BANG!!! YOU'RE DEAD

[MDJAK]

An infamous, somewhat distinguished gentleman of our forum has, without intention, singlehandedly taken down a competing forum. Yes, brought it to it's proverbial knees in one fell swoop.

I think most would agree that the "sell" section of any forum is often the most popular part. Whereas POTN has so much more going for it, other forums exist merely on the basis of the classified ads. This is easily seen by how many are "viewing" each individual section at a time. As I said, POTN is so varied it would easily survive if one of its tentacles should be unfortunately lost.

The NikonCafe has, at least temporarily, had to shut down its sell forum. I think it is a poorly thought out move on their part, but one they felt had to be done. One of our members had a bad transaction there, is planning on bringing a lawsuit against the seller, and merely asked the forum administrator to keep the records for future use as evidence.

This caused a panic in their back offices, resulting in the closing of the sell forum. My prediction is that it will either reopen shortly, or the forum will die a slow death, as posters have already stated they will go elsewhere.

Your thoughts are welcome, as usual.

me

[steved110]

I'm devastated at the loss of this resource, and smitten with shame that it was brought about by someone surreptitiously jumping ship.

I'm not sure i can live with this...

On reflection...I can....;)

I think POTN's refusal to take any responsibility for transactions or to mediate on the sell forum is totally correct. Seems the noinkers hadn't thought things through.

[Pekka]

As I have said earlier, POTN takes no responsibility of deals made. We have all that in our marketplace agreements and rules. But, in case there is an official request of data concerning lawsuits between buyer and seller we do provide tracking data, IP's and other relevant data to officials. This does not happen often, I can think of only one case so far - it led to arrest of the fraudster and buyer(s) got their gear back.

[MDJAK]

No forum is responsible for what occurs in a buy/sell forum and that's exactly how it should be. That's one reason the knee-jerk reaction of the admins of NikonCafe is silly and shortsighted as well as completely unnecessary. They are in no danger at all.

Hmm, I wonder what case Pekka is speaking of though.

me

[Jon]

Wonder all you want. Unless it shows up in a courtroom while you're working there, you won't hear it from us, and then only because the court obtained the information.

[Tom W]

I had a small deal go astray on this forum over a year ago. My reaction was to keep it between myself and the other party. The buy/sell boards here, on FM, and on countless other forums cannot, and should not be held as a party to any deals. Pursuing that angle will result in the loss of all marketplaces on the internet.

Besides, it wasn't all that much money, and the lesson for me was valuable.

I do wonder what the big sites like Craig's list do in these situations. Perhaps it's time for people like Pekka, Fred Miranda, and several other reputable forum operators to put their thoughts together on this to get a good, uniform, legally safe position.

[drisley]

I'm devastated at the loss of this resource, and smitten with shame that it was brought about by someone surreptitiously jumping ship.

I'm not sure i can live with this...

On reflection...I can....;)

I think POTN's refusal to take any responsibility for transactions or to mediate on the sell forum is totally correct. Seems the noinkers hadn't thought things through.
bw!
Well said

[tommykjensen]

I do wonder what the big sites like Craig's list do in these situations.

Its not a big site but I can tell you that on the danish forum run by Canon Denmark there is no marketplace because Canon will not run the risk of any kind of legal problems regarding a marketplace. I don't know if they have any reason to fear that but thats their answer when they were asked why no marketplace.