The fall of AmiBay

[Nobby_UK]

I got a 'We miss you' e-mail from them today
Had a quick look around --- not much doing

As to being Over Moderated vs Community...
where money is concerned community goes out the window

and yes it is quite slow and my browser did warn me
before I entered my ID + Password.

[crazyc]

Originally Posted by sparhawk

What I also find a bit annoying is, that I always see this endless banner of rules. I mean, I already read it once, so why do I have to be hit in the face with it, everytime I load a page?

I have to say I dislike that banner as well but I often browse using tapatalk so don't see it then. I think it got put there not long ago due to the inordinate number of people just disregarding the rules and claiming ignorance despite having seen them when they signed up.

[seb132]

Yes it’s slow.
Yes it’s picky with email addresses (hotmail).
Yes there is now lots of people and it’s hard to be first in line sometimes.
Yes the sellers never look at the « wanted » threads and those threads are a bit useless.
BUT
I have purchased there (I’m not a seller, just a hoar.. buyer!) for 10 years without any single issue. Never been cheated, never been scammed.
I’ve bought A LOT on Amibay, and from sellers from every continents, and I missed at least 3 times more sales for coming too late. Lol
The moderation has slightly been reinforced but it doesn’t bother me. The society has changed and the new comers on Amibay don’t read rules and just want to do one sale and go... perhaps more risks but I don’t see the extra-moderation being a real issue...
Now Facebook is taking over but requires to be even faster to react — very hard and frustrating. So be it.
I tend now to buy stuff from people I already bought from and that’s it.
... a new modern server would be a good idea though, but how do you do when everyone expects to have everything for free nowadays ? I wouldn’t mind some advertisement to pay for that, and some premium accounts if you donate so you see less ads... not sure why they don’t go this way...
I still like that it’s still up after so many years.

[trixster]

Been using it for years, never had any problems, bought and sold loads of stuff on there. It’s a good resource. Yeah the prices have increased and it’s a scramble for some of the better priced stuff, but I’d hardly call it a ‘fall’.

[crazyc]

Originally Posted by trixster

been using it for years, never had any problems, bought and sold loads of stuff on there. It’s a good resource. Yeah the prices have increased and it’s a scramble for some of the better priced stuff, but i’d hardly call it a ‘fall’.

+1

[sardine]

I'm monitoring the Amibay email address, I get 2 or 3 a day for failed signups and respond ( sometimes in minutes ) but usually the same day.

We are battling an aging server without any or little support from the Dev. We survive on donations and work for free in our spare time.

There is a LARGE list of to-do's some from 2018 still not fixed like the SSL as stated in this thread. ( yes we have been trying since 2018 to get that fixed ) as well as the "spam" detector throwing its toys out the pram for hotmail , gmail or anyone with in IP6 IP address, if you think its frustrating for you then you might look at it from our point of view, its just embarrassing and extra work for us to sort out.

we have also been trying to upgrade the server since again 2018, we are hitting are heads against a brick wall of excuses from the Dev. It's got so bad we have stepped from behind closed doors and posted publicly our Dev issues in the hopes to light a fire under him to do well anything.


with the influx of new members the "rules" have been ignored to many times and we basically got fed up "reminding" some members and chasing scammers praying on members so we all agreed to a zero tolerance.

The rules are there for a reason I agree with but some don't like them, Amibay is not for everyone.

It's almost impossible to get scammed on Amibay "IF" the rules are followed.

There has not been a single "BOT" on the site for at least 5 years, EVERY signup is done by hand and checked ( where most of the failures are found )

This has been done for the last 3 years by me and Davideo, in our spare time with help from the other staff when they can spare the time. I have a job and a family like almost everyone else.

We now have 3 very active Admins. just no Dev to speak of.

During signup filling in your country as "planet earth" or city as "here" will get your signup refused, each signup has to have a verifiable location ( within reason ) the correct country and region is a must.

If your "NEW" then for the first 10 feedback you must photo the item with a piece of paper showing 3 items of proof , "Amibay" , "member name" , " date", this only proves the item was in the possession of the seller at the time of the photo, it doesnt mean its since been sold on eBay or elsewhere, but it proves the seller had it at the time. This is to try and stop " photo theft" using old photos from other members or websites to sell fictitious items.

we "STRESS" use a protected payment method, we have it stickied in every sales sub forum and because SO many where falling foul of this ( hastily sending hundreds of euros' dollars whatever via gift or Iban ) we recently instigated a "Notice" you had to either read or click away reminding to protect yourselves.


we won't monitor payments as gift or IBAN that's up to you, if the seller accepts magic beans or chocolate cookies so be it thats between the seller / buyer just protect yourself if your sending lots of chocolate cookies in one go.



