Community-based banning for bad traders?

A running BTL would be something that could be stuck to the top of the Trading Help/Feedback section. Perhaps with a "read here before you trade" warning.

Bad traders can have their information, like username ( and maybe e-mail ) posted to the thread when someone is called out and doesn't respond. Keep it running until it's cleared up or something. I say add their e-mail address, as it would entail them to NOT want to be spammed with people e-mailing them, and they'd have to make a new e-mail address. Perhaps when you trade with someone new, ask for their e-mail address as well. Two forms of a way to contact them if you didn't trade phone numbers.

I feel that wouldn't be much work, as long as there was some valid proof to the statements that someone was a deadbeat trader, such as an open thread started to get them to speak out and validate the claim.

 

I think Todd nails this...there needs to be more impact to the "bad trader".

This is, unfortunately, a limitation of the general site operation principle:

1) it is anonymous
2) it is free

these stipulations limit our ability to effectively punish "bad traders" in many ways.

to enjoy many of the freedoms this model offers, we also have to endure a certain level of pain in others.

that's exactly why our policy is "trade at your own risk".

we're certainly open to new ideas and options (hence, this thread), but please realize it's not always a linear relationship between implementing a new idea and understanding its impact on the operation of the rest of the site. it's not that we're unwilling...but there are other things to consider outside the trading subculture.

 

I don't think there is anything wrong with the users, rather than mods, being responsible for keeping their own lists for their own protection. If they want to do it, that is. I mention it because, as others have said already in a variety of ways, it is the only system that can actually work, even though it won't fix the problem for others, it will do it for you.

I used to keep such a list and made it public on my profile page. I took it down after being called out by people on the list, challenged by friends of people on the list, and having to spend a bit of time keeping track of why folks got put on the list. The last straw for me was hearing from multiple folks about one person on the list, wrongly they thought, and being unable to remember why he made it on. This is the kind of thing the mods will have to put up with, multiplied by 10,000. I vote against the idea of putting them through that, hard enough for em the way things already are. Just my .02.

 

I'm not a trader, but I've been following this thread with some curiosity. I may not know the 'ins' and 'outs' of how the trading forum works so bear with me if I'm a bit off-base, but it sounds like some ideas need to be suggested that may lead to a smoother working procedure, so here's my suggestion for what its worth.

Trading should be a 'buyer beware' approach for trading with any new trading partner, and an experienced trader should be aware of the 'bad traders' list to help give some guidance, but to help highlight a bad trader who gets reported onto the list, could the user-name for that trader be programmed to show up in a red color like a red flag (kind of like The Scarlet Letter if you're into classic novels) to create some caution to other traders? (It likely would take a programming change in the forum, so that may be the poison pill for this suggestion.) But if the trading forum is policed by the users, then the person who reported the bad trader could be the only person who can give a mod the okay to remove the red color from the user-name. That forces the bad trader to communicate with the good trader (and hopefully complete the trade), or forever live with the shame of that red red tag for the user-id.

 

How about only allowing BA's to trade or even see the trading rooms if say he/she has a certain amount of posts? Say a BA reaches 250 posts and now the trade room is "unlocked". This would do a few things:

1. Create a person to get more involved in the BA community (make them stand out a little more by contributing)
2. Keep one from creating another name and trading under that one immediately
3. Stop people from coming here only to trade and not contribute.

I understand that this is a free site and one can do as they wish, ie: trade only and not contribute, but I feel like the ones who are here to enjoy the site are not the ones, for the most part, going to be an issue. To me, and this is just an opinion, it is the ones that jump from site to site, trying to screw someone out of beer, that are the major problems.

 

just my take on these points.
1. people might just post nonsense to be allowed to trade, more work for us , we already get enough non beer content and non helpful banter.
2.a new user cant trade for 30 days after signing up, so this one is null and void.
3.Contributations are great, but this is a free site forceing someone to do one thing so they could do another, does not seem right IMO.

 

I am against the idea of community-based banning mechanisms. The number of BA users who are quick to grab the pitchforks in a typical "bad trader" thread--even when they have NO stake in the trade--is too high for the mechanism to be as unbiased as it would need to be.