....the following is an email that was only sent to staff and "Authorized Seller" member groups on 6/14/09, but I'm posting it here for new people that are not yet a seller....

Hello,

CC: ASF Staff members so they know what is being told to the new "Authorized Sellers"

You are receiving this email because you have been recently added to the newly formed ASF "Authorized Seller" member group and I have something important to tell you. At the time of this email, there are 40 of you who have paid for immediate authorized seller access and 13 of you have been added for free in exchange to also list your items on SOA, and to use SOA for the sale of your items. Paid member are encourage to also use SOA, but not required to.

If you are a paid member and you see other sellers (who have not paid) not doing what they are suppose to be doing, please let me know so I can remove them and their FS topics. I want the paid members to get their money's worth and it would not be fair if the "free members" are not keeping their end of the deal to use the SOA website in addition to their ASF topics here and not following through.

You can differentiate between the free and paid authorized sellers by the following:

1. Paid members belong to a group called, "Authorized Seller, Paid" and free members belong to the group titled, "Authorized Seller, Free"
2. Additionally, free members have a white group logo that reads, "verified", while paid members have a camouflage colored logo with "Certified" in yellow.

Just to be clear, if you didn't pay to become an Authorized Seller and you were added to this group for free and manually by me in exchange for using the SportsOnlyAuction.com (SOA) website, you need to make sure that you are creating a listing on SOA and on ASF and then linking the ASF topic to the SOA listing. You must also complete the transaction on SOA including the collecting of payment and completing member feedback on SOA. Paid members don't have to do all that if they don't want to.

Both member groups, free and paid can now open and close their own For Sale topics. If you sell your items, please close your own topic when you're done with it. If you need help with this, please ask me or a moderator.

Both new member groups also get elite member privileges with larger PM boxes, and access to other previously hidden ASF forum areas if you didn't know that already. Your posts in the "Airsoft Items For Sale" forum also now count toward your total post count, whereas previously posting in that forum did not raise your post count.

As you know, regular members are not allowed to have clickable links in their signatures unless it links to somewhere on the ASF forums or they have paid to sponsor us; HOWEVER, because you now have special permissions and are helping us to promote SOA, I want to help you sell your items.

Therefore, please take this time to edit your ASF Signature to add a clickable link to your SOA listings or your free SOA store front. If you are a paid member and not required to link to SOA, feel free to link to your ASF topics.

Here is the link to go edit your signature and the code you need to put in there, be sure to change it according to your needs: http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/edit-signature.html



BE SURE TO REPLACE:

1. "http://www.sportsonlyauction.com/index.asp" with the actual link to your item or store front.
2. "hey, click here to check out my airsoft gear for sale" with what you want to say about your items.

Neither free nor paid members are allowed to have external links that click to other websites except for paid ASF Sponsors subscribing the monthly $59.95. If you see or find members breaking this rule, please let me know...

I am very much open to hear what you guys think about these new changes, so please let me know what you think. I'm assuming that you are all in agreement and in acceptance of this because of the current member group you are in, but if you have additional comments or feedback you wish to tell me about - please do so in the following topic or send me a reply to this email:

http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/Rule-Pay...al-t151971.html

We are still in a trial about this whole thing, and I really don't want to have to undo all this and give out 40 refunds, but by all means, please let us know what you think about these new changes. I look forward to hearing from you and I care what each of you think about us.

In closing,

One more added BONUS for you is that you now get 5 days to edit your posts whereas everyone else only gets 24 hours. That being said though, please - if you are going to edit your original post, please edit it wisely and DO NOT WIPE IT OUT WHEN YOU ARE DONE with your sale. We would like to keep a record of the topic. We PREFER that you update your Original Post (OP) in a reply, but if you must edit your original to fix a MISTAKE, then do it wisely so that 6 months from now when someone else comes along and wants to review what you did, they can read a topic that makes chronological sense.

MORE ON THIS "EDITING A POST" ISSUE...
the main reasons for the 24 hour limit on editing a post was so that the original post could not be altered to to limit the ability of a dishonest seller going back and changing something that wasn't originally part of the deal. Also, by not allowing people to just go back and delete or blank out their original post, it maintained integrity of the ASF BST forums here in terms of creating a library or history of content. For example. If you sell your item and 6 months later someone wants to check your thread but all they find is "SORRY this item SOLD" for an original post or topic title - then that would hurt the board here and would not be very useful for future visitors to that topic who may want to see what it sold for, etc.

Additionally, by disallowing people to go back and change price or quantity, or item and forcing them to update their OP with a reply - this keeps the post more understandable and user friendly as well as less confusing. it also forces the viewers to actually read the topic and replies - not just the first post then hit the reply button.

