I'm still so used to the old BladeForums where PMs weren't as limited (if memory serves me right) and any user could send a message to my email address via a profile link. I sold a knife the other day to a non-paying member and all of our communication has been in the sale thread or on my public profile message page. I'd really prefer not to discuss shipping addresses and tracking info in a publicly visible place. So what's the alternative? Any advice would be appreciated.
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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
How are sellers supposed to communicate with non-paying members?
- Thread starter MaxFactor
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Either you are the other party write your email in the sales thread (using AT and DOT to obfuscate it for the bots), then delete email when convo has been established?
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Profile posts as well, but generally it's best to exchange a working email address.
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Email.
How am I supposed to give the buyer my email address without putting it in the sale thread or on my profile? Both of those are publicly viewable.
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You can't. The right answer is perhaps set up an email you just use for this reason gmail outlook or the like.
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Don't put your email anywhere. You're the paying member with the ability to PM, they are not.
Have them leave their email as a profile message on your page and then they can delete it after private contact has been made. If aren't willing to do that, then move on to the next person.
If you do chose to put your email out there, DO NOT put it in any thread. Threads can be seen by anyone browsing the internet. Profile messages are the better option as they're only semi public. One must have a Bladeforums account to view a person profile page, provided that it is not set to private.
I ask for a profile message in lieu of a PM, and when they post on my profile I reply with my email address spaced out so that it's not recognized as an official email address by any web crawlers (spaces surrounding the @ and the . ), and when they send me an email I redact my email from that reply and we continue through email afterwards.
It's not hard for either party, they still posted in the sales thread so we can still leave feedback, and through email it's just as private as a PM.
You just need to be willing to post your email address publicly on your profile for a couple hours (it doesn't show up in the feed on the home page, as it's a reply instead of a profile post).
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Have them post their e-mail address on your profile. If they want, they can go back and edit it back out later.
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They don't. However, there may be a need for it depending on their choices. Case in point.
I do miss the old email feature too. While I prefer the newer format, that is one area that the new is lacking. Even as wonky as it was sometimes.
You may have to include in your sales thread for non paying members to post their email address if they post "I'll take it", then as mentioned it can be deleted. Not ideal, but I've seen it before. Or, you can sell only to paying members that have the PM privilege.
Eh. I think if people want to buy they should buy a membership. It's not expensive, cheaper than the first knife. If they don't want to pay, they may have to post an email somewhere public. Kind of the price of not buying a membership. Frankly, people are lucky that just the sellers have to have paid memberships.
Railsplitter
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I agree. Attempting to communicate privately with another member is a cumbersome task for both members without a paid membership. I wouldn't want to do it. For a measly $10 for a Basic membership you can communicate privately by PM for whole year. Kind of a no brainer in my opinion.
Railsplitter
Gold Member
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- Oct 31, 2010
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I realize that I'm going a bit off topic here but I feel that it needs mentioned as I rarely, if ever, see anyone comment on it.
I can't help thinking that some members refrain from purchasing a paid membership because they assume that it will automatically renew on the expiration date.
It should be noted that this is not the case. The member has to manually initiate the transaction to renew a membership. It will not renew automatically. No threat of unexpected charges to your account.
I just wanted to get that out there in case some folks might assume otherwise.
I can't help thinking that some members refrain from purchasing a paid membership because they assume that it will automatically renew on the expiration date.
It should be noted that this is not the case. The member has to manually initiate the transaction to renew a membership. It will not renew automatically. No threat of unexpected charges to your account.
I just wanted to get that out there in case some folks might assume otherwise.
