Registered To See The Rent / Trade Board ?? Why ??

[DisneyKidds]

Just to finish up my thoughts on this subject, it seems that restricting use to registered users provides a useful measure of security, a comfort level if you will, for the person who is renting a reservation from a member. If I'm going to drop some serious cash on a DVC rental, I'd feel much better about dealing with a registered member, preferably a long standing member with a sizeable post count. At least that could give someone some sort of sense that the person you are renting from isn't going to just disappear. So, I agree with restricted use (not necessarily restricted view) of the board. In order to allow someone to use this site to try and rent out their points, make them establish themselves. It gives the person spending the money on the rental a little bit of security, and also helps to limit the opportunities for the site to get a black eye. That is very reasonable.

But how does restricted view really help anyone? For starters, it limits the number of people who will even see the board. Even if it's only a handful of people, those are potential people to whom points might be rented. Rather than protecting the people who might rent a reservation from a member, restricted view could hurt those potential renters who might never find the board to begin with. Also, I don't see that there is a need to protect the member who wants to rent a reservation to someone else by making the customer establish themselves on the board. The member's protection comes not from any registration or small post count here, but from getting the customer's information and having a valid rental agreement and clear policy on when payment is due. Someone violates the rental terms and conditions and you cancel the reservation. Making someone register here so they have a post count of one before they try and secure a rental isn't really going to make much of a difference.

So I fully agree with restricted use, but does that have to come with restricted view?

 

[JimMIA]

If you stop and think about it, you have to be registered and logged in to use the R/T board in any fashion anyway -- unless you just want to look. If you want to post, reply, or PM, you have to be logged in. What's the big deal?

Actually, the point is that to even just look you do have to be registered, forget about actually using the board. And in my mind that is a reasonable question. Why not let unregistered users look, but not be able to use or post until registered. That would seem to be how you thought the board was working, and seems very reasonable. It allows maximum exposure of the board, but restricts use to provide some small measure of protection.

I probably didn't word my post very well. I was talking about the way the board worked before the change, and trying to point out that this is really a very small change.

I agree you have a point with the visibility question, but I'm not sure how big a deal it is. Because I'm automatically logged in, I don't see what happens when a non-logged-in person tries to access the R/T board.

If nothing happens, there's an issue, but an easily corrected issue. The fix is to bring up a page which says you have to be registered and logged in to access the board, with a link to registration/login. I get that all the time when clicking on news media sites, for example.

If that information and linkage is provided and the viewer doesn't want to register, they didn't really want to see the site.

I also think there could be other, technical reasons why the DIS would want only registered members to access that board. I don't understand all that techie stuff, but I'm sure there are other possibilities and rationales beyond what is obvious to me.

The DIS tends to be about as open and accessible as any site I've ever seen. If they choose to restrict access in one area, I'm inclined to think they have good reasons for doing so.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I think one good reason for requiring registration before accessing the site would be to weed out those that are not really serious about renting or transferring, but want to obtain data from the site for other reasons.

 

[DisneyKidds]

If nothing happens, there's an issue, but an easily corrected issue. The fix is to bring up a page which says you have to be registered and logged in to access the board, with a link to registration/login. I get that all the time when clicking on news media sites, for example.

I logged out and then went back to the forums to see what an unregistered user would see. If you aren't a registered user, or if you are not logged in, nothing is exactly what you get. The R/T board under DVC is absent.....as though it didn't exist. If it was there, and you could see it there but just couldn't access it without first registering, that would be one thing. But it isn't even there.

Hey, I won't argue with the powers that be if they say it's necessary for some reason......but I will express my opinion, which is that limiting all visibility doesn't seem to make much sense.

 

[CarolA]

Well thats great that it worked out for you. I have never rented my points but I would think that any extra level of protection would make both parties more comfortable!

Protection????? What protection?

Registering proves nothing. Criminals in jail can register, thiefs can register...

This provides a false sense of "protection" True protection would be much more difficult and costly for the DIS to implmenent, but there is no protection by requiring anyone to register and if anyone believes there is, go try to register as a new user... Then come back and explain how THAT helped maked sure your rental was with a valid owner etc??????

 

[Cruelladeville]

It seems to me that the R/T Board was originally for DVC members to help each other out with points. Now lots of us rent out our points, but any of us would probably prefer to rent to members, rather than have to educate newbies with 2 or 3 posts. So, I think restricting access at least insures that viewers to the R/T Board have managed to educate themselves somewhat by surfing thru this site, or they are already DVC members. Frankly, if I could change anything, I would change the hoops you must go thru to post to the R/T. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong, but I can't post there--I can't get past the guard at the gate.

