Alot of Users posting their businesses in YOUR FORUM

chin leng,
thanks for your response. to add further to the discussion, i was also wondering the same thing as van, ie. allowing users to post under 2nd Hand Items which has a link to their yahoo auctions or yahoo photo album, listing both used and brand new items"? will this be allowed? i was hoping you could be flexible with this, because i am currently in the midst of doing some spring cleaning of my dd's belongings and have realised that she has ALOT of used as well as BN/unused clothes, and i was intending to sell them at the marketplace very soon, once i've consolidated all the items and taken pics of them. with this new ruling however, it seems that i may not be able to, unless i can do what van suggested, ie. list them all in my Yahoo Photos.
 


lis, there's a section for giveaways & wtb. But seems like some people start misusing them already. (Placing threads in wrong section)
http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/cgi-bin/forumboard/discus.cgi?pg=topics

I quite like the idea of imposing a fee of $10. So some mummies who wanna try having a small online biz can sell here openly with just $10 as compared to rental fee
happy.gif
 
Lani,
A little correction: I did not suggest posting under 2nd hand items with a link to yahoo auctions/photo albums,selling both used and brand new items. I am highlighting to Chin Leng that there are members doing that.
wink.gif
 
My thought:

I first got into this forum by joining a BP (allerhand bags!) here. Subsequently, i've sold a couple of stuff (new and used) and organized a couple of BP here myself. I find that the Marketplace here is probably the most active i've seen (compared to e.g. bay*supplies, ido*aby, many other parents-bb forum, etc)....Marketplace threads are fast moving and many many mommies here viewing on a daily basis. So much so that sometimes mommies will post un-related topics here just to seek advices or to chit chat...this just demonstrates the power of the Marketplace here! As a spillover effect, i then started to look at other threads in the singaporemotherhood forum and join the community threads eventually. I think many other mommies may start out here the same way as I do. My concern is that by limiting the Marketplace here (esp the BP which is of benefit to most mommies and very interesting....where else can you start a BP to share danish rolls, overseas sprees, etc), you may be reducing the number of mommies attracted to this forum. Sure, $10 is not a lot to share between ppl who wants to take part in BP. Question is which organizer would want to start the BP? Of course this forum should first and foremost be a community forum....but frankly, I think it's the "robust" Marketplace that really attracts everyone first. What women doesn't love to shop then chit-chat?

CL, perhaps you might want to start monitoring the traffic following the few weeks after the implementation of the new policy, and see if there's any effect to the traffic, sign ups, and activities in the forum.
 
Hi Suelee

I agree. The market place has become the place where i log in to see everyday without fail provided it is weekend when the ds are making noises hahahaha i enjoy the chit chat then buying the selling hahahaha thanks for it.
 
yep, i logon to the Marketplace first thing whenever i can every day. quite like an addict...just to see if any interesting BP or sales, etc. of course along the way, chit chat and make frens thru the activities, etc
 
But i forseen the rate will drop drasticly for the next few weeks and hopefully will slowly pick back. Well woman all like to chat , bargain and have fun ahahhaha
 
I disagree with Working Mom (suelee) with certain points. I joined Singaporemotherhood is because I was pregnant and I need more informations in this website. I only joined the marketplace after I gave birth to my bb. That was after 8-9 months I hang around in Singaporemotherhood. I believed the objective of Singaporemotherhood is to shared informations in parenting, pregnancy and etc. But sad to say most of them focus in marketplace and abused it. I agreed with CL charged $10 for BP. As the source(buyer) actually come from singaporemotherhood, without singaporemotherhood's member I don't think the BP will successful. Not forget to mentioned,Yahoo-Taiwan auction charged certain % amounts from the sold items. $10 is not that much if the amounts split among the buyers. I believed even add $10 in the BP, you still get the items cheaper. For me $10 is just a commitment and resposiblity. Just my thought.
 
Hi, Working Mom(suelee)

I can forsee that the traffic in MarketPlace will drop drastically.Since someone already started promoting in this forum, a new FREE market place portal set up TODAY.Some of the active BP/Sprees organising members here have already signed up there.
 
