(This is getting a bit out of scope for this thread, so I apologize for the derail, but I think this is a good discussion)
One issue I see with the above proposal is how to enforce it. I can no more easily force an organizer to post an update than I can force them to post a package. And previous group buys are already taken into consideration before allowing an organizer to begin a new buy, so if they are lacking updates we are (ideally) already taking that into consideration - the caveat being that we can't read every single post of every thread, so we have imperfect information. But the point still stands that even if we do implement such a rule, how do we enforce it? What do we do if there is not a post every week? Shutting down the buy at that point doesn't help anything. :|
All that said, I do agree with your other points. 
Hi!
I'm not exactly a power user here, but I have done my fair share of buying (not selling, 'cause shipping from my little island is too expensive for EU, and too complicated, so I only sell to spaniards), both from users/vendors and from GB's. So far I'm very happy with every single transaction.
Still, GH needs to evolve, needs to get better. The rule "caveat emptor" makes absolutely no sense at all, as it only allows scammers to do whatever they want, without consequence, without ever being liable. At the same time I'm not saying that people should be free to shame others... nope, that will not work either. But you can't ask people to find their way without having a system in place that accounts for something. So, caveat emptor without a transaction registry makes no sense. And only protects scammers.
In my experience, as a former moderator of one of the most prestigious buying/selling computer-related forums in Spain (for starters, its invite-only), with a transaction success of well over 99,9% (not a made up statistic, since transaction registry is open for all registered users), transparency is the key to everything, and transparency is something I have always felt a bit lacking in GH.
In said forum we do have a Hall of Fame (HOF). Such Hall of Fame contains every transaction every member has ever done in the forum, and those are added by the other party of said transaction. So, the seller votes the buyer, and the other way around. Votes are either positive, neutral or negative, and contain a link to the buy or sell thread (and those threads can't be removed, its required that the OP never modifies them, not even the price of the products announced. We do it like this for future reference and accountability), a brief name of the product, and a brief commentary of the transaction. This HOF isn't even a subforum or something like that... its the spine of the whole community. An added layer on top of the forum, something that every registered user can get into and look as far as 2005 (and not more because between server migrations and other somethings were lost forever). In total, the HOF has almost 100.000 registered votes (so, 50.000 recorded transactions).
How did the staff deal with it all? Well, the rules are very very strongly enforced. IE we are transparent until we aren't, and not complying gets you banned very quickly, and we operated like this.
a) If there is a problem with a transaction or user: You can't post about it. You have to contact the staff first. Of course... since the staff is formed by around 5 members sometimes such pm's regarding transaction problems weren't answered... and then a thread was created. That is an exception, and that was ok.
b) After the unhappy user contacts the staff (again, there is no shaming in the forum, so the community isn't aware of the disputes that are ongoing, they only get to see the resolution, via the votes in the HOF), the staff gets in, and decides an agreement. I know that this might be very stepping for some... but it works. Specially when the staff has nothing to gain and everything to lose. Resolutions will never get everybody completely happy, but when an impartial party decides, things tend to be better. I haven't mentioned it but the forum is not liable for anything that might happen in it, whether the staff decides upon a dispute or not. Its a free platform that users are offered at no cost, and the staff is there to help should something go wrong.
c) At the end of every transaction, the users can vote each other. Before, the staff would never ever change a vote in the HOF (mind you, you don't want a single red in your list. Its very very very bad for your image, because there are very few negative votes in the list... as users that lie or cheat are banned from the platform quickly), but we found out that some users leveraged their vote in order to gain something off of it. IE "you complained to the staff the the object you bought does not work as intended, instead of going through me. I'll downvote you". So, we decided that the staff can eliminate a vote if it was wrongfully done. IE, you can't downvote a buyer (whose job is simply to pay you asap and send you the shipping adress) simply because he rightfully voted you negative. And we punished severely those who tried to abuse the system.
All in all, the community is so fair and square that you basically can buy or sell from or to anybody (even new users have to be godfathered in... and that means some sort of accountability) without having to worry too much. But if you want to worry you can simply look at the HOF and check it out. So...I know GH can't do that. I have no idea how much work it took to create the HOF, or maintain it... but I'm just showing what other communities do, to deal with their feedback. I do know that such transparency means a lot of security, because GH is riddled with users being unhappy about some transactions... but you don't get to see that 99% of the times, because people know that shaming ain't ok and, even worse, part of the community "understands" and supports other users that take months to send a simple product. That ain't ok. The system shouldn't be protecting, let alone promoting, users that do not comply with the transactions they have agreed to. Of course it is tempting to start a GB (it is, heck you make money from those), but don't do it unless you can really do it. The staff should have their trigger fingers ready. At least hand some severe warnings so that people see that there is some accountability.
For starters, I'm fine with GH mods never stepping into problems or enforcing agreements... but this community needs some transparency, and people should be allowed to know where to look in order to see how does a certain user behave regarding transactions. IMO, a subforum that it contained a single thread per user would be fine. This way, you find the thread of the user you made a transaction with, add a post with your vote, a simple line for the product, your opinions of said transaction, and a link to the original thread. Oh, and having people not delete their threads make everything a lot easier. I still have no idea why do people recycle their threads, its very confusing to see a thread created last year that just got an item added. You start reading users interest and you are like... WTF?!
Note: the forum I mentioned has 0 ads or banners. Nothing. The users can donate if they want to do so, and can also do it to get increased pm capacity and a few other perks. But its a pro-bono community. Well, maybe the admin makes a few cents if we do not account the amount of time he dedicates to maintaining and updating the forum... but all in all, a free community.