 

[sjdisneywedding]

It seems to me that the R/T Board was originally for DVC members to help each other out with points. Now lots of us rent out our points, but any of us would probably prefer to rent to members, rather than have to educate newbies with 2 or 3 posts. So, I think restricting access at least insures that viewers to the R/T Board have managed to educate themselves somewhat by surfing thru this site, or they are already DVC members. Frankly, if I could change anything, I would change the hoops you must go thru to post to the R/T. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong, but I can't post there--I can't get past the guard at the gate.

I see your point, but registering doesnt make anyone more educated to rent to or less of a risk to rent from.

registering, IMO, is a joke, either provide the service or get out of providing it. you dont do it halfway with such a meaningless restriction as registering

 

[Caskbill]

Keep in mind that a non-registered user can still 'see' the board. They can see the listing of threads that are on the board.

They cannot open any thread and see the actual posting content, unless they register. The board is not 'hidden' to people surfing the net. However, the contents of the posts are not available to lurkers who refuse to register.

 

[yitbos96bb]

Keep in mind that a non-registered user can still 'see' the board. They can see the listing of threads that are on the board.

They cannot open any thread and see the actual posting content, unless they register. The board is not 'hidden' to people surfing the net. However, the contents of the posts are not available to lurkers who refuse to register.

Is that a recent change? Because if not, then you may want to verify that...

A few weeks ago I had went to the boards and did not see the Rent/Trade board. There was only Operations, Planning and Miscellaneous (or something like that). I thought it had been gotten rid of by Dis. So I logged in to ask why and then it appeared.

FWIW, I do agree that unregistereds shouldn't be able to view the actual threads on the boards until they are registered. But I also think that all the headings should be viewable.

Based on Bill's post, it sounds like Dis takes the same position, but based on my experiences the R/T thread is completely hidden unless logged in... including the headings... so it looks as if R/T doesn't exist. Maybe this was accidently set up, but either way, I think it would be a positive change, with the obvious "You can't open the threads unless registered" stipulation.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Keep in mind that a non-registered user can still 'see' the board. They can see the listing of threads that are on the board.

Like I did last week, I went on unregisted and now I do see the R/T board, so we have confirmation. Glad to see that this is now the case, as it wasn't last week. So, I agree with how the board is now set up!

 

[Caskbill]

Somewhere along the line the board got set up to not just allowing unregistered user to view the actual content of threads, but to not allowing them not to even see the board. As one may guess there are a lot of different settings we can make for any specific board, and sometimes changing one setting makes a different setting also change, even when not intended.

It was corrected several days ago to be the way we intended it, which is how it is now.

Hopefully this clarifies any confusion.

 

[KellyDVC]

Thanks to the DIS boards team for updating the webpage to allow visibility of the R/T board. I still struggle a bit with the limitation - but if the casual surfer can see that the R/T board exists - I'm OK.

Thanks as always for the prompt attention these concerns receive.

Brian

 

[LIFERBABE]

 

[RobDoc]

... If you have extra time, points, or a reservation to rent, try eBay as it will bring you up to $25 a point vs. the precieved $10 a point maximum rental rate on these boards.My access to the rent trade board was cut off because I mentioned I had two studios at SSR over new years and was willing to rent one of them. The pm sent to me said my access would be rennewed on August 26 and many letters later it is still turned off.

For the record and since you chose to bring it up here ...

You lost access to the Rent/Trade board for repeated violations of the board policy. In 2007 you have posted no fewer than 4 different reservations for rent - even posting them directly on the board instead of using the validation process. In addition, three of the reservations posted were more than 30 days ahead and more than 6 months ahead in at least one case. Since the limit is two existing reservations per year, your persistence to advertise your "excess" reservations - far in advance of the 30 day policy - is the reason you lost access to the board. I hope that answers your question about why you lost access to the Rent/Trade Board.

I have no idea where you got the idea that your access to the Rent/Trade Board would be restored in August. Your infraction points did expire in August - allowing you to again post on the DIS as you have now - but your Rent/Trade Board loss-of-access is still in effect.

Since you have had such great success renting thru eBay, why even bother considering our Rent/Trade Board - especially when you insist on renting reservations more than 6 months ahead ?