As for fixed prices, we don't allow price discussion for one reason, artificially inflating an items price. eBay does that quite nicely on its own.

we don't allow "hey I have the R@RE super retro LOML one of a KIND never to bee seen item so it must be worth £999999999999 "

you have an item and you want £50 then it sells for £50 in a fair queue system not who has the deepest pockets.

We have an issue with the "entitled rich" , it's no fair that an item you want is worth about £50 and it's an ok deal then mr rich pops in offers £100 and vacuums it up right in front of you, again eBay can deal with that, and now that item is suddenly worth £100 ?? i don't think so.


The infraction system is used because the same mod / admin might not deal with the same person then its a history that can be viewed to see if the same member is ignoring the rules repeatedly.

20 points get you banned as does a member in this thread quite well know about "none delivery of goods" and banned.

2 points is nothing, a reminder and the 2 points expire in 2 weeks and only the admins can see the points no other member will be aware of this.

99% of the time the reply is "oh sorry i forgot" but the 1% throw their toys out of the pram.

[Firestone]

I've had several successful transactions on Amibay (both as seller and buyer) and have not had any problems with it.
But something has happened the last year, the site has become extremely slow for some reason.

I remember when registering all these rules I needed to know about to understand the disipline on the site, and now that I know the rules, it's no problem.

But I have always felt that the platform Amibay is running on is unsuited for their purpose. As a forum, yes it works great, but as an auction/selling site, I feel that there may be some better solutions out there.
For example an easier way to express interest instead of writing "interested, next in line" and so on.
It works fine as long as everyone follows the same path, but when new users arrive, there is always something for the moderators to pick on

Except this, great site.

[fxgogo]

Originally Posted by sardine

I'm monitoring the Amibay...
99% of the time the reply is "oh sorry i forgot" but the 1% throw their toys out of the pram.

Thanks for the information sardine. Sounds like the chief problem is a lack of development progress. I am sure all of us Amigans can come together to get this sorted?

[redblade]

@sardine: Thanks for your post, it is interesting to read about what is happening behind the scenes.

I've brought two products off there and A1200 (UK), and a Blizzard 1220/4, If I had waited a month I could have got a Blizzard 1220/4 with a FPU.

I had no problems with the purchase, registering was a bit of a hassle until I found the Amibay thread on this page and Davideo verified me straight away. I find it funny people register here to register on Amibay.

[sardine]

I don't understand why its so hard to register when you fail the registration the contact us form and the email address is right there to contact us, we check the email daily.

[davideo]

Originally Posted by redblade

... registering was a bit of a hassle until I found the Amibay thread on this page and Davideo verified me straight away. I find it funny people register here to register on Amibay.

The registration process has got easier since Sardine and Merlin stepped in to monitor the Admin Email box

As Sardine has stated we are looking at upgrading and possible moving our server to a better and faster system.

Hopefully we'll be moving forward soon

[seb132]

The real and only annoying issue I have with Amibay (and that I even forgot in my long post above, lol) is the limitation of the PM mailbox... ridiculously low.... Can’t that be changed, seriously???

[Overmann]

Amibay is my goto for almost everything in retro computing. I love it! The support forums are also really helpful. Lots of great people on there and a great site for finding prebuild opensource hardware. It has problems, sure, but I don't think it's "fall"-ing. There are no alternatives. Nothing comes close to it. I've had my wanted thread replied to more times then not, and I've never dealt with a seller who wasn't as passionate about my experience as I am

[fatbob_gb]

Originally Posted by cloverskull

Anyone else notice AmiBay:

1. Isn't https enabled

Looks like this has now been remedied.

[cloverskull]

Wow, looks like my rant had some positive downstream effects

[Pyromania]

Originally Posted by fatbob_gb

Looks like this has now been remedied.

It's literally 3 minutes or less of work.

[E-Penguin]

I've never had a bad experience in terms of buying, but the rules are draconian.

[Twiggy]

Only ever had good experiences myself. A very generous user even fixed some bits and bobs for free. Extremely nice guy.

[Steffest]

I only had positive experiences with Amibay.
Yes, It can be quite slow, but their selling and buying rules are spot on and very fair.
I monitor their sale posts daily because I like their "fixed price" and "first come, first served" rules. Much more usable then e.g. ebay or other platform that are just designed to inflate prices.

@amibay - if you ever have a need for a webdev, feel free to reach out, I'll be happy to help.

[Kin Hell]

AmiBay is run by volunteers in their spare time. No one is paid afaik so it isn't a money making organisation.

I'm sure the Dev also requires precious time with his Job & Family life as well.

Rules are there to be followed. - Without Rules, there is Chaos.

The AmiBay Banner is Unique & stands for the late Sarek2k's input to the Site. - Please Show some Respect.

What a shocking Thread Title & Pathetic Winge-fest!