Why the Hivemind?

[Geegee83]

When I was at University it really bugged a lot of people, myself included, when the tutors wouldn't give us straight answers and almost seemed to make it difficult and impossible to progress by not telling us everything we needed to know.

By Year 3 it made sense, you have to work it out yourself, and only then will you mentally progress and learn.

People want answers all too easy these days, they don't want to do the research, they just want the info they need and sod the rest of it.

I truly do believe that you can only learn and progress if you are willing to put the time and effort into learning.

Any flack new members seem to get is because people who have been through that tough learning process and have invested their time and/or money into being successful aren't going to just give people the answers for nothing, you have to show a bit of willing.

[xShevaa7x]

Originally Posted by Geegee83

When I was at University it really bugged a lot of people, myself included, when the tutors wouldn't give us straight answers and almost seemed to make it difficult and impossible to progress by not telling us everything we needed to know.

By Year 3 it made sense, you have to work it out yourself, and only then will you mentally progress and learn.

People want answers all too easy these days, they don't want to do the research, they just want the info they need and sod the rest of it.

I truly do believe that you can only learn and progress if you are willing to put the time and effort into learning.

Any flack new members seem to get is because people who have been through that tough learning process and have invested their time and/or money into being successful aren't going to just give people the answers for nothing, you have to show a bit of willing.

I agree with this. I think you need to be somewhere in the middle, rather than post generic hints or answers, it's better to give someone most of the answer (or all) and then show them where or how they can get the rest of the answer, rather than writing something cryptic which leads to about 10 posts of crap.

This was my experience at University too, although some tutors really were lazy. I didn't like having to do things myself, and I wanted to be told the answer, however once undertaking a task and completing it, my experience and knowledge gained was better than if I was just told the answer.

I guess the problem here is that if you don't tell someone the answer, they cannot go and do it themselves on eBay etc. Or they do go and do it and lose their account. It's hard because a lot of people posting need eBay for their rent etc.

[aspkin]

Thanks for the feedback. I can understand both sides, those who are active everyday for years who see the same questions over and over again and those brand new to the forum. After awhile new members are just a source of pain to older well established members. Maybe we need to introduce something new, maybe an active eBay news section or general eCommerce news section to take a break from stealth? That would be interesting. Or a focus on other connecting subjects. Hmmm.

[Geegee83]

You didn't go to Leeds Met did you? LOL, yes, lazy tutors was true for me too, I guess they like to sit back and see who will succeed and who will fall on their *rse.

I have noticed the cryptic replies and when you haven't a clue what you are doing it doesn't help, but gradually I think you get there... If Aspkin wants to generate more users (which I presume is what he wants) it's going to be hard to do without giving secrets away on the open forum. Maybe an FAQ section could be added for subscribed members only, giving them a little more useful info?

It's a difficult one..

N.B There is also the problem of a few smart *rse's who get a kick out of putting people down and enjoy "getting one over on them", not much you can do about that as that's normal on any forum!

I meant to add, respect should be shown to "the elders", which generally isn't and that can cause conflict.

I can't image the amount of time some users spend on here contributing, answering questions and participating in the chat etc.. it's a full time job in itself.

[xShevaa7x]

Originally Posted by Geegee83

You didn't go to Leeds Met did you? LOL, yes, lazy tutors was true for me too, I guess they like to sit back and see who will succeed and who will fall on their *rse.

I'm from the south of England, but from my experience at University it seemed around 50% could be bothered and actually cared, the other 50% just wanted to collect their pay check.

I'm not sure what to suggest to be honest. I think it's fine to not share everything you know, like certain tricks that are more like bugs than general things everyone should know. That's fine to have, on the forum I mentioned being on before there was a very useful trick in the subject area of the forum, and only certain members knew how to do it, and they were allowed to do this "trick" for other users for a small fee.

Obviously stuff like the 0.01 refund, can't be done because people will just see what you have done.

On the forum we had different classes for members, and it was a great way to encourage new users, and old to help others. I see you have normal, stealth, mod and admin here, but we had a few more too.

We had people who had special badges next to their name, but didn't have any extra powers on the forum, but it was used as a good way for others to respect and trust them in deals. You could have different badges like this to encourage users to help others and earn them. It benefits the person because they're more respected and if they're a trader, can trade easier and it helps the new members and the whole forum to stay alive and active. We had:

• Normal members (new people)
• VIP - (Paid $2/ month to donate) basically like your stealth members
• I can't remember the name of this one, but it was something for members who were active for like 3-6 months, those that help others and post good answers everyday.
• Trusted Members - This was for people usually who did all of the above, and traded with other members (like your account sellers) for 6-12 months and then became trusted members.
• Moderators - All of the above, doesn't need to trade, though, however a user who has been around for years helping others. Someone who you can trust.
• Admins - obvious.
• You could probably have certain unique badges for a few people i.e. if someone specializes in US eBay, wholesale, importation from china, japan etc they can have a unique badge. Then members can trust their answers are correct, and can PM them sometimes too.
• Have areas of the forums for VIP members only to see, post and read. Have an area where only trusted members and above can see, post and read too.

