Transplanting discussion from
here as per OP's request:
just because someone else has come and polluted your thread doesn't mean he has driven potential bidders away.
Maybe yes, maybe no, but when someone posts in your thread 'I think this is a scam' chances are higher to the Yes factor. Which is totally unfair on my girlfriend to have to take a possible big financial loss simply because someone can't keep their opinions to themselves.
You did not post any price reserve information in your OPs and now you are changing the rules ex post facto.
Auction rules technically state no spamming of the post or I will completely abandon the auction. No one is willing to honour that rule, so am I supposed to (in the words of bateatus) open robe and present ass, simply because people only like the rules that suit them
(IE getting a house for no reserve) and not the ones that suit me (Having the courtesy not to pollute my post again to give me fair chance to have a decent auction in peace?)
Could you please point out exactly where in your OP you state that the auction will be cancelled due to spam?
Yes, people like the idea of getting a house for no reserve because that is what was stated in the OP of this auction. Perhaps they made their bids on that basis. Please note the time-stamp of the following quote compared to the previous quote.
AUCTION RULES
The auction stats at 10 BTC and has no reserve. Bidding is in increments of at least 1BTC, but if you say have a total balance of 111.15 btc and you want to throw the lot at me then I will accept it, as long as the previous bid was LESS than 110.
I was thinking of bidding on the house until I saw your previous post. This does not look good at all.
Which are the bones of it- your now pissed off because this isn't going the way you would have like it to and you would not care what happened on this thread if it meant there was an outside chance you would score the house for really really cheap.
In what was did I indicate that I was pissed off? In what way did I indicate that things are not going the way I would have liked? I have made no bids. I have only raised some concerns, and I will further clarify here, that imposing a reserve on this auction after having explicitly stated that there would be no reserve does not inspire confidence in your trustworthiness. It looks suspiciously like a
bait-and-switch.
Regarding the outside chance of scoring a house for really, really cheap. Can you really blame someone for not wanting to have a chance at it when the terms are favourable? Can you really fault a potential customer for being attracted to such a deal? This fault does not lie with the customer, but lies with the original terms of the auction. They sure appear to favour winning the house for a price potentially much lower than market value.
As far as me ever bidding, I said I was thinking about it - toying with the idea, really. I did not say that I would have definitely made a bid. In fact, I have found this auction to be very interesting - potentially an historic event in progress. For someone like me, the idea of warding off the press does not sound like a situation I would enjoy and that is the main reason why I have decided not to make any bids yet. I might have been swayed to bid, but your changing the terms of the auction mid-term only served to reinforce the decision to stay out of the auction.
Are you now not going to honor the deal if his bid ends up being the highest one because of factors outside his control?
Actually I am changing the rules because of factors outside of MY control. People spamming my post.
Like it or lump it, these are the new rules. Feel free to take your frustrations out on the spammers of my post, especially those who decided to not once, but twice throw up accusations of scamming on them. As per the auction rules if this degrades into a discussion and does not stay an auction I reserve the right to just pull it in it's entirety. If you want to discuss there is a perfectly good thread here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=196368.0 for all of this where I would be happy to talk about it until the cows come home.
I think the assertion that people are spamming your auction thread is arguable. People exercise due diligence when spending significant sums of their money or taking on a potentially large liability. If you ever hope to sell this house, it might be worth engaging with your potential customers more amicably.
Unilaterally changing the rules of this auction only destroys your credibility and trustworthiness and makes it all the more difficult to sell the house in the long run, unless, of course, you have discussed and agreed upon this change of terms with miernik, your current high bidder.
Hi batcoin,
Thanks for respecting my auction and transferring debates over to this thread. It's really appreciated.
I respect what you are saying, but, see it from my Girlfriends point of view. She pointed out to me an example of a yard sale she once ran, and she was selling a PC. An old couple were going to buy it when someone next to them made a comment 'I would never buy electronics at a yard sale, its probably broken!' So when the old man came back from the car his wife said to him 'oh someone here just said that PC is broken' and nothing she could do, even offering to plug it in and show them, would persuade them that it was not broken. She was just about to sell the pc for $200- which was a fair price- but they were the only people that day who were interested. Eventually, she put it on Kijiji and sold it for $50. So some guys flippant, offhanded comment about a computer he knew nothing about, cost her $150 directly from her pocket.
See people are willing to open their mouth and say rubbish when it does not affect them in any way. Do you think the guy who made that comment would apologise and give her $150 compensation? No. As she says 'people are just jerks'
So....what is now being asked of her, is to do the same thing again but risk potentially tens of thousands of dollars of 'possible' sale. No one has a crystal ball and can say if some people, having seen the word scam, now have lost interest when they might have actually made a bid.
People get confused- read this post and you will see other peoples comments about a falling down wreck, being taken as this house for instance. All these comments add up and create a crap situation which puts off buyers.
I feel myself like a complete ass for having to do such a thing. But it was either that, or pull the auction completely. You say people should do their due diligence- agreed- but where in due diligence does it say that you have the right to slander them a scammer all over their auction? Thats not due diligence that is just 'mouthing off'.
You say I should treat customers amicably- which is fine to say coming from your position, sat with nothing to loose, but when you have started 2 auctions, and the same person spams both of them no matter what you say, amicability falls to the wayside somewhat.
It all boils down to this- I think my girlfriend is a champion for even considering to do this. I fell crap about having to set a reserve but this is to protect her from the damage of the slanderers. How about you put something up for no reserve, let me slander you a scammer, and then we see what it sells for and you honour the bid? when you, or anyone, has done this, I think they will be in a much better position to judge and comment on the situation at hand.
Yeah, I can understand a lot of what you say. I try to take what certain others have to say with a grain of salt. It's a shame when people allow themselves to be influenced by unfounded libellous remarks - if that is indeed the case here. It will be impossible to know for sure if people were turned off by the scam accusations. My main beef with the situation was the change of terms after bids were already made.