I'd like to broach a somewhat touchy subject with the membership here. I have noticed that a lot of people post links to active eBay auctions, usually with the intent of helping fellow members find what they may be searching for. But it is also frequently done to call out forgeries, scams, and mis-identified items.

Like many of you, I am also a member of other forums on the net (which are not kilt-related). On most of the forums I'm involved with, it is considered bad form to post links to live auctions. Mainly because there are fellow members who may be bidding on them. This is usually not a hard rule (though in some cases it is), but is often more of an etiquette thing.

There are generally two predominant opinions on this:

1. eBay auctions are listed publicly on the web, so there should be no expectation that any particular bidder has exclusive privileges to it. Trying to limit the competition by keeping it "hush-hush" is pointless. And by posting it on forums where people are interested in it, it helps the community by exposing frauds and cases of mistaken identity. Plus it gives everyone a fair playing field in their search for things they want. Let the people compete on the price instead of trying to "sneak one past the goalie" by winning an auction that no one else knows about.

Conversely,

2. Out of respect for fellow members who are bidding on these auctions, it's best to let other people find those items themselves. In other words, if they truly want an item, they should search eBay themselves to find it. It's always heart-breaking to be bidding on an item, thinking you're going to win, only to see someone post the auction on the forum and have a bunch of new bidders who drive the price up to ridiculous levels. The "crowd mentality" sets in, where competition goes beyond what the item is actually worth. Plus, there are a lot of "shills" out there who will abuse the privilege, and post links to things they're selling, or do it to hype up what a friend is selling.

And of course, I'm sure there are also other factors to consider, both for and against the idea of posting live auctions. But what I wanted to gauge was whether you, the members of XMTS, think it's helpful or not for members to post links to live auctions. Or, if there's a difference in how they post that may make it helpful or hurtful. A thread saying "attention members, this auction item is a fake" might be helpful, where a thread saying "hey guys who have been looking for X, here's one!" might upset those who were already bidding on it.

I'm making this a poll so your response can be anonymous if you like. Or, of course, comments and discussion are welcome.

Note: this discussion is not meant to revolve around the idea of whether there should be a "rule" about it. It's mainly just to see discussion about what the community thinks overall, and offer food for thought.