Moral/Ethical Question

[GT Web]

If you see a traffic name being sold on DNF or a similar online community and you know why the name is getting this traffic and that traffic will drop significantly (basically to 0) in the coming weeks and months (and may never come back) should you tell potential buyers?

Is this killing someone's sale or warning potential buyers about the seller not exactly telling the whole truth?

What would you do in this situation?

 

[Bender]

GT, such post will ruin the sales thread and , at least on DNF, it's against the rules.
Buyers need to make their own research before buying a domain name.
if you know for sure that a seller is making false claims about something, you should contact a mod or one of the admins, with solid proof.
nobody likes or accepts scammers on their website.

 

[GT Web]

fair enough, although I'd like to hear what other members think....

are you saying its ok for a seller to to dump a name he knows will receive very little/no traffic after the sale?

 

[NameAlot.com]

An great question GT WEB:

How about in a case like this that is occurring with one of my post right now:

http://www.dnforum.com/f323/70-prime-idns-com-com-thread-144251.html#post801454

What do you think? I would have preferred the person or persons contact a mod or admin then making a big public sceane which could have been handled privately.

Bakc to your question GT WEB I think you should always give someone the benfit of the doubt and contact the person via PM and see if they are aware of the issue then depending if you feel very strongly or vaguely about it- contact a mod. The next step if you feel very very strongly about it would be to make it public at risk of warning points. Thats my opinion in terms of how steps should occur.

 

[GeorgeKGeorgeK is verified member.]

GT Web asks a very important question. If most scams are perpetrated by sellers, rather than buyers, then it might be a positive step to allow more public questions regarding sales, to protect buyers. Indeed, if no questions were ever asked, it would become like eBay.

The mods probably have a better sense of the statistics, though. Are there more complaints on the site from buyers who were "duped", or from sellers? Or, 50:50?

 

[Bender]

Bakc to your question GT WEB I think you should always give someone the benfit of the doubt and contact the person via PM and see if they are aware of the issue then depending if you feel very strongly or vaguely about it- contact a mod. The next step if you feel very very strongly about it would be to make it public at risk of warning points. Thats my opinion in terms of how steps should occur.

very well said.
mods generally issue warning points for useless comments , or for intentionally ruining a sales thread because of a personal issue with the seller.

 

[NameYourself]

I believe their should be more freedom for people to post about suspicious activity within a sales thread. Generally when the public as a whole can collectively evaluate or even compare with similar experiences, it is more likely to lead to more legit sales taking place on this forum. If you have nothing wrong with your domains and traffic stats are accurate, and you are willing to stand behind it, why should you care if potential buyers can ask questions or inquire about something publicly.

At the very least, there should be some kind of "Alert a Mod" option with a place to describe a potential descrepency if someone believes there is one with a particular sale. A "contest" button if you will.

At the very most, open discussion when there is solid proof of a mis-translation, or artifically inflated stats, etc... should be allowed. It hurts the sellers, but only the ones trying to misrepresent a sale. If people are wrong about a seller, it adds that much more credability to the seller's future sales because they've been examined already by the public.

Most of the cases in which false sales are identified are by users who post about it, and are usually right.. it seems if they're wrong they get warning points, and in most cases it is just so obvious they feel they have to let everyone else know, so that no one is potentially duped.

 

[GT Web]

I made a post in a traffic thread on DNF last night, explaining the meaning behind one of the names and the status of the traffic source. This morning that post was gone, and although I didn't get any warning points, I feel really bad for the buyer who will spend a couple hundreds bucks on a name that will get maybe 5%-10% of the traffic the seller is advertising.

I did email the owner a couple days ago - he said he knew why the name was getting traffic and that it would probably stop soon...

 

[Adam DickerAdam Dicker is verified member.]

I made a post in a traffic thread on DNF last night, explaining the meaning behind one of the names and the status of the traffic source. This morning that post was gone, and although I didn't get any warning points, I feel really bad for the buyer who will spend a couple hundreds bucks on a name that will get maybe 5%-10% of the traffic the seller is advertising.

I did email the owner a couple days ago - he said he knew why the name was getting traffic and it would probably stop soon...

Let's clear some of this up while also opening up the floor for change.

Most complaints I get are from buyers, very few from sellers.

now let's look at a transaction:

If I am the seller and I am questioned about a domain I have for sale; if I am legitimate I will defend it without issue. Of course if it's a personal attack which can happen because someone is mad about a previous deal that would bother me.

If I am the buyer, I would appreaciate someone pointing something legitimate out before I waste money on a domain that may have issues that I have not had time to look into completely.

So in this case, I would say as long as evidence is posted it should be allowed without people saying you are ruining a sales thread.

However if junk is posted that is untrue or not backed up, it will be the poster that is punished.

So if you call someone out, make sure its for good reason.

thoughts on this?

-=DCG=-

 

[DomainEngineer]

Let's clear some of this up while also opening up the floor for change.

Most complaints I get are from buyers, very few from sellers.

now let's look at a transaction:

If I am the seller and I am questioned about a domain I have for sale; if I am legitimate I will defend it without issue. Of course if it's a personal attack which can happen because someone is mad about a previous deal that would bother me.

If I am the buyer, I would appreaciate someone pointing something legitimate out before I waste money on a domain that may have issues that I have not had time to look into completely.

So in this case, I would say as long as evidence is posted it should be allowed without people saying you are ruining a sales thread.

