I HATE Reef Central!

As much as you hate it they did it for a good reason, I try to buy quite a bit of my stuff used to save money and there were way to many new users posting stuff for sale when they didn't have enough posts or been a member for 90 days. 
It should be pretty easy to get the posts you need, Just keep in mind that posts don't count in every forum category. Post in the newbie or reef section and try not to make it obvious that your just trying to pad your post count.

 

i agree AJ, its RETARDED

 

No it's not retarded, It was the only option they had...The program they use has no way to keep new users from posting stuff for sale and still let them view and respond to the for sale posts.

 

I can understand why you would be frustrated, I think the other option they should give is for new users to become paying members with full privileges right away.
Nothing against this site, I do like it a lot but RC has lots of valuable information that I get for no cost at all.
Being able to buy and sell is a bonus at times but if you follow the feedback you'll see many more disputes then you would have seen a few years ago.  I bought from five sellers and had problems with three including almost being flat out ripped off by a seller. The only reason I got my money back from him was that I spent a few hours tracking his family and friends down and I think he realized I wasn't just going to go away. He got several other members for hundreds of dollars each.

 

This isn't quite true. New users (less than 90 days) have not been able to post for a few weeks to a month now (not simply within the past few days). I know because I am one of them. I could no longer post replies either. There really was no reason for them to add the 50 post rule after the fact. What is ridiculous is that I am still able to view *again, less than 90 days of being a member). I also have bought a few things since these changes... simple PMs to the sellers work just fine. Frankly I feel they police that site like idiots. Not all of them, but there are certain mods that clearly just enjoy "denying" people. Those guys really need to go out and get a life.
Furthermore, I don't see how 50 valid posts and 90 days of being a user somehow magically makes you "legit" enough to use the buy/sell forums. I suppose their reasoning behind it is a valid one, but the limitations are really far too low to be anything other than an annoyance. They think they have lessened the mods jobs by making things more automated/strict yet the mods are now spending their time policing whether posts are "legit" or not. To me, that is pretty damn laughable.
In any case, just go browse some build forums and simply say whether you like what they have done with it, or not. Many of my comments are just about that and I have... well way over 50 posts. It really isn't difficult to attain 50 posts, it is simply annoying.

 

Not sure what site you are referring to (I assume GIRS), but that fact of the matter is that this can happen anywhere. have a look on RC. For every positive transaction comment you see a bad seller comment as well. Perhaps not quit a 1:1 ratio, but pretty close.

 

The 50/90 rule has been in place since I joined years ago it just became to much hassle for the mods to enforce so that is the solution they came up with.
The 50/90 rule is to keep Reef Central from being just another place where people sign up just long enough to post some items for sale that they have no intentions of shipping.

 

Posted By Bela on 11/18/2009 08:58 PM

Posted By JohnL on 11/18/2009 08:51 PM
I can understand why you would be frustrated, I think the other option they should give is for new users to become paying members with full privileges right away.
Nothing against this site, I do like it a lot but RC has lots of valuable information that I get for no cost at all.
Being able to buy and sell is a bonus at times but if you follow the feedback you'll see many more disputes then you would have seen a few years ago.  I bought from five sellers and had problems with three including almost being flat out ripped off by a seller. The only reason I got my money back from him was that I spent a few hours tracking his family and friends down and I think he realized I wasn't just going to go away. He got several other members for hundreds of dollars each.
Not sure what site you are referring to (I assume GIRS), but that fact of the matter is that this can happen anywhere. have a look on RC. For every positive transaction comment you see a bad seller comment as well. Perhaps not quit a 1:1 ratio, but pretty close.
I was referring to this site, I do get the benefits from joining the local club and I will support it but I go to Reef Central for the hard core information that I can't find here.
Reef Centrals buyer/seller feedback is far from being a 1:1 ratio I'd be surprised if it were 20 to 1 plus the fact that people are quick to post a complaint but hardly ever post positive feedback.
I like both sites but I can see why people may not like it but the fact is it's a privately ran forum that doesn't charge members to use it.  50 posts and 90 days isn't a ban it's a stepping stone that they put in place to make life easier for the mods.

