Bartertown.com

Try and click on the option which is as far as you go and closer to the bottom, you won't have to give out your real name on any of these options.

We're trying to assign locations to people. Right now, if you sell to just outside of Milwaukee, WI, that may not seem bad (other than it was the place I grew up), however it would be good to know that Ticknor lives there and there are 20 (or however many) bad trades which occurred in that area.

TrademasterAdam

That's a great idea, Adam!

i allready have my state and city listed, so thats my answer
(its in my refs like everyoneelses that has feedback)

Steve

I am getting the idea that you want to make it clear where someone is from so people can be aware of who has been bad from that same area. I wonder if this is fair? Hypothetically, just because I live within 100 miles of someone like Jason Ticknor, doesn't mean I am a bad person. Yes, he may have lived close by, but should I be scrutinized even more or be required to send first 2 or 3 times longer because of that.

If we can continue to make the trade reference system even more accurate and showing more info on what the trades actually were, how much they were worth, were they trades, sells or buys, etc. We may eliminate more of the baddies out there.

Another idea would be to set up some sort of central system where people who were unsure about trades could use a middle man to hold items and then send them when both parties have fullfilled their obligations. Some have scoffed at this idea as unwieldy and expensive, but who among us would not pay an extra $5-10 to assure that our $150+ trade gets done correctly? I would happily send my stuff to someone with a rating of 100+ to hold and send along to the other party when my stuff arrives. Paypal makes this a real possibility.

Perhaps some people interested in the "Bartertown Watch" group, might also be interested in volunteering to be part of the "Bartertown Safe Trade Group". I will be the first to offer my services. Anyone who wants can safely send me items in a trade and I will hold them and reship them when both parties have sent me their items. I think a 3-5% fee on the total value of the trade is reasonable as compensation and both sides must pay shipping from Texas to where ever. With the advent of the USPS website, figuring out shipping prices should be fairly easy and accurate.

Anyway, just my opinion about the address and another idea to mull over.

Ekister

middle man is more trouble than its worth, because of cost, more shipping costs.

and i dont know if there ever was anything to come about on the Bartertown Watch idea either.

Steve

I think tht calling it unfair is (IMO) a bit overdone.

It might make traders wary of others... and that would suck, indeed... but think of what it could do to BENEFIT us.

All these people who go to the extreme of not trading with a whole STATE can now reduce that to the lesser extreme of not trading with a whole ZIP CODE! LOL

Eric

you dont have to refuse to ship to areas like where dicknor lives either, you just refuse to ship first or simultaneous, unless you know who your actually dealing with.

Steve

ekister,

I like the idea of the "middle man" but I see one flaw. Is the Middle man willing to open and inspect each package that comes through? And after inspection he/she will need to repack in a carefull manner.

Just a concern.

I voted for Zip Code by the way. I would prefer that all Bartertowners have a location listed in either their ad or sig. Very upseting to see an item you want and later find out that the person is in the Sudan

I like some of your new additions Adam. Keep up the good work.

David

i posted that as a required field before as well, at least the city and state, because i dont like seeing *edit* answers as "the webway" or the like as locations, they might think its cute, but this is not a place for that, if i am interested in something, i hate to agree on a trade and then have to back out because even tho i havent been screwed yet on an overseas trade i would like to be able to track my packages.
Steve

Why does this matter? Before you trade with someone anyway you should get their real name and address. And if you're still not feeling good about it ask for a contact number and call the person. You can also do a search on White Pages.com to see if the persons address he gave and their actual address are the same. If anything looks odd or out of place have them ship first or just don't do it. It's that simple.

Deleted Post

but the difference where they post thier location is to see if i even want to screw around with the person in the first place.

the country should at least be mandatory.

and another way i see it, if you dont like posting your general location here on bartertown, find another place to trade.

Steve

My preference would have been "none" but I voted for "State" as that's already listed in the ITL Refs. I am not too anxious to have too many details floating around in an easily accessible data base.

I voted for city/zip code because that is definition enough. It is easy for someone to set up a second (or third, or fourth) drop site that is on a different street. Jason Ticknor proved that time and again. But if someone is bent on screwing people out of their trades, they are going to do it and we should make them work hard enough to at least drive to another part of/out of town.

I think the idea of making the location fields of the profile mandatory, and making them always appear next to any posts and on private messages has some merit. Not only will it let a trader know that they are dealing with someone far away (for postage reasons) but it will also serve as a source of warning if the other trader asks for you to ship to a different city/zip.

While privacy concerns are not unfounded, part of what makes Bartertown work is the open reference system. If I start to see info in a person's references not mesh with the shipping address they send then I start to be on the lookout for a screwing. Making info part of the profile and always displayed adds another layer of protection.

Matt

Okay... everyone keeps talking about privacy...

WTF part of your privacy is violated by posting publicly what city & state you're in?
You think people are going to go knocking on every door in your city, or even zip code, looking for you?

Seriously. I don't get it.

Eric