Under Consideration Tiered Levels Seller's UserGroups

[Rem]

Personally, here my thoughts on the Marketplace System.

While, educating users through Read Me & Posts are good, among the many forums I been on through my years.
I have always notice, user have take an emphasis on User Tags & Names as a sign of "Trust".

I cannot count how many times I seen "BUT THE USER WAS A XYZ" as an argument when they got scammed.
Since this is the case, let's build upon that with a system so while it won't completely stop scammers (since that's impossible), it may deter them instead.

First, I think the "Selling" option should be detached from the Sapphire membership with Sapphire membership as a pre-req to get the seller status.
It doesn't have to be expensive; it just needs to be separated with a slightly higher requirement for example maybe an additional star needed.

Example, numbers are placeholders and can be adjusted as needed for final deployment.

Once you get the seller status, the seller status will be in Tiers or Levels.
The higher your seller status is, technically the more trusted you should be.
None of this seller status requires users to pay more $, it should be entirely based on their ability to sell.

Also, have this UserGroup, at the VERY TOP
So for example, for me
It would be below "Veteran Member" as that is the User Title
and Above the Founding Member, as that is the First UserGroup (or only) i have.
This is the same for members with multiple UserGroups like @roydan.



Seller Lv 0: Newcomer

• PreReq
  • Have Sapphire+Membership. Default Seller Status.
• Perks
  • Can create up to 3 BSTs
  • Can only have 1 of the 3 BST Pinned

Seller Lv 1: Seller

• PreReq (Need at least x of all the options, excluding the Must Have)
  • 10+ Positive Feedback within the last 6 months* (Must Have)
    • The only things that will include (even if its more than 6 months ago) are 1-off sales such as
      • Things like Subreddits (Entire Subreddits)
      • Domains Sales
  • No unresolved disputes in the past 6 months (Must Have)
  • Public Sales History*
  • All BSTs(or replies in WTB) is Black/White theme friendly & it has a text mode* that is transparent for all viewers.
  • Participation in Non-Sales sections (excluding Saloon)
  • Hold a AMA on any of their product/service at least once every 6 months.
    • Silly questions that will compromise the product/service like "what is your method/techniques" can be ignored (obviously)
    • AMA questions should more be towards knowledge in the area of expertise
    • If your AMA looks like you are just doing it for the sake of it (faking questions, faking response, it's does not count)
  • 5+ amount of Public Reviews on BST or user profile for WTB users (Excluding Review Copies)
    • This is scaled up, let's say 10 per BST. So, if you have 3 BSTs, you need at least 30 in total (so u can have 30 on 1 BST, but 0 on the other 2)
    • As for WTB users, it would be a x% of their total sales.
  • Reach x Star Level
  • 80% of deals are done via OO DMs
  • xxx
• Perks
  • Can create up to 10 BSTs
  • Can only have up to 5 of the 10 BST Pinned

Seller Lv 2: Seller

• PreReqs (Must fit all requirements)
  • All of Seller Lv1 Pre-Reqs +
  • 20+ Positive Feedback within the last 6 months*
  • 15+ amount of Public Reviews on BST or user profile for WTB users (Excluding Review Copies)
    • This is scaled up, let's say 10 per BST. So, if you have 3 BSTs, you need at least 30 in total (so u can have 30 on 1 BST, but 0 on the other 2)
    • As for WTB users, it would be a x% of their total sales.
  • A higher rank of Star Level
  • xxx
• Perks
  • Can create up to 15 BSTs
  • Can only have 10 of the 15 BST Pinned

Seller Lv 3: Seller

• PreReq (Must fit all requirements)
  • All of Seller Lv1 Pre-Reqs +
  • 50+ Positive Feedback within the last 6 months*
  • 30+ amount of Public Reviews on BST or user profile for WTB users (Excluding Review Copies)
    • This is scaled up, let's say 10 per BST. So, if you have 3 BSTs, you need at least 30 in total (so u can have 30 on 1 BST, but 0 on the other 2)
    • As for WTB users, it would be a x% of their total sales.
  • A higher rank of Star Level
  • xxx
• Perks
  • Can create 99 BSTs
  • Can have any many BST pinned as pinned BST slots avails

Reputation Maintenance Checks (Ongoing for All Levels)
To remain at your tier your account must meet continue to reach all its requirements, with an x day grace period. You don't just reach and forget your tier status.
What would happen if my BST amount exceeded my tier status.
You will continue to keep it, but it when it comes to renewal, you cannot exceed your seller limit.