Selling brand new items in the Want to Give (Free items only) section.

http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/449169/449505.html?1151300304#POST1809271

http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/449169/449519.html?1151300637#POST1809298

http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/449169/449618.html?1151305663#POST1809734

If there is no control, people will just anyhow post.

The traffic will not reduce. People will keep on posting under any free to post topics they can find.
 
Hi Van,

Selling in 2nd-hand threads is strictly restricted to 2nd-hand items only. If there is any link-out to photo albums, auction, url that shows new items on sale, it will not be allowed. Please let us know the exact location of the thread and appropriate actions will be taken. Thank you.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Hi Yokine,

Thank you for your suggestion. However, it is also prone to abuse. As suppliers are able to sell at prices below retail price, they will be able to abuse this rule and promote their business through the forum. As such, we are sorry that the suggestion may be good but will definitely be abused.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Hi Bliss,

We've considered your suggestion before but it is even more laborious than our current method. This is because we have to keep track of each user's number of threads created per week which will make it very tedious.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Hi Lis,

We've already created a thread earlier in the morning to cater for items that are just being given away. Threads created in this category is free.
 
hi,
maybe can consider $10 for a 14 day period?? this will still maintain the traffic in this forum?
 
Hi Tuffy and Van,

There are suppliers in Singapore who import clothings from foreign brands (may or may not be authentic) etc. They are actually selling the clothings from their own stock. However, they come into the forum with the pretext that they are organising a spree. They can then charge shipment fees, exchange rates difference etc when the items are actually already in their local warehouse.

We also do not wish to distinguish the spree between foreign and local sprees. Similarly, a local spree can easily be renamed to be a foreign spree so that it falls below the radar and be posted in the forum.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Hi Lani,

As replied to Van, the 2nd-hand items are strictly for 2nd-hand items only. If we allow links to sites which list new items as well, we are back to current situation and nothing has changed. It won't solve the problem which we've set out to resolve.

I would suggest separate your old and new items. Sell your 2nd-hand items first. If you manage to sell of your 2nd-hand items, with the extra cash, you can then decide if you would like to pay the fees and sell your new items through the SingaporeMotherhood forum.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Hi Bliss,

It would be very sad and disappointing to know that our good intentions have already been abused by some users. We had wanted initially to charge a fee for all sales listing to avoid our trust being abused. The 'free' category has been opened for less than 12 hours and it is being abused. If the situation worsen, we may have to 'close' the free category again as the initial plan.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Hi Suelee,

As mentioned, it is our intention to reduce the traffic in the marketplace and exchange corner category. There are days when 60% of the postings are concentrated in this category. I won't be surprised that as time goes by, it increases to 70%, 80%. We have wanted to build a community for genuine parents to share views and experience. It is not our intention that SingaporeMotherhood's forum become marketplace centric. Also, we definitely do not want to see businesses abuses our resources for their own benefits.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Hi Cmy,

Thank you for your understanding and support! Greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Hi CL,

As for o/s spree, maybe the organiser can email u their ordering form?? As least u knw it nt abuse??

Jus a suggestion.
happy.gif
 
Hi Van,

Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying that all GAP sprees are not genuine. What I was trying to say was that we've been trying to manage the forum by allowing genuine sprees to be organised freely in the forum. However, this has been abused by some people who were instead trying to make a profit by organising sprees. In order to have a simple method to manage the sprees and no longer needing to decide whether it is business intended, we decided to charge a fee so that everyone can continue to organise and participate in sprees. This is the easiest method in terms of administration.

Thank you for posting the threads. We are aware of the identity of the user. It saddens us that she is the user who is doing this. We had helped her a lot when she had misunderstanding with some of the mothers in the forum.

This is indeed very disappointing.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
hi chin leng,
I don't know if you have actually encountered such a case as i find it rather difficult to pull off such a scheme. Since the parties are actually listing down the items they want using existing urls from the various websites (in real time), it is very easy to verify if the spree-organiser is just releasing existing stock or is genuinely organising for the rest. this is not a case where the supplier only has one or two designs to offer (in multiple nos).

hmm.. personally, I still think it is a pity lah. if you are worried about pple disguising their threads, think that is not something you can't avoid completely. The problem exists with or without charges. With so many pairs of eyes watching for you, think it's hard for fake organisers to slip under the radar.

