View Single Post
Old 17-01-2009, 02:24:06 AM     #9 (permalink)
Edwin

 
Edwin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Cambridge, UK
Posts: 4,158
Edwin has a reputation beyond reputeEdwin has a reputation beyond reputeEdwin has a reputation beyond reputeEdwin has a reputation beyond reputeEdwin has a reputation beyond reputeEdwin has a reputation beyond reputeEdwin has a reputation beyond reputeEdwin has a reputation beyond reputeEdwin has a reputation beyond reputeEdwin has a reputation beyond reputeEdwin has a reputation beyond repute

10 pounds is hardly going to deter the people who (from seeing their lists of domains for sale) have spent thousands already on regfee or worse no-hopers (whether they themselves have realised what they're holding is worthless or not is moot, the principle still applies i.e. they have/had many, many times the 10 pounds to spend on "domaining").

Perhaps there needs to be a limit to the number of threads per week that can be started in the for-sale section by any one poster (this can be done programmatically with a vBulletin plugin/mod, I believe). For example, 4 threads per week per poster. Means they can have a new sale starting every 48 hours (with any number of names per thread), but it's also impossible to drown out the forum with a barrage of new threads.

Similarly, I believe there is a plugin that will allow only one "bump" per 24 hours (or whatever time period) and that might have merit too. All subsequent posts within that 24 hour window either get auto-merged into the previous post (if they're sequential posts by the same author), or they get tacked on the end of the thread, but without bringing the thread back to the top of the list again.

Some of the above would cramp certain kinds of sales (I'd have been impacted by the second suggestion during my recent 24 hour sale) but I believe it's worth considering a few sacrifices to make the overall Acorn experience that much better...

One non-programmatic idea - and hence IMO less appealing - would be a rule stating that any given domain can only be flogged once in a week (or two week, or whatever) period. So if there are no takers the first time, it can't be the subject of a new thread until that stated time period had elapsed.

Setting restrictions in the software (or, to a lesser extent, in the rules) may have a more direct effect than imposing a fee, especially since then the gut instinct is to try and "amortise" said fee by extracting maximum value from the forums (= posting as frequently as possible to try and sell more names)
Edwin is offline