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Should we create a proxy thread in the marketplace?
Posted: 28 Mar 2018, 16:41
by Blaise170
I've had numerous people ask for assistance with proxying items from China and Japan. I gladly help in most cases and have been doing so for years. On the other hand, most people don't know that I can help with proxying from these countries unless they happen to see a post of mine or see the thread in the Deskthority Club section. As it stands, I end up running sort of "mini group buys" which is fine, except that people don't know about it half the time and it requires enough random interest to actually be useful. If there were a dedicated thread, I believe people would be less hesitant about trying to find items from other countries and would have a dedicated resource to help with the buying process.
Posted: 28 Mar 2018, 17:08
by j0d1
So I guess that would be a thread where people say I want to buy X from Japan, who can proxy it? and also vendors could say I have the opportunity to import X from China, who's interested? ?
Posted: 28 Mar 2018, 17:11
by scottc
I am pretty sure we have one.
Posted: 28 Mar 2018, 17:12
by Blaise170
Something like that. I'm not exactly sure how it would run but I imagine there could be a list in the initial post that is updated when necessary.
Posted: 28 Mar 2018, 17:36
by kbdfr
scottc wrote: ↑I am pretty sure we have one.
We have one, but being in the Clubhouse section it is available only to us elitist scumbags
the-clubhouse-f95/need-a-proxy-t14429.html
Posted: 28 Mar 2018, 17:38
by Blaise170
As noted in the original post!
Posted: 28 Mar 2018, 18:12
by j0d1
I am up for it.
I don't know if this kind of situation/need happens a lot so I would stick it like [External] Great/Interesting Finds for awhile and if there is no activity in it, unstick it.
Posted: 28 Mar 2018, 18:14
by Blaise170
Well I've had 6 people ask me to proxy in the last 24 hours so I'm assuming there is demand. Not sure the best format though.
Posted: 28 Mar 2018, 19:37
by chuckdee
Blaise170 wrote: ↑Well I've had 6 people ask me to proxy in the last 24 hours so I'm assuming there is demand. Not sure the best format though.
Considering the responsibility and for accountability, I don't think it's so bad to have it only for club members. That's just my opinion though...
Posted: 28 Mar 2018, 20:08
by Blaise170
I'm just kidding, but what a perfect time to quote this.
Posted: 29 Mar 2018, 02:45
by __red__
Blaise170 wrote: ↑Well I've had 6 people ask me to proxy in the last 24 hours so I'm assuming there is demand. Not sure the best format though.
Another alternative is to have a sticky thread that says: "There's a proxy thread in the member-only section of the board. Membership is only $20 per year - you know it makes sense"
Posted: 29 Mar 2018, 07:14
by Slom
chuckdee wrote: ↑Blaise170 wrote: ↑Well I've had 6 people ask me to proxy in the last 24 hours so I'm assuming there is demand. Not sure the best format though.
Considering the responsibility and for accountability, I don't think it's so bad to have it only for club members. That's just my opinion though...
__red__ wrote: ↑Blaise170 wrote: ↑Well I've had 6 people ask me to proxy in the last 24 hours so I'm assuming there is demand. Not sure the best format though.
Another alternative is to have a sticky thread that says: "There's a proxy thread in the member-only section of the board. Membership is only $20 per year - you know it makes sense"
This attitude is the sole reason for why am not a club member. I mean there is no trustworthiness checks associated with the club membership at all. And there certainly is no way for club members to control what non-members post in the normal forum sections. Where do you people get these ideas?
Thankfully not all club member share it, and I am very grateful for those that proxied me some keyboards in the past
Back on topic: I have offered to proxy from Germany before, but never really needed to bc/ the seller did ship internationally in the end. It heavily depends on what the item is, so just saying "I proxy everything for everybody" is not the answer.
Knowing that you occasionally receive shipments from Japan is a good indicator that somebody is at least following the forum closely, should help build some trust. For the cases where I asked other members to proxy me something, I had some interaction with them before. Like buying something from the directly, or talking keyboards through PMs.
The problem with Japanese keyboards is more in finding them in the first place, due to the language barrier, I guess.
Posted: 30 Mar 2018, 02:51
by chuckdee
Slom wrote: ↑This attitude is the sole reason for why am not a club member. I mean there is no trustworthiness checks associated with the club membership at all. And there certainly is no way for club members to control what non-members post in the normal forum sections. Where do you people get these ideas?
