rivka

I might get flamed for this, but...I'm really not seeing that -- I just looked through the most recent 10 items being sold, and just about all of them are from people who have at least a few dozen posts. A lot of people, such as myself, do not post a lot on the forum, but read it regularly every single day (sometimes several times a day, in my case!) Do you have to have a post count over 1000 to be a "real" member?

I can understand the concerns if the very first post that someone makes is to sell something (but hey, I did that myself, and I'm still around), or if the only posts they make are to sell items, but again, I'm not seeing much of that. I do think that there are a lot of people who don't post regularly who are posting items to sell right now, probably because the holidays are over and they're looking to get rid of duplicate items/gifts or just doing spring cleaning.

There are also thousands of members on this site -- just because you don't recognize the name doesn't mean they aren't a regular member. I think there's a tendency in forums like this for people to be clique-ish -- which is understandable, because of course, you're going to feel more comfortable with those that you talk to regularly and who have thousands of posts. But there's always a danger in making people who don't post regularly feel like their opinions or activity within the forum aren't valid by dismissing them for not having enough posts. Not saying that's what anyone is trying to do, but I've seen it happen on many other forums, and I'd hate to see it here.

Your points about buying from someone online whom you don't know are very valid, though. You should always approach doing so with caution.