Notes
This is taking into consideration of my Evil Twin @Remi suggestion on Feedback modifications. Positive is still the "Green" Positive Option.
This means, Neutral/White isn't counted as Positive.

Public Sales History*
Every completed transaction is logged on seller's profile shows:

• Item name
• Buyer (can be anonymised if needed)
• Delivery status
• Rating
• Date of Transaction

Text Mode*
What is Text Mode?
BST includes as TEXT copy of it's

• product/service
• Pricing Structure
• What the product/service do without all the fancy fluff
• ToS

As talking with @Octavia, Yes, this does discrimate more towards One-Time Sellers in the WTB section.
However, that is how it really should be. If your product is a consistent product, then you should have zero issues opening an BST for it.
However, if your product is not a consistent product, but more of a 1 time product, (Such as, selling off a subreddit). Then you wouldn't need to worry as you have your perks regardless lined up for you.

I was also speaking with @MisterF aswell with improvements we can have. He has some nice ones which can compliment each of the requirements needed aswell. Feel free to speak your mind @MisterF.

@OO Community
I have listed some requirements as xxx
this is your chance to also engage in the discussion to make a difference here at Office Outlaws where it's Community first & not Lining Z/Imp pockets first. (Instead, line @Rem pockets)

 

[roydan]

I want to agree with it, but I haven't seen the feedback system being used in the salt few years, let alone a seller (as successful as some can be) gaining 50 positive reviews every 6 months.

What happens when I have my 99 sales threads as a level 3 seller but haven't received 50 positive feedbacks in the last 6 months? The window moves, after all.
How do we know which % of the deals are done via OO DMs?

We're bonding a user's ability to sell on a forum to their "seller level" l, which I don't think it's that fair.

I'll take myself as an example if you don't mind:
I never had a BST or a sales thread anywhere because I cherry pick my clients. If I acquire 50 clients in 6 months it meant that I'm pretty much working 20 hours a day.
Suddenly, I realize that I have an offering I can offer the public. Now, between us, I really doubt many people can do what I do at the level I do it. Should the fact that I never had a sales thread or the fact that my service take a lot of effort prevent me from "capitalizing" on being an active member of the community and helping people for free?

I agree that seller levels should be a thing. I'm just not that comfortable relying on feedbacks and on experience selling via BSTs alone. On the other side, I can't really find a scalable alternative to it.
Maybe sellers would need to apply for the next level and be manually approved by the mods, in exchange to reducing the requirements?

 

[Rem]

I want to agree with it, but I haven't seen the feedback system being used in the salt few years, let alone a seller (as successful as some can be) gaining 50 positive reviews every 6 months.

Let me argue you with this then.
You are not as good of a seller, as you think you are.

Why?
I worked in Amazon before, did you know, alot service reps in Amazon have their bonus tied to their feedback system.
At the same time, they are actually FORBIDDED to tell the customers to vote in a certain way. (It is audited heavily)
However, they are able to mention, that they (rep) will be sending a survey, or provide feedback if they wish.

If Reps are able to consistently get ~70% of their calls provide feedback, (regardless of positive or negative), then this is an issue that lies with you sellers.
Please note, this is a CALL. the survey they provide is via EMAIL. Meaning, they made the customers actually check their email and provided feedback. it wasn't done via the call

You SHOULD be asking for feedback, positive or negative, on your product & service.
THAT FEEDBACK actually shows the community or other potential sellers, you HAVE customer & you act towards them to improve your product, service or your professionalism.

Here is an example, @LuxRiches reached out to me for feedback afterwards on the sale.
He could of just ended it just there and there, but he went the extra mile, he wanted the feedback, he wanted me to rate him.
He was POSITIVE I was happy with the service. There is no stopping you from doing that. He didn't extort me or provide benefits for giving him a positive rating. He just asked me & I quote

Could you please leave a review in this thread based on the article you received

That's all.

