Player Input Request: Split Up The Auction Forum?

[Maecius]

A suggested came up staff-side to break "The Auction House" (viewforum.php?f=55) forum into three "The Auction House" subforums for each of the roleplay forums (surface, underdark, and upperdark).

I wanted to get a feel for how players felt about the idea before I enacted it.

On the one hand, it'll shrink down the front page, and it makes RP sense that the place you're advertising your wares to is going to be where your customer base is coming from (and it'll make it easier for shoppers to shop from "their own IC market"):

On the other hand, it also means people looking to buy things now have three places to check instead of one. And there is some worry that some sellers will just post (or "spam") their adverts in each of the three forums if they're just really looking OOCly to off-load something.

So I wanted kind of a general feel from the community as to whether this idea is a good one, encouraging RP; or a bad one, taking away from OOC quality of life?

Please reply with, as your first sentence, "Let's do the split" or "Let's keep it as is." (or some variation there of). You can explain why you feel that way below, but that first sentence will help me tally opinions quickly. Not doing a poll because I'd like to ensure that the people voting have a real stake in it (i.e. they will actually be affected enough by the decision to care to post), whichever way they're leaning.

Will probably keep the voting period open until next weekend.

I'd ask that there not be an abundance of back-and-forth, as it'll make my job a lot harder (so fair warning, I may just flat out delete them without warning if they're distracting me too much from doing my job!) -- and I've found that unless someone voluntary goes back and changes their opinion based on a later post's reasoning, flat out arguing back and forth for one's opinion here rarely actually changes any minds.

[Alurianna]

Let's do the split

[Calodan]

I personally feel that splitting it geographically is not the most beneficial way to organize that forum.

I think a more succinct version would be to separate them into a BUYING/LOOKING FOR sub forum and a SELLING/Trading sub forum. I think what gets lost most is those people looking for items via a want ad and those people selling items. You could organize that so that those PCs that want to play merchant PCs can easily locate players in the forums looking for items and also give a place where players can browse player wares available.

You could however also in the spirit of the original post instead add a fourth category that covers merchants who wish to be traveling in all areas of the server. UD, UpD and Surface. Maybe then that will cover the spamming. Even if you are only in two of the three you still post in that sub forum that covers multiple areas.

Either way I still think the best form of organization would be looking for and selling sub forum as opposed to areas of selling.

[Tsidkenu]

I don't think this needs a split. We just need players to be more realistic about the fact that they can't be in BG/FAI/Soubar/Sshamath simultaneously to sell their junk. If someone wants to move their stall, they should RP it in their thread and edit their title accordingly! Or even better, abolish the whole auction forum and make people go in-game to sell their stuff (like on Sigil!). It's way more fun that way.

Meh.

[Pimple]

Let's do the split!

My thoughts:

• Shrinking down the front page would be great.
• Trade is a part of RP -> I see no reason why this kind of RP should be separate.
  We have forums for RP -> if trade is RP let's put it in those.
• Location should matter. I feel like it would matter more with the proposed structure.
• Maybe you'll need to make "the same" post twice to cover different regions. Maybe if your post in two of those forums really is exactly the same yours truly will turn up his nose and think to himself you're a lazy bum.
• Why aren't people starting with the lines OP requested?
• It's cruel to make me actually post about this to vote.
• "A suggested came up staff-side" sounds funny.

[Sun Wukong]

These days I do not even bother to gaze towards the Auction Forum.

But years ago... in some months I actually made 40%-60% of the item threads were made by me, and those items were traded within days. Now, back then we didn't have the in game consingment store, and we had the item level restrictions, so there was far more demand for all kinds of items.

Today, the Auction Forum is pretty much just for the 'high end' items. It is slow, and most of the times the buyers and sellers fail to communicate the following basic details: player login, timezone with possible daylight adjustment, time and date with the 24 hour clock, and when is the next time they will actually check on their 'Merchant' forum account. It can be very difficult and annoying to get a hold of someone, which is a primary reason why I do not really bother with the Auction Forum anymore.

Now, with my user backround history stated, when it comes to splitting the Auction Forum into three different forums... I am against it. I already find it a hassle at best to use the current forum, and splitting it into three different ones just doesn't sound like a good idea. I do not really think OOC and IC trades really factor in here, it is just three places to look over for item X, and therefore more annoying and time consuming than the current status quo.

I would rename the Auction Forum to 'Auctions and Trades Forum' - since there are so many threads with 'auction' or 'trade only' or 'buy at Y price' items.

[onetwothree]

I dont really see the point as the current subforum is nothing but an OOC trading place (not neccessarily a bad thing) and i doubt this would change anything. In the end it wouldn't really matter in which of the three subforums you post your auctions, you'd be selling to the same people anyway.

[Valefort]

That's a bit cynical, not everyone post into auctions where their character can't go :O

[SoThereIWas]

Let's do the split


Thoughts on the matter:

My issue with the auction house is, it's less proper managed advertisement and some tend to have issues with updating their stock via forum posts. It boils down to proper management and realistic views as Tsidkenu said.

