I understand your concerns, let me address them.
Would you buy something, sight unseen, made by a person whose work you had never seen in person, who has no established reputation?
How then do you explain sites like Craigslist, Ebay, Etsy, etc? People buy handmade products through these sites without knowing the seller. It's a bit much, too, to say that the products are "site unseen" -- that's what photos are for.
Would you send them a check, waiting for it to clear before the merchandise is shipped, give them your name and address, all without any fear of being scammed, or worse?
Again, how do you explain many other sites that are run in this fashion? Ebay, for years before Paypal came along, ran in exactly this fashion, and yet people still bought stuff through there. I myself bought a $1500 sewing machine, site unseen, from a complete stranger over email just last week. Believe it or not, there are plenty of people that purchase things this way; there are also ways to give as much information to the buyer as possible to help mitigate their concerns, whether it's through feedback, detailed profiles, etc.
And if all that went well, what if what you bought was awful? How do you get your money back? Are you stuck with what you got?
This is a risk that any online buyer takes when buying something online. There's a decent amount of traffic and sales for sites like Etsy, Craigslist, and Ebay to suggest that there
are people out there buying craft products in this manner. To make such products safer for purchasing, I will encourage sellers to upload multiple high-quality images of their product so that people have the best chance of seeing what they are buying.
You'd best check with an attorney because I think this is a critical misunderstanding on your part. You facilitated the arrangement, you have liability.
Again, how do you explain sites like Craigslist, Etsy, etc? It clearly states in their TOS that they assume no responsibility for agreements between buyer/seller. How does a site like this handle agreements between people in the advertising forum? I would obviously speak to an attorney to craft my own TOS that would absolve me of responsibility.
If those other site "owners" are paying you for space and bandwidth on the server, you had best make sure your accounting records are as clear and clean as the Alaskan sky
I'm not sure what gave you the idea that I have other site owners on my server. All of the sites on my server are owned by me.
How will you protect yourself from disgruntled sellers when the server has problems?
My server hasn't had downtime in over a year. I have a full-time system administrator overseeing it. Sites go down and have issues, yes, but in my experience, most people are understanding about it if it's explained, and quickly resolved.
Assuming they are, it makes no sense at all for you to propose doing this at no cost to the sellers.
It's my way of giving back to the quilting community; making websites is also my hobby. You're using this very site right now, yet do you ever wonder to yourself, why did the person who runs this site set it up? The amount of time to moderate it and oversee it is also sizable for them, and I'm sure it costs them a certain amount of money to have it hosted. The ads on the page probably generate very little. Sometimes people just like creating sites that are useful to other people, with nothing in return. Wacky concept, I know.
There will be substantial investments of time and resources that you will not recoup otherwise...How will you cover utility charges when they rise due to increased useage? How will you pay for your time spent on set-up, maintenance, updates, paperwork, all that stuff?
The initial outlay of time is sizable, but it's something I enjoy doing. I'm not looking to get paid for doing this (it may seem very strange to people whose mindset is "time is money.") If you're sitting there thinking, she's nuts, why would she do that -- one of my other sites, a fan site, is a culmination of literally thousands of hours of work. I make no money on it. It's just what I do. And hey, it's a good resume builder ;)
As far as investment, the only initial investment is my time. I already rent a top of the line server. It has plenty of space, and could hold a very large and traffic-busy site with no problem -- it would take a
very large site to cause further charges for increased usage. And again, quilters on the whole are a good bunch, from what I've seen -- if someone sells several quilts on the site, I have no doubt that some of them will be of a generous mindset and send a donation; if I can recoup some or all of my server costs through donations, I'll consider my initial outlay of time well spent. And as I already stated, if the site grows substantially to the point where I need to increase server size or bandwidth, then I probably would change my no-fees policy.
Have you ever met anyone who has gone online looking for a handcrafted quilt made by an unknown artist?
I just asked this very question of my friends on Facebook -- 3 people responded that yes, they had bought a quilt online. One of them bought on Ebay, one on Etsy, and another through a local seller. All of them, when they were looking, just went to Google and typed in "quilts for sale" or something similar. That's how lots of people nowadays buy just about anything -- they look online. Quilters know that much of what they make is art, and that it should be treated as such -- I think you're expecting a lot of the general public to have that same mindset; they just know they have something they want to buy, and they want to find someone who sells it. While I've done no specific research on quilt buying, the company I work for has done a great deal of market research in general on buying practices of the online public, and I do think that this is a viable site idea based on that information.
It just seems to me that a "quilt specific" online sales site featuring quilts by 'not yet established' makers, while being a wonderful idea for the makers, would not generate much interest at all in the buying public. You have a better chance of selling through a blog where the buyer can get to "know" you before buying.
Again, I think that you're making assumptions yourself. If that is true, then how do you explain the sales of quilts on places like Ebay, Etsy, etc? And there's no reason that sellers can't link to their own blogs so that sellers have more information about them before purchasing. There would also be a rating/feedback system, similar to Ebay, so that over time, a seller could build up their feedback rating. Would it take time to build up the site's reputation and that of the sellers -- absolutely. Don't forget -- every site out there that is a behemoth now was once just a small unknown site once upon a time.
I'm not expecting to build the next Ebay that will require hundreds of servers bound together and a staff of hundreds -- this will be a niche site that will offer another option to people looking to sell their quilts -- there's nothing preventing them from also listing their items on Ebay, Etsy, wherever as well; if it's not used and gets no traffic, who is harmed by this? Only myself by putting time and effort into it.
That's all I am doing here, so please do not take offense. You need to consider all sides of this proposal, not just the milk and honey side.
No offense taken, and I can understand your concerns. I hope I have addressed some of them.