Sonya's quote about selling and buying on SCM forum

[CMhsmomof2]

This is the quote I found.  It was from a discussion entitled Homeschool Port from 5 months ago.  Sorry, I do not know how to link it.

per Sonya in response to thoughts on buying and selling on this forum,

“Thanks for asking, everyone. We encourage you to use sites and groups already set up for buying and selling curriculum, particularly the CMcurricula group, since it is geared toward CM style items. Another possibility might be Homeschool Classifieds. Our heart is to keep this forum a place for encouraging discussion, rather than buying and selling.

That said, we aren’t going to kick you off if you are a regular contributor to the discussions and happen to post an item for sale every once in a while, but please try to use the PM feature in those transactions as much as possible so as not to clutter the main forum pages. “

[missingtheshire]

This was my response to a question I asked about selling, and Sonya’s response…hopefully this makes it clear.

Thanks for clarifying Sonya, I thought that was the case….I think if we have something that we would like to give this community a chance to buy first, we could perhaps put a note up to say please pm me for a list, or some such thing, and then from there on it should be off the forum and dealt with privately. With all the spam out there I would hate to cause this site to get more or have any other issues. I do feel though that sometimes there are ladies on here who would appreciate having first dibs on something prior to putting it on one of the other selling sites….do you think that would be acceptable? Linda

Posted 5 months ago # Report Post

Sonya Shafer

SCM Team

PM this user

Yes, absolutely. What you have described is fine.

[CMhsmomof2]

Linda, what you said sounds great.  I don’t post often, but I do read and enjoy the forum.  This buying and selling and bumping beyond  ONE simple note “I’m selling, please PM if interested” or “you can view my blog for items I’m selling” is driving me away.  Not because it is difficult for me to ignore the topics entitled buying or selling, but because regular readers should know that this isn’t a place to seek out and buy used SCM curricula.  Perhaps those that want to buy and sale used SCM materials regularly (beyond what Sonya approved) could start a yahoo group separate.

Thank you.

[TX-Melissa]

The CMcurricula group seems to be pretty responsive. I listed a few things yesterday and am already off to the post office to mail a couple today. I may post the items that no one there seemed to want on the homeschool classifieds. I haven’t tried that one yet. But I was much more comfortable posting on those designated sites than bringing it here. This is where I learned of those optons, so I figure if folks are looking they know where to go. Just my .02. BTW, if anyone wants to know what the items are that haven’t sold yet, fee free to PM me.  Since I mentioned it. 

🙂 Melissa

[Sue]

I think that most of the questions come up about posting items for sale either when a member is relatively new to this forum, has never considered selling items before, or sufficient time has passed since the last thread mentioning sale items was posted that it’s not something on everyone’s radar screen. If someone posts items for sale complete with titles and prices, it’s probably just because they didn’t realize what the protocols are.

I’m wondering if this might be addressed in a sticky at the top of the forum. I just looked at the Welcome and Guidelines sticky and noticed that buying and selling is not specifically addressed. It’s possible that if something were added to that sticky (as when the link to common forum abbreviations was added), there would still be some forum members who wouldn’t think to look there for guidance before posting sale items. However, it might be helpful for newer members. Or, perhaps a separate sticky might be in order. Not my decision to make–yay, something to cross off my list of heavy things to ponder, LOL!

Just a thought….love this forum!

[missingtheshire]

Personally think that is a great idea Sue, I think you are right, newer people are not familiar with asking people to pm them and keep the actual selling private. The only reason I like to sell on here via the blog I set up especially for that, is because it seems nice to offer things to the CM mom’s on here as we all kind of know each other and it is like doing someone a service. I would hate to see the forum taken over by lists of items for sale, however a brief note saying please pm me for a list, or please check my blog for new items would be a nice thing to have.

Maybe Doug or Sonya could put a note at the top explaining that we need to keep this to private messaging and maybe also mention never add your email address to the open forum due to the risk of spam. Clever you Sue, had not thought of that.

