we will make every effort to get back to you.

nick@skylinesaustralia dot com or christian@skylinesaustralia dot com

[marz13]

Got your email Blitz, eagerly awaiting your reply

[marz13]

Got your email Blitz, eagerly awaiting your reply

[Blitz]

Refer to your email inbox

[marz13]

Got it! You will hear from me this week!

[garage-13]

i have also emailed