I don't know how the rest feel but I personally have benefitted from this in my recent spree (assuming nothing has gone wrong) cos I think the mummies in my thread only ended up paying a fraction of the shipping costs because of the consolidation. Such a pity if this community is removed from this forum altogether because of other black sheep. will keep my fingers crossed that you would reconsider this favourably. To control this, you can always make it a pre-requisite to obtain approval before such a thread can be started (since you are already doing so for the other paying threads).
 
Hi Doufu,

Thanks for the suggestion. Part of the reason for implementing this current method is to simplify the process of having BP and sprees in the forum. We don't think that our resources is effectively used if we have to continue investigate whether a BP/spree is genuine. It is also getting difficult to distinguish. By using the implemented method, sprees and BP can still be continued except that a small part of the fees will need to be evenly shared amongh participants. By forwarding us the ordering form, we wouldn't know its authenticity either. We are really really short-handed and therefore we have to use as simple a method as possible to continue to manage the marketplace and exchange corner and allow users to be able to conduct BP and sprees.

Please understand that we hope to have as close a method which can "one-size-fits-all" instead of having to juggle with different methods and criteria.

We really hope to be able to concentrate our resources in developing the SingaporeMotherhood portal for all our genunie users and loyal supporters.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Hi Chin Leng,

It's okay,I did not misunderstand your intentions.

I am shocked when I saw those postings too,and am aware which user you are referring to.I have seen you removing the postings that are against her.Can understand how sad and dissappointing you all must be.
 
Hi Tuffy,

It is exactly because we can't be sure that's why we wanted to implement a method whereby we no longer need to second guess the organiser's intention. This current method is clear and simple. Both BP and spree can still be organised. The participants just have to bear the organising fee evenly.

With an imposed fee, it is currently allowed for the business owners to organise a BP or spree. The simplicity is that we don't have to second-guess anymore.

You may be surprised of how much time we had spent just to remove threads that abuse the marketplace and exchange corner. Even with the help of many users, there are still many threads that go undetected until it is too late. Our own resources are limited. We can't go on like this and we can't keep spending money on supporting the forum without generating revenue to support it in the long run. Else, we'll run out of funds and we'll need to cease operation.

We really appreciate your understanding in this matter. Thank you.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Posted BN items for sale in 2nd-hand Mktplace section

http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/449183/449665.html?1151310665

http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/449183/449671.html?1151308921

http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/449183/449680.html?1151310314

http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/449183/449694.html?1151311611

http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/449183/449695.html?1151311796

http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/449183/449763.html?1151315818

I'm very sorry mommies, but the sale of new, unopened items has been discussed, and according to Chin Leng, supposed to go under WTS section.

Chin Leng, now we have this dilemma liao! Would you allow the above threads in the 2nd-hand exchange/sale section? There are a few more threads like this, I'm sure, just that I din peruse thru the later threads!
 
Hi Boey,

Thanks for highlighting the threads. It seems like many users are just ignoring the rules. We'll be removing the threads when we are able to. Thank you.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Hi all,

Please refer to my follow-up posting here. Please feel free to post your comments here too. Thank you.

Regards,
Chin Leng.
 
Chin Leng,

Just a point to note : A lot of ppl does not seems to understand the term "Free Items Only". Sellers/Buyers continue to post there to sell/buy stuffs.
 
Feel like posting this in their thread..
"THIS TOPIC IS FOR FREE ITEMS ONLY, WOULD YOU LIKE TO GIVE AWAY THIS ITEM INSTEAD?"
Haha..
 
Bliss,
Now quite sian to figure out where to post our items. But no choice since this is one way to cut down traffic and hopefully minimize sellers trying to do online biz.
 
chin leng,
i wholeheartedly agree with tuffy. i do still feel that it's such a pity that you've had to implement new policies, due to some black sheep spoiling the market for the rest of us genuine sellers/buyers. all in all, i've had many wonderful experiences in the marketplace, and it just wouldn't be the same anymore, as i forsee not many BPs being organised anymore because not many would be willing or able to fork out the $10. but i guess you had to implement such policies and i can understand your decision.

and to follow up on bliss (ndra) previous posting regarding selling off gift items - perhaps you will allow us to sell off our BN unused items, instead of just 2nd hand used items? i have sold many items on this forum, and i've noticed that alot of buyers actually prefer to buy BN items instead of used ones, esp when it comes to items of clothing (eg bb/kids clothes, shoes), accesories (eg strollers) and esp hygiene related items (eg milk bottles, steriliser, breast pump).
 
