Pirates and Frugality

Started by featherplucknfilms, April 20, 2007, 08:05:45 pm

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featherplucknfilms

I just wanted to voice some concern I've had about the state of the forum. 
The first has to do with pirates.  I know many of you really love pirates and the laughter they evoke, and that has shown with the amount of talk and response to the pirate threads.   To me, they really shouldn't be acknowledged alongside the legit games, so because of this, and the amount of talk about them, I feel there should be another category dedicated to pirates.  Having the forum be dominated by chat about pirates demotes the integrity of the site. 
The second is about people asking for games at dirt cheap prices. There's not much I can think of for a solution, but I just find it annoying to constantly see people asking for items cheaper than their worth, and directing people to ebay and other stores just to be replied with complaints of it being too expensive. I don't want to be rude, but if you can't accept the costs of collecting something imported then you probably should go to the Emulation Zone and get downloading. 

kite200

I approve of the above post.
ステキ

JC

April 20, 2007, 10:22:40 pm #2 Last Edit: April 20, 2007, 10:32:26 pm by JC
Legitimate concerns, featherpluck. :)

As to your first point about pirates...all I can say is that the forum is not dedicated to anything other than the Famicom. People can talk about whatever they want. In other words, the forum's topics/posts are guided by the "market" -- what people want to talk about the forum will accept, period. It can't be any other way. I make every effort to ensure that the majority of the chat about pirates is limited to the thread concerning pirates in the Famicom/FDS board...sure you may hear about pirates elsewhere (feather, you just posted about pirates you were selling). I like pirates, and so do many members. But anytime someone wants to talk about legit Famicom stuff, they can. There's no restrictions on that. Again, the forum is guided by the conversation "market."

Also, about the first point...You'd like a pirate board. I appreciate that you offered a solution, since many people would just complain and not offer a solution. This new board will have to be considered by the staff and mods. If we find that it's necessary, then we'll create it. I hesitate to have a pirate board because, if as you say, a lot of posts are about pirates, then some of the other boards might slow or die because of a pirate board. The only thing worse than a forum dominated by pirates might be a forum that looks (and partly is) slow or dead.

As to the second point...there's nothing we can do about tight-wads. If you are personally having a problem with members PMing you or e-mailing you, let us know that. We can work out solutions with you. If you are addressing that problem generally, we can't do anything.  Being a seller of gaming-related goods can be tough because young people collect and play...and young people don't have lots of money. And all people, young and old, simply want things for free -- everyone's looking for the best deal. I imagine some sellers stop selling for this very reason.

Again, thanks for posting your concerns. :)

EDIT: I just had a thought that might dovetail your concerns. If legit Famicom stuff is priced too high for some of us, then maybe pirate stuff is what we can afford. Therefore, pirate stuff is what we'll talk about since it's what we have in our collections.

featherplucknfilms

Haha, right. But the way pirates of mine have been selling, doesn't seem like people are holding their wallets back on them.  I understand about the tightwad stuff. There is no real solution and it's no one in particular, just generally I find it to be somewhat irritating, so just wanted to vent on that and maybe someone will read it. 
I also completely understand this is Famicom World and pirates are a part of the Famicom world, and should be. But, do please take the separate Pirate board seriously.  It's a legitimate concern to feel that four separate boards may seem slower than throwing the same amount of posts into one board, but, in my eyes, that also causes clutter.  At one point it seemed like the  selling/buying board had been combined with the auction board, but now it back to three again, maybe that was an error but I thought that was a good move.  Then you could still have three boards; FC/FDS, Buy/Sell/Trade/Ebay, and Pirates.  To me, if I want to learn about or talk about pirate stuff I'd like to just go to a place that has pirate posts.  I guess it's just that I feel in this Famicom World, pirates and legits are two separate continents.

manuel

I'm feeling exactly like featherplucknfilms.
Of course pirated games are a part of the Famicom world, but maybe they should be seperated.
I myself am more interested in the regular, official stuff than in pirated games.

It's unfortunate, but you can't do nothing against tightwads. Those would like everyting for free if possible. ;) Just ignore 'em. :D

featherplucknfilms

Well, I don't like RPG's so lets make a separate board for them too, along with your FDS board.  Just do it and let's not argue.

