I think maybe the block idea mentioned would be the best solution. This way we can still post "what can I get for x" trades and others can do the "1sb to x" or "paperclip challenge" trades without people being annoyed with it since they can just block it. I assume this would make it easier on mods too?

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I think the subforum idea is the best one, but I'm not sure how much work it would be to moderate.

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We could make it so that we can block it but there could be a section too. Kind of like how bcranches and trading center are two seperate sections there could be a "Paperclip" section

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I think the last idea :)

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I think that either having a challenge trade subforum category OR trading center category (kind of like how raffles work, they don't show up in the main sales page and instead have their own specific section) would be best and appease both sides of the player base.

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I like the idea of a separate 'channel' for these in trading...But I'm not sure how it could work with Moderating...Maybe have certain Moderators specifically watch that?

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I like the idea of the forums. I understand this could be a little tricky for the mods though

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I'm for a subforum idea, I think it will be best for this issue

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agree on the last option,

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The only real problem with creating subforums or new categories for the Trading Center is determining what, exactly, constitutes as a challenge/paperclip trade. If it were easy enough to sort them, the tricky moderating conundrum we're having wouldn't be as big of an issue.

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One idea could be to allow users to filter out certain keywords and/or phrases, so that users can filter out stuff like "what can i get for" and "paperclip."

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So, in a perfect world, Lioden would ban these trades would be banned, but I think we can all appreciate we don’t live in a perfect world. I’m actually pretty sure we’ve been in the worst timeline since 2020 . Joking aside, I don’t think banning these trades are the right choice for a variety of reasons, which I will outline below.

While banning the trades would be my dream solution, I don’t think it’s a practical solution anymore, especially after reading the points outlined by Katze. I don’t think it will be possible to concisely structure a rule that would address this issue without either being ineffectual or outlawing all open-ended trades, like what Katze stated. In the American legal system, you regularly see either failure to enforce or unintended judicial uses of vague laws or policy, and you’re going to see the same problem develop here. Either the rule addressing this issue will be too vague that it will apply to too many trades to practically enforce and will result in the normal trades falling under the rule, or it won’t encompass enough of the problem trades to be actually effective in addressing the issue. Also, if the rule isn't specific enough players will find a way around them. For instance, banning game trades, but then players posting these trades will just rename them and continue posting them. There’s just not a clear line to set that wouldn’t either be ineffectual or encroach on actual use of the trading center.

For the solutions suggested by staff, I love the first one. I genuinely think that would be a great tool to implement into the trading center regardless of the begging issue. I would love to see this added, and I think I could use it to really cut down on the trades that clutter when I’m using the trading center. And I think this would be the same for other players as well, more than a new function that would block all trades because hiding all trades by players is already available through the function of blocking. However, I do see value in the “block all trades by this player”, for a variety of reasons, not just for “paperclip” begging trades. This gives players a tool to deal with just players who are posting multiple paperclip trades, but also players who spam post trades or post trades that are misleading consistently but do not break a rule. It essentially gives us players the ability to moderate our own trading centers and gives us the ability to essentially shadow ban specific members from our trades centers. I now get to decide that listing GB for 2000SB, or 15 1sb “what can I get?” trades, in the trading center is considered a ban worthy offense! And it will give an incentive of compliance in basic courtesy in the trading center, like no spam or predatory trades, because there will always be the potential repercussion of losing customers. For this, I love and fear this as an option!

This all said, I don’t think that a separate forum for these challenge trades would be a terrible idea. While still allowing them in the trading center, this doesn’t cause additional strain on staff but would give players another place to post these trades that isn’t the trading center, which might result in less of these posts in the trading center especially when implemented in conjunction with the previous two potential solutions. However, it also might encourage more of these trades, but stuff will be more knowledgeable on which direction this will fall than me.

For another possible solution that has been thrown out there, having a limit of how many trades, or creating an additional SB sink like the branch expansion mechanic for additional trades, or having it tied to territory space or something, could be an interesting mechanic. However, I don’t think it will solve the issue at hand.

Thank you to TwoSwords for really spearheading the illumination of this issue, and a big thank you to Staff for listening to us about this. I know it could seem like a really minor thing, but it does get very annoying and makes the trading center difficult to navigate through with all the begging spam, especially in certain subdivisions like “Currency”.

TL,DR: Don't ban the trades, do the two first solutions that are the trade blocks that would solve this as well as other issues with the Trading Center.

I'm slowly editing the grammar for this word vomit.

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Separate channel sounds the most reasonable to me, but I'm unsure how best to moderate that sort of thing/if mods are willing to do that.

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The soft block option sounds good, challenge trades are just a more vague way of begging and not everyone wants to see that in the TC.

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That makes sense Katze! Maybe there would have to be rules in place? It could be that a user can only have 1 paperclip/challenge trade at a time and that there can be no more then one per user?

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