Heatware Still Needed for B/S/T Section?

[lexluthermiester]

This is a detailed hypothetical with no supporting evidence of occurrence.

That's kinda my point. There's no evidence that it hasn't happened either.

This might speak to your bias though.

Sure does. It speaks to the fact that I am willing to setup an account with a set of companies that require verification and accountability in an atmosphere of commerce designed to promote honesty and safety.

I'm not saying it always works perfectly, we all know it doesn't. What I'm saying is that because they're regulated and required to follow the rules of law and provide fraud protection, the risk to users in general, while not zero, is very low.

So requiring Heatware and not allowing Ebay/Etsy links is very silly, in my eyes. It's kinda self-defeating in a way.
(Also, please understand no personal attack is intended.)

 

[Fouquin]

That's kinda my point. There's no evidence that it hasn't happened either.

Well then, there is no need for change until the facts present evidence for it.

We could talk in circles about hypothetical situations regarding any of the provided marketplaces validity and security. Though it seems like it produces no meaningful resolution, and is only creating more dissonance.

The facts that we do have are that HeatWare is currently implemented, working as intended, and that changing it would require some amount of effort from both site staff and forum moderators.

 

[ThrashZone]

What benefit is ebay? or craigslist? or FB marketplace? The last time I used ebay you cant leave adhoc feedback on peoples profiles. You have to actually purchase something that was for sale....on ebay.....(we dont allow ebay links as per the rules)

So if I cant leave feedback on ebay because I walked down the street and bought your GPU, then what benefit does ebay provide? What protection?

I mean this is such an wild statement

 

[lexluthermiester]

working as intended

If the point to to alienate a whole swath of users, then yeah it's working perfectly...

 

[Solaris17]

I mean this is such an wild statement

Stop being rude. Its not. Understand how trading works on this site. It has been adhoc cash in hand transactions since it was agreed to have that section (which we didnt in the beginning). Maybe you aren't aware of what you suggested, but its not about +/- feedback on ebay, you are "asking" all threads turn into redirects to ebay (which is how it would have to work to get the benefits you are talking about).

That might be great from a buyer protection standpoint maybe, but it just makes the B/S/T section ebay spam.

At that point, it offers nothing (other than maybe buyer protection) in the way of perceived deals which is why it was popular to create these sections ON TECH FORUMS. Anyone currently can go to ebay and type a GPU model and just sort by lowest price and buy.

If it were to turn into that, I would honestly be more likely for getting rid of the section in its entirety.

If the point to to alienate a whole swath of users, then yeah it's working perfectly...

I mean since its already been in practice then nothing of value has been lost so far I guess.

 

[ThrashZone]

Good poll, will be interesting to see what comes out of it. Heatware was added years ago when it was relevant.

I'd say the last part of this is spot on.
Today's standards of buyer/ seller protections heatware is not anywhere in the ball park.

 

[Solaris17]

I'd say the last part of this is spot on.
Today's standards of buyer/ seller protections heatware is not anywhere in the ball park.

You are probably right, but does it need to turn into an ebay link cesspit? Maybe just remove the requirement? Any thing you do after that, increase post count, amount of time a member etc means nothing really they arent representative of "good" trader. I guess removing heatware would be akin to removing the handcuffs in prison. It would still be the wild west as far as trust is concerned if we omit it without including anything ebay related.

 

[AsRock]

heatware does allow linking of your ebay account.

that's the great thing about heatware you can show all your reps in one place.

Fck dat, gets me how people are so willing to give private details away.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Does Heatware even work for people in regions other than NA and EU? The B/S/T forum has practically been restricted to that. I'd love to be able to do business with other members from Brazil and even neighboring LATAM countries as long as we could communicate in English in the forum (and even our native language in DMs). All in all, if that's a negative, perhaps a (strict) requirement by the poster's activity and general level of reputation (maybe restricted to users that have five or more stars in the forum) to also work as an equivalent.

The rules there are tight, I recognize the necessity, just the other day I had a post deleted because I hadn't realized it was a B/S/T thread and wanted to encourage because the thread's OP was going through a divorce... having recently gone through a breakup with a girl that I really thought I would be calling Mrs. soon, I felt for him

 

[Solaris17]

Does Heatware even work for people in regions other than NA and EU?

Yes, the only requirement that TPU has is the feedback. Heatware itself does not impose any usage restrictions on the feedback part of there system regarding parts of the world. Maybe there trade platform, but I dont know, and it came long after the feedback aspect (which is what it was when the site was founded.)

