[quote name='halcyon1234']Rather than an automatically moderated system which can be easily abused, it would be better to human-moderate users. Anyone who is a (for lack of a better term) "good" user gets an attribute added to their account. Then make the deals forum invisible to anyone without that attribute. It's all perfectly supported by the software. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a "web of trust" feature. Anyone who is a "good" member can give the flag to someone who isn't. (Ideally, that second member couldn't give the flag until they too achieve "good" standing).
The delicate balance here is that CAG is all about letting gamers know about deals. This information, to this point, has been public, benefiting all. Unfortunately hoarders are members of the public. The only way to cut them off is to cut off the public. Is the benefit of having a private, moderated forum greater than the risk of losing the support, viewership and input of the public?
What if any deal more than 1 day old gets moved from the private to the public forum? It would let a CAG member get the game or two they want without impedance, and then would let the public rip it apart the next day.
The public should be encouraged to submit and share deals in the public forum. It has to be assumed that any deal posted there will be hoarded-- and also that it is public knowledge available at any other site. It would serve as a "proving ground" more than anything else.
Oh yeah, and if you ever wanted to weed out any leaks from the public site, that's pretty easy. Create a custom plug-in that will insert a random error or two into a "seeded" deal (change the penny value, drop a vowel, etc). Each error is unique per account. Then if a private deal shows up on another site, just run the errors through the error detector, and it will let you know which account leaked it. It will catch anyone who copy&paste it.[/quote]
i understand what you're saying, and yes, people hoarding stuff sucks, but the reality is that these sales and deals are public sales and deals. i would very much doubt that guarding information that is posted here would stop them from being posted on rfd.
making it a private forum, viewable to anyone who signs up, i can see being fine, but anything else seems like it'd hurt the cag community more than it would help it. if people want to sign up just to check the forum every other day to see what deals are happening that particular week, i say so be it.
also, i don't think there's a good way to define 'good' user. i mean, if someone comes here every day, but posts once every two or three weeks, yet never posts things on rfd and never buys more than one copy of a game that's on sale, are they a good or bad user? they're not contributing really at all, but i'd say they're using the forum as it's intended in my opinion.
i think there's a really good community here, and everyone seems to look out for other people's best interests. i think a move to make this community more exclusive is unnecessary. sure, there are probably some people who sign up just to read the threads and in turn, they maybe hoard stuff or post on rfd (the latter i don't see as a problem because a ton of rfd deals are posted there first and then posted here), but i would guess that's a very low percentage of members, probably in the 1-2% range.
sorry, that got a lot longer than i intended...just my 2 cents.
it, I'm picking up GRAW & RSV.