Paying for Classifieds

[Who?]

I like 1&2 but it will be very difficult to regulate 3. If the forum is public, they will just avoid becoming a member, lurk and still draw ideas from the site.

[Heirloom]

can't we just make the classifieds section secret, which you have to apply to gain access to?

[theaddict]

but this would also erase all potential buyers from the market...

can't we just make the classifieds section secret, which you have to apply to gain access to?

[Faust]

I like 1&2 but it will be very difficult to regulate 3. If the forum is public, they will just avoid becoming a member, lurk and still draw ideas from the site.

Yes, but I am going to hire a lawyer to draft a disclaimer that every new member will have to sign. I doubt many people would want a lawsuit on their hands.

[Fuuma]

Yes, but I am going to hire a lawyer to draft a disclaimer that every new member will have to sign. I doubt many people would want a lawsuit on their hands.

This is not going to work and is unnaplicable anyway. Addding a newsletter to subscription might make it work though...

[kuugaia]

I really like Mike's idea. If you play around with the idea, I'm sure something great will come out of it. The loss of affliate sponsorship money will be off-set by the gains of membership revenue?

Though you should only fix something when it's broken, you're better off not having it break at all. These pre-emptive counter measures are important. In my humble opinion:

No to the 1% classifieds fee.
Yes to a membership fee and locking of sections away from public.
I don't see how a 'fee to utilize the classifieds' solves the problem of resellers though?

I think the whole fashion professional thing is a little too much though. Although I'm not educated in the importance of regulating these people from using the forum...

[Faust]

Kuugala, I don't think you understand how much influence this forum has in the niche that we are in.

[eaglewood]

Classifieds could be limited to 100 posts and one year active membership for both sellers and buyers. That would reduce the trade to serious participants as it was in the beginning. It would probably deter resellers also because of the smaller pool of buyers. They could be excluded if a method of defining them could be easily administered. A separate area for resellers is a good idea and there could be a fee to sell in that area.
I do not favour a fee for members making their own items available to other members by way of casual trade.

[Ivans On High]

I think Faust’s three proposed rules will work well.

1) Lock some permissions for non-members. Purge members with 0 posts.
Nothing like a good purge. Also, locking permissions seems like a good step in reducing the number of pictures of members popping up in other corners of the internets. Obviously you need to keep enough areas open to entice new members. Locking the classifieds is a no-brainer, you don’t want the classifieds being the main impetus behind new memberships.

2) For new members, 100 posts + a flat (monthly? annual?) fee for posting in classifieds.
The annual fee is better I think, less accounting required (I assume). I also like the idea of needing a year+ membership before being able to sell.

3) Charge fashion professionals a monthly fee for accessing SZ?
Don’t know anything about this. I don’t understand how much influence this forum has in the niche that we are in. I would like to know though...

Obviously, as has been said before, this isn’t going to stop re-sellers, it is just going to vindicate them. But, as has also been said, diligent members will be able to police/stop this (should you want to under the new regime). I also think that a percentage fee on the classifieds is a bad idea – I for one have never made a profit on an item I have sold.

I also like to use the classifieds as a means to enable my new purchases. I just tell myself, “if I don’t really like it, I’ll just put it up in the classifieds”. And while it may seem paltry, there are lots of things I can’t possibly try on in person, and that meagre safety net is all that I require to cop. And in the end it allows me to put some decent stuff on the market.

[mononon]

i don't see lurkers browsing the classifieds and buying items as a problem at all. many lurkers have purchased items from me, and were a pleasure to deal with.
on the other hand, i dont think that lurkers should have the ability to sell.

[Yan]

Faust. I fully understand your wish to making SZ your full time job and I guess that this would have been part of the motivation for creating it. From a commercial point of view surely there is more money to be made by allowing brands to buy into or market to the membership and not from raising money from the membership directly? If you are right in what you say about the influence of SZ then there must be many brands that would find SZ an attractive proposition marketing wise or investment wise.

Whilst there is great information to be had from SZ, it is not a WGSN or other trade database. It is a collection of individuals connected by a love of clothing who are coincidently providing intel on occasions. Personally I think that SZ is fine the way it is although people who use Classifieds for business should pay for the privilege.

[kanne]

The '100 posts + 1 year membership' rule regarding the classifieds is a very good idea. It would at least decrease the speed posting, yet there could still be people who abuse the 'recent purchases'-thread (but our mods spot/handle this very well so far ).
Imho the suggestions concerning resellers are nonsense. You just can't really classify someone as a reseller (e.g. what if he wears some of his cheap purchases and sells them later on or sells his own items, too? Also it would be a lot of work to find out if someone makes any profit (and how much) since the items from auctions often aren't in new condition.) Nevertheless I agree with Yan that people who use the classifieds for business should pay for the privilege, I just cannot imagine how.

I don't know how I feel about 'taking SZ to the next level', though. I fully agree that Faust would deserve making profit with this forum but then again big changes could not only improve but also kill the beautiful thing that SZ is. It's risky but your (moderators + longtime members) choice.

There are good suggestions in this thread, make the best of it!

[Faust]

I will do my utmost to keep SZ absolutely free for regular people. I welcome new members to SZ - I think that's what makes the forum fresh and vital. The reason for the classifieds fee would be to discourage those who join SZ in order to sell. For buyers everything will remain the same. Plenty of lurkers here buy, so it's fine by me.

But fashion professionals who benefit from SZ - and there are plenty of them, from stores that pick up brands based on what they see here to celebrity stylists to high street knockoff artists - should pay for access to the wealth of information that's on here.

[Fuuma]

I will do my utmost to keep SZ absolutely free for regular people. I welcome new members to SZ - I think that's what makes the forum fresh and vital. The reason for the classifieds fee would be to discourage those who join SZ in order to sell. For buyers everything will remain the same. Plenty of lurkers here buy, so it's fine by me.

But fashion professionals who benefit from SZ - and there are plenty of them, from stores that pick up brands based on what they see here to celebrity stylists to high street knockoff artists - should pay for access to the wealth of information that's on here.

There is no way to distinguish them from regular members + what if they do it as private individuals, can you distinguish between their private activities and professional ones?

The only way to do it is to offer additional content that they will want to get by paying a fee. WGSN and whatnot offer a valid indexation and analysis service, SZ doesn't; it is a grab bag of raw information, which is the way we want it.

[kuugaia]

Though not completely relevant, I think this is something interesting to the topic. Lol at TFS introducing their new advertisement system, which is absolutely ridiculous.



Let me know if you want me to reduce size/hotlink instead.