 

[Dr. Dro]

Yes, the only requirement that TPU has is the feedback. Heatware itself does not impose any usage restrictions on the feedback part of there system regarding parts of the world. Maybe there trade platform, but I dont know, and it came long after the feedback aspect (which is what it was when the site was founded.)

Hmm, interesting. I will look at making an account there, then. Thanks

 

[ThrashZone]

You are probably right, but does it need to turn into an ebay link cesspit? Maybe just remove the requirement? Any thing you do after that, increase post count, amount of time a member etc means nothing really they arent representative of "good" trader. I guess removing heatware would be akin to removing the handcuffs in prison. It would still be the wild west as far as trust is concerned if we omit it without including anything ebay related.

Hi,
My main point is and has always been the heatware feature to link ebay is broken and it's been that way for years so even they had at one time an ability to link ebay so just linking to heatware ebay would be there as well so technically TPU rule is spamming ebay hehe

You give credit to heatware "maybe just because of tpu rules which is fine" but ignore it's vacancies and or very poor maintenance and usage as well and frankly admit you don't use heatware but do use ebay.

 

[Solaris17]

Hi,
My main point is and has always been the heatware feature to link ebay is broken and it's been that way for years so even they had at one time an ability to link ebay so just linking to heatware ebay would be there as well so technically TPU rule is spamming ebay hehe

You give credit to heatware "maybe just because of tpu rules which is fine" but ignore it's vacancies and or very poor maintenance and usage as well and frankly admit you don't use heatware but do use ebay.

I dont use either anymore, I just have both. I didnt know the heatware link to ebay was broken. Thats good info.

 

[ThrashZone]

I dont use either anymore, I just have both. I didnt know the heatware link to ebay was broken. Thats good info.

That is kind of why I asked here about heatware being used still as an absolute requirement but it was on a different thread.

I didn't make the op so it didn't have a lot of my findings
But yes I was surprised to see an option to link ebay but also saw a thread on their forum dated a couple years ago that it's broken and seems to still be broken
No telling if linking to reddit still works or not I don't have or want a reddit account.

Frankly just a link to said sellers accounts would serve the same as heatware would be doing.

 

[damric]

I don't care if heatware requirement goes away. I have never been able to link mine to my TPU account. I have used it here, but becomes a chore to remind people to give you a rating in return.

The most important thing for forum trading is a picture of the item with a sticky note with your forum name and today's date. They did away with that at OCN and now that forum is filled with scammers.

At EXTREMEHW, you can become "marketplace verified" but I have no idea how I got verified other than that I have been around a while.

Also sometimes people hijack old accounts and try to scam as an imposter. I've seen it here but not in a while.

 

[Kursah]

heatware does allow linking of your ebay account.

that's the great thing about heatware you can show all your reps in one place.

So it seems Heatware used to allow eBay, but that has been "temporarily disabledd" for some time.

I'm pretty indifferent on that part, but I can see where some folks would want it. Not that my way is 100%, but if I make a purchase on eBay its to 99%+ average reviews and they better have a fair number... hundreds or thousands and see what those reviews actually say and try to avoid the fake ones. Makes me kind of a hypocrite because I have around 100-ish ratings maybe, and even though I'm 100%...I've often thought, on eBay would I buy from myself??? How about with my heat? Sure all good reviews is great, but not so many over the years...hmm. Worth the risk?

I do miss the golden days of the B/S/T areas of tech forums and trying to see what I could muster with my budget.

I have no problem continuing to use heatware TBH if that's the direction the community wants to go. This has been a good discussion as I was also curious if there's anything more useful or appropriate out there. Seems, maybe not so much has changed or progressed in this area. That could also be a case for a creative opportunity, just don't ask me what that opportunity is! lol.

Heatware's rating-side still has some activity and I suspect at some point we'll see a resurgence of second-hand tech component swaps. Maybe TPU becomes the mecca of that someday, maybe not? I could care less about the heatware marketplace as long as their rating service stays up. But what's driving to keep that up? What happens if/when it comes down or becomes a monetary/monthly cost thing?

And I agree, it can be a chore sometimes to get people to leave good ratings, or anything at all... I know on Heat and ebay I have more requests and left more feedback than I've received...that's always going to be a thing with any review solution unless you restrict further activity until it occurs...which would that really be worth it? Maybe if a site's B/S/T section was busy/popular and appealing enough, but I don't see it right now.

