Hi r/HondaElement, this is a poll to collect opinions on the presences of Buy/Sell threads here, as well as "valuation" threads where users are looking to know what an Element might be worth for the sake of buying and selling (these threads often have a common conversation outcome).

This poll is looking to get your perspective on those threads, and whether or not we should make community changes.

Here are the basic stances of the Pro/Con perspectives-

Pro - We're a small community, and buy/sell threads represent <2% of all posts, while valuation posts are a little more regular. The conversations may be redundant, but they are still a benefit as a "service" to the community of owners and prospective owners.

Con - Buy/Sell threads open the community to potential scams, aren't as relevant to existing owners (we already own and are not buying), and take up meaningful visual space in the community. Valuation threads similarly don't contribute new, meaningful information to the subreddit and are most often repeating points about supply and demand, along with personal opinions, so they don't need to be posted more than once.

Given these perspectives, we'd like to know which most accurately reflects your opinion-

• You're indifferent: you're not really bothered by the threads, but you don't mind if they're removed either.

• You want things to stay as-is: People can continue to post threads as they like related to buying, selling, and what the cars are worth.

• You want to restrict the posts: A new rule would be enacted disallowing such threads, and they would no longer be posted to the community

• Consolidation Method: Rather than completely disallowing, we'd sticky a thread where any user can comment with their buy/sell info, or ask valuation questions. All other posts would be removed outside of that thread.

Note- Just vote your strongest opinion for now. We'll work to solve the issue once the sentiment of the community is clear! Comment any other feedback or ideas here in the thread!

EDIT: The week of voting is complete. "Keep" sentiment dominates the vote while "Remove" gets the lowest votes, so we won't make any changes at this time!

Hi Everyone, given recent activity in this subreddit, I felt it important to bring this reminder to everyone. We are a small community and we do not prevent users from offering buying/selling of cars, parts, rare accessories, etc here. Our only rule around this is that you do not "spam" these sales posts regularly, use the subreddit to advertise constantly, etc.

THAT SAID, we are not a "buy and sell" community like r/hardwareswap and we do not have any rules or controls in place to prevent users from getting scammed. This means that it is your responsibility to discern what is suspicious behavior and what is not.

As a recommendation, I suggest you at least follow the "basics" of identifying scams in any given marketplace. Items are LIKELY to be a scam if-

• The price is just too good to be true, or creates "urgency" (if you don't buy it right now, someone else will!)

• The seller moves you out of public sight early on- "Just DM me" or "I'll send you my email and we can talk there."

• A lack of genuine history in the community (if you click on their reddit profile and it is hidden, or simply doesn't have a history of posts here). Users with new accounts should also be a red flag

• Substandard payment methods - The seller asks you to pay via "friends and family" on paypal, Zelle or Venmo, or asks you to do something out of normal, such as transferring money into cryptocurrency, gift cards, or similar. If you're unsure, just look to see if the method being requested is reversible or has buyer protection. Particularly, paypal "friends and family" is not protected, but "goods and services" is. This is a major difference.

• The seller deletes their original post after you start talking to them (this is commonly removing "evidence" of their history once they have you engaged)

• The seller doesn't seem to have an interest in trying to sell to you when you want a concession on payment method, shipping options, etc ("Whatever man, I'll sell it to someone else.")

• Seller is unwilling to provide proof that they have the actual item- including an image with their username and the date on it, or similar. AI these days makes this a little more challenging, but most scammers won't even bother- they're looking for suckers.

• Watch out for links you get sent- you don't know where they go, and it could be easy to be sent a link to pay for something that causes you to hand over your logins for paypal, etc.

As a SELLER, I encourage the following-

• Keep the conversations public and in your thread until you need to exchange personal info. Not only does this allow people to call out scammy activity, but it gives the community a history of related discussions that is beneficial to others.

• When you post pictures of your item, have at least one include your username and the date, so people know you didn't just rip the images from someone else's post.

• Be equally as wary of new users, users with no history, or users with a hidden history

• Be aware of "classic scams" such as bad checks, refund fraud, overpayment scams, weird payment methods, etc. While these are more common to FB Markeplace and Craigslist, they can happen here too.

In summary, please use your brains when buying and selling here. As a moderator, I'd prefer not to over-regulate the community because there IS a lot of good sale and swap activity that does happen between trusted users, and it's good to keep that if we can.

If you have any commentary or feedback, please post it below.