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Okay, so as I've mentioned before, we're working on building up a marketplace called "The Trading Post". It'll be right here on Office Outlaw as a series of subforums.
I want to do something a little different with The Trading Post. Many of you will remember that I used to be in charge of the BHW marketplace and created the processes and rules there are still in use there today.
Personally, I don't want to run this marketplace like that because everything I created for BHW was in relation to how that forum owner wanted it run.
Review Process
I don't want to go around just requesting "top-level packages" for the reviews because I personally did not find this general type of review process to be very thorough at points for reasons I'll explain at a later date.
At the same time, services do need to be tested to ensure that they're of a reasonable quality. I think for more bespoke services, requesting the top-level package would be acceptable, but for services where someone is selling social media accounts in packages like 500 accounts for $100 and 50 accounts for $20, I don't think it's reasonable to request the top-level package. If they have accounts they're selling, I feel like it's far better to request a smaller sample of the accounts to get an idea of how they're making them and if they're of reasonable quality (i.e., they aren't compromised and they won't get banned after you log into them for the first time).
Something I wanted to do before was actually develop very specific review processes for each type of service, whilst making the review expectations public so traders know what they're getting into before the review starts. This will be more right off the bat, but there does need to be transparency for the traders.
I have some other ideas in mind, and again, these are just ideas right now, so nothing is set in stone.
Rules
Some of the rules I have in mind are as follows:
One idea I've always wanted to explore was to create a submission form that traders can use to craft their sales threads. This will mean that all sellers can put the required details in (like pricing, description, a refund policy) and all sales threads will have the essentially information displayed at the top of the thread.
I have a lot of experience building these submissions forms as I created them for the other forum (specifically the thread edit form, but I did also build a dispute form they never uploaded to the live site). These forms really streamlined the processes and made things easier for members, so I feel like there's some potential in this for traders.
Listing Fee
Rather than a one-size-fits-all fee, I've considered creating a sliding scale fee depending on the service and the complexity of the review process.
Using the other marketplace as an example, there's a simple $30 fee for every single listing. Again, it's simple, but then what about people who just want to sell a single social media account that they built up? What about people who have a really simple signature sales thread?
Giving Back To The Community
Back when I used to review these internet marketing products and services, I used to end up with a lot of stuff I never ended up using. Some of you remember that I ended up doing my own giveaway thread back in 2020 to give back to the community. I ended up giving away $2,216 in products through that giveaway.
I'd like to do the same thing here and make it a requirement that any products we receive go back into the community.
That's all for now! I'll keep all of you updated on how this ends up progressing as I develop it.
Preventing Scams
Even with a well-thought-out review processes, scams can still happen. I think everyone has seen this happen in other places where the service is delivered to the reviewing mod with exceptional quality, and then the quality drops massively for the customers.
I'm looking into a new process I've not seen used elsewhere that should help combat this issue, but I'll go over that at a later date.
There's also the issue of a trader simply not delivering the service they advertised. I heard one other newer marketplace has a contracts system to prevent this issue, so that's one option.
I might prohibit certain traders from using certain off-forum contact details like Telegram where the chats can be deleted by either party. I greatly prefer not to tell people how to run their business, so I'm still thinking this one over.
The Tribunal
This is Office Outlaw's dispute section. Once I get the forms add-on installed here, I'm going to create a Tribunal submission form for traders and customers to use. This will automatically submit the details of the dispute in a format that anyone could easily follow.
Now of course, the issue I'm looking into right now is where or not to make tribunals public or private as they're being sorted out. I know it can be fun reading these, but I don't think it's the best look for the forum to have them sorted out in public. At the same time, making them public does put pressure on both parties to resolve the issue faster. I'll most likely create a poll when this community has grown a little bigger to get an idea of what all of you want out of The Tribunal section.
I want to do something a little different with The Trading Post. Many of you will remember that I used to be in charge of the BHW marketplace and created the processes and rules there are still in use there today.
Personally, I don't want to run this marketplace like that because everything I created for BHW was in relation to how that forum owner wanted it run.
Review Process
I don't want to go around just requesting "top-level packages" for the reviews because I personally did not find this general type of review process to be very thorough at points for reasons I'll explain at a later date.
