IF A MOD OR ADMINISTRATOR ASKS FOR INFO ON FOR SALE SECTION AND YOU REFUSE...GOODBYE

I agree there should be steps used to verify and validate high quality sellers/buyers looking to do legitimate business and eliminate those running scams.

Other enthusiast websites have processes in place to help validated members (e.g., dated / user name validation credits, 3rd party validation sites, use of escrow for payment, etc) in addition to moderators - they are the 1st line of defense.

While none of these are perfect, moderators are doing a good job to help keep the trust on this site. Trust is the #1 factor that will contribute to a health community, foster transactions, and drive legitimate traffic.

What moderators can do better, especially for newer members or newer buyers/sellers, is to help explain why they are asking for personal information. A simple post on a listing of “Send me your address and phone number” is not exactly the confidence inspiring or trust building language to help develop a robust trading and discussion community.

In additional, moderators could also use other sellers to vouch / reference for them in helping to further the ethos of this site. I have transacted with 3 reputable sellers on this site, spending over $12,000 bc references I know on this site and in real life have also done business with them - that is how a trusting community works.

I had an item removed from this forum by a moderator (which is in the rules of the forum - they have the right to do so) but I took it upon myself to highlight I am a buyer/seller of value and contribute to the ecosystem of the site. Everyone should work to be more trusted to help grow this community