Good morning all!
Some of you have likely noticed waaaaaay down at the bottom that we have a new forum area! The Preferred Vendors Area will be available to all of our full members (meaning 50 posts and 90 days) + being members of a Regiment + being an active member + have been a successful vendor in the community for some time without issue. Seems like tough shoes to fill? It is. And it should be. We're not taking this lightly at all. When we make you a part of the Preferred Vendors Group that's like us saying we trust you and the members should trust you. So we're going to really need to be careful and selective. It's not a popularity contest specifically but in some ways it sort of is. We have to know what your track record is like in order to approve you and in order to have that track record you need to be an active part of the community that everyone knows about.
The first couple of requirements are pretty black and white - full member and member of a regiment are easy to gauge. The last two - being an active member and having been a successful vendor in the community for some time without issue are much more subjective with lots of interpretation. For example, being an active member - I would very much prefer that activity occur here on our forums. I've said it many, many times - this is only a community if people contribute. I'm not giving you free space to advertise to a captive audience if you aren't willing to be an active member. However, we can and will also look at those that are active on other 405th properties - FB or Discord etc. and what the quality of that activity is. If it's just joking around or gaming, for example, that isn't as compelling as someone who is offering feedback on builds or helping to answer questions. It doesn't mean if it's just joking around or gaming that it's an automatic no, but it isn't a blanket yes either just because we technically can tick off the boxes.
This is for free guys. Like your own mini store front right on 405th main street. So we're going to be expecting a return on that in the form of keeping yourself in good standing and contributing to this community by sharing knowledge and feedback etc. No, I'm not expecting you to tell people your secret formula for a special paint if you really don't want to. But I do want to see you not just using this as a free place to advertise. Does that all make sense?
The 405th is a family and I'm fiercely protective of that family. As such, I expect any preferred vendor to keep their threads active, stay in constant communication with your buyers, stick to your deadlines agreed to with the buyer. We get the slightest hint that there is a problem, we will pull the thread until we an determine that it is safe for our members to continue using you.
Sales by a preferred vendor still MUST follow the same rules as any other sale on our forum/properties:
Buyers - take note - using a preferred vendor is still at your own risk and all transactions are the responsibility of the buyer and the seller. We are offering this as a service and nothing more, although, we certainly will remove any vendors that are not in good standing ONCE WE KNOW THAT. We aren't all knowing beings - we need to be informed so that we can make informed decisions. So please, if you know a preferred vendor is having issues, don't sit back and wonder why we are still allowing them to have sales threads - tell us!
As well, we are very careful about turning our other areas in to predominately sales forums so all of your information will be contained here. However, you CAN post to things like FB to let people know that a new thread has been put up and direct them here to the forums for all of the information. You cannot abuse that by constantly bumping the post on FB. Please direct people here to ask questions about the sale as opposed to that all taking place on FB. A large run of something can very quickly overwhelm an FB group and people get frustrated with that. So please, be respectful of this rule. If those that are not members of this forum and only FB followers give you any grief about this rule, please tag a member of Division and ask them to take it up with us. We'll be happy to let them know it is our rule.
We may, in the future, come up with a more formal way for people to apply for this but for now, anyone interested in being a preferred vendor, please PM me here and we'll get the process started of Division talking about you behind your back....hehe Please don't take it personally if we say no. We're just doing our very, very best to protect this family. And a "no" now, isn't a "no" necessarily forever. Hopefully we'll be able to give you some feedback as to what you can do to change that no to a yes.
Also note, I guarantee that I haven't thought of everything and that quickly we will find situations I haven't addressed so this will evolve until we find a comfortable way for this to work.
Any questions, please let me know!
Some of you have likely noticed waaaaaay down at the bottom that we have a new forum area! The Preferred Vendors Area will be available to all of our full members (meaning 50 posts and 90 days) + being members of a Regiment + being an active member + have been a successful vendor in the community for some time without issue. Seems like tough shoes to fill? It is. And it should be. We're not taking this lightly at all. When we make you a part of the Preferred Vendors Group that's like us saying we trust you and the members should trust you. So we're going to really need to be careful and selective. It's not a popularity contest specifically but in some ways it sort of is. We have to know what your track record is like in order to approve you and in order to have that track record you need to be an active part of the community that everyone knows about.
The first couple of requirements are pretty black and white - full member and member of a regiment are easy to gauge. The last two - being an active member and having been a successful vendor in the community for some time without issue are much more subjective with lots of interpretation. For example, being an active member - I would very much prefer that activity occur here on our forums. I've said it many, many times - this is only a community if people contribute. I'm not giving you free space to advertise to a captive audience if you aren't willing to be an active member. However, we can and will also look at those that are active on other 405th properties - FB or Discord etc. and what the quality of that activity is. If it's just joking around or gaming, for example, that isn't as compelling as someone who is offering feedback on builds or helping to answer questions. It doesn't mean if it's just joking around or gaming that it's an automatic no, but it isn't a blanket yes either just because we technically can tick off the boxes.
This is for free guys. Like your own mini store front right on 405th main street. So we're going to be expecting a return on that in the form of keeping yourself in good standing and contributing to this community by sharing knowledge and feedback etc. No, I'm not expecting you to tell people your secret formula for a special paint if you really don't want to. But I do want to see you not just using this as a free place to advertise. Does that all make sense?
The 405th is a family and I'm fiercely protective of that family. As such, I expect any preferred vendor to keep their threads active, stay in constant communication with your buyers, stick to your deadlines agreed to with the buyer. We get the slightest hint that there is a problem, we will pull the thread until we an determine that it is safe for our members to continue using you.
Sales by a preferred vendor still MUST follow the same rules as any other sale on our forum/properties:
Buyers - take note - using a preferred vendor is still at your own risk and all transactions are the responsibility of the buyer and the seller. We are offering this as a service and nothing more, although, we certainly will remove any vendors that are not in good standing ONCE WE KNOW THAT. We aren't all knowing beings - we need to be informed so that we can make informed decisions. So please, if you know a preferred vendor is having issues, don't sit back and wonder why we are still allowing them to have sales threads - tell us!
As well, we are very careful about turning our other areas in to predominately sales forums so all of your information will be contained here. However, you CAN post to things like FB to let people know that a new thread has been put up and direct them here to the forums for all of the information. You cannot abuse that by constantly bumping the post on FB. Please direct people here to ask questions about the sale as opposed to that all taking place on FB. A large run of something can very quickly overwhelm an FB group and people get frustrated with that. So please, be respectful of this rule. If those that are not members of this forum and only FB followers give you any grief about this rule, please tag a member of Division and ask them to take it up with us. We'll be happy to let them know it is our rule.
We may, in the future, come up with a more formal way for people to apply for this but for now, anyone interested in being a preferred vendor, please PM me here and we'll get the process started of Division talking about you behind your back....hehe Please don't take it personally if we say no. We're just doing our very, very best to protect this family. And a "no" now, isn't a "no" necessarily forever. Hopefully we'll be able to give you some feedback as to what you can do to change that no to a yes.
Also note, I guarantee that I haven't thought of everything and that quickly we will find situations I haven't addressed so this will evolve until we find a comfortable way for this to work.
Any questions, please let me know!