BrickLink Discussion Forum

In Suggestions, speshy writes:
I would tend to agree with this opinion. I wouldn't touch an entire marketplace
website, let alone a store within the website, if the top of the page reads "Possible
scam activity occurring right now" in a red box.

I think more can be done to quietly prevent scamming, though, such as putting
caps on a new seller's transaction activity for a short period.

K

Agreed.

In Suggestions, blackballoon writes:
I propose some kind of scam alert level, similar to the terror advisory color
levels that some developed nations now have around the world to combat global
terrorism.

During times of heightened reported or anticipated sitewide negative activity
(as measured by suspensions, NRS/NSS activity, negative feedback, etc) (or during
media events like the recent Lego Movie, or during holiday times) there could
be banners on all or some pages of the site, with a corrsponding color to indicate
the severity of the threat.

Scam levels would hurt all stores, because it is individual sellers who scam;
generalizing sellers will not lead to anything good.
Something like this suggestion would cause a gigantic drop in orders and new
members.

Advisory notices could be issued with various buying and selling recommendations,
for example to raise your store minimum, or do not transact with members with
X number of feedback

Advice to not buy from someone who has little feedback will also hurt Bricklink,
because if you don't buy from someone, how will they ever get feedback? It's
the negative/positive system that's a better indication of how trustworthy
a seller is - there's a reason it's there. (It's admittedly flawed
- retaliatory feedback is a problem, and mistakes can easily be on the buyer
end, but you can still see why they got bad FB, and their excuses)

However, I agree that something should be done to prevent scams. Increased buying
advice for new members, reminders to read store terms and feedback, increased
encouragement to work issues out with the other end of the transaction before
posting bad FB, etc. could help quite a bit.

Author:

bb436221

Posted:

Jan 8, 2015 18:31

Subject:

Re: Require sellers to pass a test before selling

Viewed:

87 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, izzi_rust writes:

Suppose Bricklink required that one pass a simple test, before being able to
sell on Bricklink.

I think if you do that, there should also be a test to see if you can Keep selling
on Bricklink... I think there are sellers who have a few sales under their belt,
and then take their hands off the wheel... quality of service and personalities
in general.

If they are taking for granted that an order is a partnership, not a petition
to their personal awesomeness, then That'a a fail.

I placed 18 orders in December. Almost 80% of that was jacked up in some way.
Some of the sellers took the "Sucks to be You" attitude.

Every problem I had was from big number sellers. I just placed the first order
with a new shop, and it was one of the best executed orders I've received.

You make a point that new sellers should know what their selling, and how to
represent that properly, but the enthusiasm and gratitude that many new sellers
have goes a long way, too... it's a shame when it goes.

izzi

Keep in mind that the bigger the seller is, then the more mistakes they make.

Author:

bb436221

Posted:

Jan 8, 2015 18:17

Subject:

Re: Require sellers to pass a test before selling

Viewed:

84 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, eileenkeeney writes:

I am not even certain I think this is a good idea, but I had this thought.

Suppose Bricklink required that one pass a simple test, before being able to
sell on Bricklink.

The test would require that one be able to use the catalog, to verify the part
and color that they are offering for sale.

Such things as the length in dots (or diameter in case of something like a rubber
band) could be done with pictures (like showing something that is 5 lego dots
long, next to a Lego plate, aligned so one can see how many dots long it is,
and having them select the correct length from multiple choices).
Or maybe include some pictures of pieces in some colors that are close, but different
enough to easily identify.

Or maybe a better idea is to present sellers with a verification popup, when
listing certain part/color combinations.
- Anytime a color is listed, that is no longer in production, a popup asking
the seller to verify the color, and telling them the color has not been produced
since (year), would avoid some errors.

- Anytime it is a part/color combination, that is not one that is known to have
been in any set, a verification popup would be useful.

Voted Yes. This won't hurt good sellers, and it'll reduce the number
of bad sellers.

Author:

bb436221

Posted:

Dec 20, 2014 09:50

Subject:

Re: Analytics for sellers

Viewed:

61 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, 62Bricks writes:

This is a "roadmap" suggestion, as it would require a pretty big change in the
architecture of the site, but it would be very useful for sellers to have access
to tracking information for their shops.

Full analytics would tell sellers things like:

- How visitors got to their shop. For example, some people post sales in the
forums. Analytics would let you see how many people followed the forum link and
whether they bought something. That would give you an idea of how effective that
marketing activity is. Or if you link to your shop from other forums or social
media sites, you could follow that traffic.

- The search terms visitors used to find your shop.

- How people look around your shop. Do they search? Use a wanted list? Browse
by color?

- When your traffic is heaviest and lightest

- What country your visitors are from. Maybe you need to add a destination to
your shipping list or translate your shop terms into another language?

This is perhaps a long-term feature, but some of the things BL is working on
now could be designed with analytics in mind: payment processing, for example.
Analytics can give you lots of "gee-whiz" information, but to be really useful
it has to answer one big question about each visitor: Did they buy anything?
As BL works on its new automated checkout and payment system, I would hope they
keep an eye on the future and make it possible one day for sellers to track what
marketing efforts are working.

Great idea. Voted yes.

Author:

bb436221

Posted:

Oct 1, 2014 14:29

Subject:

Re: Set quoting OFF in forum posts

Viewed:

27 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, StarBrick writes:

All you have to do to avoid that is simply to delete the text you didn't
write! This feature would be completely pointless when designers could be
working on more important things!

Like cosmetic overhauling the front page

That would be nice, it does not look too good.

I do delete the non-relevant parts (see this reply for instance) in my replies.
Most users don't, that can be annoying to quickly read through a thread with
20+ replies.
I guess your activity on the forum is not that big, so your not annoyed by it

I'm on here about every day, which is quite often, but if anything, all that's
necessary is a better explanation of how to use the Forum.

Author:

bb436221

Posted:

Oct 1, 2014 12:03

Subject:

Re: Set quoting OFF in forum posts

Viewed:

34 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, StarBrick writes:

In replying to forum posts, the standard system setting is to quote the post
you are replying to. This generates LARGE texts that one has to scroll through
to get the additional post made by the poster.

Please set this standard to OFF:

- makes the forumposts cleaner
- readingspeed increases
- mouses/PGDWN-keys will last longer due to less scrolling
- less data storage needed on servers

(has been requested two times before, no follow-up unfortunately)

All you have to do to avoid that is simply to delete the text you didn't
write! This feature would be completely pointless when designers could be
working on more important things!

Author:

bb436221

Posted:

Aug 20, 2014 18:54

Subject:

Re: BL Development Team: Test before rollout!

Viewed:

64 times

Topic: