On making "great finds" private to registered users only

[ohaimark]

The price equilibrium for new mech stuff settled at a higher point for a few reasons. Sellers are "greedy," but consumers are buying the goods and setting the market price higher.

1) Demand: the demand for mech keyboard paraphernalia has skyrocketed due to the 3 big communities
2) Scarcity: mechanical keyboards, keycaps, etc. are still a niche product -- that makes the items scarce and expensive to produce due to small volumes
3) Consumers' willingness to pay premiums: companies jacked up prices because people see mechs as a luxury good
4) Sellers likely moved to higher price points because it's hard to create a mechanical keyboard/keycap that doesn't last a long time compared to other peripherals, thus their sales falter once their market is saturated

[seebart]

Ebay itself of course has a lot to do with this. Anyone can see what others are getting for their "old stuff"...

[ohaimark]

That's not exactly a new development, though. At least as of 2011...

[seebart]

That's not exactly a new development, though. At least as of 2011...

No but it's increased more and more.

[Halvar]

I'm afraid that this thread has to do with it, too. Everything that is posted here is automatically seen by a lot of interested people who don't even have to search for themselves.

[Muirium]

I think this is just about the right thread to make visible only to DT Club members. Seeing as this issue keeps coming up, why not put a limit on it? At least DT will benefit from the opportunists! We might make community members of them yet.

[Prelim]

agreed! (and I'm not even a club member lol)

[Spikebolt]

Don't limit discussions to DT club members. Please. It's a terrible precedent...

[Muirium]

Everyone's free* to join the Club!

I generally oppose limiting thread visibility. In fact, I'm the guy who instigated the policy we have of publicly visible club discussions: those threads are readable by all. But this particular thread does have quite a bit of pushback, routinely. Check out the first few pages. If I remember, it was particularly argument heavy back then. I favour this thread's existence, but I think putting it behind a barrier would also help solve the squabbles. It is an unusual thread indeed.

*Admission costs €12 per year. Which isn't bad considering the potential for profit making on this one thread alone!

[derzemel]

I agree too

[shreebles]

This again... Let's at least try to make the marketplace, or this thread unavailable to the public, not signed-in users.

[Spikebolt]

I'm not saying it's expensive Mu, I'm saying that club-exclusive threads are a very bad precedent. Stick to the Club's principles!

[Spikebolt]

Deskthority is a worldwide, open, free speech forum, wiki and irc community where all registered members can freely participate without a hierarchical nature.

[Muirium]

Good find! But I'm not at all worried about a slippery slope. This isn't GH. DT's moderation is very light touch. Partly because we mods are lazy, but also a philosophical thing. (I love a good fight! And I hate to delete stuff in general.) Open discussion is indeed what we're all about. But just think about the things Halvar and others *don't* post in this topic!

This particular thread is the beginning and the end of my list of "things we should obscure from public view". Even the DT Club meetings and votes are open to viewing by all. PMs are the only hidden action around here!

[Prelim]

Everyone's free* to join the Club!
...
*Admission costs €12 per year. Which isn't bad considering the potential for profit making on this one thread alone!

I think DT would benefit and gather a lot more members if the Club member entry could have some offer (a DT keycap, pin, or even a shirt with a higher admission fee). Just food to thought

[ohaimark]

I'm onboard with limiting it to registered members -- blocking it from the open internet would be a good step.

Making this thread pay to play, however, is iffy for me. I think it would be fair, but we should make it clear to registering members what's up.

[photekq]

Registered members only is a good idea.

Pay to play? Daft. How will people who aren't in the club post their great finds here?

[Muirium]

Okay, so how are we all on the compromise position of Visible to Registered Users Only?

[Spikebolt]

Registered users only is fine, though I doubt it will change anything.

[Redmaus]

This again... Let's at least try to make the marketplace, or this thread unavailable to the public, not signed-in users.

Definitely agree with this. Take that, lurkers!

[Prelim]

Registered users is another non-sense... do you guys want to remember again the Novatouch voting?

at least make it to registered users (6 months minimum) and 100 posts or more.

[Spikebolt]

6 months and 100 posts to share deals with the community does not seem that great.

[Muirium]

Good points. Perhaps visible to all registered users unless they are from Portugal!

[Prelim]

6 months and 100 posts to share deals with the community does not seem that great.

I think it's more important to restrict who is watching the thread, than who is sharing the links.

anyway, from my experience the users sharing info in this are always forum veterans or with way more than 100 posts. I'm I telling any lie?

[Spikebolt]

Ohaimark is an example of a very participative user that joined DT less than 6 months ago. DT should be free to browse, free to share, free to be a lurker. Post restrictions are an invitation to spam, not to produce quality content (as Brocaps have realized in GH).

[Sayso]

6 months and 100 posts to share deals with the community does not seem that great.

I think it's more important to restrict who is watching the thread, than who is sharing the links.

anyway, from my experience the users sharing info in this are always forum veterans or with way more than 100 posts. I'm I telling any lie?

tell me lies tell me sweet little lies...

[Muirium]

We're talking about visibility, not posting. That's already restricted to registered forum users!

[kbdfr]

Deskthority is a worldwide, open, free speech forum, wiki and irc community where all registered members can freely participate without a hierarchical nature.

• One problem is that not only "all registered members", but anybody who happens to read here, member or not, benefits from the finds posted in this thread.
• I would deny that "freely participate" also includes simply taking advantage.

I search quite intensively (not with keywords like "Cherry", of course ) and when I find something well concealed I am interested in, I always fear someone who is not will post it here, giving everyone information they wouldn’t have found otherwise.
I find it just silly.
It rewards those who are too lazy (or not knowledgeable enough) to search by themselves,
allowing them to compete with those who invest much effort in doing their homework.

Make the bloody thread visible only to club members!

[Muirium]

Hear hear!

[ohaimark]

Fair enough! Let's put it to a vote among the club members.