Local 200q20v FS / Question for Brett

[Brett Dikeman]

On May 21, 2005, at 5:58 PM, I.S. Gall wrote:

> Wanted to ask Brett what to do tho, wanted to post it to the
> marketplace, but it says that it is not to be used as a referal to
> other sites... Is there any other way we can post a local car for sale
> that we've found out about?

The question should go to Dan, but in my opinion, nope.  We run this  
service with volunteered time and occasional donations to cover  
hardware expenses and such.  Advertisements haven't been allowed in  
over a decade, because the theory went that a)pretty much everyone  
was sick of ads in their lives and b)if we weren't making money off  
it, and working on it- why should someone else off our efforts?  It  
was self-policing, years ago- if you posted an ad, you were lucky if  
only a dozen people emailed you into submission (and if you think my  
emails are to the business-like...hah.)

We've had the "no for-sale, no ebay auctions" policy for a while, and  
it's because 99.5% of the time, the messages fit the category of  
spam.  Ie it's not targeted; most of the people on the list aren't  
looking for a car, don't live anywhere near you, don't want that  
particular model...the list goes on.  We tried yelling at people for  
a while to put the location of the car and model in the subject line,  
but people were horrible about following even that rule.   
Furthermore, it's advertising- and like it or not, we have no way of  
(and zero interest in) verifying whether someone is an interested  
party or not, so that factor is moot.

Mark created the marketplace software to solve the problem; if you  
WERE looking for a car or part, you could go there...and the previous  
system was "Email Dan, he puts up the listing when he gets time", so  
it didn't get much use.  The system was put up as a service to  
Audifans listers and the community at large.

However, it's up to the seller to market their car, and if they're a  
member of the Audifans community, they'll post it in the marketplace  
(I'd be surprised if the same car was not in fact already in the  
marketplace; the owner knows about chips and stuff, and we have a  
large percentage of total 200q20v owners out there on Audifans).

Brett
-- 
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
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