eBay opinion

[Kevin]

I voted no. Now if you want to make it if you have a 10 post's than you are in good standing ?? Than i would change my vote to yes than. Just my 3 cent's inflation you know

I've tried to find a plugin that would allow me to make that automatic but there isn't one. I can do it manually, but I can't hardly keep up with my wood deals & sales on & off the forum. It's a great idea though and I may try to do it manually.

 

[wood-junkie]

It will be good, bad an ugly, but the net gain is probably a benefit for most. You have my moral support, and that with about $3 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

 

[Chad]

I voted no, not to turn down sales or trades for anyone, I agree with cody-I feel like I know people from reading on the forum and sometimes adding my two cents. That being said I think the mods can handle (if a problem would arise).

 

[nativewooder]

I voted "no" to preserve this site. We all know some ebayers who would fit well here and I think they should be told of Wood Barter and if they are interested, then great! Same with friends and members of our Woodturning Clubs.

 

[davidgiul]

I would have to ask several question of why was this site started? Was it to just sell and buy wood? Was it to provide a forum for ideas on woodworking and craftmanship. I have always enjoyed "talking story" with other people as I am doing business. Personally I enjoy hearing people tell their stories of life. I find WB a pleasant place to do business and be educated. I must admit I initially started in the seller(poser) end of the wood business but due to my propensity toward hoarding wood(no pine unlike the Cat) I have become a consumer. I vote NO, but this is your baby Kevin. Thanks for asking us though.

Dave :wasntme:

 

[CodyS]

50/50 now who said woodworkers where disorganised? We have made it so you are just about in the same position as when this tread started! That takes some serious telepathic co-ordination

 

[LoneStar]

I would have to ask several question of why was this site started?

Obviously, it was started cause Kevin didnt have enough wood at the house, and couldnt cut it fast enough to suit himself. So what did he do ? Started a website where he could get people all around the country and world to cut wood for him !
Thanks Kevin!

 

[BangleGuy]

I voted No. Although I would like to see more traffic and posts on this site, the Ebay scammers that everyone is talking about makes me nervous... I do agree with getting the word out to more folks like us. How is the best way to increase traffic and yet weed out the rif-raf? I don't know.

Maybe advertisements in our local newspapers/classifieds for wood enthusiasts like ourselves? At least that would save us all on a little shipping! For instance, in our local community there is an all-classified paper called the "Nickel Want Ads" (www.nickads.com) where I have sold all sorts of stuff, without a single bad experience... Just a thought.

Thanks Kevin and all, for even asking! It makes me feel more part of WB. Have a great day fellow Woodaholics

 

[LoneStar]

I voted No cause I've seen forums get *too* big and get kinda lousy. I'd love to see Woodbarter keep growing just like it is already. Its still a small friendly tight-knit group. Theres a steady stream of new members and a good solid base of guys trading and selling some amazing stuff.
Most important to me, theres nobody annoying here !
The scammers and such are bad news, but nearly as bad is a group of new folks moving into a forum and completely change the atmosphere. They dont scam or start fights, they dont give you any reason to ban them, they just change the feeling of a place.
One of my favorite forums went from being a place with great info where everybody got along and you could count on getting good answers, to a place full of drama, petty arguments, foul language and downright wrong information. It all started when 8 or 9 new members sort of moved in on the place and changed things enough that the old guys werent having fun anymore, so they all sort of disappeared and left the monkeys to run the place.

 

[BarbS]

Kevin,
In my opinion, everyone knows about ebay already, so if Any of the members of Woodbarter want to go there to buy or sell wood, there is nothing stopping them. Your site is unique. I'd rather keep it that way.

 

[brown down]

Kevin,
In my opinion, everyone knows about ebay already, so if Any of the members of Woodbarter want to go there to buy or sell wood, there is nothing stopping them. Your site is unique. I'd rather keep it that way.

i agree, if you open pandoras box it can't be closed. you will most likely get a lot of spammers and such from doing that. although it def would bring more traffic to your site, its the question of what type of traffic we will get here is my concern. there are a lot of shady people out there, but none here on this site from what i have experienced!!!!

