CPFMarketPlace

[Greta]

CandlePowerForums is going to have another branch. It is called the CPFMarketPlace. The purpose of this new forum is to break off all of the Buy/Sell/Trade forums from CPF proper and have them all located on a seperate site and server.

There are many members of CPF who primarily visit and utilize the B/S/T forums. This is not a bad thing. However, it does take away from the original intent of CPF which was and is the discussion and developement of illumination tools. The B/S/T forums have definately gotten large enough and popular enough to warrant their own platform.

In addition, with the B/S/T forums split off from CPF proper, we will be able to allow much more variety in those forums... beyond just lights and light related items.

There WILL be fees to use the Sell forums. I don't have those worked out quite yet but they will be in effect and posted both here on CPF and on the MarketPlace itself once it goes on line. Yes, there will be several options as far as length of subscription, purchasing additional PM's, and purchasing the ability to upload attachments.

The "trip" to the MarketPlace will be simple. Where you now see the category strip for "Buy/Sell/Trade", you will see "CPFMarketPlace" instead. You will click on that as if you are simply entering a forum on CPF and you will automatically find yourself on the MarketPlace forum. It will not be a sub-forum of CPF. It will be completely seperate forum, on a seperate server, with upgraded software etc. If CPF goes down, the MarketPlace will not... and vice-versa.

The Dealer's Corner will also be moved over to the MarketPlace. There will be fees for Dealers to use that forum.

Now the messy part... I'm not real sure what to do with the Manufacturer's Corner. My first thought is to move it too over but leave the sub-forums (Elektrolumens, Sandwich Shoppe, Peak, HDS/Novatac, Arc) on CPF proper. Or... they can all be moved as well. I'm not real sure what would be best for the members and for those manufacturer's themselves. Perhaps they can chime in here??

The Custom and Mod B/S/T forums will stay on CPF proper. They best represent the original spirit of CPF.

The Cheers and Jeers forum will be moved and hopefully expanded.

Now... the important part... I will be transferring all current CPF registrations over to the MarketPlace. Which means that if you are registered on CPF at the time that I "make the move", you will automatically be registered at the MarketPlace and all of your stats from CPF (postcount, registration date, profile, etc) will be transferred as well. From then on, your posts on CPF will not count towards your postcount on the MarketPlace and vice-versa. Also from then on, anyone registering new on CPF will have to register new and seperate on the MarketPlace.

In addition... and this is the VERY tricky part for me... I will be moving all of the threads and posts along with the forums that are being moved. This should make it easier for you all to make the transition and for ongoing sales to continue without interuption or the need to restart them. There will be no fees imposed on any threads that are moved over, however there will be fees on NEW sales threads posted to the MarketPlace.

I would like to do all of this over this coming weekend. I won't need to shut down CPF in order to do any of this. I will only need to suspend new registrations temporarily and suspend new posts to the forums being moved until they are moved. I will give you all a heads up when I'm going to do that.

I think that's it! If there's anything else I think of, I'll post it here.

[Beretta1526]

How about those of us that are already reg'd on CPF Marketplace? Will you be able to over-write the CPF-M profile with the copy of this one?

[Dawg]

I was wondering when you would finalize something. Sounds pretty well thought out.

[Cuso]

Ohh yea, I think I still have that bookmark somewhere from the last test drive, which btw was a total success, bring it on!! Good job Sasha

[UncleFester]

Right On! You go Girl
Seriously though I think this is a good move and as Dawg says well thought out.

[maddog]

one question ...

would Fees just apply to the Seller ... like E-Bay? or would i have to Pay a Fee just to Register for that site? (ie ... what would happen if i just brouse and buy things and never sell?)

[tvodrd]

Awesome, Sasha! Hope the ones and zeros go smoothly!

Larry

[pcmike]

Ut oh.. here we go again....

[Manzerick]

it's worth a shot... who knows? It could be a GREAT thing!!


Embrace change!!

[Greta]

How about those of us that are already reg'd on CPF Marketplace? Will you be able to over-write the CPF-M profile with the copy of this one?

All registrations over there will be updated/overwritten with what CPF currently has in it's user table in the database.

would Fees just apply to the Seller ... like E-Bay? or would i have to Pay a Fee just to Register for that site? (ie ... what would happen if i just brouse and buy things and never sell?)

Registration will always be free. Browsing will be free. Posting in any forum other than the Sales forums will be free. Fees will apply to Sellers posting new sales threads in the Sales forums. Buying will be free and trading will be free. Although if I see those abused, I will make "adjustments".

[bombelman]

[knot]

Agreed. My first impression was - someone found another way to make a buck. It will only raise the price to the buyer so the seller won't have to pay the fee.


I could be wrong.

[tvodrd]

Very well thought out! I can discard nice, but dated stuff, for free and unlike another board I belong to I won't have to pay to view/buy! (I haven't!) (I don't think I've ever sold anything on BST. )

Larry

[bombelman]

It is none of my business, but judging by the badges, CPF seems to get quite a lot of donations... (?) Make another buck is fine with me, as I don't own this place.

Given it's a community, does the "community" have a saying in this ?
By that I mean a vote ?

