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Agora Guidelines

Before buying or selling on the Ars Agora, you must read this document which …

All rules of the Ars OpenForum's Posting Guide apply. In addition, the following rules are to be observed:

Section 1: Vendors, business, and
profiteering

  1. No legally registered
    vendors or business may use the Agora, and no individuals may represent
    such entities in the Agora without special permission from Ars
    Technica. Included in this definition are those who engage in occasional
    "bulk buys" or "opportunity buys" at wholesale prices and then attempt to
    resell these items for profit in Agora.
  2. Individuals may not
    engage in repeated or bulk sales of items for the express intent of
    earning profit without special permission from Ars Technica. "Bulk sale"
    definition includes, but is not limited to, over two identical items not
    acquired in normal activities by the typical Ars Power User. For instance,
    5 identical hard drives. A tray of CPUs. More than one complete, identical
    system. Not included in this definition are "closet cleaning" sales,
    "moving sales," or other large accumulations of primarily used equipment.
    Determinations of "profit" will be made at the moderator's discretion
    based upon available information.
  3. Special permission may
    be granted on a case-by-case basis, subject to the judgment of the
    moderators concerning the relevance, price, and commitment to giving Agora
    buyers a special break in return for being allowed to post. Every thread
    originated by a dealer must be individually approved, and will in no event
    exceed one per week.
    a) a non-reply to a permission request does not equal permission.
    b) such permission may be revoked at any time.
    c) permission is to be obtained in advance, in email, from an Agora
    moderator or Ars Technica staff member.
  4. Threads posted in
    violation of these rules will be immediately locked without debate pending
    resolution of the issue.

Section 2: Sales considerations and
prohibited items

  1. Any items offered for transaction in Agora must be
    transferred under conditions legal for the particular item. Software will
    be sold/traded in accordance with all applicable EULA restrictions. We
    specifically prohibit the sale or trade of Operating Systems/software
    designated "Not For Resale" or "OEM," as virtually all EULAs prohibit
    transfer of such software except in very rare cases. It is the
    responsibility of the seller to determine compliance with any applicable
    federal/state/local law and to be able to furnish proof upon demand of the
    moderator that the offered item may be legally transferred under the
    conditions offered.
  2. Sales of certain items, such as firearms/ammunition and
    Academic Edition software, which are deemed by the moderators to be
    difficult to monitor and potential sources of liability to Ars Technica,
    will be disallowed.

Section 3: Seller's etiquette

  1. You may not advertise
    the auction or the classified listings of your items from other sellers'
    sites, including eBay. This prohibition does not include identical sales
    threads posted at boards similar to Agora such as Anandtech, TechIMO or
    PCA. You may post links to personal, non-auction listings for
    convenience. It is encouraged that sellers link large quantities of
    pictures offsite rather than post them inline in an Agora thread, and to
    state that their items are being offered elsewhere.
  2. Items offered for sale
    or sale/trade must have posted prices. Items offered for trade only do not
    require prices.
  3. "Interest check" and
    "price check" threads will not be tolerated for common items for which
    prices may be easily obtained.
  4. "Or Best Offer" options
    ("obo") may not be used to sell an item at a price higher than originally
    asked for. E.g., $50 "obo" means that you may accept less than $50, but
    you will sell the item to the first person to offer $50. Lower offers may
    be refused at the discretion of the seller.
  5. Sellers should make
    every effort to avoid excessive thread posting. There is no need to
    separate Want To Buy and Sale threads, nor to post two or three threads
    per week as additional things appear that you wish to sell. Plan your
    sales, and show your fellow traders respect by not crowding their threads
    off the front page. Moderators reserve the right to require consolidation
    of threads or other action when appropriate.
  6. There will be no more
    than three "bumps" or posts to a thread by the seller during the life of
    the thread which have the sole intention of moving a listing to the top of
    the display. Bumps from members at large are not limited. Exceptions in
    certain long-running threads may be made at the moderator's discretion.
  7. In the absence of other
    agreements between seller and buyer, sellers are expected to provide
    reasonable tracking and insurance coverage of shipments appropriate for
    the value of the sale. It is the responsibility of the seller to undertake
    all investigations of lost shipments and the replacement of value lost by
    the buyer in such cases. Insuring any shipment of a value over $20 is
    strongly recommended.

Section 4: Interested buyer's
etiquette

  1. Caveat Emptor.
    You and only you are responsible for determining just how good a deal is.
    We strongly urge a thorough check of the seller's references if unknown to
    you. There is a dedicated, Agora-only database of trader evaluations at
    Beerology, and a
    forum-independent database at Heatware.
    Proper use of these resources will prevent almost all problems
    attributable to bad traders. Use them.
  2. It is the seller's
    prerogative to define his desired method for publicly or privately
    reserving items offered for sale, a practice commonly referred to as
    "calling dibs." If the seller does not make such definition in the sale
    thread, the following default rule will apply: Calling "dibs" on an item
    may be accomplished through email or posting in the sale thread, although
    it is preferable to post "dibs" in the thread either way. If you're
    reading it, you can post to it. A "dibs" call is valid for 24 hours from
    the date/time posted or emailed. You may request an extension of dibs for
    over 24 hours, but it is the seller's right to accept or deny this
    request. Moderators reserve the right to refuse or curtail support for
    conflicts arising from situations where the seller defines a rule less
    specific than the default.

Section 5: Observer's etiquette

  1. Observers may not comment on
    Seller's prices within the thread. Any price comments must be kept to e-mail.
  2. The quality of any Agora
    trader as a personality outside of Agora will not be questioned in public.
    Any such opinions should be forwarded to a moderator in email, and if
    required a decision will be made as to the continued Agora presence of the
    person in question.

 

Section 6: Trade conflicts and
trolls

  1. Conflicts arising from
    transactions which do not meet the expectations of either party should be
    worked out between the interested parties, if at all possible. Only after
    these efforts are exhausted should a moderator be contacted.
  2. Moderators, when
    contacted, will make all reasonable efforts to resolve conflicts up to and
    including suspension of trading privileges in Agora, but can make no
    express guarantee that every transaction will be resolved to the
    satisfaction of both parties. The Agora Moderators carry no legal
    authority, and can assume no legal responsibility for trading activity in
    Agora.
  3. Conflicts between
    traders are not to appear as threads or posts in Agora. Disputes
    will be kept private. Any public posting of a trade conflict will be
    deleted on sight.
  4. The efforts of Agora
    members to inform the population at large of known bad traders or new
    trolls are appreciated by the moderators. However, it is required that the
    mods be informed prior to any member posting such information in Agora.
    Confirmed sightings (declared by the mods of another board or poster's
    possession of actual evidence) may be posted immediately, with
    simultaneous email notification of the moderators. Threads of that
    emergency nature will be locked and integrated into the

    Traders to Watch Thread
    as soon as a mod is available.
  5. Anyone banned from the Agora over financial issues has one month to work out his issues, or
    be banned permanently from the forum as a whole. Appeals will be
    considered, but they are not modes of extension. Abuse of the appeals
    process will result in a ban.

Section 7: Other issues

  1. "Hot Deals" information may be provided, if and only if no other rule
    of these Guidelines is violated.
  2. "Hot Deals" should be hot deals, not an observer's tool to alert
    others that a seller's price is too high.
  3. Moderators will determine when any rules listed here have been broken.

Revision History

Date Version Changes
11/23/2003 1.3 Made changes to Section 5 on
observer's ettiquette
9/7/2004 1.4 Made changes to Section 6 on
permanent bans from Ars for bad traders

 

 

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