I agree with cmy. I have made many good friends with the mummies whose EDD dates were around mine. Whenever I come into the forum, I would go into the Aug/Sep 2005 MTB thread to catch up with what's happening there. Going to the marketplace & exchange is secondary, after I have been to my regular threads first. I am sure that when Chin Leng set up the SingaporeMotherhood website, the main intention was for mummies here to get to know other mummies who were delivering around the same time and to exchange information about motherhood and our babies too. The marketplace & exchange was set up to facilitate the mummies and is not the main purpose of this forum.

Chin Leng, keep up the good work! I am behind you all the way. There will be some teething problems with this new implementation, but eventually, all these will be ironed out. So hope all mummies will be patient and give Chin Leng their support! Without this forum, a lot of us would not have made so many good friends.
 
Chin Leng,
This site has given me an opportunity to learn lots of things and meet new mummies. Well, I got to meet other ladies and I must say they are simply wonderful.

Thanks &
kao_cheers.gif
to you.
 
for personal BN items, i feel that it can be allowed FOC. It is rather easy to differentiate genuine sellers from suppliers, cos suppliers will offer multiple sizes, numerous quantities, different colours, etc.
 
Hi Chin Leng,
I am glad to see that you have created a separate topic for members to indicate their interest to combine and share the fee. I assume that this is also a place where we can "test"the reponses of people interested in overseas sprees? Correct me if I am wrong.Thanks.

As Tamarind has mentioned,if the members indicate their interest,they can just PM and start the sprees privately without paying anything. The respondents can also indicate whether they would like to receive notication by emails/PM from the SAME organiser,if there is future sprees for the SAME online websites.But I would like to clarify that I have no intention to start doing this,just thought it's no harm raising this.

If the objective of imposing a fee is to reduce clutter in the Marketplace,cutting cost of the bandwidth and maintenance,I suppose the above is workable?

The fact that you waived the fee for 2nd hand items,created a Want to Buy/Want to Give topic,a
Want to Combine topic assure us that our voices are being heard. Appreciated that,Thank You!

I hope that black sheeps who have started abusing the free WTB/WTG corner and Free sale of 2nd hand items corner,will not cause members who have genuine needs to get rid of excess/old/unwanted items to lose their chance of doing so F.O.C.,if the abuse getthing out of control and you decide to impose a fee again.

I agree with the others that I have gained a lot from this forum.The new friends we made,the information and tips we share and exchange are more important than the buying and selling in the Marketplace.

I have noticed that other forums are not as active as this, and they usually take longer time to load.As a result I have lost interest and patience logging in to those.So I do appreciate the moderator's effort in keeping this forum lean and clean.
 
Hi Chin Leng,

Been thinking about the changes you've implemented in this forum. Would just like to bring up a few suggestions/points to note.

1) Pls consider charging a table of rates, rather than a flat rate of $10 across the board, meaning, you could perhaps charge a lower rate/give a longer timeframe for genuine mommies. Since everyone will have to 'apply for permit'
happy.gif
to post items for sale anyway, the admin would be able to tell which are biz owners and which are just mommies looking to clear items.
$10/week (sometimes effectively is only 5 days, cos many mommies don't login on weekNs) is >$1, almost $2 a day, with no guarantee of a sale! Quite steep and chancy.

2) Your suggested alternative of getting mommies to combine might result in sticky situations, if there should be any disagreement among the mommies. Eg, if say only 2-3 mommies out of a group of 10 manage to sell their items, but the remaining 7-8 make no sales, there may be some unpleasantness, esp with the short period of 7 days of er..advertising space.

3) Where do I post if I'm looking for a pure exchange of items pls, no money transacted? Don't want to post in the wrong thread!

