Thoughts...
I read through these ideas yesterday evening and this morning...
in no particular order...
A couple of thoughts:
1. the buyer beware, AZ taking no ownership for resolving disputes is the easiest and probably legally the right thing to do. Inserting AZ into the process via a membership or policies that look like AZ is guaranteeing anything, could increase the risk in our litigation happy society. If I was Mike, I'd think REAL seriously about that, before I went down that road.
2. I look at the Raffle forum and while the sticky that created it (suggestions for ways to run a raffle) was contentious to develop, when I see a raffle posted in the recommended way, I have a bit more faith that it it someone who a) plays by the rules and b) might be legitimate. A sticky to outline the suggested ways to post for sale/for trade/wanted/etc items with a proper format, items to include etc, does seem appropriate. Again, referring to #1 above, I don't believe AZ should try and outline the definitions of what words describing a particular condition mean, but they should post that condition should be mentioned.
3. Disputes on deals - This is between the buyer and the seller. Yes, as a buyer (and maybe a future seller) I value the information in these posts to see if a particular individual (by their own words) has established a reputation that I would not want to do business with. I (and most everyone else) has no idea who is telling the truth (or they both may be in their PERCEPTION), but I know from reading a recent bunch of threads, that I would not want to deal with a particular cuemaker since when apparently a deal went sideways, he responded in ways that I don't particularly care for. You can disagree and be respectful.
4. Moderators - I have been a moderator for an Information Science/Technology forum before. It never had the sheer volume of traffic that AZ seems to get. I don't know how many moderators there are, but I would think there should be a couple of overall moderators and then individual forum moderators (number needed depends on the traffic in that forum) so that they can keep up. I did it as a volunteer before, I'm sure there are people who would volunteer.
5. Problem threads/posters - There should be a separate private moderator section where moderators can talk about problems, threads that are issues can be moved there for discussion and if deletion is warranted (physical threats are a perfect example) sent to the appropriate authorities. People need to understand that physical threats are NEVER ok, not even in jest.
6. Funny Pic/Chunky type threads - NPR sub-forum for not work appropriate material... we don't need to get anyone fired.
7. One other suggestion I saw was in the listing, posting where you are... Country is helpful and where you are shipping to, but detailed location information can be problematic and continuing to have it as a volunteer item in the profile is the right way to go to me.
8. Moderators moving threads to proper forum... Yes, but that's not their job... 1st time PM, 2nd time Warning, thereafter deleted the threads and post in the forum (a sticky) that a thread was deleted started by XXXX due to continued misplacement.
I'm sure there are some other things that I've forgotten , but sorry for the novel.
Oh yeah, almost forgot... Owner can do what they like... they are paying the freight. We are the customers, if we don't like it, we can choose to start our own forums or move somewhere else. A lot of people have problems with that concept, but the fact that they pay the freight, means they have the control. That we contribute, may (or may not) add value for them, but at the end of the day... It's their call, their risk.
-Joe Sherwood