Don't allow owner to delete member comments
Don't allow auction owner to delete member comments in his auctions. It should at least apply to certain auctions like domain sellings where experienced members are warning about fake domain PR's of fradulant sellers. Even if you allow them to delete the comment, at least people should see owner deleted XX comments in that auction.
We’ve been discussing this at length here. Right now, comments as an anti-fraud measure always lead us to a no-win situation. If we take the side of the commenters, we see abuse of the commenting system. If we take the side of the sellers, we see abuse of the comment deletion system.
Our approach in the short term will be to enhance the Marketplace with additional anti-fraud features that enable buyers to better gauge the legitimacy of listings (e.g. domain name ownership validation, site traffic verification, etc.).
As we do this, we will continually re-evaluate our policies on comment moderation. If it becomes practical and sensible to remove the 'delete comment' feature for sellers, we will.
Keep those votes and comments coming so we know your opinions on the subject!
- Kevin Yank
noonanco
The problem is that some sellers are legitimately trying to hide something, and if an experienced user calls them out on it, it might save a newbie from being scammed. However, a prospective bidder could potentially create another account and put false claims on the sellers auction. Maybe only allow sellers to "report" comments for moderators to look at?
5 days ago
nufoundglory
How about if sellers need to state "reasons for comments deleted" to every comment he deleted? If all the warning comments keep on coming and he keeps on deleting them for the same reason, wise potential buyers would be able to see that there's something wrong. Plus, showing how many comments have been deleted is also a very good idea!!
about 1 month ago
streetjammer123
Make it like ebay .. Thats good ,
about 1 month ago
neon_eddie
I think most intelligent people see right through and ignore comments like "why is your traffic so low, etc.". And, I do not believe fraud controls will keep the real benefit of non-deleted post from happening. The real benefit is the shared information such as the site is being sold more than once under different domains, or that HOT site that you are selling can be purchased off the shelf here.
5 months ago
Domainerator
It's not usually mad/rude ones that are the problem ... I find misleading comments to be a big issue. Example: someone asks "why is your traffic so low." Well, the traffic is stated on the auction so that question adds no new information ... it just biases other potential bidders who can see how much traffic there is for themselves but might wonder why someone else thinks it is low.
5 months ago
sdstudio
I think if a user has mad a rude comment , there should be a feature that you can click on the user name and report that user to a moderation or admin that is online and they can handle it. you would find that when another user is allow to delete any comments... there are more problems. JMHO
5 months ago
Domainerator
Competitors leave sabotage comments - it's as simple as that. The SitePoint marketplace is like any user forum on the internet: lots of hecklers, spammers and idiots. Why not give moderation powers to the person who made the auction and paid for it? No change is needed here.
5 months ago
enclass
Allow to delete the comments, but the delete function should automatically leave a trail mark (including whose comments were deleted) i.e "Owner deleted member XXX's comment on 6/14/08 @ 9.05 AM"
If owner is deleting comments from 10 comments from 10 members shows negative for seller, however if he deletes 10 comments from 1 or 2 doesn't (maybe they were just tring to spoil the auction)
5 months ago
nufoundglory
Logician, are you talking about "DP" or "SP"?
5 months ago
Logician
But in DP buyer is on their own without any site protection and all you do is to list the auction and tell we are not responible for buyer/seller actions. So it is much more important to have these comments so that at least community will provide some sort of buyer protection. 10USD of listing income for DP shouldn't worth giving impression that people are screwed here by scammers.
5 months ago
Logician
I don't agree with site developer's comment. It is possible to delete comment in ebay site but unlike DP, ebay is working very hard in the background to maintain buyer satisfaction. There are ebay/paypal guarentees to keep buyer secure and ebay is also doing many security tests on your behalf to check sellers. It is validating seller identities, keeping track of scams and bans scammers etc.
5 months ago
babyboy808
100% agree with this feature. I tried to comment on an auction that a person claimed their directory was a PR5, their BIN was $200, so there is a warning already. I tested his site with 3 different services, the cache and info command ...and found him trying to scam this site on digitalpoint too. Site sold to a noob and they got screwed. We need this feature!!
5 months ago
neon_eddie
Seeing deleted comments was absolutely the most insightful feature on SitePoint. Comments from other users about why the listing was previously for sale, or isn't this the 3rd time you sold that same template, etc.
Most buyers are easily able to see when someone is jealous or is just being abusive. Not sure why this feature was taken away in the 1st place, unless people have something to hide.
6 months ago
site.developer
there are instances when someone jealous of you or your competitor wants to bash your thread or your prospective buyers,he will put something wrong against seller in his thread which will quash away his buyer creating him site listing loss as well as repo loss.
I am strictly in favor of option to delete comments.its sellers site and he has to decide what comments he wants to appear on it like ebay
6 months ago