status-monitor How to make Domain Name Wanted Section better?

[Chetan]

would appreciate suggestions from all the members who have faced below issues.

Domain names wanted section, buyer will face following issues

1. they will be spammed by lot of crap quality domain names, which are not at all relevant as per requirements mentioned in thread
2. People offer services like "helping them find available domain names for registration" for fee like $10/domain. (mostly noobs offering this type of services)
3. sellers expecting end user pricing and quoting domains of moderate or low quality with super high pricing.

on other hand sellers are facing these issues,
1. Because of too many irrelevant submissions, buyers usually post super low budget and unrealistic pricing for liquid domains.
2. Most of the request threads seems to be dummy , just posted for grabbing attention of other members of forum.
3. There is no response at all most of the time (might be buyers are getting frustrated due to too many submissions they receive).

I am not complaining about anything, but would like to know what can be improved, to make Domain Name Wanted Section better, like it used to be in past.

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

Here is part of our post in another thread that we will copy here and use your thread instead for suggestions:

The best we have been able to come up with is to offer specific criteria options that can be automatically confirmed before a domain name can be submitted and to improve the ability for buyers and sellers to ignore specific requests or members within that section only.

Those solutions would help, but unfortunately, they're not a perfect solution to this problem and we have yet to hear one.

If you have any other ideas to help or solve the problem (not complaints because we already know about the problem), please share your suggested solutions.

Thanks.

 

[sbweb]

Maybe the solution is to charge for these wanted posts to weed out bs buyers. Same with bs sellers. Charge NP points for every buy post, as well as every responses to these posts. If they're serious and confident, then they shouldn't have any issues with paying a micro-fee to make a sale.

 

[karmaco]

Just a very basic thing that regularly happens—people posting requests with no total budget and no budget per domain. This happens almost daily. I think they should get a strike if they don’t abide by the most basic well known rule not just being told to fix it.

Same with the senders of names. If they submit spam that doesn’t match the criteria they should get a strike.

I think we should consider implementing a rule that people cannot respond to or start threads in the wanted section until they have been here for awhile or reached a higher level of interaction here like so many posts or a member for blank amount of time.

I think there should be a minimum budget per domain to get rid of the cheapos.

 

[Name Trader]

The problem with your criteria, of over $1, $50 etc, is that after the member has done the search all threads are jumbled together. It takes a keen eye, to spot whether you are looking at a $1 thread or a $1000 thread. So there is going to be a tendency to be confusion about what criteria any post is using. I still see @equity78's proposal in that closed thread was a better solution to have a completely separate forum for each price range, with probably fewer price ranges. Like over $1 $10, $100, $1000. (although I prefer under $10, $100, $1000, $1000+, see below). These categories can be fine tuned to suit needs.

Also Using your current system, I think it would be better if the ranges were categorized by the under limitation, rather than the over limitation. You would know, for example, that every post would be within your price range. Whereas using the over limitation, you will be looking at posts which are over your price range, and not of interest to you. If I have understood how your current system is working, correctly.

I am not a big user of the domains wanted forums. (Probably because of all the problems from the past).However I think a poster looking for a domain is setting there maximum limitation, not there minimum limitation. Which makes sense for the person trying to sell a domain to be searching for $10 domains, not to be seeing posts for $1000 domains. At least these suggestions make sense, for me.

But this won't stop people offering crap domains at any given price level.

 

[Name Trader]

You need some kind of points system for people offering crap domains. Something like 3 strikes in a six months period and you are out for 6 months, 2nd offence out from posting in this forum, indefinitely. I don't see any other method of cleaning those postings up, without punishment. But this requires restraint from the buyers too. Being considerate with their reporting. It's a minefield of personal opinion, from both sides. Perhaps it could be limited to the under $1000, $1000+ categories (using my categories).

To reduce subjectivity in a report, might mean, for example, if the GoDaddy GoValue x 0.1 = a price which matches the offer price, or higher, it's a valid offer. If it's lower, the seller gets 1 strike. Thinking allowed. Maybe it should be a requirement for sellers to post this GoDaddy GoValue, with any offer.

 

[wwwweb]

As touched on above a points system for creating WTB threads, if a new member wants to buy a big domain, sell them a $1.99 package to list it, but people that contribute to the forum let them have points or what to use to create WTB threads. Make it a premium product, so random people are not fishing for names they have no interest buying. The majority of threads open now are from people who have no trader rating. It really makes no sense, as they are trying to get a one word .com for $100, otherwise they are just leading everyone on with big budgets.

 

[Name Trader]

As touched on above a points system for creating WTB threads, if a new member wants to buy a big domain, sell them a $1.99 package to list it, but people that contribute to the forum let them have points or what to use to create WTB threads. Make it a premium product, so random people are not fishing for names they have no interest buying. The majority of threads open now are from people who have no trader rating. It really makes no sense, as they are trying to get a one word .com for $100, otherwise they are just leading everyone on with big budgets.

