Posted by Brian in Oregon on Thursday, June 06, 2002 at 0:37AM :
In Reply to: Dealing with a bad deal posted by Joe Cimoch on Wednesday, June 05, 2002 at 10:34PM :
Joe: "I wish I knew better way of getting the word out about bad deals and who to stay away from."
I have helped moderate a very active website for over three years now. Literally millions of hits per year. We had so many posts on bad deals going on cluttering several boards with nasty comebacks and fighting, anon harassment, bogus spite posts and, well, you get the picture. Plus we had a lot of posts inquiring whether someone was a square deal or a bozo.
I created a board soley for this sort of thing. I named it "The Board of Inquiry". I ran it for a while, and then turned the reins over to another moderator. The basic rules I initiated evolved into this:
The Board of Inquiry is for posting requests for business references on dealers and individuals. If you are considering a buying or selling transaction with someone you don't know, you can post to The Board of Inquiry with a reference request and hopefully others with past experiences can give you a recommendation. All other questions about (items for sale), parts, contact info, dealers in other cities and general information etc. should be posted on the appropriate market or discussion board elsewhere on (site deleted).
It is required that when posting an inquiry, response, or nomination on The Board of Inquiry that you post with a valid e-mail and use your name. All posts without a valid e-mail, will be deleted without comment.
If you are responding to a post that has no e-mail in it, your post will most likely be deleted as well so that it is not orphaned on to the board without context to a parent message. If you are posting with an e-mail address from a hotmail, yahoo type e-mail service, or if I have have any question about your post on the Board of Inquiry, you will probably get an e-mail to verify your address and name.
Please be aware that all anon/derogatory posts are logged before they are deleted and effort is made to determine the source of those postings. That information may be made public and is always available to the aggrieved party.
The Board of Inquiry is also a place to give notice of good/bad business transactions. Great attention from (site deleted) is given to making certain that persons posting good/bad experiences about business/individuals post with their real names, e-mails and that they post a fair recount of the transaction. The mentioned party then has a chance to respond knowing exactly who they are talking to and perhaps work towards agreement with the poster. (end)
Of course, you'd not want to copy these rules verbatim, but you can see the gist of things. I had a lot of doomsayers claiming we were opening ourselves up for legal problems. In fact, we've never had any, and feel we have reduced the problems by setting up safeguards to prevent bogus attacks. Because those making the accusations have to supply a valid email, there is definitely incentive on their part to not make up slander. Further, the email requirement helps ensure that a shady dealer does not put bogus praise up on the board for himself.
We have a lot of traffic on that board, and it takes a mod dedicated solely to that board to handle it. I doubt you'd get as much traffic, but it is still a time consuming chore. Don't start such a board unless you are willing to take on a mod down the road.
BTW, the nomination referred to in the rules above is for those who wish to nominate a dealer to the Good Guy board. Dealers with squeaky clean reputations who go the extra mile for their customers are listed. Any controversy and they don't make it. On our board even the merely adequate don't make it. We're talking the best of the best. It provides quite an incentive for dealer to really help others, and is a good reward for them.
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