 

I tend to agree with everyone who has posted in this thread in some way.

This site and Reef Central are both oriented around the same core topic, but they really serve different purposes. In a way the two really complement each other well. RC is great if you need to get detailed information about a specific topic because the non-local nature and the sheer volume of people and posts on that site make it a great source for that type of information. On the other hand, this site provides the "local" aspect that RC can't do nearly as well and IMHO "localism" is a thing of great value. Maybe it's not important to everyone, but neither is RC.

My main complaint about RC has always been regarding the way it is moderated. I completely understand there desire to reign in the Buy/Sell/Trade activity because we have the same issues on this site even with a much smaller volume of posts. However, like Bela, more than once I've got the impression that some of their moderators enjoy the "moderation" a bit more than they should. I haven't run into this lately, but back when I posted on RC a lot more (before we had this site) I ran into it quite a bit and seldom did it have anything to do with B/S/T.

-JB

 

well im going to jump in on this as well.......90/50 rule just dont understand it they say the 50 post count have to be meaningful but time and time again you see the mods complaining about newbs asking ? that have been asked 100 times in the past and to go look in the archives. i think it was done so the mods arent spending all there time removing post for the 90/50 rule. wouldnt an easy solution be to put up a classified section for paying members only. one of the mods said that rc is not about buying and selling but,if its becoming a big problem then why not just do away with it. i seen a post on rc that someone should start up a reef classified site not really a bad idea

 

No means to argue here, but I don't see how you can say it is far from a 1:1 ratio and then say more people tend to leave negative feedbacks than positive ones. This in itself shows that the data may be skewed, but all we really have to go in is the data, which is what I was referring to. That said, my entire point was that anyone can get an unlucky run on RC with bad sellers just like they can here. I agree that the information is free on RC and there is more there than here on GIRS, but you also do not pay for information here on GIRS. Really the benefits of paying to be a member here are to be able to sell things in the member forums as well as get "exclusive" discounts from vendors and at GIRS sanctioned events. Informationwise there is no fee holding you back here.
In any case, I still stand firmly on my feet when I say that it is not hard to create an account (or a couple if my goal is to screw people over), post 50 times, and sit on it for 90 days. Again, the restriction isn't anything but a nuisance at its current numbers and really just puts the mods into a different role... now they are policing all of the forums outside of the B/S/T in order to catch people who are trying to pad their post count.

 

BTW did they lift the 50 post thing or something? http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1742571 this guy is listing things with only 17 posts /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/crazy.gif

 

I hate RC too, but for different reasons. Any of you that know me (even in the slightest) probably see that I am not a troublemaker. Last year I was banned (and I had over 700 posts at that time) because I was trying to promote BNARCs Frag Fest. I specifically was following what Beer Guy told me to do but I was yanked and never given the chance to argue my case. So I just let it go and didn't use RC anymore.

Fast forward to this year. I again was trying to promote BNARC's Fragtoberfest and had made a new name (and we had a different server now) because once you are banned you are SOL and cannot even get ON the stupid site. Anyway, I was AGAIN following the rules and trying to contact club leaders in the indiviual clubs and having them post it. I can assure you that I did it very nicely and wasn't bothering anyone. I had some of these same club leaders post on their home club sites so I know they were happy to help us out. Anyway, it took RC about two days to ban me again. I'm done with them and I feel I was a valuable member of their community but it's all about the bucks for them and so I have found other sites to frequent. They are nazi's in my opinion.

 

: )

 

really i dont understand how you could really hate rc? I can understand that some of the things they changed are not working for you (I hate the way it looks now) and that sucks but, man they got so much info and you can find info from back in the day till today and being able to look and see how other people do it is really cool to me. I'm not saying everyone should love it i just dont understand why anyone would hate it with that much free info?