Some more suggestions

• These things above were voted on by all the higher members in their own secret part of the forums every 3 months or so and a couple of members were promoted. A post was made in the news section at the top for all members to see and the new promoted members were congratulated. This showed other members what they need to do for them to be promoted next time too.
• Some incentives for people to have help others like I have mentioned is good, and nothing that can be bought. I have seen this work first hand, and of course is just a suggestion. This helps getting more traffic to the site, and more users. It's important to let users do what they want (within reason) and not ban them from posting or talking about certain topics. It just pushes them away and they won't post at all.
• The VIP sections, or in this case people who have bought stealth can see pinned topics about what are the best programs to do certain things. For example I wanted to see what are the best programs to resize many images at once. There could be pinned topics made by helpful members who have made tutorial and reviews on certain products or programs that have helped them do stealth.
• People could be allowed to have small signatures under their posts which allow them to have small graphics that are there for show, or can hyperlink to there account shop etc. You can then have other members who can use photoshop selling these signatures for $5 or something. It's a way for newer members to grow and gain trust. There is no way for new members to come here to trade, only old ones. You might get scams, but if you limit other members to $5 or something, then it will decrease it a lot.
• An "Arcade" section where people can play a few games on the site, like tetris, pacman, snake etc, then their high score will be posted next to the game and if a new high score is broken, it can go along a banner at the top of the site above the shoutbox. This is a good way to keep people on the site once they have come here and maybe gotten bored. You can then have a scoreboard for each game, and an overall score board of which members have the most high scores. This can be shown as a badge next to their name if they are ranked 1-10 or something. It will advertise it to new users who see their posts. This is the internet, and a lot of people love games.

It doesn't sound much, but people appreciate some gratitude for doing good work, and it encourages people to be nice to others and give good answers.

[Klemantina]

In my opinion,from my experience as a new member i would suggest to stop make threads readable for subscribed users. Unless you got some serious information that impossible to find without wasting a lot of time. Make this forum free and you will see a huge increase in traffic. On the other hand if you really want to raise your profit, pay more people to analyze what information should be hidden, im about to find my last answer and im done here coz 95% of the info repeats itself and there's rarely something useful.
aspkin you got enough traffic to start bringing more methods and sections, maybe someday you will become bigger then blackhatworld.

[xShevaa7x]

I have added a few suggestions to my post. I might have made a few mistakes with my English as I always do, but it should be readable. I will proof read it soon and clarify if anything doesn't make much sense.

if we are talking about what would make the forum nore appealing, I think you should get rid of the eBay Stealth adverts that pop up when you click a thread.

Once you've learned stealth their really is no need for the book. It slows me down and I usually just close the browser instead of replying.

For the same reaaon I've never been a fan of youtube.

Also, I like the idea of an arcade. I am the master of snake.

[Hercules]

Personally from the very beginning till now since I've been on this forum, I always use the search button here in every way I can. That is the only way to get answers. I have other ways off this forum but they are minimal.
It still is very hard to give up what I've found here in bits and pieces. I think and know that 90% of the questions asked have been answer a trillion times here! Just a pile of lazy people out there.

[BigCJ]

Originally Posted by Hercules

Personally from the very beginning till now since I've been on this forum, I always use the search button here in every way I can. That is the only way to get answers. I have other ways off this forum but they are minimal.
It still is very hard to give up what I've found here in bits and pieces. I think and know that 90% of the questions asked have been answer a trillion times here! Just a pile of lazy people out there.

This ^^^

When I joined, I didn't even have an account. I lurked around for a while then bought the book and had to piece info in since eb/pp/amazon was changing constantly.

Even with the current and updated topics, some newer members are confused. Thats understandable.

The ones that tend to tick me off are the newer members skating around issues of selling ill.egal items, scamming people and how to find suppliers info that each one of us had to gather to get where we are today. They do not take the time to learn the community and want to be spoon fed.

Then when we tell them to use the search function, we become all sorts of so and so.

[MM78]

I agree with BigCJ, I also enjoy those who are new but some how feel that starting with 10/1,000 limits are beneath them and how dare this forum subject them to starting with those types of limits! Or those who are not patient enough to work their accounts....

[astralman]

It's an issue of people' personality emotionally. Most old timers here think they are gods. Sorry if you don't see it this way, but they do.

What can you do about it admin? Give them warnings that is all. Everybody nomatter how old are you in the game can always learn new things and stop being so rude. Measure you words or apologize. The excuse always is " well I'm this way and that's how I am " ( well then goodluck living like that. What can new people do? Don't pay any attention to them. Take it like if it was just air blowing in your face for a minute and you start to breath new air for the rest of the day.

Yeah some want to be spoon fed, but don't talk to them aggresively. Just tell them to search around the topics. As a forum you will always have repeating questions because people like interacting in live time.

Info to admin: old and new people will always come and go, but to keep your forum up and running with traffic you have to upgrae the website make perks, vip memberships with interesting perks that new people would want to sign up for. Make subscribed forums not accessible to free users only paid. I like the current layout of the website and color it's easy to read and quick. I use to frequent years ago an incentivized forum that became really popular and very low traffic goes to it now because they didn't keep it up to date. Everybody has a right to speak what they want, but people don't lay out your hardcore emotions on to others it's not right unless they do something bad to you then you can say what you want to them.

It's not good to give people info so easy also because it doesn't teach them to appreciate it, but hey we live in a current world where people don't appreaciate and want things quick. They must learn like I did that patience is the key.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by xShevaa7x

I have added a few suggestions to my post. I might have made a few mistakes with my English as I always do, but it should be readable. I will proof read it soon and clarify if anything doesn't make much sense.

It is a very nice analytical read your post - fresh ideas relatively speaking