 

[bwh3805]

I don't like feebay. It was a great idea but they've just ruined it IMO with constantly adding fees and making it onerous to sell without a PP account. Still, every now and then I would list one or two items to drive traffic to my wood site where I did in fact make quite a few sales that way.

I was considering listing a couple of wood items, and using an "information link" like I used to, to drive traffic here. But I don't know if we'd just end up with a bunch of low-ballers flooding the site trying to do nothing but sell, and not trade.

Sometimes I think that since this is such a novel site, those guys wouldn't treat it like a free feebay, and sometimes I think that that's exactly what most of them would do. And sometimes I wonder that even if the majority of them did look at this site as simply another avenue to sell, so what? More traffic means more options for everyone. Right?

Therefore I'm not going to do it until I get a consensus from you, the current membership. I may or may not act according to the majority - I don't usually decide based on what the crowd thinks (usually just the opposite) but sometimes I do. So, what do you think . . . let the eBay crowd know about us, or not?

Thanks for your input.


.

I have to say let people find the site. Im already seeing people joining the site thinking they can get eBay prices for their products. People tend to have an exaggerated sense of value. Its only worth what someone is willing to pay, and that's that!!! I really dont want to have to deal with the the low ballers either. I get kicked in the cods enough with some of my regular customers.

Just my humble opinion...

 

[del schisler]

To many fee's and with wood product's the weight will kill your sales, i have been with ebay sence it first started back when the number were less than a million, Than down hill ever sence, I don't do anything with them for yrs now. I make jewelry box's and if you would say sell one for a certain amount than add shipping that's make's the item not worth the money, Now people have money don't care, this is my 2 cent's

 

[Walt]

Howdy Kevin,

I have tried ebay, and find it a pain for various reasons. However, having said that, ebay gets an aweful lot of hits/shoppers which is important. Personally, I have pretty much stopped using it, but I do not have nearly the volume which you do.

Have you considered having your own site for selling wood?

I'm not sure how you have this site set up or if you are a web site implementation guru, but if you currently own this server, that is probably the direction I would try to migrate.

Alternatively, if you are unable to personally host a selling site, you may want to look at http://www.artistgalleryonline.com/ is a web hosting service which costs about $120/yr and allows you to post and list 120 items for sale. For and additional $10/yr, you can add more folders. You could organize the items into up to 10 folders such as turning blanks, pen blanks, bowl blanks, lumber, etc.

Dennis Daudlin is the web master and is also (as far as I know) the web master for the AAW Segmented Woodturner Association. I have my web site through him, but I am not affiliated with him in any way (other than being one of his customers)for a site.

For other members who would like to show off their work, but are not ready to start selling yet, a person can obtain a "FREE" web site and post pictures of their work (no selling on the freeby).

Walt

 

[AXEMAN58]

Greg (and others ) nailed my thoughts on this. I'm pretty sure everyone here knows how to get to that site and is free to do any business there they want. I really like the close knit feeling you have created for us here, and feel almost protective of that feeling. IMHO...

 

[NCWoodArt]

I voted no, I found this site without being an internet guru nor was i referred. I have also invited several of my friends to check out the site but only people i trusted & had positive dealings with.

maybe you- or we could drop a card or note in box with woods that we sell or send email to person we buy wood from on Feebay to check out the site.

Never hurts to advertise- but i think this site has the great core group of folks it has because it is not overpopulated with folks who we may not want to deal with.

But I am not oppsed to change so if ity gets voted yes I will do my part to support that decision.

Bill

 

[Kevin]

This idea was abandoned long ago. I'm not sure it did much good to avoid it though because we have a core of ebay types here that are here only for, and do nothing but, sell sell sell. We also have a core who do nothing but buy buy buy so both groups are happy. Then you have those of us who are not happy to see the way WB is going, and we are committed to preventing WB completely becoming a place for the profit-only types from becoming the majority.