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING STAFF SALES:

Moderators and administrators are also allowed to list and sell their items in the "Airsoft Items For Sale" forum for free without paying the "Authorized Seller" fee for the following reason.. #1, no they are not better than you, but they do bust their tail around here policing and moderating all the many topics and replies we get so the least I can do is allow them the benefit of being able to continue selling their items here for free. #2, I prefer and would hope that staff members will use the SOA website just as the free members are doing and will lead the way with their exemplary topics linking to SOA listings or store fronts, but I'm not going to give them the boot if they don't. (see excuse #1 above) :-) #3, if they did pay - the website would automatically place them in the "Authorized Seller, Paid" member group and they would loose their moderator tools and we don't want that either.

As I said, I hope everyone thinks this is all fair and very cool, but if not let me know.

-admin

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Subject: Authorized Seller Notice

....the following is a follow up email sent only to staff and authorized sellers on 6/20/2009 in case you missed it...

Hello,

...The only people receiving this email are "Authorized Sellers" and "Staff Members"...

First, I want to say thank you to each of you that have signed up as "Authorized Sellers" and thanks for helping us to clean up and support both websites. You guys are obviously in this new member group because you have either paid for immediate access or you have specifically requested that I put you in this group because you have promised to use SOA for "free access" to the authorized seller group in accordance with our new rules.

I spot checked a few of your member profiles and I see that many of you have INCOMPLETE PROFILES. Even though some of you have paid to sell, and the rest of you are promising to use SOA... You still MUST STILL HAVE A COMPLETED PROFILE here on ASF.

You guys must complete that such as age, location, phone number, your interests, etc. No one can see your phone number except administrators so don't worry about it getting out or me calling it. It is only used in rare instances if there is a big problem and we can't reach you with an email, PM or instant messenger; However, it's imperative that you complete your account profiles right away. Please help us with this - I'm trusting you guys to lead the way and set the example for all other members who aspire to be in the group that you're now in.

http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/edit-profile-info.html

I hate to say this or do this to any of you, but as you know - many people don't read or follow the instructions and I have no way of knowing who will or wont or what their reason is etc and so if you will not complete your profile information, I have no choice but to remove you from the authorized seller member group (paid or not). Please don't make me do that, I'm grateful to have you in this group and listing items for sale, but at the same time, you really must have a completed profile - I hope you can understand.

Having a completed profile will inspire new members to do business with you - you have to trust me on that. I plan to be installing an iTrader feedback system here soon, but I guarantee that if you have a complete profile - buyers will feel more comfortable in buying from you and isn't that why you're listing new topics in the FS forum?

I'm sure you probably just over looked it, so please take a minute and fill it out. If you have a completed profile already, then just make sure it's correct. I am sending this email to about 125 people and I have not checked each and every one of them yet.

http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/edit-profile-info.html

OK.. Now that the nagging is out of the way...

You guys are in an EXCLUSIVE new member group and very privileged. There are quite a few other irritated members who can not do and are not allowed to do what you guys can now do simply for the fact that they are either too cheap to pay or too stubborn to help us out and follow the guide lines to sell for free. At the time of this email, there are about 78 paid members, 20 free members, and 30 staff members who area allowed to sell and post new topics, while everyone else is either crying about it or have not made up their minds what to do about it yet.

Consider this short window of opportunity a prime time for you to list your new topics and items for sale in the "Airsoft Items For Sale" forum because there are not that many topics in there like there once was. This means that your ads / topics will remain on the first page for a lot longer than when everyone and their little sister was posting up new topics in there....

Therefore take advantage of this opportunity and get as many items listed both on SOA and ASF as you possibly can in the next few days. Because while everyone else is crying about the "new rules" - you guys can cash in on the "alleged new problem" and make a ton of cash because your listings will be found easily on the first page.

As I mentioned the other day, we need you guys to hold each other accountable and if you see authorized sellers not doing what they are suppose to be doing, please let me know.

I also need your feed back about this new BST rule. Please let me know how you feel like this IS and WILL affect ASF. I mean, do you see a decrease in quality FS topics or an increase? Do you think that this will reduce the number of people getting bad deals or improve that? o you like being in this exclusive member group or should everyone be allowed to post as it was previously? Please post any helpful feedback about this in the link or topic listed below.

For more information on what I emailed to Authorized Sellers last week regarding their new additional tools and benefits, or if you have any questions or problems please let me know by posting a comment (in this topic).

Thanks for helping us to make ASF a better place.

-admin

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This post has been edited by admin: Jun 20 2009, 08:47 AM