Post count isn't necessarily a good 1:1 replacement, but at least it adds something. If you've been around long enough for 100+ posts, or 400+ or whatever, odds are the community will have had enough interactions to know if a good trade with you is a worth-while risk. Any trade online is a risk, the obvious point is hedging the risk in your favor of success by utilizing a positive heat score or w/e. I feel like something's missing that we could better utilize here or utilize alongside heatware, what that is however, I don't know.

Thanks to everyone for engaging in this discussion so far!

 

[ThrashZone]

The other requirements are fine here.

 

[Solaris17]

It might be good to remove the barrier of entry to heatware and simply change the guidelines to reflect that you can ask for trade verification by %list of providers%. I would still leave current linking rules the same.

Then at that point introduce a 100+ post count requirement so atleast we arent insta spammed.

 

[ThrashZone]

For the record TPU users would be getting a better deal than eBay or any website that charges a fee to sellers to use their market place

 

[freeagent]

100 quality posts (or more) lets you see what kind of person you are dealing with. By quality, I mean helpful, informative posts. Not general chit chat stuff. That is what OCF has had since I have been there. Its pretty easy to spot a sleazy type guy just by the way he speaks and interacts.

Edit:

I should note that my heat is attached to that forum, I do not recall if it was a requirement..

Just spitting out ideas.. nothing serious

 

[stinger608]

There are still a lot of buyers/sellers that rely on Heatware for a persons eval's. Maybe not on TPU as much as it once was, however, the B/S/T forum isn't nearly as busy as it once was as well.

There are still many tech sites that use and rely on recent evaluations within Heatware.

I use it when I do transactions and will look at a sellers Heatware to see if he or she has recently had transactions. Also, I will look at any neutral or bad reviews as well.

I'm actually a moderator on the Heatware forums. Isn't a very busy forum, but sometimes there is a user that posts a wrong eval or posts a double without meaning to.

The for sale area of Heatware never really did ever "take off" like the admin expected it to, so comparing a site like TPU to it's for sale area, really isn't fair.

Should it be mandatory to sell on TPU? Possibly not, however, if a perspective buyer asks for the sellers Heatware, the seller should link to it through PM's for the perspective buyer.

 

[Solaris17]

100 quality posts (or more) lets you see what kind of person you are dealing with. By quality, I mean helpful, informative posts. Not general chit chat stuff. That is what OCF has had since I have been there. Its pretty easy to spot a sleazy type guy just by the way he speaks and interacts.

To be honest, I would still leave the heatware functionality in the site, maybe it will give a potential buyer or seller a leg up, just remove the requirement for it in place of having 100 posts, all else remaining.

 

[Space Lynx]

It might be good to remove the barrier of entry to heatware and simply change the guidelines to reflect that you can ask for trade verification by %list of providers%. I would still leave current linking rules the same.

Then at that point introduce a 100+ post count requirement so atleast we arent insta spammed.

I really would like to make that 500+ post count and 2 yr old account or older. I would feel much more comfortable selling to someone that meets those two requirements. It takes awhile to build up reputation, people don't throw it away as easily.

 

[ThrashZone]

There are still a lot of buyers/sellers that rely on Heatware for a persons eval's. Maybe not on TPU as much as it once was, however, the B/S/T forum isn't nearly as busy as it once was as well.

There are still many tech sites that use and rely on recent evaluations within Heatware.

I use it when I do transactions and will look at a sellers Heatware to see if he or she has recently had transactions. Also, I will look at any neutral or bad reviews as well.

I'm actually a moderator on the Heatware forums. Isn't a very busy forum, but sometimes there is a user that posts a wrong eval or posts a double without meaning to.

The for sale area of Heatware never really did ever "take off" like the admin expected it to, so comparing a site like TPU to it's for sale area, really isn't fair.

Should it be mandatory to sell on TPU? Possibly not, however, if a perspective buyer asks for the sellers Heatware, the seller should link to it through PM's for the perspective buyer.

Hi,
I bumped an old thread about eBay linking broken did you see it ?
It was tough to get to where I found it, the forum was pretty much blank.

To be honest, I would still leave the heatware functionality in the site, maybe it will give a potential buyer or seller a leg up, just remove the requirement for it in place of having 100 posts, all else remaining.

On that note anyone could also post issues here about fraud....

100 quality posts (or more) lets you see what kind of person you are dealing with. By quality, I mean helpful, informative posts. Not general chit chat stuff. That is what OCF has had since I have been there. Its pretty easy to spot a sleazy type guy just by the way he speaks and interacts.

I'm torn by this
It's what we do

 

[stinger608]

I bumped an old thread about eBay linking broken did you see it ?

No, must not have seen it. Sorry.