Paying for Classifieds

[Marko]

I am really surprised at how many people are balking at having to pay a fee. Especially as people ask about a magazine subscription or ask about finding a good coffee. If one is actually rational and quantifies the cost it is not worth complaining.

[syed]

The way I see it, the day I am lucky enough to be able to find something I really want for a great price from the SZ Classifieds, I would quite happily donate for general upkeep costs. Whether it is a lot or a little depends on my circumstances at the time, but personally it is the least I could do. Good karma I suppose. Plus I'd be giddy at having purchased something amazing so would be probably be more generous than usual

[DmD]

I agree with MikeNouveau, and would also pay a membership fee...although I'm not sure what "locking the entire site down" means. I guess I'm in favor of a membership because it seems simpler to implement than the "paying for classifieds" scheme.

As I mentioned before, one of the things that I value about this forum aside from the intellect and effort that goes into discussions and articles, is the effort that goes towards ensuring a high signal to noise ratio, as I like to think of it. This policing, moderating and curating takes lot of time and effort. I would pay to ensure this continues.

Next discussion is how much.

[mononon]

how will this affect trades, because to be honest, i trade most of the items in my threads and not so much sell anything.

also, i feel like even if this does drop the amount of items in the classifieds, good prices and deals will be less frequent and prices will most likely all increase to adjust for the new fee.

[diorowen]

I personally would not mind in paying to become regular member. SZ is the most knowledgeable fashion forum, I've ever found. contain too much information for one's brain. so paying would not kill compare to how much worthy information I got. I learn a lot from this forum. but to lock the entire forum? I guess its not a good idea. locking the forum will create an exclusivity inside the forum. there will be rarely new people come to join us.
the good side is, we can know each others better.
bad side is, we will be limited, and closed.
who knows if there is another smart people, who's anthusiast in fashion wanna join here, but knowing that the forum itself needs to pay makes him feels not to join (since they don't know what is SZ yet)


so this is just my thought about classifieds.

I support membership fees.
So maybe when one want to use classifieds, they need to become a classifieds member here, and need to submit personal identification to faust maybe.
therefore SZ can create a very safe market, where people who want to buy from classifieds don't need to pay 4% for paypal fees, instead they need to pay 1% for SZ. for keeping the classifieds safe.
So buyer pay the classifieds fee, 1%, less than 4% paypal. and buyer will get advantages for having an ease transaction.(although I know most SZ people will always make a smooth transaction)
and seller himself, can provide their id to the moderator, and keep the market safe for buyer. both buyer and seller will be in advantage. there will be no evil buyer who can charge back or scam the seller. and everything can be solved well.

In case buyer still want to pay as payment, that does not matter, just pay as payment+ sz fees. :D (if SZ provide safe market already, why not using it?)

because I think its not related if we just pay for classifieds to actually help the site. as I stated above, the information here is priceless, but what about people who just come to use the classifieds?
So I think it will be more fair for member to pay specifically for using classifieds, and SZ needs to offer more service in classifieds for member.
Therefore I think there will be no tragedy such as the forum will have less member, since this way is quite fair for both side members and forum.

(the problem with this is actually the scammer?, so what if they submit their identification?, in most case, people who got scammed can trace the scammer back, and get most of the information regarding the scammer, but can't do anything :( maybe any of you guys have the answer?)