How should we handle open trades with partial feedback?

I would think just letting them drop from the system is the safest way to go - just clears them out of the history after 90 days.

Only alternative I could come up with (just thinking out loud), but would it be possible to have it show up as a completed positive trade 30 days after the first person put in feedback? Obviously there would be no feedback from the non-responder, perhaps a boilerplate 'no feedback left' and the stat of a completed positive trade.

My rationale is that the non-feedback trade partner has had ample opportunities to leave negative feedback, and hasn't done so, thus it must have gone well. It would just take a sentence in the trade rules that said something like 'after the first trader leaves feedback, the system allows 30 days for reciprocal feedback or the trade is automatically closed and assumed to be completed satisfactorily'

Not sure if this leaves the system open for abuse of people creating extra accounts and pumping up trade reputations, but I figure if you were going to do that, you would create a few fake accounts and actually leave positive feedback.

Not sure how viable it all would be and I would be perfectly happy with the trades just dropping from the system - just trying to think of a way to preserve the stat. Probably isn't necessary, but just a thought.

 

I agree with @pagriley in his alternative.

I would suggest that if User A left feedback for User B, but User B did not leave feedback for User A, then after X amount of days, User A would automatically receive "Good" feedback (perhaps with a comment like "Automatic feedback based upon lack of response"). My thinking is, if User B thought bad feedback or even neutral was warranted, well, they had X days to leave it and decided not to.

I am trying to think of a scenario where this could be abused. Any input?

 

I have one of those 1,800 . Left great feedback and user vanished. Its been over a year+. It doesn't really bother me, except that that trader gets "credit" for me taking the 2 minutes to complete the trade. I don't know why its so hard to "finish" the trade.
Anyways...I think if partial feedback is left after (x) days then it vanishes from the system for BOTH traders. The only issue(s) I see with that scenario is if someone accepted a trade and no beer was shipped or negative feedback was left. User "A" could leave neutral or negative feedback for user "B" or vice versa. The other trader would leave no feedback for obvious reasons and after (X) days it disappears not showing up in the system.

 

Which is why I feel the safe answer is just let the system wipe the trade after 90 days like it had never happened. I guess the problem this raises is if someone leaves you negative or neutral feedback, all you have to do is not give them feedback and wait. Would the system will clear out the trade, and delete all feedback?

I guess this is the same question @dmbforever has

 

Maybe somewhere along the lines of a 30 day limit after partial feedback is left. So if user A leaves user B feedback then user B has 30 days to leave their feedback for user A. If no feedback is left in the allowed time trade should drop off user A's open trades list.

 

Personally, I would just default them after a period of time to a positive trade feedback.

 

This would require programming work on your part, but if after X amount of days, next time someone who owes feedback logs in , direct them to the open feedback and restrict their access to site until they leave feedback.

 

@Todd I think then if the system would drop all feedback it might be best to leave them open like you do now? Only other thing I can think of is if there is negative feedback and no response then the system throws out all feedback and bans the person who didn't respond? Seems extreme, just trying go think of a way to keep the negative feedback consequences

 

Why not create an annoying popup window alerting them to leave feedback?

 

I would try to come up with a solution that does not penalize the good side of the trade. I work hard to be a solid trader and keep my numbers up, and to be penalized for completing a trade, doesn't seem ideal to me. If a solution cannot be worked out that achieves this, then I wouldn't complain. It's not my site ultimately and the admins/Alstroms will police it as they see fit, but I would favor a solution like pony says above that either blocks someone from posting until they fix their issues, or annoys them to the point of leaving feedback. It literally takes a minute to leave feedback, so I do not take any pity on slackers who aren't willing to do so to complete a trade, good or bad.

 

I found myself in this position because a guy I traded with didn't give his cell number when we set up a trade and it became quite frustrating because all I could do was message him on here but he wasn't checking the site so it had just slipped his mind. Eventually he came on, apologized and left the feedback. It wouldn't help the people that are involved with someone that gets banned, but maybe the trade system on here could require you either enter a contact number or email? Not necessarily immediately available to the other party, but there could be a timer on it or at least the info could be available for mods to see and based on the situation they could pass along the info? That would cause a lot (more) headaches for the mods, but its an idea...keep in mind I'm a few Julius...es... deep

 

I agree with this, we get pop-ups for other stuff on this site as-is...

 

Maybe not a pop up but a red alert that once feedback has been left for you won't go away until you leave feedback

 

Agreed for active members, but you could also just send them a note. I have had people not give feedback for a week, and a quick note usually does the trick (hey, people get busy!).

I think there still needs to be a mechanism to deal with missing feedback from inactive members who haven't been to the site, cancelled accounts or were banned...

 

I have one of these from both sides. I have 2 I think where I left feedback and the person I traded with BM'd me that they received my box and were happy but then never left feedback. I have one in particular where I was unhappy but not too the point of leaving negative feedback. Rather than tarnish their rep I chose to simply not leave anything.

Personally, I'd like to see these disappear after 90 days. Unfortunate if a trader only has a few trades, but for experienced traders it is bound to happen.

 

Sorry, but feel it needs to be asked - if you were unhappy, then why not leave neutral feedback? How egregious was it? If it was something like it took them weeks to ship, I feel like that is something worth sharing with other traders. I would certainly want to know if someone I was trading with was slow to respond or hadn't sent their package promptly.