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Marketplace Forum is completely unnecessary.

1,233 211 March 13, 2025 at 05:15 PM
Almost no commentary whatsoever among dozens and dozens of posts. Who thought this was a great idea? Go ahead..defend the indefensible.
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alphawave
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pur | Staff
03-14-2025 at 04:53 AM.
03-14-2025 at 04:53 AM.
Quote from alphawave :
Almost no commentary whatsoever among dozens and dozens of posts. Who thought this was a great idea? Go ahead..defend the indefensible.
These days it does seem harder for subforums to be active. Do you think those higher-risk deals should be allowed in Hot Deals or just rejected like they were previously? There are lots of questionable Amazon sellers so people were spending time writing up a deal to share only for it to be removed Frown Experienced SDers find some valuable niche deals, while newbies might be more spammy. But now it is kind of like the Junk email folder, not a great solution, but a compromise.
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alphawave
03-14-2025 at 02:57 PM.
03-14-2025 at 02:57 PM.
Quote from pur :
These days it does seem harder for subforums to be active. Do you think those higher-risk deals should be allowed in Hot Deals or just rejected like they were previously? There are lots of questionable Amazon sellers so people were spending time writing up a deal to share only for it to be removed Experienced SDers find some valuable niche deals, while newbies might be more spammy. But now it is kind of like the Junk email folder, not a great solution, but a compromise.
I understand and begrudgingly accept you need a happy medium between protection and open flow of deals, but I think it's time to reassess the qualifications for directing a deal into MP instead of HD. I'm unconvinced 'the system' or staff is applying the rule consistently, and in the end this MP forum seems a dumping ground of red-headed step children. Indeed, before my recent deal was sent to MP purgatory, I didn't even know MP existed...I frequent HD and DD almost exclusively, unless a random search brought up discussion residing in other fora. After perusing MP for a bit, I realized it isn't effective as an additional forum for either traffic or average deals, which likely should have been either rejected (as unsafe?) or simply allowed under usual HD flow.

Regardless, my recent deal (here in MP) may have been a front page deal if it had been allowed in HD, and I was surprised when I couldn't find it in HD when I submitted it. Interestingly, I did a search using DC House and didn't discover another user had already submitted the deal earlier, under DCHouse, which also had been purgatoried into MP. Rather odd, unless I still don't understand how/why an eBay store gets any particular rating..as this store is considered a 'Top-Rated Seller' by eBay. How many MP posts are like this?

https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/feedbac...=RELEVANCE
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acesmuzic | Staff
03-14-2025 at 10:36 PM.
03-14-2025 at 10:36 PM.
Quote from alphawave :
I understand and begrudgingly accept you need a happy medium between protection and open flow of deals, but I think it's time to reassess the qualifications for directing a deal into MP instead of HD. I'm unconvinced 'the system' or staff is applying the rule consistently, and in the end this MP forum seems a dumping ground of red-headed step children. Indeed, before my recent deal was sent to MP purgatory, I didn't even know MP existed...I frequent HD and DD almost exclusively, unless a random search brought up discussion residing in other fora. After perusing MP for a bit, I realized it isn't effective as an additional forum for either traffic or average deals, which likely should have been either rejected (as unsafe?) or simply allowed under usual HD flow.

Regardless, my recent deal (here in MP) may have been a front page deal if it had been allowed in HD, and I was surprised when I couldn't find it in HD when I submitted it. Interestingly, I did a search using DC House and didn't discover another user had already submitted the deal earlier, under DCHouse, which also had been purgatoried into MP. Rather odd, unless I still don't understand how/why an eBay store gets any particular rating..as this store is considered a 'Top-Rated Seller' by eBay. How many MP posts are like this?

https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/feedbac...=RELEVANCE
for what it's worth, there is a sticky at the top of hd that has an abbreviated version of the ebay, amazon, etc posting rules and the full versions are stickied in the announcements forum (ex. ebay). those are the guiding principles that determine what goes where.

as far as the rationale for the forum itself, redsolar wrote up a description here when it was created, and as noted, feedback is always welcome!
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alphawave
03-15-2025 at 02:05 AM.
03-15-2025 at 02:05 AM.
Quote from acesmuzic :
for what it's worth, there is a sticky at the top of hd that has an abbreviated version of the ebay, amazon, etc posting rules and the full versions are stickied in the announcements forum (ex. ebay). those are the guiding principles that determine what goes where.

as far as the rationale for the forum itself, redsolar wrote up a description here when it was created, and as noted, feedback is always welcome!
Read that, 'old' policy is sufficient. In my case, the seller IS the manufacturer, it's their store. Same seller sold batteries on Amazon, with HD deals posted by staff. Why this discrepancy? Ultimately, incongruous and arbitrary rules, IMHO.

Redsolar's description has 9 votes. MP forum is not a success, for the reason described above.
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pur | Staff
03-15-2025 at 10:34 AM.
03-15-2025 at 10:34 AM.
Quote from alphawave :
Read that, 'old' policy is sufficient. In my case, the seller IS the manufacturer, it's their store. Same seller sold batteries on Amazon, with HD deals posted by staff. Why this discrepancy? Ultimately, incongruous and arbitrary rules, IMHO.

Redsolar's description has 9 votes. MP forum is not a success, for the reason described above.
I agree your deal and the staff deal were probably about the same risk, but one was below the ratings minimum and one above. Kind of arbitrary, but fair. We do make exceptions for official storefronts, but it's often hard to verify that they are really the official one. One time we were puzzling over Amazon sellers like "Beelink Direct" "Beelink Official" "Beelink US" for example.

Thanks for bringing this up, I had the impression that Marketplace might not be isolated enough since it shows up in search and people can find their way there from Deal Alerts, but if posters feel their deals are being ignored there it's a problem.
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alphawave
03-16-2025 at 08:53 PM.
03-16-2025 at 08:53 PM.
Quote from pur :
I agree your deal and the staff deal were probably about the same risk, but one was below the ratings minimum and one above. Kind of arbitrary, but fair. We do make exceptions for official storefronts, but it's often hard to verify that they are really the official one. One time we were puzzling over Amazon sellers like "Beelink Direct" "Beelink Official" "Beelink US" for example.

Thanks for bringing this up, I had the impression that Marketplace might not be isolated enough since it shows up in search and people can find their way there from Deal Alerts, but if posters feel their deals are being ignored there it's a problem.
I think the 10K eBay rating requirement is arbitrary, Top Seller should be enough. Enthusiasts know the two vendors I mentioned above are the same company. They set up different 'brands' based on the direction they wanted to market the different components, since the components themselves have different markets. Eco Worthy branding is geared towards solar equipment which happens to include batteries for storage, and DC House is geared towards battery hobbies (RV auto, fishing, etc), upgrades (forklifts, golf carts,etc.) AND solar storage. I wouldn't expect staff to be privy to such tedium, and I only know by direct messaging with an Eco Worthy technician, but it clearly shows the rules, wrt 10K Top Sellers, are not performing the expected intent. Eco Worthy and DC House stores, both Top Sellers, are being treated differently on SD based on its own arbitrary rule. A member deal should have the same weight as a staff deal, but these rules seem to apply to one favoring over another.
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