If you want it, buy it. If you don't want it, then mind your own business; it's nothing to do with you.
If you want it, buy it. If you don't want it, then mind your own business; it's nothing to do with you.
Lachlan.
You miss 100% of the shots you never take. -- Wayne Gretzky
I agree wholeheartedly with Darin, for exactly the reasons he gives.
We are supposedly all adults, and I can see the value of the "quit whining and do your homework" attitude, but this is where I come to do that very homework, precisely because a community consensus is allowed to emerge. A blanket 'no-criticism' rule just lets the hit-n-run scammers dominate things. Sometimes, childish wags are our best defense.
I Think I'm for the free speech crowd. I tend to be a buyer, not a seller, and if someone wants to trash something I'm thinking of buying, I'd like to hear their opinion. I do my own research as well, and anyone who has been around a while knows whose opinion is worth something, and whose not.
Frank's comments are funny. Either ironic or facetious, as he ruined many a sellers chances the other day with his flippant "20% off for this and 50% off for that" post. I enjoyed it though, and will use it in my arguments to beat down sellers. "Frank said its only worth...
I'm with the free speech crowd too. Or possibly no comments allowed whatsoever only PMs. Anything in between isn't going to work. Positive comments only can also be abused and then we can't correct a false positive comment 'cause that would be negative ...
Rules are for breaking, that's why we have them in life. Perhaps the wording of this one is quite subtle as it says "refrain" rather than that negative comments are disallowed.
Ian
Well, if it is a community, comments should be allowed, regardless of general tendency. Cases where some commenter is stalking a seller for personal reasons or similar abuse is taking place tend to be pretty obvious, and can be dealt with by moderator intervention - there isn't really a need to restrict commenting just for that.Originally Posted by Leigh
Banning comments works out to the advantage of experienced high price sellers and to the disadvantage of beginners, as it effectively prohibits community price building. This is common and perhaps inevitable on sites that operate their classifieds section for profit, but as far as known we are none of them. And even though the long time participants will mostly have grown somewhat into bargain hunters and profitable sellers, it should not really be the objective of our community to be partial in favour of them - in the long term we'll be harming large format photography if we benefit old collectors more than young photographers!
Last edited by Sevo; 26-Mar-2012 at 04:11.
So when someone wants to sell their $2000 Master Technika and somebody comes along and posts that it is only worth $1500 to them and that one sold on eBay last week for $1475, etc. but the seller still wants $2000 for their camera, and can wait a few weeks until the right buyer comes along, these negative comments would make it much more difficult for them to maintain their price. At least in an auction the buyer sets the price - in your proposed Utopian community the uninvolved (but benevolent and wise!) mob set the prices for you.
Of course the community must know better than you do... ?
What's to stop people from beating sellers into lower prices as a matter of course? After a learning period, won't it be human nature to post a few "the price should be lower" comments and then swoop in?
And aren't you guys complaining about a non-issue? I haven't seen anyone overpay here in years, can you point to a single example of a sale where you think some poor newbie got taken advantage of?
Sorry for venturing into politics but this is the essence of self-determination. I really don't think the mob or a committee or any group of photographers knows what is best for me. And it sounds like a lot of you have a higher opinion of how humans behave, especially in groups.
I wouldn't sell under those conditions, an eBay auction would be fairer. I don't have much to swap anyway so it's a non-issue personally but I think allowing negative comments is going to put a damper on what has been a pretty successful status-quo where there has been very little, if any, abuse.
Whaaa!
Pm sent.
This forum is my most treasured source of online photographic information. Just as freedom of the press is the foundation of democracy, the freedom to post inteliigent, constructive, but occasionally negative comments make the site strong. Not all comments have been nice, but even the quibbling occasionally has value. The few who abuse this will soon be hoist with their own petard.
Sorry, Ken, for sending my comment via PM when I could have posted here instead. I sent the PM before seeing this thread.
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