I'm not writing this from an angry place--I just wanted to get a pulse on the situation.  I am curious if other people have noticed a rise in people backing out of deals that have been set up or a general rise in flakiness since the HoS was closed.  In the past year, I have had two people straight up back out of something with no remorse, which I know sounds like a small number, but seems to me like it was much rarer and regarded as a much bigger deal back when the HoS was around.  And I imagine people who sell more than me have probably encountered this more than me.

I totally get that the HoS was a huge task, and I'm not trying to downplay that or claim that we were entitled to that free service whatsoever.  I'm just asking for a general impression to see if anyone else has noticed this trend.  I'm not even complaining afaik, and I don't expect to have it reinstated or anything like that.  Thoughts?  

I haven't noticed any increased flakiness, but I'm a low volume buyer/seller anyway, so probably not likely too. What I am curious about is how rarely I see negative feedback on people's profiles even though we often hear about transactions that have gone south. In addition to Mr Saturn's question I'd like to ask if people have had failed transactions and left appropriate feedback, or if they tend to leave none in those cases.

I had like 2 out of several 💯 transactions

I have noticed more flakiness in general. Mostly just a larger number of tire kickers.

I think it's easy to do retaliatory feedback here with no real recourse, so I think a lot of people probably grade each other on the lighter side.  I know that I have left better-than-deserved feedback for one guy who was a jerk and two people just because they were mods, and I didn't want to get a bad reputation as being "complicated" to work with or something.

 

Are you talking about flaking out of a binding transaction, or just not following thru on a verbal? If you are talking about verbals that's been happening for a long time I'm afraid.

It is also much larger than this site. On craigslist flaking is the norm. On Social media it's not the norm, but happens far more often than it should. Around here I did have 2 people flake out of binding transactions this year, which are actually the first time I can remember. Unfortunate, but I left one a negative (expensive deal, tons of time wasting) and one a neutral (under $100, some time wasting, though he did want to argue). I also wait at least 48 hours before leaving feedback to make sure I was not emotionally invested in the comments.

Bottom line, forums aren't the most popular avenue for game collecting anymore, it's social media. And flaking is much more rampant there. As more people come here from social media, they'll be used to that flaking culture and you'll see it more rampant here. I don't think the HOS going away has anything to do with it, just more of a culture shift unfortunately.

I applaud you for this.  Too often we do get emotionally wrapped up into something and then have the urge to put down feedback and verbal comments that are for posterities sake, permanent.  

I had a mentor teacher once who told me that when he was angry he always wrote two letters.  The first one to vent (which was discarded) and the second to give a more appropriate (and less impulsively emotional) response.

 

I feel that I haven't had anyone just back out of a deal in a long while especially if a transaction was confirmed. I will say I've definitely seen more of a rise in ceasing communication and then maybe they'll come back a few weeks later with a reason why they went MIA usually accompanied with a maybe we can still work it out deal, but by then I usually have already moved on and sold whatever it was.

Haven't seen anything lately, and I've also haven't heard much from others either. But that's only because I haven't been doing transactions here lately like I used to. lol

I was talking about both I guess.  I had one verbal and one transaction, but to me they are equal.  I see the verbal contracts as binding and a transaction is just a formality for if the parties want feedback.

Thanks for your input--I had no concept of that culture shift you speak of, so that's good to be aware of.
 

Dumb question time-- what was/is HoS?

Hall of Shame. You posted about bad transactions you had with people, from what I gather. Then other people may avoid those sellers/buyers due to feedback from members.

Absolutely, for things that were agreed but no transaction. I don't know if having a transaction would have made a difference but at least I could have left negative feedback.

Hall of Shame, aha. Yeah, I think I posted on there once but for an eBay shill bidder/seller who pushed up all his auctions. I was trying to get a Chrono Trigger from him and after I did the research to seen and prove how he'd shill bid his auctions, I let him bump my auction up well past the value of the the cart, and at the last few minutes, I cancelled my bid so he'd be stuck having to buy his own item AND pay the fees.

I don't condone that behavior but I was just in a mood that night. But, back on topic, I think it makes sense to remove a wall of shame. It just becomes a place for people to argue. An alternative is to try and make a minor adjustment where our User details appear by our posts. Instead of having cumulative feedback posted, if we had both positive/negative numbers posted, then maybe people could better gauge the competency of the other member. I mean, I imagine there are some people around here with positive feedback over 20 or 30 but with a few negative reviews. Honestly, if someone has a rating over 20, I don't check out their reviews, but I'd probably pay a little more attention if I saw 20/-3 by their name.

I mean, I've had nothing but good experience around here, so maybe even that's overkill. I've had a lot of people ask me questions and "bail", but I'm fine with that. I'm of the opinion that people can make all kinds of offers, and sellers/traders are just as free to reject with no harm done. Seriously, make me stupid offer. I might laugh, but I'll still be willing to work with you if you return a serious offer. It just doesn't bother me to tell people no or, conversely, be told no.

that's not a bad idea actually

Yes, but a single click will take you to see how many negatives they have.
 

  And I understand that, which is why I'm not necessarily suggesting this type of change be made. Again, I've not had a bad experience (yet) so I'm also not as cautious. Also, if an offer is small, I'm less inclined to look past the number. But, of course, if I was buying a $500 item, I'd definitely do the research if I've never heard of the person. Still, it is a quick and easy way to gauge that user's past experience. If anything, it's at least a tipoff that you should read their reviews.

When did the HOS close? Did that change anyone's ban status?

Glad I was not alone thinking this also. :-)
 

I'm still relatively new here, lurked for several years before joining, but I eventually did join up last year primarily because I wanted to finally get involved in the buy/sell scene here which I heard was really good.  I must say in the small amount of transactions I've had (about 50/50 buying and selling) its been a wonderfully smooth experience with really nice people that were a pleasure to deal with.  I don't know what it was like before the HoS was abolished but I know I can't complain about a thing in reagrds to how its been for me now.  Especially compared to selling locally on Craigslist and other selling apps, or Ebay. 


 

HOS = Hall of Shame. It was a giant wall of text containing people who had done unsavory things in transactions. Contained NA members, eBay buyers and sellers.

If someone was found to have done a very bad thing, they were given a Hall of Shame icon and their avatar was changed as a warning to anyone looking to deal with them. They were also added to the list. 

The Hall of Shame was a thread, and within that thread people would air their grievances. It was just a major shit show and a pain in the butt to maintain. Not sure it really added enough value to warrant the pain that it was. 

As for the question about HOS closing and ban status, first a quick explanation. Sometimes the wrongs done in transactions warranted a ban. The person would be left on the HOS list, but also get booted from NA. The status of these banned members did not change with the dissolution of the HOS. Similarly, this threat has not gone away.

If someone sucks at a transaction, leave them bad feedback. If they do something scammy, contact a mod. If it's bad enough and found to be true, a ban may still take place. This is the reason people were not unbanned. 

No

Just a shade over a year ago:

http://nintendoage.com/forum/mess...

 

Hall of shame, man now that's a blast from NA past.

I've had at least 3 sellers (that I can think of off hand) back out of verbally accepted deals via PM and I haven't even been on the site a year.

It's a dirtbag move to accept my offer and then sell the item to someone else FYI.