Because of the prolonged delay completing and launching the new site, David and I have agreed that providing a glimpse of the direction we are working towards would be appropriate at this time. I did mask out a few things for strategical purposes. I had originally intended to only share this with the Slack channel participates and did so yesterday but, in all fairness, I do feel obligated to sharing with the community members here on BCT also.
This was the last RTM, it is not a screenshot of the current development stage but this is, in large part, the end goal we are working towards. We exploring the idea of adding some 'advertising' spots to promote exceptional marketplace participants and/or green businesses. These will not be paid advertising, but rather a show case more so.
As far as the progress of the work, the marketplace is still the bulk of the remaining work. You see, we wish to link marketplace accounts to forum accounts. We feel this will not only make a degree of accountability for marketplace merchants, but also will give would be customers a good way to research the marketplace merchant and see past customers experiences, reviews, and hopefully more so, accolades. This will also give marketplace merchants the ability to interact, field questions, dispute claims, and promote their goods or services. Marketplace merchants will not need to be businesses, they can be individuals also.
We are also working on the logic of the marketplace. There will be no escrow, buying and selling will be between the buyer and seller only. Escrow may occur in the future but, at this time, that would be the distant future. I do want to make it clear to users, the simple acceptance of a merchant to the marketplace and the granting of permission to list items is not an official endorsement by myself, EGC, or the EGC Foundation. But certainly those endorsements would come in time when the merchant has proved to be conducting honest business. At that time, they would also be added to rotation in the previously mentioned advertising spots and other promotions on social media, making every effort to bloom the marketplace. We are very aware of the risks involved for consumers in an online marketplace such as this, especially in this industry. We will make every effort to protect buyers, but will not be accountable in the unfortunate event a scammer manages to slip through, though, I would make every effort to assist. But my ambition is to never be put in that position. You can be certain myself and other community members will be thoroughly on the look-out and investigative. We will be VERY proactive in this regard. All this work is not going forward so some scammer can ruin the marketplace's reputation or the reputation associated with EverGreenCoin or myself. I want people to have confidence when shopping in the marketplace and I will hold the bar very high to ensure that, if need be. When I say that, please do not think it will be difficult to get an items added. Long standing merchants or individuals that have already established a reputation of honesty of course would not face the same scrutiny. Please understand this scrutiny is necessary as some people will undoubtedly want to hold me personally accountable.
Please do feel free to voice any feedback. David and I will of course take any opinions, ideas, and feedback in heavy consideration.
In closing and again, I am fully aware of the eagerness to see results already. The community has been more than understanding of the numerous delays and I personally, and on David's behalf, thank you for that. I plan a detailed discussion of the timeline tonight (David's morning) with David and his staff. You can expect a report from me summarizing that discussion within the next 8 hours.