The concept for this forum was not to merely become a FreeBay, or a place where the greed of men clouds their ability to even read and abide by a simple set of rules, and more importantly take the time to become part of a community, but it is in danger of becoming that if the current trend continues. To those in my group that do not want that don't worry, policy refinements are underway.

 

[Kevin]

That didn't take long - I already got a PM of concern about my post. Let me clarify -

WB is many things to many members. I do not want to preclude or "run off" any one group, I only want to prevent WB from becoming a small scale ebay. Ebay if full of low-ballers, bottom shoppers, and I'm sorry but some scallywags. Having said that, ebay definitely has it's purpose and I shop there, and have sold there. I just don't want THIS place to have a similar environment. There is a lot to like about ebay and some to not like. But this isn't ebay.

Admin can see a lot of stats. A growing majority of members do not even look at other forums except the FOR Sale forum when they post something new for sale. 99.9% of them have never even thought about making a contribution to the site which is why I am doing away with the donation model. This site has been funded by a very small of percentage of the COMMUNITY types most of whom have never tried to make a nickel here. That isn't fair but is the way human nature works it seems. I'm not worried about offending them either because most of the sellers will not even see this post. They don't care.

We're still a very young and small forum, so we have time to massage the way this place is run to steer it toward a certain mix, or percentage of types of members. Anytime changes are made, a certain percentage of members are going to dislike those changes. Some will remain and adapt to them, and some will just become inactive. We've had a larger percentage of "community oriented" members leave this site as the "seller-only" type has grown, and that's what I don't like. So that's what I mean when I say policy changes are in the works.

I hope that doesn't just confuse the issue more for some members. No one can please everyone and sitting in the drivers seat, well it's not as easy to navigate when you're the one trying to do it. Just relax and enjoy the ride that's what I'm doing, most of the time anyway.

 

[woodintyuuu]

thanks for all the discussion= debate overt or nor only makes better choices.
Small but radical proposal : appoint a moderator to charge a percentage on sellers who sell more weekly than a set amount. Then if more volume is sold than the moderators are comfortable with then shut the seller off from the sales tool till the next period. I read alot of the posts all over this site and find it informing and quite often entertaining. Now with the risk of being a DIVA -
i dont post to awful often.I feel my opinion strongly and my way is always better :dash2:
I will try to rectify this and become a better member of this community. thanks for making me see some of that responsibility cliff

Cool. I like the community feel. Thats why I've been addicted since I found the site. The trades I've made are just a bonus! Hope the massaging brings the desired change. Thanks for what you do Kevin.

 

[rdnkmedic]

I am a huge fan of the community side of this forum. If this was feebay then I don't think Scott and I would have made the trade for BBQ sauce and wood that we did. There is no place for that type of stuff on feebay. Although I have only met one member in person, I feel that many of you are my friends, not just a wood supplier. Where else can we see pictures of Kevin's naked dog and beautiful wood all in the same place. Small things like sharing our pets pictures, and grieving with our buddy when his dog dies, and the travelling hat, and old guns, and hot rod cars, and so many other things make this place special.

I have bought a few things here but I have done a lot of trading. Trading is fun. Trading doesn't cost money. Well, the shipping does but if I can send a cheap piece of Georgia Sweet Gum to New York and recieve a HUGE BOX FULL of wood from Scott then I am happy. Too many times I have seen wood for sale here and wanted it but the finances are just not right. Sure I could spend the rent money but that is similar to being a crack addict.

I like the feel of this forum. I have lurked around some others but have not registered. I go to bed usually after checking WB one more time and wake up and check to see what happened overnight. Let's not change the basic concept of what we have here. Each of you is a friend and resource that I never could find on another site. I guess my vote is no. Let's grow a little at the time.