That's the bar that you draw for being a club member? To not support the site being here nor any of the maintenance?
True, there's no verification or validation, but you've shown your support for the site and have some investment into it's well-being. And I also say that after watching things go wrong on other sites, and having johnny-come-lately's come in and scam people out of money, and there having been no accountability. It's not an attitude or exclusiveness. It's at least a minimum of safety, as people will come, but it takes real interest to put up money for the support of a site.
That's just my opinion, drawn from experience. YMMV.
Posted: 30 Mar 2018, 07:23
by __red__
Slom wrote: ↑
__red__ wrote: ↑Another alternative is to have a sticky thread that says: "There's a proxy thread in the member-only section of the board. Membership is only $20 per year - you know it makes sense"
This attitude is the sole reason for why am not a club member. I mean there is no trustworthiness checks associated with the club membership at all. And there certainly is no way for club members to control what non-members post in the normal forum sections. Where do you people get these ideas?
Thankfully not all club member share it, and I am very grateful for those that proxied me some keyboards in the past
I'm pretty certain that your language skills in English far surpass my language skills in whatever your primary language is so I'll assume we have a misunderstanding here.
Let me spell this out:
Code: Select all
"There's a proxy thread in the member-only section of the board. Membership is only $20 per year - you know it makes sense"
Says absolutely
nothing about trustworthiness.
Says absolutely
nothing about controlling what other people post in other sections.
The only thing it says is that there is an active proxy thread in the membership forum and that might act as an incentive for some to throw the equivalent of a few beers worth of currency towards the support costs of this community.
In summary - please find someone else to turn into your strawman.
With much love,
REd
EDIT: s/bears/beers/g
(Although I would donate money to watch someone throw bears at a website)
Posted: 30 Mar 2018, 12:47
by Blaise170
Well... If you are going to set membership as a bar, then you could just require proxies to be club members, but this seems wholly unnecessary.
Posted: 30 Mar 2018, 13:00
by Slom
Blaise170 wrote: ↑Well... If you are going to set membership as a bar, then you could just require proxies to be club members, but this seems wholly unnecessary.
That does not make any sense at all. Why should I have to be a club member before I can help other forum members?
Posted: 30 Mar 2018, 13:06
by Slom
chuckdee wrote: ↑Slom wrote: ↑This attitude is the sole reason for why am not a club member. I mean there is no trustworthiness checks associated with the club membership at all. And there certainly is no way for club members to control what non-members post in the normal forum sections. Where do you people get these ideas?
That's the bar that you draw for being a club member? To not support the site being here nor any of the maintenance?
.
I think any original conversion/tear down/photos thread is worth more than the membership fees. Taking pictures, cleaning keyboards, writing an interesting story ... that is the kind of investment I like. Clicking a PayPal button once every year to feel superior is cheap. But that is just my opinion.
Posted: 30 Mar 2018, 13:56
by Blaise170
I agree with you Slom, which is frankly why I said it's wholly unnecessary.
Posted: 30 Mar 2018, 14:56
by chuckdee
Slom wrote: ↑chuckdee wrote: ↑Slom wrote: ↑This attitude is the sole reason for why am not a club member. I mean there is no trustworthiness checks associated with the club membership at all. And there certainly is no way for club members to control what non-members post in the normal forum sections. Where do you people get these ideas?
That's the bar that you draw for being a club member? To not support the site being here nor any of the maintenance?
.
I think any original conversion/tear down/photos thread is worth more than the membership fees. Taking pictures, cleaning keyboards, writing an interesting story ... that is the kind of investment I like. Clicking a PayPal button once every year to feel superior is cheap. But that is just my opinion.
It's not to feel superior. The server to host those things on cost money. That's just a truth. And supporting that effort helps. Many sites have disappeared because no one helped to support it. True contributions do help the site. But when you break it down to the actual necessities, money is necessary.
I
really don't get where you get this continued superiority argument. I've not seen it. Just the fact that the site wants to reward those that provide monetary support in small ways, i.e. a thread or two, and since you're in the club you get to help determine direction. There's nothing else, so no reason to feel superior.
And as I pointed out above, this suggestion wasn't for that reason, so not sure why you lump it in with that. It was because I've seen things that deal with money, similar to this Proxy idea, tear sites apart. Anything that deals with real money is fraught with risk, and a smaller base of people would make that less likely, just by the fact of having a smaller base. But I've said that before... just wanted to repeat it since that was being lost in the discussion apparently.