geekhack Marketplace > Group Buys and Preorders

Group Buy Rules and Guidelines (Updated 2023-09-11)

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Gondolindrim:
I'm also in favour of a somewhat similar set of rules for ICs. I think something no one has touched on is that people started confusing Interest Checks with a place to publish concepts and gather feedback, which has its own forum in the Making Stuff Togetther! forum.

I say this because I think we have somewhat lost the DIY gist of the hobby and new makers find it ever more difficult to interact and gather feedback on ideas. I also think that the majority of what people call "low effort" posts are in fact well-intended newcomers that want to design stuff but don't have a dedicated place, so they make a very initial post on what they want to achieve or what they envision for that idea. Given, they could read and interact more on the other Geekhack forums, but the ICs and GBs forum are what garner attraction...

I am also up for a tighter rule enforcement. It does not make sense to have a set of rules which in practicality do not exist; I may be going out of my way here, but I am with Simon and Sam. The rules as they are need some polishing but the major problem is making sure they are followed.

EDIT: I am also going waay out of my way here, but being in this hobby for almost a decade now I feel I need to talk about this:


--- Quote from: HoffmanMyster on Wed, 03 November 2021, 10:50:19 ---The intent of that rule is to minimize the chances of a runner taking on more than they can handle, becoming overwhelmed, and not being able to complete the buys. Given how most GBs are run these days (logistics handled through vendors, overall buy organized by a designer), there's definitely a case to be made that those runners could handle more threads. We'll talk this over and update here. :thumb: Thanks for the feedback. :)

--- End quote ---

Let me preface by saying Hoffman is a much more seasoned keyboarder than I am, so his opinion is surely way more palpable and verossimile than mine in the sense he has more time and experience moderating and interacting with the community. However, I strongly disagree with this statement. There will be no healthy way to prevent someone from someone taking on more than they can handle. There are runners running literally one sigle GB and they haven't delivered and will probably never. And even then, they can just publish their GBs on Reddit if they already have more than two posts here on GH. So I am afraid nothing of this will prevent anyone from overwhelming themselves in the smallest.

Furthermore, I also agree with Simon that this can actually hurt invested, genuinely productive designers, that want to have multiple products up at once.

The first idea I could think of would be a "grading" of vendors and designers, say three levels, where the first level (a new unknown designer) can publish a single GB, a level 2 (say someone that has successfully ran two GBs) can do two and a level 3 (say someone that has successfully ran four GBs) can do four. This kind of levelling happens in most communities I am a part of and it seems to work well to filter out users actions by gradually giving more responsibility to members that successfully take on more responsibilities. Failing to uphold to the GB guidelines and rules will demote the vendor/designer level or completely revoke their status depending on severity/quantity et cetera.

Unfortunately this hobby of ours, in the model we have chosen to built it in with GBs and preorders being the main method of obtaining "unique" designs, trust and reputation will always be the pillar of the customer-designer-vendor relationship and that is something I think a forum cannot regulate. What I think is the right mindset is: we are doing this so that the GBs posted in Geekhack have a little bit more filtering and screening by not allowing someone to run multiple projects at once.

I also reckon that my suggestions and criticisms will take more time and effort from the moderation team, to which I step completely out of my league and say I can volunteer as a GH moderator if need be.

Nonetheless I think this is a step in the right direction given the current zeitgeist of the hobby. All hail Geekhack!

yoniwolf1202:

--- Quote from: Gondolindrim on Wed, 03 November 2021, 13:56:34 ---The first idea I could think of would be a "grading" of vendors and designers, say three levels, where the first level (a new unknown designer) can publish a single GB, a level 2 (say someone that has successfully ran two GBs) can do two and a level 3 (say someone that has successfully ran four GBs) can do four. This kind of levelling happens in most communities I am a part of and it seems to work well to filter out users actions by gradually giving more responsibility to members that successfully take on more responsibilities. Failing to uphold to the GB guidelines and rules will demote the vendor/designer level or completely revoke their status depending on severity/quantity et cetera.

--- End quote ---
I'm a fan of this idea. It does seem logical and measurable even if it will take a bit more effort on the end of the mod team. Maybe also recruiting more mods to ensure rules are able to be enforced could be something to do as well.

homerowco:
if that goes along with approving GB posts in a timely manner and not two weeks post GB end date... that would be great, yes ;)

mozaic:
These new rules sound good, but as Simon said regular enforcement by the moderation team will be what it really comes down to

kk73715:
Love this direction, thank you moderation team

Keep it up :thumb:

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