The system is there for you to take advantage of; this isn't meant to be something easy for you to get to as high rank as possible (like the trophies).
This is to PROVE you are a better seller than the rest.
If it is easy to get high rank, there no point having the ranking system.

How do we know which % of the deals are done via OO DMs?

That can be audited, and checked on DMs really.
It's not perfect, but, if the conversation goes to "Talk to TG or WhatsApp etc" then obviously that's not a deal done on DM

Suddenly, I realize that I have an offering I can offer the public. Now, between us, I really doubt many people can do what I do at the level I do it. Should the fact that I never had a sales thread or the fact that my service take a lot of effort prevent me from "capitalizing" on being an active member of the community and helping people for free?

Doesn't matter.
If you don't regularly sell, and if there is a % of buyers that ain't regularly on the forum.
They are going trust you off from what? Your Founding Status? Your Sapphire User Status?
That would just defeat the purpose. & we are back with square one, everyone trusting somoene who has a sapphire status.

This rule does apply to me too.
I dont have a BST on other forums, but I have sold things on the side, accounts and what not.
Which not all of them appeared on Feedback either.
However, i shouldn't be leveraging my "Statuses" to prove i'm "Trustworthy", we all know, there was scammers among those status, even at a mod/staff level.

What happens when I have my 99 sales threads as a level 3 seller but haven't received 50 positive feedbacks in the last 6 months? The window moves, after all.

covered it here.

Reputation Maintenance Checks (Ongoing for All Levels)
To remain at your tier your account must meet continue to reach all its requirements, with an x day grace period. You don't just reach and forget your tier status.
What would happen if my BST amount exceeded my tier status.
You will continue to keep it, but it when it comes to renewal, you cannot exceed your seller limit

 

[Rem]

@Octavia had a good idea which I forget.
Heck, as a user, you can probably provide a Middle man service between users aswell.
I been reached out to mediate & be a middleman on other forums multiple times as well.
That itself can be trust as well
After a x amount of deals, there could be a usertag that highlights "Trusted Middleman" of somesort aswell

 

[roydan]

Let me argue you with this then.
You are not as good of a seller, as you think you are.

Why?
I worked in Amazon before, did you know, alot service reps in Amazon have their bonus tied to their feedback system.
At the same time, they are actually FORBIDDED to tell the customers to vote in a certain way. (It is audited heavily)
However, they are able to mention, that they (rep) will be sending a survey, or provide feedback if they wish.

If Reps are able to consistently get ~70% of their calls provide feedback, (regardless of positive or negative), then this is an issue that lies with you sellers.
Please note, this is a CALL. the survey they provide is via EMAIL. Meaning, they made the customers actually check their email and provided feedback. it wasn't done via the call

You SHOULD be asking for feedback, positive or negative, on your product & service.
THAT FEEDBACK actually shows the community or other potential sellers, you HAVE customer & you act towards them to improve your product, service or your professionalism.

Here is an example, @LuxRiches reached out to me for feedback afterwards on the sale.
He could of just ended it just there and there, but he went the extra mile, he wanted the feedback, he wanted me to rate him.
He was POSITIVE I was happy with the service. There is no stopping you from doing that. He didn't extort me or provide benefits for giving him a positive rating. He just asked me & I quote

That's all.

The system is there for you to take advantage of; this isn't meant to be something easy for you to get to as high rank as possible (like the trophies).
This is to PROVE you are a better seller than the rest.
If it is easy to get high rank, there no point having the ranking system.


That can be audited, and checked on DMs really.
It's not perfect, but, if the conversation goes to "Talk to TG or WhatsApp etc" then obviously that's not a deal done on DM


Doesn't matter.
If you don't regularly sell, and if there is a % of buyers that ain't regularly on the forum.
They are going trust you off from what? Your Founding Status? Your Sapphire User Status?
That would just defeat the purpose. & we are back with square one, everyone trusting somoene who has a sapphire status.

