Topic: Decline of Marketplace activity/trading - page 4. (Read 1057 times)

How did you determine that?  Is there a site that gives that information?  I'm an ignoramus when it comes to stuff like that, so it's probably common knowledge that I never learned.  But whatever, that's a huge drop.

I think the merit system is functioning just fine, and you don't see many complaint threads in Meta anymore.  The trust system on the other hand....we could debate that until 2022 and probably beyond.  Suggestions have been made and ignored by Theymos, so I don't think anything is going to change in the near future.

I don't know what's responsible for the drop in activity on the other boards, but I do know that traffic to bitcointalk has dropped significantly over the course of the last year and suspect that may have at least something to do with it.

So I saw this post and since I am buried in snow I decided to do this:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--5313804

It's been over an hour and no takers. In the old days (like a few months ago) it would have been filled in about 8 minutes.

EDIT: I LOCKED IT AFTER 12 HOURS WITH NO TAKERS. So yeah, a lot has changed.

No minimum, if you don't want to pay BTC TX fees I listed Doge / LTC and others.
Not a bite. So yeah, even for fun stuff the marketplace has gone to shit.

That or everyone is outside shoveling the white stuff.

-Dave

Steady declining trading activity has been a thing since about 2013.  A big reason for it is the rising Bitcoin price and another would be the atmosphere that has been created due to the trust network's failure to act as a honest decentralized network.  Take a look at Rmcdermott927 for example.  He received negative DT1 trust just for offering to purchase a Nintendo Switch using a trusted escrow and was accused of being an alt and harassed until he decided to just leave the forum.  If you haven't been paying attention to how certain DT1 members have been hijacking the trust network and supporting harassment and exclusion of others they are threatened by but have no reason to distrust, you might not understand why this forum is turning into a one stop spam shop instead of a hub of Bitcoin blockchain activity.  I've tried to be the canary in the coal mine, but I think many more people will have to suffer from and eventually leave this forum due to the abuse that is so frequently occurring and supported by DT1 members before action is taken from the Administration.  Likely not even then unless advertising dollars stop coming in and expenditures rise.

People mostly come to the forum to signature spam and make a few bucks out of it. And yes, I do get the irony of saying that while being on a signature campaign....

Merit system works fine, it prevents most bottom feeders from being a problem as they can barely rank up and helps make it easier to see what members are actually contributing in some ways to the forum. There are of course false positives (or negatives) on this one, and each case is to be examined individually, but it's usually a sign to see a Hero/Legendary with less than 10 merits earnt since the introduction of the system...

And apart from the sig spammers, a lot of users just come to the altcoin or gambling boards; which kind of reinforces the vision a huge majority of users have regarding both crypto and the forum

Trust works fine too; if you are using a personal trust list that is

I don't think the chance is 50/50 because you're not randomly picking whom to deal with... that's the whole purpose of having trust feedback, isn't it?

Moderating scams wouldn't be much better - banned users would create new accounts. It might make it worse if users start relying on it (not banned == trustworthy) and moderators don't keep up.

I took a look at the currency exchange sub, and besides the points hilariousetc raised, another reason is that many members prefer to buy or sell with PayPal. Because of previous scams and chargebacks with PayPal, users probably have a hard time trusting these dealers.

I looked at the first 10 threads involving PayPal where the OP wants to either buy or sell by using PayPal, and this is how it looks:

- Users with negative feedback and/or active flags: 2
- Newbies: 2
- Users with no trusted feedback: 1
- Users with positive feedback: 4

Being a newbie and not having trusted feedback doesn't mean that you are a scammer, but it also doesn't make you trustworthy. I guess when members weigh up their options they arrive to a conclusion that there is almost a 50/50 chance to run into a scammer. If the forum moderated scams, I think the activity in the trading sections would increase. People would feel a bit more protected at least by knowing if someone scams them and they have proof, the scammers would be banned.

I agree that posting frequency would drop significantly if signatures are removed, but niche boards like Goods, Lending or Currency Exchange are not the best reflections of that. These sub boards are only for users who have a specific purpose and not simply for general discussion, contributing to why posts there are not accepted by some managers.
If signatures were removed from Bitcoin discussion or development and technical support, there would still be topics for enthusiasts to discuss.

These boards faces the issue of what topics fit in there. Most of the topics posted there could easily fit into some other boards and users would likely pick the other board for better interaction.

If by easily you mean asking for ridiculously high loans using a newbie account, with no collateral, then Yes.
Usually, only users with wrong intentions get tagged when offering or requesting a loan.

Most people probably don't want to spend their bitcoins on stuff especially in a bull market, hence few listings. Most people are probably too wary of scams to do much trading here also, especially since it's pretty much a free for all and scams aren't moderated. Selling physical stuff here requires you to give out personal information as well which many people won't want to do.


Well the price has gone up significantly since the start of 2019 so it's inevitable that people won't spend more in bitcoin. I doubt theymos cares too much but I still think he should consider adding more more donator ranks. They'd run themselves like Copper Memberships do so it's not like it will take any input from him once live and would probably generate more income than adverts do.


Why would merit be a factor? And what could or should be changed about trust? I don't think it matters whether people are trading here or not, especially from an admin point of view.


I thought you were talking about Computer Exchange aka CEX then: https://uk.webuy.com/

Funnily enough they were a website that started accepting bitcoin few years ago but I think they then removed the option probably because nobody was using it: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/cex-seems-to-have-abandoned-bitcoin-1841929

CEX exist for those who prefer convenience, DEX exist for those who prefer privacy or control over their coin and even P2P/OTC have dedicated website such as HodlHold. Currency exchange section is left at awkward position.


Isn't it because people prefer convenience or place which have better reputation such as BitRefill for digital goods or other company such as Newegg which accept Bitcoin?

I have noticed that several marketplace subs have become less active than in the past, especially considering that we are in the middle of a bull market.

For example:
*The bottom of the 1st page of currency exchange has a thread last posted in 9 days ago.
*Lending has threads last posted in almost a month and a half ago on the 1st page
*Long term offers has threads last posted in over a year ago
*Auctions have threads last posted in 33 days ago on the 1st page
*Goods have threads last posted in 11 days ago on the 1st page

The above lack of trading activity is concerning to me. In the past, all of the above subs have had much more activity. I would expect more activity given the current bull market.

Does anyone have ideas as to what is causing the above? Does anyone have ideas as to what might attract more trading activity on the various marketplace subs?

I have also noticed that advertising revenue is down about 70% (in USD terms) since January 2019 (prices were similar to January 2019 in January 2020).

Should changes be made to the merit system? Should changes be made to the trust system? Is either system being implemented in ways that are less than ideal?

---

edit:
I think one solution might be for the forum to take steps to encourage LN use. A common theme I have noticed is high transaction fees when priced in USD for on-chain transactions.