Maybe this could be resolved by having any new posting, the poster must have a TR of at least 2 to have the ability to post in the wanted to buy forums? I think that would be a reasonable request to prevent newcomers spamming the forums like this.

 

[SlimPickins]

1) Streamline/consolidate the Rules Pages. Currently the "main" rules page (https://www.namepros.com/threads/rule-reminder-criteria-requirements.857629/) is extremely limited in info and the links the REAL meat and potatoes (https://www.namepros.com/threads/domain-names-wanted-guide.860706/#section-01080000) can easily be taken more as a "resource" rather than actual rules that they must read and abide by, especially for new members.

2) TITLE : Make it a REQUIREMENT in title to specify A) Number of domains sought (ie one "perfect match" or multiple), B) OVERALL Budget, C) MAX BUDGET per domain, D) TYPE (ie most important criteria, 4L, Specific Keyword in certain extensions etc). Maybe these could be used/filtered similar to tags like in the marketplace, where a domain can be classified in liquid and make offer at same time. I think this would help quickly see if someone is looking to find just a single, perfect domain for a project etc, or how much they are looking to spend overall to buy as many of a domain type as possible for under their max per domain.There is a big difference for a posted $5K budget when a seller is looking for 100+ domains vs just one gem.

3) Make using the TEMPLATE MANDATORY/built in to the first post, with "required" info first and optional fields next, with the opportunity to expand/clarify with additional text of course. This way, beyond the immediate transparency in the title, a reader can quickly see more detailed whether the buyer is looking for 1 perfect domain, or up to 5/10/25/100 domains, what the max budget per domain is AND theOVERALL budget... plus the desired "type(s)" like keyword, 4L, 3N and acceptable extensions.

4) Perhaps for newer members/low TR members, having them send a screenshot to a moderator to verify funds covering their posted overall budget, at least in cases where a high budget is listed. Just because someone DOES have the cash doesn't mean they will actually spend a dime of it, but at least it helps reduce instances of people listing budgets they cannot back up, just to get more attention and submissions then they would if posted a lower, more honest budget.

5) Modify the built in "Direct message" button to "Submit Domains", and INCLUDE the most important parts of the OPs answers to the key template sections in the message for the seller to, once again, review as they write their DM, with maybe a checkbox indicating that they have reviewed the buyers criteria and confirm that the domains they are submitting fit the posted budget and other criteria and that they acknowledge that failure to respect OPs criteria can and should be reported and will result in infraction points or other consequences (see next point).

6) Modify the reporting of spam/domains not fitting the criteria and its consequences so that sellers are not constantly shooting off lists that vaguely, if at all match what a buyer posted they want. Perhaps a overhaul of the infraction points or even a (temporary) ban from VIEWING the domains wanted forum if they get reported X times. OPs should be reminded when posting a thread that if they are getting spam with domains not fitting their criteria, others assuredly are too. Just ignoring it wont help. Reporting it will.

7) Limit the number of times a buyer can bump their thread before it is auto-closed. I never liked the reversal on the "PM sent" messages from sellers being allowed in threads, still dont, but I DO think "x domains SOLD" posts from sellers in threads would be useful... shows that a buyer really is making purchases, and bumps their thread up for a GOOD reason, ie they are buying, rather than being bumped by each and every seller that submits domains regardless of whether any end in a sale or not. If there were "domains sold" messages by sellers in between posts by the OP it would reset the bump count for the OP. Either that or a system tied into monitoring whether a OPs TR as buyer has changed..... if after X days or weeks there are no new TR for the OP as buyer the thread closes. Something along one of these lines i guess.... main thing is preventing threads from being constantly bumped and kept open that are not yielding purchases due to too low of a budget/too restrictive criteria/not buying submitted domains that actually do fit the budget and criteria. If sellers are not submitting domains,, or the buyer isn't actually buying, something needs to change or the thread should take the hint and close.

8) I really liked the idea of being able to block/ignore certain members within this forum only.....

As a reiteration of what i said in the thread that is now closed regarding frustration with budgets etc in WTB threads, I really, really do NOT want to see any "price police" in this forum regarding a buyers budget, since it only begs the question why sellers should be allowed to price their domains as they see fit without complaints. Just like there, either someone sees the domain as worth the higher price tag and buys or they dont and the domain never sells.... same thing here in this forum. A OP might post a budget that, to some or even most, seems absurd or "wolfish"... but either someone will be willing to sell at that price, for a variety of reasons, or nobody does and the OPs thread goes unanswered and yields zero transactions. THEY are not the "wolf" here, it is the market. If the people complaining about budgets think the OPs are the problem, they should just ignore those members threads, or the domains wanted forum altogether, and simply list their domains in a sales thread with prices they are happy to sell at.... if the market agrees then someone will buy it at that price. If not, then they can always come back to the domains wanted forum and reconsider whether they are willing to sell at a price that a buyer is willing to buy at.....