This rule does apply to me too.
I dont have a BST on other forums, but I have sold things on the side, accounts and what not.
Which not all of them appeared on Feedback either.
However, i shouldn't be leveraging my "Statuses" to prove i'm "Trustworthy", we all know, there was scammers among those status, even at a mod/staff level.


covered it here.

I wouldn't trust you because of your rank or number of posts, but because there haven't been a day in which I haven't seen you or your posts in the last 3-4 at least.
I'd buy whatever you sell without even knowing what you do for a living.

That's my point, your idea requires users to be exclusively sellers, where I think sellers should first of all be a part of the community.

In my line of work, acquiring 50 clients in 6 months will probably kill me, let's take the 70% feedback Amazon acquire and I'm gonna have to acquire 72 client from here alone to qualify, and that's only if they're all happy (which is never the case).
I sell a mid-high ticket service, I can't have this many clients without handing them off to subcontractors.

I'm not against ranking sellers, but I don't think that those who's services require more time and effort be ranked less than sellers who are providing a simpler service.

 

[Rem]

To me
The single most important thing as a seller (money making aside) is
your customer's happiness & satisfaction.

Which can be measured in parts.

They are happy with your product/service, but they won't rate it or provide public feedback
They are happy with your product/service, they will only publically rate it but won't provide public feedback
and the last and highest level is when the customer is THAT happy (or hate it) with your product/service that they will go all out in making sure everyone knows.
It's word of mouth, it's a form variation of advertising which also applies to selling.

Another example, @Festinger Vault has reached out to me in the past, giving him 3rd party reviews (liek google/trustpilot etc) from my real account or such.
I could of just said no, or maybe, even easier, just ignore it or anything of the sort.
But I was happy with his service to go out of my way, load up those profiles and give him a review.

I wouldn't trust you because of your rank or number of posts,

That is you but it is proven that
People trust base on status and rank.
people trust elon cuz he is rich, not because he is smart.

I'd buy whatever you sell without even knowing what you do for a living.

That is also you.
I would personally do due dillegence checks.
I would go as far as to see if you have sold on other forum and check out the feedbacks there.
Call me crazy as you will but actually doing due dillegence can save you from being scammed.

In my line of work, acquiring 50 clients in 6 months will probably kill me, let's take the 70% feedback Amazon acquire and I'm gonna have to acquire 72 client from here alone to qualify, and that's only if they're all happy (which is never the case).
I sell a mid-high ticket service, I can't have this many clients without handing them off to subcontractors.

Once again,
You don't need Tier 3 seller though?
U can sell with Tier 0 or 1
you have 1 service, thats 1 BST why do you need "unlimited"
also, those numbers were placeholders too.

 

[Rem]

I'm not against ranking sellers, but I don't think that those who's services require more time and effort be ranked less than sellers who are providing a simpler service.

I'm not saying you are wrong
I welcome a metric that can be used to also help those services too.
But it needs to be properly defined.
For example, an on-going sub like VA hire like that I would be incline to have that under the "6 month exclusion" as that is ongoing, you wouldn't be still subbing to that, if you didn't like it. But that is also hard to track aswell.
I also think it is possible for exceptions can be made, but that would need to be very well defined and have multiple Admin/Mod/High trusted users have an unanimous vote in for.

At the end, a service is still a service.
Someone with 50 bst and does everything under the sun isn't going have an easy time at all fulfilling any of the requirements.

Which goes back to what i said
This isn't meant to be easy
We should welcome people reaching high status, but most ppl won't reach further than rank 1, which is to be expected.
It actually sets the sellers apart.

And, if your product or service is that good, a rank 1 shouldn't stop people from selling it.

METRIC need to have the highest!!
else I suck

This is the actual point.
This encourages the sellers to constantly prove to the forum base, they are trusted. They know what they are doing and engage in the forum past their BST bumping & coupon handouts.

But if you want to just do that, that's fine, u can sell just the same. You just wont have a "higher" rank user tag.

