To Shawn and everybody else: Member Black book

Hello everyone!

We have all had some great times shopping around for our favorite stuff. To help keep us away from some particularly nasty people folks, Shawn has givin us the all mighty Black book, and thank you for that.

Now, from time to time, we run into some really horrible folks to deal with. I mean, the kind of people everyone should know about so they can avoid being jacked. The kind of people who take your money and don't send your item, or lie about the condition of the product. Anyway, what I'm saying is this: I think it would be great to have some kind of means, be it a forum or new section, to let everyone know about the crappy folks we sometimes run into. Some type of permenant log so we can go back and check who's trying to scam us. Not just a continuing thread, but a spot just for this sort of thing. A Neo-Geo.com member "Black book" if you will.

What does everyone think, and how about you Shawn? Any chance of this becoming a possiblity?

Thanks much!

[ August 14, 2001: Message edited by: Verbatum ]

hmmm... the only real problem I see is someone may be too quick to judge or judge out of spite. This may cause a problem to arise. Other than that it is a sound idea.

Yes, I would be all for this idea. Being ripped really does suck, and knowing who not to deal with before you actually did would really avoid a lot of headaches.

[ August 14, 2001: Message edited by: SNK4EVER ]

Very True. As Sam said, it's not easy to deal and sell. But I do agree that being ripped off is no picnic. Perhaps we could make a list of already known good sellers and post them in a list moderated by someone here on the forums we trust. Already the list is long and distinqished with certain buyers and Sellers.

I still think we could do a feedback thing. Email Shawn, or whoever and let them know when you make a on-the-board transaction. Who it was with and were you statisfied.

Then you could put it in their profile how many transactions they've made, and how they were rated...or something to that effect.

I know _I_ wouldn't want to be the one to handle this but it seems like a good idea.

This is a good idea. I would like to see something of an ebay type of thing with regards to our buying and selling forums. There should be columns for positive, negative, and neutral feedbacks.

This has been suggested before, and it seems like a good idea. However, problem number one is the workload involved in maintaining such a list. Problem number two, how do you avoid false accusations? Will the person responsible for operating the book be willing to play detective, and investigate the facts?

It just doesn't seem feasible... Besides, everyone I have bought from/sold to on this board has been 100% honest and reliable, and that includes a lot of individuals. Am I just lucky to have not been ripped off yet?

Ghost Dog brings up a very good point... maintaining honesty in such an endevour would be quite a feat. I'm for the feedback system, but how would we manage that? Could it put into the existing board? I doubt it, but who knows...

I've never had any problems buying anything from anyone on this board, but I can mention some bad internet sites and store that can really screw you over. i know I'm not the only one. Fortunatly, i've been pretty lucky with ording stuff, even through e-Bay.

True, false accusations can be a problem here, and there are other nags to get past. Still, it would be nice to have some kind of system or board that we could use. We just would have to be careful of who we trust.

It seems like it would be impossible to keep something like this honest & fair. Who's to say what a bad deal is in all circumstances? One person's deal gone bad could be a great transaction to someone else... For such a small scene, one bad comment (whether deserved or not) could ruin someone's chance at buying & selling with other neo gamers. Even shawn's black book section (which represents the only one seller/buyer) has been fairly inconsistent, with even !arcade! being listed for a time.

There is only one way that I have though that this idea could work, that is by having a positive feedback only. AKA each member with feedback, when their name is clicked on would bring up a number of transactions completed successfully (and in a timely manner) and a list of the people who left the positive feedback. This method would take care of some/most of the problems but not all of them. It is a good idea if implemented correctly but the workload might be a bit too much for anyone to maintain it. I am willing to lend my assistance to this project if need be but I have a feeling this idea will never be implemented.

Problem is that there are no real standards in trading games. I once won an auction at ebay, it was AOF3 CD. The description and photo of the item showed a near-mint game in very good condition, but what I got looked not at all well; torn booklet, cracked jewel case, stains... Two weeks later I won another one. It was the same guy, with a different name, but this time he kept his promises and came up with a minty Savage Reign CD. Perhaps the guy learned a thing or two, without putting his name on a black list. I know that this is not the usual end to a buyer/seller dispute tho.

Don't flame me too hard, but I think that all this black listing/banning stuff should not be the very next thing one does if something goes wrong with a game trade.