At the same time, services do need to be tested to ensure that they're of a reasonable quality. I think for more bespoke services, requesting the top-level package would be acceptable, but for services where someone is selling social media accounts in packages like 500 accounts for $100 and 50 accounts for $20, I don't think it's reasonable to request the top-level package. If they have accounts they're selling, I feel like it's far better to request a smaller sample of the accounts to get an idea of how they're making them and if they're of reasonable quality (i.e., they aren't compromised and they won't get banned after you log into them for the first time).
Something I wanted to do before was actually develop very specific review processes for each type of service, whilst making the review expectations public so traders know what they're getting into before the review starts. This will be more right off the bat, but there does need to be transparency for the traders.
I have some other ideas in mind, and again, these are just ideas right now, so nothing is set in stone.
Rules
Some of the rules I have in mind are as follows:
- Individual rules pertaining to specific services. I found this to be really helpful and many sellers contacted me before to let me know that they really liked being able to see what rules they needed to follow for their specific service, so I'll make a chaptered rules thread like I did before.
- Minimum requirements for sales threads. Obviously pricing needs to be included, but I don't want to just mimic the marketplace I worked on before. I feel like traders should have a lot more freedom in terms of how they present their product or service to the community, but people should still have a good idea of what they're going to get.
One idea I've always wanted to explore was to create a submission form that traders can use to craft their sales threads. This will mean that all sellers can put the required details in (like pricing, description, a refund policy) and all sales threads will have the essentially information displayed at the top of the thread.
I have a lot of experience building these submissions forms as I created them for the other forum (specifically the thread edit form, but I did also build a dispute form they never uploaded to the live site). These forms really streamlined the processes and made things easier for members, so I feel like there's some potential in this for traders.
Listing Fee
Rather than a one-size-fits-all fee, I've considered creating a sliding scale fee depending on the service and the complexity of the review process.
Using the other marketplace as an example, there's a simple $30 fee for every single listing. Again, it's simple, but then what about people who just want to sell a single social media account that they built up? What about people who have a really simple signature sales thread?
- Single domain sales threads - $10 - it's mostly just verifying that they own the domain.
- Web design services - $30 - these are bespoke and take a while to review.
- Single website sales threads - $20 - same as domains, but because of monetary claims that these sellers make, it does take more time to review.
- Signature sales threads - $5 - this doesn't even require any testing and only verifying the listing details.
- Private blog networks - $50 - these can be a huge pain to test because many don't build them correctly (i.e., too many footprints).
Giving Back To The Community
Back when I used to review these internet marketing products and services, I used to end up with a lot of stuff I never ended up using. Some of you remember that I ended up doing my own giveaway thread back in 2020 to give back to the community. I ended up giving away $2,216 in products through that giveaway.
I'd like to do the same thing here and make it a requirement that any products we receive go back into the community.
That's all for now! I'll keep all of you updated on how this ends up progressing as I develop it.
Preventing Scams
Even with a well-thought-out review processes, scams can still happen. I think everyone has seen this happen in other places where the service is delivered to the reviewing mod with exceptional quality, and then the quality drops massively for the customers.
I'm looking into a new process I've not seen used elsewhere that should help combat this issue, but I'll go over that at a later date.
There's also the issue of a trader simply not delivering the service they advertised. I heard one other newer marketplace has a contracts system to prevent this issue, so that's one option.
I might prohibit certain traders from using certain off-forum contact details like Telegram where the chats can be deleted by either party. I greatly prefer not to tell people how to run their business, so I'm still thinking this one over.
The Tribunal
This is Office Outlaw's dispute section. Once I get the forms add-on installed here, I'm going to create a Tribunal submission form for traders and customers to use. This will automatically submit the details of the dispute in a format that anyone could easily follow.
Now of course, the issue I'm looking into right now is where or not to make tribunals public or private as they're being sorted out. I know it can be fun reading these, but I don't think it's the best look for the forum to have them sorted out in public. At the same time, making them public does put pressure on both parties to resolve the issue faster. I'll most likely create a poll when this community has grown a little bigger to get an idea of what all of you want out of The Tribunal section.
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