 

[Octavia]

For argument sake

lets say that 99% of all sellers offer some kind of discount on their products.
You could as seller package your products as such that return customers that leave a review + rating would get a discount on their next purchase. So if they are happy with your service and also get a discount for their next purchase why wouldn't they chase the extra discount ?
If you have a monthly offer that would be applicable for the next month onwards.

Would that be a more appropriate way in your opinion @roydan
‐-----

@Rem feedback I suppose you are suggesting Unique reviews per BST right?
Not that a single person buys 1 account every day and leaves a dozen reviews and rating



---



Edit1: If unique reviewers add a cool down of X months. Meaning that if they come to purchase again after that period they can leave another review + rating, maybe toward extra discounts or ..?

 

[roydan]

For argument sake

lets say that 99% of all sellers offer some kind of discount on their products.
You could as seller package your products as such that return customers that leave a review + rating would get a discount on their next purchase. So if they are happy with your service and also get a discount for their next purchase why wouldn't they chase the extra discount ?
If you have a monthly offer that would be applicable for the next month onwards.

Would that be a more appropriate way in your opinion @roydan
‐-----

@Rem feedback I suppose you are suggesting Unique reviews per BST right?
Not that a single person buys 1 account every day and leaves a dozen reviews and rating



---



Edit1: If unique reviewers add a cool down of X months. Meaning that if they come to purchase again after that period they can leave another review + rating, maybe toward extra discounts or ..?

It doesn't really change my view of things but I won't go to a war over this, I think my point went across.
I might sell here at some point as I'm trying to work something out but it doesn't really matter in all honesty.
I wish the *numbers* were lower, but it's all talk in the air at this point. It would be a lot easier to adjust in a few months when the forum is much bigger and with a lot more sellers.

 

[Duck]

I wish the *numbers* were lower

I don't understand why you are so hung up on the numbers @Rem provided?
didn't she say they were placeholders...

example, numbers are placeholders and can be adjusted as needed for final deployment.

 

[MisterF]

I used to browse other forums back in 2007 - 2009, joined some such as the two WFs ones, then BHW in 2009.
Sadly the marketplace on most forums takes over and this kills a lot of the community spirit.

I'm still on 2 other forums, tend to log in once every 2 weeks, just to keep updated on bits.


Luckily Z and his wife saw a lot of the tricks being played by certain protected sellers, so they'll have their eye on the ball with selling, I'm sure, but here are a few of my own thoughts.


From the staff aspect, I would personally use the IP checking tool, so no shared IPs for sellers, plus buyers using the same IP should be flagged.

I would make the rule that any 'review / feedback' must include an order number and payment details.

This was one of the main reasons I used to butt heads with Damien, because scammers we banned, he allowed back. These idiots were usually so easy to spot by us as Super Moderators, just by their IP history and patterns.

Limitation

All BHW wants to do is approve as much crap in the marketplace, so that sellers need to pay for stickies to be seen.

I would also suggest a cap on the number of sellers selling the same services.So, say niche edits/link inserts, ( call them what you will ) if there are 30 sellers selling the same service, a lot of buyers look just at price.


But if there are a limit on services, say 5 sellers allowed per category, it maintains the quality.
The quality over quantity would attract more serious buyers too, I imagine.


I'd also put in the rule that if quality drops below what is sent for approval and/or there are serious issues with what is being delivered, the seller is removed from the category, and from a waitlist, the next in queue is given the option about joining the marketplace.


The biggest protected seller on there ran a BST for outreach guest posts, even tough I was a Super Mod at the time, I bought the service to try it out. What was delivered was basically a shitty set of PBN links.

I reported this in the staff forum, as I didn't want to be seen doxxing a competitor ( Oh the fucking irony ) and Damien locked the guys BST, despite Leith and another buyer both complaining too.

Z actually looked into this report, behind the scenes and he found it was a PBN, as myself and the 2 others had many of these sites used, but these were quite often from the same IP addresses and hosting, domain reg etc.

All that happened was this protected seller, had that BST locked, it went no further. Then a few months later he opened a fresh BST, offering the same service.


I know when Ste was doing the marketplace reviews he did good and constructive write ups and reviews, this was also along the lines of when Z did his reviews, with his colour coded report.