2 of the same different accounts on 2 different forums ? Convenient..

[cutlerylover]

I liek the idea of fees for people selling things...Like knifeforums.com there are no real fees, but an honor system, when you sell stuff you donate some money, could be anythgin that way your thankign the forum for makign you money, or at the very least giving you a place to sell your stuff...Even though this will be involentary, instead of a honor system, it will keep people from abusing the sale section just to make money on items...

[CeilingDweller]

Registration will always be free. Browsing will be free. Posting in any forum other than the Sales forums will be free. Fees will apply to Sellers posting new sales threads in the Sales forums. Buying will be free and trading will be free. Although if I see those abused, I will make "adjustments".

I'm sorry. Abuse what? How? Adjustments how? I just got off a 12hr shift forgive me for the obvious.

[hank]

Please make it a matter of "putting on the business hat and going to the other room" --- a matter of courtesy --- not to engage in vile commerce here in the drawing room while we refined folk are sipping our tea and comparing our lumens, rather than a tradesman's and servant's entrance kind of thing.

Yes, I'm kidding, sort of, but --- any of us could be back and forth, from one time to another, and some of the most charming and helpful people here are also in business, some of them only from time to time and between times not.

I'm sure that's the idea --- I hope there's an easy way for people to "change hats" technically, even keep two windows and two logins open in parallel when they want to do a little business on the side of a conversation. Links allowed back and forth maybe, could be encouraged in a minimalist way.

So the constant improvement the hobby side makes happen doesn't get lost or even neglected. That's one thing this place does better than any other kind of forum I know, with the possible exception of hang gliding online forums that also include vendors and creators. People really care about getting it right, getting it safe, and making it better.

Something ... illuminating ... is possible.

[iced_theater]

I'm sorry. Abuse what? How? Adjustments how? I just got off a 12hr shift forgive me for the obvious.

If someone abuses the "trade" part of the BST on this new server, as the trading will be done free of charge to everyone.

Only people trying to sell an item is charged a fee to do so.

[Beamhead]

Will the fee structure resemble this?

[pcmike]

Ditto. I would fully agree with something like this on CPF. $1 a sale on the honor system was well received on Knifeforums and I'm sure it would go over much better here then the previous solutions discussed!

I liek the idea of fees for people selling things...Like knifeforums.com there are no real fees, but an honor system, when you sell stuff you donate some money, could be anythgin that way your thankign the forum for makign you money, or at the very least giving you a place to sell your stuff...Even though this will be involentary, instead of a honor system, it will keep people from abusing the sale section just to make money on items...

[Greta]

Beam... not sure yet. I think it's a good starting point but obviously needs "tweeking". I'm going through all of the suggestions made previously (in that thread and others) and trying to put together something based on all of that.

[powernoodle]

There WILL be fees to use the Sell forums.

We might as well go to ebay then, where there are 90 billion zillion potential buyers instead of the relative handful here. This is especially true for the occasional seller, like me, for whom buying a "subscription" would make no economic sense.

Reminds me of the Aesop's fable about the golden goose: "A man and his wife had the good fortune to possess a goose which laid a golden egg every day. Lucky though they were, they soon began to think they were not getting rich fast enough, and, imagining the bird must be made of gold inside, they decided to kill it in order to secure the whole store of precious metal at once. But when they cut it open they found it was just like any other goose. Thus, they neither got rich all at once, as they had hoped, nor enjoyed any longer the daily addition to their wealth." link

From then on, your posts on CPF will not count towards your postcount on the MarketPlace and vice-versa.

I only buy from sellers with lots of posts, as I believe it reduces (though does not eliminate) the chance of being ripped off. If new posts on CPF don't show up in the post count on this new board, it will be more difficult - especially over time - to discern if a seller is a high poster at CPF. Of course, if we are all at ebay, it won't matter.

Finally, if a new post on the "the Marketplace" does not show up on CPF when we hit the "new posts" button (though I don't know if thats the case), we won't see a new sales thread unless we go looking for it.


JMO

[LED_Thrift]

Is there something wrong with the current system?

[Zeppert]

yes there is something wrong with the current system..... Sasha isn't making enough money off of us!

[richpalm]

We might as well go to ebay then, where there are 90 billion zillion potential buyers instead of the relative handful here. This is especially true for the occasional seller, like me, for whom buying a "subscription" would make no economic sense.

JMO

I agree completely... I haven't had any bites on lights I have now on BST. Off to the bay...

Rich

[AlexGT]

My concern is that if the users will have to register in different forums, what will keep them from creating other accounts and sucker people from CPF to Marketplace to sell their product.

User1 says on CPF " this light is great, buy from user2" User2 on marketplace says "see the excellent review my light got from user1 on CPF" and so on.

As you know this sort of thing has happened here in CPF already.

AlexGT

[knot]

I still believe fees will be passed on to the buyer.

[will]

To be clear - Is the Marketpalce for the non-flashlight sales? or is it all sales?

[mrartillery]

cant anything be free anymore?! all good things must come to an end i guess, and yes i agree with the above, the problem is CPF wants a cut!

[dimebag]

As history has shown us in the hierarchy of the knife collecting forums, this will be a good thing for the smaller, less well established forums.