Marketplace Etiquette: Commenting on others' items

[Jonathan Kay]

There have been a few instances of public comments made by third parties which might be perceived as detrimental to the original poster's interests. What's the etiquette on this, please?

Thanks

Jonathan

[StevehS3]

Common sense and decency I would have thought. In fact, generally, if it's a negative comment don't post it at all or head over to Facebook. BC should be used by more members but sometimes I can see why it isn't.

[garybee]

I hate seeing that on here.  It bothers me much more on here than it would on any other internet forum as we've paid to use this so you'd expect people to refrain from such poor behaviour.

The other thing that happens on sales threads that I find irritating is the obligatory post by the OP's mate of "Wow, that's such a steal, won't be for sale for long" etc. etc.  It's not unpleasant unlike the above though so it's more of an irksome thing than a real annoyance.

[Wrightpayne]

As Thumper said ‘If you can’t say somethin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all!’

If I have valid / useful information that may be detrimental to the price I’ll message them directly.

Ian

[Norman]

Something else irritating that I've noticed is when an OP posts something for sale, and then someone else responds mentioning some other product which 'works just as well - I have one, here's the link to Amazon', or whatever. 

If you're so keen about this other product, sing the praises of it separately in the appropriate section of the forum.

The OP has made the effort to put something up for sale - don't lead potential buyers astray with some other item - likely sold by some nameless corporation in Chengdu. 

As StevehS3 says this should all be common sense, but apparently to some people it is not! 

OK, rant over. 

[nickh7]

Guilty as charged , although it was done with a degree of tongue in cheek 

I will self moderate 

 

[Jonathan Kay]

I sometimes cringe when I see comments that could be detrimental to the sale. But I'd make an exception to that for issues around safety.

And I'm now not as sure as I was about this: as an example if you see something advertised secondhand that could be bought new at a lower price is there a greater duty to the Member who's selling or the Members who might be about to waste some money?

Jonathan