I think if one was to designate a single stall location, that's fine. but If your a traveling merchant then simply place an advert out with name and point to point locations with days listed and request a sending sent their way. But even then some tend to stretch their boundaries a bit I feel, no matter how you set this up, others might find a way. The trick is figuring out a regulated standered.

Either way being in game and over the forums at once can make it hard to sell listed items you have. So by simply giving a category in a advert would be ideal over listing ever item up for grabs and sold.

[niapet]

My thoughts on the matter.. looks at the date...

Ill be back tomorrow...

[Sun Wukong]

Absolute ban on 'OOC' is likely going to death of the little activity the forum has. I mean... Year after year I can do this...

Player A: 'I'll give you 50 bags for it!'

Player Me: 'Fifty bags, uhh... Okay, I will bite, what is the material of these bags? Crude cow leather, fine satin, perhaps wyvern hide?'

Player A: *A long pause as the player A tries to figure out what and how to respond.*

Sure, people use "bags" to avoid mentioning silly amounts of gold. As an example, like 1,000,000 gold pieces for a singular pair boots. But then again, it doesn't really take that much of poking or prodding to show how nonsensical the use of the word "bags" is. I mean... I could just point out how 124 gold coins probably amount to a 1 kg of pure gold. Thus a bag of 1000 gold coins weights... about 8+ kg.


Anyhow, the point is, whose role-playing standards would be enforced on an entirely "IC" "Auction Forum" - because long "RP" posts are also one of the things that will easily drive away potential customers. After all; if one guy writes four to twelve paragaphs of text, and the other one or two sentences, it is easy for the less verbose player to fall victim to a thing called peer pressure and not post anything. Not to mention that years ago, I think I got a forum ban once for refusing to have my law abiding character trade with a character of rather sketchy appearance and in character interaction.

So once again, whose role-playing standards are going to be enforced?

[izzul]

for forum RP, i will follow any decision decided.

for in game RP, i suggest a monthly gathering of merchants on weekend(Friday,saturday, and Sunday)

example: this month trade/sales is in Soubar(15th April 2018)

-every race can gather in Soubar at the designated day/time and set up their merchant stall not so close to each other(so that we are not swarmed by text and emotes) and display and RP their wares to be traded.
-DM can come in and make the event merrier
-all race can have their interaction that day(be it friendly or conflict ex:Zhents/Thay/Paladins)
-all must follow server Rules

next trade event in Sshamath/Rockrun(30th April 2018)
-Every UD races can gather
-DM can gather and interact
-all mercenary/Lolth/Orcs can interact and trade/fight among-st each other
-all must follow server Rules

[NegInfinity]

A suggested came up staff-side to break "The Auction House" (viewforum.php?f=55) forum into three "The Auction House" subforums for each of the roleplay forums (surface, underdark, and upperdark).

I wanted to get a feel for how players felt about the idea before I enacted it.

I would prefer to have auction forums removed completely and replaced with in-game trading or/and in-game stores. I think bgtscc would've become a better place if those ooc forums were gone.

Their usefulness of forums was always very low (because people sit on stuff waiting for rare trade), and they tend to create "parallel world rp".

Two decent trading systems were present on sigil - where a merchant had a chest with fake items, displaying properties of real one, and would give out the real item once the purchase has been paid... or on Arelith, where people could buy stores, place items there on display and collect gold later, if someone actually pay something.

[Theodore01]

Let's keep it as is.


OOC: The prices for good epic gear are already totally OOC. And most players will not sell it for any amount of coin.

The auction house forum is good for players in the lower populated timezones, If all trade would happen only in game, they would have less chance to notice any possible trade.

The auction house rules we have are getting ignored most of the time, adding more/strikter rules will not help at all.


I like Izzul's suggestion

for in game RP, i suggest a monthly gathering of merchants on weekend(Friday,saturday, and Sunday)

Occasionally add an DM vendor/enchanter to spice it up.

[niapet]

A suggested came up staff-side to break "The Auction House" (viewforum.php?f=55) forum into three "The Auction House" subforums for each of the roleplay forums (surface, underdark, and upperdark).

I wanted to get a feel for how players felt about the idea before I enacted it.

I would prefer to have auction forums removed completely and replaced with in-game trading or/and in-game stores. I think bgtscc would've become a better place if those ooc forums were gone.

Their usefulness of forums was always very low (because people sit on stuff waiting for rare trade), and they tend to create "parallel world rp".

Two decent trading systems were present on sigil - where a merchant had a chest with fake items, displaying properties of real one, and would give out the real item once the purchase has been paid... or on Arelith, where people could buy stores, place items there on display and collect gold later, if someone actually pay something.

A stall type system would be cool, like a more immersive and localized auction system. I've already said, if storage is localized, so should auctions be. The less global the market is the more opportunity for trade RP there is.

It would be nice but If people are not willing to sell for coin, what's the point? I wonder why it is people don't sell epic items for gold? Why is gold not working as intended, as medium for trade?