Credible reviews mean people have confidence in the marketplace and the sellers.

Sadly though, there were many services that got approved that should never have been approved, but with DD it's all a numbers game. Get as much crap flooding the marketplace, to force sellers tpo pay for adverts.

Same applied to the hacked/traded accounts, which a blind person could spot, but not the inhouse staff it seems. A person doesn't post for 4 years, makes 30 'welcome mate' posts, upgrades to Jr VIP, a BST is submitted an hour later, approved next day....

Or the guy with 111 posts, not been seen for 5 years, logs on one day, pays to upgrade his Jr VIP, sends in his BST an hour later. BST is approved 2 hours later and they are selling.

There was never no extra due diligence with these kind of accounts, basically Damien and co didn't give a flying f*ck about buyers getting scammed by shitty sellers, because these shitty sellers were paying for stickies and email blasts.

 

[roydan]

I don't understand why you are so hung up on the numbers @Rem provided?
didn't she say they were placeholders...

Because this thread is where members get to voice their opinions and concerns, and come up with numbers that are not placeholders.

 

[Duck]

Because this thread is where members get to voice their opinions and concerns, and come up with numbers that are not placeholders.

That makes no sense but seems like you already made up your mind so ok let's not go to war

 

[Rem]

@Rem feedback I suppose you are suggesting Unique reviews per BST right?
Not that a single person buys 1 account every day and leaves a dozen reviews and rating
---
Edit1: If unique reviewers add a cool down of X months. Meaning that if they come to purchase again after that period they can leave another review + rating, maybe toward extra discounts or ..?

I think something like that can be defintely considered.
That would make a whole lot of sense aswell.
You wouldn't return to re-build if the product was terrible.
However, we would defitenly need a cooldown/cool off period or a maximum review period aswell in place for abuse.
Espically for lower-cost products. Can't have someone order 100 different reddit accounts for $0.01 each per day for 100 reviews right?
Or a weighted system could be implemented aswell, returning customers are worth x more points in total based on how many times they returned.

Because this thread is where members get to voice their opinions and concerns, and come up with numbers that are not placeholders.

Right, numbers may be high because I focused on the concept of the system
Numbers were randomly added to give a better visual of it in play.
What numbers would you propose?

 

[roydan]

Right, numbers may be high because I focused on the concept of the system
Numbers were randomly added to give a better visual of it in play.
What numbers would you propose?

The more I think about it, the more I think you're right in making the top level almost unachievable.
We should probably aim for 50% of the sellers to be eligible for level 1, 10% for level 2, and 5% for level three.
I assume the data is available for analysis and the actual requirements can move slightly every quarter to move with the market so the % remains the same.

They have something cool on Fiverr that may work with what @MisterF mentioned about reviews.

I would make the rule that any 'review / feedback' must include an order number and payment details.

On Fiverr, a seller must
1. retain % success rate (let's call it a ratio between good and bad reviews, ignoring neutral) to get into a higher level.
2. to sell at a certain sum to jump between levels (for which @MisterF 's suggestion helps) and
3. work with X amount of clients (not deals) - all time.

This normalizes low and high ticket offers, but we still need another requirement to distinguish between the "plug" we'll have, as probably half the sellers would have 100% positive reviews..

 

[Rem]

1. retain % success rate (let's call it a ratio between good and bad reviews, ignoring neutral) to get into a higher level.

I was having a chat with @Octavia on % vs pure sales
The reason why I opened over a pure sale option is because ratio can be much more easily manipulated.
They will always only ever need 1 positive sale and never getting another feedback will keep them qualified.
That then once again put us back to square one. Feedback system largely abandoned.

2. to sell at a certain sum to jump between levels (for which @MisterF 's suggestion helps) and

The reason why i went for deals closed over amount closed is because of the large variation between services and products.
A panel could example would need to sell hundreds if not thousands more to equalivant the same as 1 google ads seller.
That 1 google ad seller could sell 2 or 3 and reach a high $ threshold qualifying them for a higher rank.
A "consistent" seller that always hits the marks regardless of pricing is one that is usually more trustworthy.Someone who been doing services without issues for 10 years and only exchange, lets say $50k is still much more safe worthy then someone making 1 sale on a website worth $50k

3. work with X amount of clients (not deals) - all time.

