4 ms·

A marketplace startup is a tough business, because you not only have attract buyers and sellers, you need to police scammers. Even Ebay/Amazon doesn't have a h

A marketplace startup is a tough business, because you not only have attract buyers and sellers, you need to police scammers. Even Ebay/Amazon doesn't have a handle on this completely and they ARE billion dollar marketplaces.

echelon 7y ago
I'm not sure why your comment was flagged / dead. It seems pertinent and on point.
- russiansanders 7y ago
  I'm not sure why it's been flagged either. For me, it shows it's been upvoted. Very strange behavior on HN.
  - echelon 7y ago
    You're being targeted. This comment was dead too. :(
    - j45 7y ago
      Sad thAt this kind of immature behaviour is on HN. Mods should be easily able to search for this kind of behaviour
      - j45 7y ago
        How nice to be downvoted for this comment.
    - dredmorbius 7y ago
      "Dead" indicates an account-level filter, not flags applied to a specific comment. Often this is based on prior history, based on exchanges with admins. It's possible for accounts/users to be rehabilitated. "Vouch" actions or emailing mods can have effects.
  - Scoundreller 7y ago
    Just a new user thing probably. It’s been resurrected.
    - echelon 7y ago
      I had to click "vouch", because the comment was dead :/
      - grzm 7y ago
        Sometimes new accounts get (mistakenly) caught in anti-abuse filters. If it was [dead], that’s likely what happened. If it was [flagged][dead], it was the result of user action. In those cases, vouch as you did. You can also email the mods using the Contact link in the footer to make them aware so they can take a look at what’s going on.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
j45 7y ago
Nothing big or complicated is easy
nrp 7y ago
It would be interesting to see examples of the alternatives. That is, marketplaces that failed due to scammers, marketplaces that succeeded by heavily curating to block scammers, and marketplaces that failed due to excessive curation while trying to stop scammers. I wonder if scamming is actually a symptom of a successful marketplace. Scammers presumably have to think through their opportunity costs and would want to focus on marketplaces with many buyers and sellers and high transaction volume.
- everdev 7y ago
  > I wonder if scamming is actually a symptom of a successful marketplace. For new marketplaces the risk and reward are pretty low. For mature marketplaces the reward is much higher and the risks probably vary based on your home country. The ideal for a scammer is probably a site with good enough security to remove most scammers but not good enough to remove you.
- arsenico 7y ago
  > marketplaces that succeeded by heavily curating to block scammers Think about Uber as a marketplace which heavily curates scammers, success is a matter of many discussions though.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

echelon 7y ago

I'm not sure why your comment was flagged / dead. It seems pertinent and on point.

russiansanders 7y ago
I'm not sure why it's been flagged either. For me, it shows it's been upvoted. Very strange behavior on HN.
- echelon 7y ago
  You're being targeted. This comment was dead too. :(
  - j45 7y ago
    Sad thAt this kind of immature behaviour is on HN. Mods should be easily able to search for this kind of behaviour
    - j45 7y ago
      How nice to be downvoted for this comment.
  - dredmorbius 7y ago
    "Dead" indicates an account-level filter, not flags applied to a specific comment. Often this is based on prior history, based on exchanges with admins. It's possible for accounts/users to be rehabilitated. "Vouch" actions or emailing mods can have effects.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  Just a new user thing probably. It’s been resurrected.
  - echelon 7y ago
    I had to click "vouch", because the comment was dead :/
    - grzm 7y ago
      Sometimes new accounts get (mistakenly) caught in anti-abuse filters. If it was [dead], that’s likely what happened. If it was [flagged][dead], it was the result of user action. In those cases, vouch as you did. You can also email the mods using the Contact link in the footer to make them aware so they can take a look at what’s going on.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

j45 7y ago

Nothing big or complicated is easy

nrp 7y ago

It would be interesting to see examples of the alternatives. That is, marketplaces that failed due to scammers, marketplaces that succeeded by heavily curating to block scammers, and marketplaces that failed due to excessive curation while trying to stop scammers. I wonder if scamming is actually a symptom of a successful marketplace. Scammers presumably have to think through their opportunity costs and would want to focus on marketplaces with many buyers and sellers and high transaction volume.

everdev 7y ago
> I wonder if scamming is actually a symptom of a successful marketplace. For new marketplaces the risk and reward are pretty low. For mature marketplaces the reward is much higher and the risks probably vary based on your home country. The ideal for a scammer is probably a site with good enough security to remove most scammers but not good enough to remove you.
arsenico 7y ago
> marketplaces that succeeded by heavily curating to block scammers Think about Uber as a marketplace which heavily curates scammers, success is a matter of many discussions though.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]