However if junk is posted that is untrue or not backed up, it will be the poster that is punished.

So if you call someone out, make sure its for good reason.

thoughts on this?

-=DCG=-

I agree 100%. Scammers MUST BE EXPOSED. PERIOD.

 

[GT Web]

Let's clear some of this up while also opening up the floor for change.

Most complaints I get are from buyers, very few from sellers.

now let's look at a transaction:

If I am the seller and I am questioned about a domain I have for sale; if I am legitimate I will defend it without issue. Of course if it's a personal attack which can happen because someone is mad about a previous deal that would bother me.

If I am the buyer, I would appreaciate someone pointing something legitimate out before I waste money on a domain that may have issues that I have not had time to look into completely.

So in this case, I would say as long as evidence is posted it should be allowed without people saying you are ruining a sales thread.

However if junk is posted that is untrue or not backed up, it will be the poster that is punished.

So if you call someone out, make sure its for good reason.

thoughts on this?

-=DCG=-

100% Agree, my origional post was not bashing anyone, I simply stated the source of the traffic coming to the domain and why that traffic will probably vastly decrease in a very short period of time. Should I repost this in the correct sales thread?

 

[DNjet]

I believe the root of the problem stems from the way transactions are made period , sales are instant and over once the seller has the money, I think there should be some sort of rule for traffic names , like DNF escrow service holds the money until a 3 or 5 day traffic test is complete and verified by the buyer , simple as changing nameservers for this period, after that its up to your due dilegence ,buyers should be protected in some way ,I think there should be a seperate forum created just for this purpose "Traffic domains with testing" , the scammers won't post there most likely , and this is my 2 cents.

 

[NameYourself]

I believe the root of the problem stems from the way transactions are made period , sales are instant and over once the seller has the money, I think there should be some sort of rule for traffic names , like DNF escrow service holds the money until a 3 or 5 day traffic test is complete and verified by the buyer , simple as changing nameservers for this period, after that its up to your due dilegence ,buyers should be protected in some way , and this is my 2 cents.

Interesting proposal. Would work great as an "optional" choice by the buyer. There are many cases where I would by a traffic name from established members without wanting to waste time and have the hassel of a test. But it is a very good idea as a BUYER OPTION, at buyer's expense. This would probably get used mostly with newbie sellers.

 

[NameAlot.com]

I think what is needed is a no thrash rule that is enforced and have a specific MOD that deals specifically with internal disturbances within the community. There are going to be problems with transactions or people are going to have problems with each other. There should be a mandatory PM first rule in place. If nothing changes, there should be like a red button on each thread starter's post that is able to flag a MOD. If a MOD is getting 2-10 flags from different members, then it should raise some eye brows and the post should be checked out asap. Having a Flag System would also allow MODs to check if the same person is abusing another person because of past relations hence practically solving that problem. And after 2-4 (whatever amount chosen) repeated offences that person is BANNED! from the forum essentially a ZERO tolerance policy which at the same time maintains order and both buyers and sellers will think twice about what they post because WE ARE ALL WATCHING. ITs panoticon. I mean this is just an opinion.

 

[NameYourself]

There should be a mandatory PM first rule in place.

The problem with this is time. Sometimes a BIN, especially on suspicious sales could be accepted in minutes. Time-wise and most thorough is just allowing the public to post when something looks incomplete or deceptive. At any given time someone on here will be signed-in and likely to post quickly to alert everyone else if something doesn't look right, before anyone actually buys and gets deceived. If certain postings are just an attempt to bash another member, that's when points can be delagated.

--------------- UPDATE --------------

Flag Button + Public freedom to post about something deceptive or potentially suspicious seems like a good answer to me.

This way the public is alerted immediately by the members here, and a mod will also get notified that a thread / user needs to be examined and dealt with.

 

[NameAlot.com]

The problem with this is time. Sometimes a BIN, especially on suspicious sales could be accepted in minutes. Time-wise and most thorough is just allowing the public to post when something looks incomplete or deceptive. At any given time someone on here will be signed-in and likely to post quickly to alert everyone else if something doesn't look right, before anyone actually buys and gets deceived. If certain postings are just an attempt to bash another member, that's when points can be delagated.

A good point... then have a flag system which temporarily removes a thread when flagged and reason why flagged is given. Have it person flagging must have solid reason why if not, warning point is issued and thread is re-started. And the person who did the flag is given a reason why and sent the TOS via PM. What do you think, or is it geting dense.

 

[GT Web]

...or you could just make a respectful post in the thread, including proper evidence...like I am about to now unless Adam tells me I shouldn't...

 

[DNGeeks]

I have seen multiple people ask for a "report a post" button and yet it's sitting right there in the postbit of every user making a post. Perhaps that little R should be changed to a real button that actually says something.

As for busting users in a thread, I'm all for it. But only if you've got proof. Of course asking the right questions can also lead to finding out a scam as well. Sometimes this is the best way to start it off.

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

If you see a traffic name being sold on DNF or a similar online community and you know why the name is getting this traffic and that traffic will drop significantly (basically to 0) in the coming weeks and months (and may never come back) should you tell potential buyers?

Is this killing someone's sale or warning potential buyers about the seller not exactly telling the whole truth?

What would you do in this situation?

If you were the buyer of such a name, would you want to be informed?

 

[GT Web]

As I was saying, I tried to contact potential buyers but a Mod deleted my post.