Quote Originally Posted by STL View Post
Here's one that really bugs me, I saw it last night in the "who is online subsection"

http://www.otca.com.au/boards/member.php?u=212

He's a seller from Japan. I'm not sure if he's in Australia but why the heck are we letting guys like this in? I remember there was a thread about letting O/S fans in and there was overall a negative sentiment in. But we're going to let a foreigner who sells/scupts in ahead of international fans?

I'm not sure if there's more to it but prima facie I was a bit disappointed.

I'd much prefer to have international fans in than scalpers frequenting our boards and such. I've bought from him before, mind you and I'm happy w. the transaction and price but I just don't think it's right having some seller here ahead of other fans who could contribute to the depth and diversity of discussion on the board.
First up, the issue of 'foreign fans' which we discussed and voted on, related to fans outside of our Australasian region, which is why we have members from New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and now China and Japan.
Due to the language barrier, I'm not worried that we will be flooded by non-Australians wanting to join, but if we did see a large proportion of fans joining from other countries, the issue would be re-opened by *the board staff* for further discussion.
But most of those outside of Australia haven't interacted much here for us to worry about non-local focus in the discussion, and as such, they would probably be deleted after a year or so of inactivity (as per the board user guide).

Secondly, the claim that the new guy from Japan is just a dealer or scalper, or only joined here to spam us with sale postings - totally uncalled for when it is just based on their one posting, that outlines their version of an existing accusation against them.
There has been no indication yet that they joined just to sell stuff, and I would like to point out that during the registration processing procedure, this is something that is assessed, to the extent that in the last month I have denied a few people access who wanted to register on the sole intention of advertising their sale items. I don't see the need for me to post up about every time I reject a toy dealer/scalper, nor is .
Also, it doesn't seem fair to accuse this person of something they haven't yet done, and not actually have a go at the number of toy dealers we already have on here, including several who had in their first postings, a sale listing or an intention to sell stuff. Not to mention one newbie I almost removed because their sales related postings were so high, they are still hovering at about 50% of their total postings.
But since these are local toy dealers, it seems like there is a bit of a double standard against foreign fans who may be toy dealers.
Just scroll through the Sales section to see some common names posting there, and not much in other sections. I'm not saying to target them now, but at least have some consistency if you have a problem with one toy dealer. And many of those (including myself) who sell toys, either regularly or irregularly, are fans, but it takes the registration procedure to make it a little easier to spot the toy scalpers who are not fans or likely to interact here as a fan.

If it helps reassure existing members here that a newbie isn't just registering to sell stuff, we could instigate a minimum time or post requirement before they advertise to anything. I'd be happy to have something like that in force, even if several of the *local* members would have failed that requirement if it had existed when they joined.