[HiddenJewel]

I will add my 2 cents on this topic. Even if I am looking for items I am most likely not going to respond to a “Send me a PM for a list” posting when I have no idea what it even includes. A general synopsis of “I’m selling Module 4 and related books for grades 4-6. PM me for more information.” makes a whole lot more sense. Then no list has to be included but it gives people an idea what is being offered for sale. Plus as a seller, it saves having to send out 50 lists when most of them may not even apply to the person.

[Doug Smith]

I just discussed this with Sonya and Karen and we think some further clarification is in order.

Our main concern is that we don’t want this place to become a general buying and selling forum. On the other hand, this is a community and it is very natural and helpful to offer your extra materials to others in the community. In light of that, here are a few guidelines:

• We ask that you limit items for sale to things useful for CM homeschooling. For example, this would not be the place to get rid of your old textbook-based, curriculum in a box because you switched to a CM approach.
• Be sure to make it clear in your title that it’s a for-sale post so those not interested can easily ignore it.
• Posting a list of items is okay but be sure to ask those interested to contact you by private message (PM). Please take care of arranging any transactions privately as well. It might also be helpful to add a public comment on your post when everything is sold so everyone knows not to contact you about it anymore.

We’ll start with that and make adjustments if needed or if something gets out of hand.

Does that make sense? Do any of you have additional thoughts before we add a short statement to the sticky welcome message?

[missingtheshire]

That works for a lot of people, however for some of us not so much…I understand your point though. I have been selling a variety of things because I am now purging a lot of things from the last years of homeschooling. I use a blog, so as not to have to send lists, maybe it is easier to send someone to a blog – I don’t know. I will only have one more list on my blog in the future and then I will be done but I still think it is nice to make the offer on here first in a way that works for people.

[HiddenJewel]

Some groups I am on limit For Sale postings to one day a week. So that is an option for controlling the volume as well.

[missingtheshire]

Great ideas Doug, and the extra clarification is good to have I will print this so my ancient brain does not forget. Appreciate you and Sonya for jumping in with some extra ideas and guidance…very helpful. Linda

[Doug Smith]

That works for a lot of people, however for some of us not so much…I understand your point though. I have been selling a variety of things because I am now purging a lot of things from the last years of homeschooling.

I suspect that if your items are not things a CMer would use then this forum probably wouldn’t bring you many buyers anyway. You’d probably get much more traffic from one of the more generic homeschool buy/sell sites.

Some groups I am on limit For Sale postings to one day a week. So that is an option for controlling the volume as well.

Even with the surge we always have this time of year the volume has been very reasonable so far. We probably wouldn’t bother with other limits unless it gets out of hand. We trust you all to keep this community nice.

[BetsyR]

The guidelines sound great Doug! Thank you for taking the time to come up with simple & reasonable rules. I for one do not mind the for sale posts just noting what is for sale or linking to a blog post (ultimately they take up the same space in the forum & have the same purpose) & have never seen one that turned into an out of control thread. I also do not see the selling get out of control as the people here have always shown themselves to be respectful of the purpose of this forum (granted I’ve only been here a few months). I love this forum because people are so thoughtful, respectful, gracious & compassionate unlike some other groups with which I’ve been involved.

[missingtheshire]

Doug my response that you answered crossed with the previous post…I meant that I cannot put module 4 or 5 on my title because all my books cover various years. Apart from Teaching Textbooks everything I have posted is CM in nature. I do not have textbooks to sell except sicence and math and those are acceptable I think. So I think you misunderstood my comment as it was meant for the comment before – and our comments crossed. I appreciate you letting us share the items on here in a limited way, so thanks for that. Linda

[Doug Smith]

Thanks, Linda. I think our posts did cross. What you described is perfectly acceptable. Besides, we rarely worry about what you long-time regulars post. You all take care of this little community as much as we do!