This can't be done without a hack and i'm afraid i'm not prepared to jeopordise the forums for thatOriginally Posted by bazzaric
I'd like to think that the members on NMS are honest and genuine.
A good measure of someone's reliability could be their post count, no guarantee's of course, but then, neither is there on eBay and the like
I'm both Honest and Genuine, but nobody really knew that. For example, my first thread was for mini magazines. These arrived with me before even the cheque had arrived. Obviously me and the seller had some banter and they could see I was genuine, and the value was only £15 but i've seen some 'great' scammers who are as polite and knowledgable about a subject, going on specialised forums and ripping people off.
That's good your first experience on NMS was a positive one.
But TBH, even on the likes of eBay, you can bid on something where a seller has 2,000 reputation and high positive figure, then only to find their account has been hacked and they don't even possess the car they are selling. We've even seen on a few occasions, people selling their car on NMS and MINI2 and also eBay. Before it's even sold it appears on eBay by a seller who clearly doesn't possess the car and has no right to sell.
Personally, I don't think NMS has a high enough traffic and sell level to generate encouraging, positive feedback on users for the purposes of selling.
I've been here for 5 year and I've sold about 3 things on NMS.
I think it's down to a reliance on new users who join being careful about who they deal with and using the age-old system of "buyer beware".
A.
R60 Light White / Red Countryman All 4 John Cooper Works Auto
R57 Chili Red Convertible John Cooper Works Auto
Well, hopefully in two or three years we will have several thousand members, and my words will be more relevant!
As people get more and more dillusioned with ebay, forums like these will be the main source of 'free trade'
I know what you mean. We currently have 940 registered members with 300 active members. It's been as high IIRC as 2,000 registered members but The Gismo Man keeps the membership list trimmed of inactive members.
To be honest, over the past five years, the site hasn't really grown much at all. Membership and in particular active membership is a dynamic term; each new and active member we get this week often ends up with a previously active member becoming less active. For any number of reasons, but most likely that they simply sold their MINI.
There's no doubt as more and more MINI's are sold, there's the scope for further site growth, but, honestly, I don;t see it reaching into the thousands.
As for eBay disillusionment - already there for me. Their fees now make it almost impossible to make decent money out of eBay. And the reliability of who you're buying from can be rather hit or miss. I buy from eBay with great trepidation these days and I hardly sell anything on there at all.
A.
R60 Light White / Red Countryman All 4 John Cooper Works Auto
R57 Chili Red Convertible John Cooper Works Auto
So where do you do your trading these days? There are several sites I use, all forum based. The biggest problem I have is that most things require delivery. The benefit of selling here is the locality of people. It's not the main reason I am here, but feel the FS/FT section will be a valuable tool in attracting members. Obviously, we only want the right kind of members here, those who contribute and provide relative discussions. Not just a squad of people buying and selling, and making threads in General Chat as they don't have a mini!
The key to getting a self supporting site however is to have people coming back time after time. The biggest problem a car site has is that people join to get information on how to fix a problem or when the next run is. These are all great, but will never get us noticed on google searches and the like. However, somewhere to buy and sell second hand mini parts is a great head turner, something that mini2 forums particularly fails at.
Imo people don't go out there way to buy/sell things on this site, which i don't feel takes anything away from the site, as the site is not geared for that. Certain other sites are more geared towards it.
I think the selling and buying section on this site is good for this type of site, i cannot complain with anything i have bought on here or the way people conduct themselves.
Though "trading feedback" (if it could be done) also doesn't show much as people don't sell stuff on here like they do on Ebay, i have sold one thing in a year and bought another couple - and i might be wrong here but i would say i would get positive feedback from the members i have dealt with, but compared to ebay say 4 positive comments is nothing
Also on the main part someone will know where you live if something happens...
That's the thing about NMS - it's a very friendly place with a community feel. Some places get too big. Mini2 for example, when it started off was manageable (just) but quickly grew to be big and too many small groups of people on all the time. In saying that, there are a lot of very knowledgeable Mini people on there.
Stuff went on M2 for sale and you'd miss it as people were on it ALL the time, and would snap everything up. But they had some very good Mini stuff come up.
This site is open to anyone who passes the registration criteria, whether they decide to stay for a day to see what we are all about or for much longer.
If they only come on to sell something, so be it, if they only come on to get information, so be it.
If their experience has helped them then hopefully by word of mouth the site will continue to grow.
The site is not geared towards selling or buying, that is simply a by product of the current members offering something to the rest of us at a reduced rate versus new prices.
This site is all about the community spirit, the banter in the forums to those who then gather to meet up at various functions throughout the year.
All things are optional, there are some long standing members who have not posted, that's their choice and certainly doesn't worry me.
The active membership, as Andy pointed out, has been around the 300 mark for a few years now.
I will continue to prune those who do not log onto the site, they are in the region of 18 months since their last log in and certainly unlikely to log on again.
I don't know if we could grow any more than that, i look at the likes of MINI2 and think that it's exploded into a full on site.
All credit to Paul for getting it there in the first place.
This site, as much as i am involved in it, does not pay my bills, nor does it for the rest of the mods, it is more a hobby for us all and that doesn't detract from that i spend approx 5 hours minimum on the site every day, even more when i'm away working.
From a trust point of view i buy all the official merchandise up front based on members word of intention to buy, so far no one has ever not paid.
I hope this explains what the site is all about
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