Doc

I said that I wasn't going to make too many boards, because it makes the boards look tacky. Making a seperate FDS board, and a seperate pirates board, would look really tacky. Plus then I'd have to find and move EVERY find focusing on pirates and the Disk System, EVERY post in the "last game you played" thread to the FDS section since it's pretty obvious that someone will want to make a thread about "last FDS game you played", and much more tedious work. It's not like a mystical genie magically transports the posts into different sections by itself if I were to do so...it's not that easy, yet. (Who wouldn't love for that to happen... ;D)

In a nutshell: Too much work, makes the board look tacky.

kite200

I agree with kris, and manuel. I think the pirates should be a seperate board. I dont think it would detract from the overall integrety of the site to seperate them. If someone wanted to talk about a pirate, or wanted to find information on a hack or something, they could go to the "Pirates and Hacks" board. If they wanted to talk about official stuff, they could go to the "Famicom / Famicom disk system" board. This isn't that big a deal, and its only a click of a button to add the new forum. It could be argued that Updates and Suggestions should be merged into the same board, or that Buy Sell Trade and Auction Auction should be merged, but they are kept seperate. I think the same way of thinking should be applied here.

As to frugality, I agree, it's reaching amazing levels. For example, there is a topic on this board about buying a loose AV famicom. Note loose. No one sells these loose, except japangamestock. So, I linked there, now, it was a problem that it was 80 dollars. If you think about it, yes, you can get it for cheaper complete on an auction site. But, the issue here is that they wanted it loose. They didn't do any research to realize that was absurd, but it was too much when I replied with the only way to get it like that. In addition, it doesnt help when there are people asking for 25 dollar famicoms on the boards. You wont get it for that much unless it is urine colored and the metal on the controllers is scratched to hell, and maybe the reset button is broken or something. and no eject button. Something like that. I completely agree with kris' legitimate concerns and I dont think it's nessacary to just bash his idea's, they're the right way to go.

At the very least, he offered a solution for the pirate concern.
On the matter of frugality, you should make a sticky in the buy sell trade or auction auction forum, that states the price points for official hardware items. Here, i'll do it for you. All of these prices are what I would deem acceptable to pay, and generally you wouldnt find the item for less. GENERALLY.


LOOSE FAMICOM: 40-80 dollars depending upon time of year
LOOSE DISK SYSTEM (NON WORKING) 5 - 10 dollars.
LOOSE DISK SYSTEM (WORKING) 30ish dollars
LOOSE TWIN FAMICOM (BROKEN DISK DRIVE): 65
LOOSE TWIN FAMICOM (WORKING): 95-130
LOOSE AV: 50-70
LOOSE BASIC: 50
LOOSE GUN: 50
LOOSE 3d: 15
CIB FAMICOM: 80-150
CIB DISK SYSTEM (NON WORKING) 20ish
CIB DISK SYSTEM (WORKING) 100-120
CIB TWIN FAMICOM: 100-150 depending upon time of year
CIB AV: 100
CIB BASIC: 70-100
CIB 3d: 30
CIB GUN: 50-100
NEW FAMICOM: 200+ probably
NEW AV: GENERALLY 150
NEW DISK SYSTEM: 150-200
NEW FAMICOM BASIC: 70-150
NEW 3d: 40
NEW GUN: 200+
NEW GYROMITE OR STACK UP: 50ish
NEW ROB: 200ish

SQUARE BUTTON CIB: 200-300
TITLER: ESTIMATED 200


CIB WILD GUNMAN: 150
NEW WILD GUNMAN: 500+


This is by no means 100% accurate, but its just what I see to be fit. Also, it obviouslly does not feature everything, just common items that people would ask a pricepoint of.



ステキ

JC

Ok. I think we've discussed this enough to pretty much know where we're going to go with it.

It sounds to me from talk in this thread and in conversations I've had through PMs/IMs, etc. that there will not at this time be a pirate board. The suggestion and arguments for it have been taken into account and are appreciated. What will happen? Well, the mods will make every effort they can to ensure that talk about pirates is kept in its appropriate thread as much as is deemed necessary. There will be talk about pirates elsewhere on the forum. For those of you who don't like it, it will continue to rear its ugly head, for now.

As for the issue of frugality...I will implement kite's suggestion of creating a price list thread. I think the idea is very good, even if we won't have exact prices for items because of fluctuation. I will lock the thread to conversation so that the thread exists "for the record" and so people can't complain about the prices. I do encourage members to PM me if they think a price on the list is too high/too low or if they want me to add an item/price to the list.

Unless you have something highly relevant and useful to add, please do not reply.