4) Rather than setting up a section where pple post their interest in organizing a BP, then doing over PM/emails, as Tamarind and Van suggested, why not make it such that first we apply to start a BP to the admin (to ensure not biz), but you will charge the $10 ONLY if the BP is successful? I'm sure that the mommies would be glad to pay the $10 if they manage to get a successful BP.

Thanks for your patience with all our queries, suggestions and, yes, even our objections/rants(!) so far.

I understand your decision to implement these changes, just hope that the Mktplace will continue to be active and friendly. After all, we do have the market of consumers set up already, it will be a pity if we can't reach out to such a large pool of potential customers for mommies just looking to clear items!
 
chin leng,
i agree with tingting. perhaps you can waive the fees for genuine mummies wanting to sell personal BN unsued items, as it IS quite easy to spot the genuine mummies selling off unused items (who usually have 1 pc of ea item they want to sell off) from biz owners (who have multiple pcs i various colours, designs, sizes). Thanks!
happy.gif
 
chin leng,

first i must say that you and your team has been doing a great job!!

my take on the $10 are as below:

1) those who are making money out of this should pay that $10 or be an advertiser with the forum - v clear cut. as long as the organiser has something to do with the supplier (fren, uncle, aunty etc) $10 will need to be paid

suggest that instead of making it 1 week, just allow them to post like a classified ad for 2 weeks with their email address and the mummies can email/PM them instead of using the forum to consolidate the name list, update on status etc i am sure by doing this your bandwidth will be greatly reduced and honestly 1 week is not enough

2) for those mummies who org BP and spree out of goodness should not be made to pay the $10 cos

a) sometimes when we org any BP or spree, we arent even sure if there are enough ppl that we can gather to enjoy the savings. esp for expensive items like bumper mat, ergo carrier etc

b) sometimes we are just sharing a good buy that we can get at a good price like height chart, cloth books, stories books etc the savings are not huge, maybe just $2 - $3 off the retail but alot of mummies buy as they do not know where to get those items or no contact

c) some items need to be purchased in bulk in order to enjoy free delivery like the danish swiss roll, briks shoes etc so ppl take the initiative to organise a spree

so i do agree with some mummies that ppl who wan to org a BP or spree need to apply for it but then again that process cant be too long as spree like ON, Gymboree etc OOS v fast

alt application is only needed for BP but spree can cont as usual as i am sure none of us are owners/supplier for ON, Gymboree, Jshopper, Footshopping etc (I wish I am lar heehee)

and of course on selling BN items ... this place is really a good flea mkt for many of us to sell our BN items to someone who needs it more then us rather then waiting for frens/relatives to give birth and passing to them at a good price. win-win for everyone

honestly you might be spending more time chasing ppl to pay $10 in the end
 
i think for those advertisers who have been "unscrupulousely" posting their soliciting messages, they won't pay the $10 but instead post everywhere and not where they should. of course, they may be reported and eventually thread removed, account suspended. but then they would have gotten their messages across, and they can always come back again under another username. u may still need quite a bit of resources to tackle this problem.

perhaps one solution is to charge an annual fee (say $10) to each registered member here (e.g you need to register in order to transact in the Marketplace). and then use that money to hire a resource to follow up abuses and remove threads reported by members. then the Marketplace (with spillover effect to the community forum) can continue to thrive as usual...
 
yup, i am still wondering why sprees for ON, Gap, Gymboree etc must pay $10... dun think we can be suppliers right... still dunno how these sprees were/can be abused...
 
I also hope that Chin Leng can remove the $10 charge on ON, GAP and Gymboree sprees, because it is not possible for these sprees to be abused.

However for other unknown websites, the $10 should be charged.

I don't think the original plan is working well. I don't see any posts under those "$10" topics at all. People are posting brand new items for sale under those "free to post" topics. It looks like we are back to square one.
 


re: spree

what i suspect is that some mummies charge higher exchange rate for the spree compared to the actual amt that they are charged by the credit card companies

oso some of the website give points/dollars which they can use to offset their future purchase

personally i think that if they earn points or dollars its fine cos its really alot of effort to org the spree but to make money from the exchange rate is not too right

so i guess thats why CL is saying that some spree has been abused
 
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