I like this idea.
This defintely would bolster the credibility of sales. But that would also be very hard & annoying to verify if provided by the client.

The more I think about it, the more I think you're right in making the top level almost unachievable.
We should probably aim for 50% of the sellers to be eligible for level 1, 10% for level 2, and 5% for level three.
I assume the data is available for analysis and the actual requirements can move slightly every quarter to move with the market so the % remains the same.

Correct, If I had a marketplace such as Mrked, HF or BHW or others, I could analyize it but I don't. I have to work with what I have
But yes, that is the idea
we don't want everyone at top level because if it's that easily reachable, there zero point having it.
We don't want it to be something you can pay your way there, because, as for obvious reasons, paying for status is the last thing we want.
Most sellers would defintely hover between 0-2. With the last majority at 0 and 1.
Making 2 itself should seem very trusted already.
With the high ceiling to even get to 2, that has a higher chance to bring the desired result we want.
Which is "Trustworthiness"

They have something cool on Fiverr that may work with what @MisterF mentioned about reviews.

For fivver,
When you buy things
How often do you this?

I know I do.
This is something similar if not the implementation of that same "Trust" we want them to use as a measure to gauge sellers, shift their focus on the seller User Group as a "Trust Status" over "Sapphire" or another group that is purchasable with $.

 

[Zwielicht]

This is entirely possible for me to add in. I was originally going to add in a Trader membership that users could purchase, but removed it whilst I worked on The Trading Post.

Here's how it could work:

1. Seller purchases Trader Lv. 1 status $x amount of dollars. Those who have helped beta test The Trading Post will automatically be given this status for a year.
2. I could set up an automatic promotion that gives a user Trader Status level 2 under the following conditions: the user has Trader Status Level 1, 10 positive feedback, a feedback score of at least 70%, and maybe I'll add in a requirement of 3 stars since there's an expectation for traders to be part of the community. This would be easy for me to set up, and the cool thing about it is that if The purchasable Trader Lv. 1 Status, they'll regain their Trader Lv. 2 status upon renewal as the promotions are automatically done.
3. From there, I can add in a Trader Lv. 2 status with a higher requirement (like 30 positive feedback, a feedback score of 80%+ etc).
4. Maybe we can go up to Trader Lv. 5 or something like that, which would be the highest trust status.

This won't require any new plugins as we have everything we need to make this possible now. I'll write up the exact requirements for it and look into working on this as a concept (we wouldn't implement this right away), but let me know what you think of this approach.

 

[roydan]

So having a Sapphire membership wouldn't come with the ability to sell?

 

[Zwielicht]

So having a Sapphire membership wouldn't come with the ability to sell?

It's something we'd have to look into more, but the conclusion after making this concept is that it's best not create an extra purchasable upgrade and just allow those Sapphire Status to be able to sell.

It's like on one hand, it would create a higher barrier of entry which could reduce scams, but on the other hand, I feel it overcomplicates everything massively.

I set it up as a test to see how how feasible all of this is, but after looking at it, I'd much rather keep a simpler system that doesn't require the purchase of an extra membership level. It also created an issue where someone could have Trader Lv. 1 without Sapphire Status if their Sapphire membership lapsed, which would cause some confusion.

I think if he did enable this, I would much prefer that those with Sapphire Status can still sell.

Well, I wrote up and created a concept of it, and @Impulse feels like this is might be too problematic to add in. I'm also leaning toward feeling that way.

This is something we'll continue discussing with everyone to see what the best approach is.

Edit: also, I just noticed there was a whole discussion in this thread that I somehow missed. I need to go through and read everyone's thoughts on this later today.

 

[Rem]

It also created an issue where someone could have Trader Lv. 1 without Sapphire Status if their Sapphire membership lapsed, which would cause some confusion.

I think if he did enable this, I would much prefer that those with Sapphire Status can still sell.

Yeah, that is something fair, didn't originally think about that at all.
Would make alot more sense to just add it to the sapphire perks in that case