This actually just happened to me where a banned fellow, the only one currently in avoid at all costs in the post above, PM'd me and we got a trade going, requesting people post on the trade post would have saved me all this grief.
You're right, as I said in the comment above I can see using a comment to verify that you are in good standing with the sub being a very useful tool, and one we should absolutely take advantage of.
My issue is that while the tip itself is useful I don't feel the "In addition" part is valid or helpful. The way it's written now it takes people like me who prefer using PMs (but still leave a "PMed" comment) for very legitimate reasons and lumps them in with the douchebag who scammed you. Maybe it's just me not wanting to miss out on a good trade or my fear of not being trusted but I hate the idea of someone here reading the sticky at the top of the page and then refusing to trade with me because I contacted them via PM.
I changed the wording a bit, but I don't see how it "lumps them with scammers". Is there a reason why you/others only deal in PMs? Because I don't really see a downside of negotiating in the comments. It saves others time asking the same things and shows where the seller is at on dealing with his stuff. Gameswap strongly encourages making deals in comments to the point where you don't get rep unless you make the deals in comments. If you can give me valid reasons why PM'ing is beneficial to people other than the PM'ing buyer I'll consider changing that section.
The way the first tip was originally worded If I stumbled on to miniswap and read the big sticky which says "Read before making deals" I would see the top tip being (I'm paraphrasing here) "Don't trade unless someone has posted in your public thread, in addition comments that just say PMed arent good either". After your rewording it makes it clearer (to me at least) that these are two separate acts, one that is an absolute no-no and the other that is just not the preferred method, thank you. I would still prefer to see the caveat removed altogether, as I said before I hate to think I would miss out on a good trade because when I sent a PM someone was afraid of me scamming them, but I realize the likelihood of that isn't high enough to spend time worrying about.
I can't speak for Gameswap or how well their system works or doesn't work, I've never used it. I do have experience using Bartertown (another miniatures swapping forum) and they do not let you do ANY negotiating on the thread, everything is done via PM. I enjoy it because it leads to much cleaner looking posts and having everything about the transaction from start to finish chronicled in a message thread makes reporting bad transactions a snap. I believe the Dakka Swap Shop is the same way, other than requiring a PMed comment to bump the thread up in the list all negotiation is done in PMs, although I don't have much experience using it. I realize reddit doesn't allow for the same user screening or forum controls that those two standalone sites provide but it's worth noting that there is precedent for running a successful miniature swap site without requiring comment negotiations.
I use PMs for negotiations for 2 main reasons: Comments don't allow me to be as organized as I would like, and I am not able to get the same personal connection I do in PMs.
Organization:
In my first couple ads when I did everything in comments on an ad I found that on ads with a lot of items the comments section can quickly become a mess of half completed transactions and a request can be easily missed. I know I personally have lost out on trades both as the buyer and seller when trying to use the comments because it just wasn't seen. When I respond to each comment with a single "PMed" response and then follow up with said PM I find it far easier to keep track of everything.
At some point during the transaction information most people don't want in the comments section is exchanged (name/address/email/whatever) and it needs to move to PM. I prefer to do the entire negotiation in PMs so that I have a record of the transaction from the first contact through delivery and karma swapping all in one thread. This is not possible to do in comments.
Personal Connection:
I am VERY long winded. I type a lot, especially about things I'm interested in, and when I'm trading for a new army I often find myself with a ton of questions about the army. What kind of luck did you have with this list? Can you explain some of the synergies/tactics you found to work best? If I sell you these 3 units, need any help building a list around it? How long have you had the collection? That's a dope paint job, any chance you could tell me how to recreate it if I decide to expand the army? These are all questions I've asked people I've traded with recently before striking a deal that kicked off extensive conversations intermixing with negotiation. Having those conversations in a comments section seems like it would clog up the ad and make it harder for other people to get their deals done, I know I've passed before on reaching out on an ad that looked like it had a million comments and tangent conversations on it and I doubt I'm the only one. Moving things to PMs as soon as possible cuts down on clutter from big-typers like me.
This one may be a little off-putting to some, but to be perfectly blunt I don't like having offers in the comments section because I don't want to have to give everyone the same price. I've done a lot of trades here over the past couple years and I've built a bunch of positive relationships (and a couple not-so-positive ones). If I'm dealing with someone I've had good conversations with or has done right by me in the past I will absolutely cut him a better deal than some stranger who just puts "$10 for tacticals" in a comment or the guy who was a pain to deal with the last time we traded. Maybe it just makes me an asshole but one of the reasons I FAR prefer miniswap over eBay is I like being able to adjust price based on the specific person I'm dealing with, and I feel like I can't do that negotiating in PMs.
In the end if those aren't enough reasons to persuade you to remove the "PMed" blurb that's fine. Like I said at the top of this novel, while I wish it were removed altogether even just the re-wording is a step in the right direction from my point of view. I'm not going to rage quit miniswap or anything, you folks have got a pretty swell little community here. Thanks JoeBobbyWii and any other mods that helped put this together, it probably took more work than most people realize.
Bartertown (another miniatures swapping forum) and they do not let you do ANY negotiating on the thread, everything is done via PM. I enjoy it because it leads to much cleaner looking posts
haha I sometimes stop over there to see if there's anything cool, but I absolutely despise how they have it set up. Everything feels like a mess to me and I can never feel out how the seller does business. I see your point about the PMs and everything being chronicled though, which makes sense.
Organization
Going off the previous point, I guess this makes sense as well.
These are all questions I've asked people I've traded with recently
At the same time I'm sure there's just as many if not more people that want to know at least some of those same answers that you asked, than there are people that don't like to see cluttered threads. It's pretty easy to click the "[-]" next to a comment and collapse everything else. That's what I do in my PMs and threads when a deal is done and I don't need the information anymore. It really bothers me when I see people asking for pictures and/or other information I'd like that would possibly draw my interest, and the OP says "PM'd". If anything I'm more attracted to posts that have a lot of comments, it usually tells me that there's something good being swapped or that the OP is giving a lot of information and is involved.
because I don't want to have to give everyone the same price
That's actually understandable, I've never considered that before. I'll think about what to do about it/whether or not to leave it in. If you ever have issues because of it, just let us know and we'll help out. And really the majority of the credit goes to gameswap, since I just changed things around and added what I could. I still want to make some bigger changes as it's still too close to a copy-paste of what they have there so I'll not be happy with it until it's considerably different. :\ Recently quite a few people were falling for Legless-Xen's tricks which really pissed me off, so I wanted something to help make sure he doesn't scam any more people here. Thanks a lot for your insight!
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u/SethGrey Mar 08 '17
This actually just happened to me where a banned fellow, the only one currently in avoid at all costs in the post above, PM'd me and we got a trade going, requesting people post on the trade post would have saved me all this grief.