New discussion thread suggestion

Hello there! I was wondering if we could start a new discussion thread called Feedback where people can post about websites they have used to buy bearded dragons and dragon products. This way people have a good idea of sites that are safe to buy from and ones that are not. I know some of the moderators have online stores of their own but do not have places to post feedback and I thought this might be a nice way to give back.

It is a good idea, but it has the potential to get ugly if one person bashes a particular site where others had good rapport with.

Let's see what the Admin says.

Yeah but it's also going to be monitored by the admin so we will see then but I know what you mean.

As long as the board is moderated to adhere to strict rules and abuse isn't tolerated it sounds like a good idea. Of course it's only meaningful if negative/dissatisfied reviews are permitted too.

I'm not sure they have many threads dragon keepers would be interested in specifically but faunaclassifieds have a Board of Inquiry for the reptile industry at large.

So, here's the question... what could we make the strict rules be, while still allowing people to state opinions? I'm almost more inclined to try and "revamp" the Product Reviews section of the site to list different vendors and breeders, etc. This would allow people to make one statement of their view, with a rating. That could avoid the conflict that comes from people replying to each other.

I'm not opposed to it being in a forum, but I'm very cautious when it comes to "review sites". They often get out of control if not monitored. And while it can be monitored by the moderators and I... I'd like to keep the added work for us to a minimum. We're a small group and more time spent by me having to review forums for problems is less time I have to add features or fix things.

But, I am open to discussion about what sort of rules might work well for a forum like this... rules that would be clear and not have much by way of gray area, or else you will end up with people saying they're treated unfairly.

Thoughts?

beardie":3hgt1pr0 said:

I'm almost more inclined to try and "revamp" the Product Reviews section of the site to list different vendors and breeders, etc. This would allow people to make one statement of their view, with a rating. That could avoid the conflict that comes from people replying to each other.

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I love this idea!

Hello,

This is a great idea! I think that would work out well.

Tracie

One of the interesting aspects of the BOI on fauna is the conversations - other buyers or even the vendor can participate and both sides can be seen.

Of course, I can see it being more work to make sure things don't get derailed or nasty, and I'm not sure the added value to this community in particular vs a simpler topic > individual review + rating.

I look forward to seeing what comes of this, either way I think it will be quite useful.

We'd been working really hard on steering clear of this site turning into another BOI on Fauna. It gets too ugly too fast.

^^^^ What she said.

Yeah, the BOI gets pretty nasty at times. I really want to avoid that. My biggest concern in general is that it's also hard to be sure what's true in many cases. I've seen where people who have had no direct interaction with a breeder will start bashing them because they repeat what they've read and have taken as "truth" that they need to "spread". One thing I like about Amazon's reviews, is that they at least try to find ways to "validate" the response by confirming for readers whether the person posting had purchased the item on Amazon. Unfortunately, that sort of validation isn't possible with what we would review (or what is reviewed on the BOI).

Maybe there could be a way to prove that they have had dealings with whatever seller they are posting a review about. That way is more inclined to be truth. Kind of like ebay where it links the item of purchase in the feedback. But of course here it doesn't have to be a link.

beardie":dhhcprb8 said:

^^^^ What she said.

Yeah, the BOI gets pretty nasty at times. I really want to avoid that. My biggest concern in general is that it's also hard to be sure what's true in many cases. I've seen where people who have had no direct interaction with a breeder will start bashing them because they repeat what they've read and have taken as "truth" that they need to "spread". One thing I like about Amazon's reviews, is that they at least try to find ways to "validate" the response by confirming for readers whether the person posting had purchased the item on Amazon. Unfortunately, that sort of validation isn't possible with what we would review (or what is reviewed on the BOI).

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Totally understand, especially about people having a go without any real skin in the game so to speak.

I wonder if using order information (order date, shipping dates, order contents, photos of product as delivered) would work for validation?