Couple of things:
1. There are ways to tag members on the basis of 'Commercial' or 'Dealers'. Both diyaudio.com (somewhat less succesfully) and audiocircle.com (very succesfully) use this concept. Would urge some members to go hang out there.
2. The problem IMO, with keeping commercial members/dealers is not what they offer in the trading section, but what they contribute off it. As a member they are entitled to have a fair, unbiased idea of the subject they are posting about. If my livelihood depended upon selling a product/service/idea, I'm not sure I would be unbiased. Some people pull it off very very well, balancing out their commercial aspirations with technical knowledge, and continuing to offer the best of both to communities. In some cases it has resulted in disaster, causing controversy and ultimately member expulsion (is there any other way?).
3. I know I said couple, but this needs to be said. I felt some of this is sparked by the three threads I have going here, at least in part. I don't know if replying to that is the result of a guilty conscience. Without getting all emotional about it, I offer two points of view for consideration.
a. All the hardware/audio stuff is used. Some of the things offered FF don't even work, and yet I'm flooded with response! All of it is being offered at half the retail price. I wouldn't likely take offense if someone thought I stole this s##t from someone's house and have cut it into bits and offering it for sale. That would a possibility. Amusing, but possible.
b. It's a very wide assortment, and all the pieces number one each, only two of them are two each. Not qualification for being a dealer, who would be able to 'deal' in pretty large quantities. The GO threads come closer to a business, as the member can make a small profit. Nothing wrong with that - if they're taking the trouble, they should make a bit of money. The good thing about a community like TE is that most are aware of pricing and pricing trends, so a good offer is easier to spot, and a fake is quite easy to tell.
c. I am entertaining a pretty large audience of members over the next two days at the sale location, and would be glad to show my work badge - and those visitors would get the idea that a person with a multiple lakh rupees invested in audiophile equipment, musical instruments, and PC hardware, would have accumulated a pretty large surplus. I am sufficiently paid in my day job - which involves fooling people into thinking they want things they really don't want - to go around doing this to make money. In short, I don't need the money, but people might need the hardware, and it's decent quality enough to warrant a bit of compensation. If this is not enough to give you confirmation, call up Gulbir and ask him who I am, by name. I have been buying stuff from his shop for ages, and am his expert audio consultant when he sells to studios and stuff.
4. (yeah I know, two things, right?) As for the number of items on a thread dictating the fees, if I was smart I'd split my subjects into multiple threads, or post different things on different days. That is not the real answer - the real answer is in self-regulation and vigilant members. Profiteers have very clear posting patterns and they can be spotted miles away. I wouldn't be so worried (Jeez, now I sound like a troll).
