+1, I went to go buy items from a shop and the person was offline for 13 days, we need reform.

 

Ive thought about this for a bit since reading it, and tbh im sitting at a -1 for the following reasons (and potential solutions that would shift to a +1)
1. Time- this is a fairly large commitment of staff’s time to constantly monitor shop stock levels and how often its getting refilled. Do we define inactive as 2 weeks without action? What if its getting filled on Mondays, and sold out by staff check on Sundays?
Solution: Automated logs of shop owner activity, may not be worth it but this reduces effort
2- other shops- some of the current shop owners have more shops that have more space and items for sale. A user can be active and stock the shelves, but if theyre buying/selling and advertising their warps to their towns instead of their market stalls. More often than not, i see those users advertise their shop towns more often than their markets.
Solution: there really isnt one, making it illegal for shop owners to have their own market doesn’t make sense. They clear your definition of “active” either way.
3- Definition of “active”
I think you go at it a but, keeping shelves restocked and logging in don’t equate to improving market traffic. An active market needs its shop owners to advertise the market, make it have the best prices, sell unique things, advertise, etc. It’s much more than chest restocking. Otherwise, what makes the market better than a shop warp? A builder isnt inherently going to go to /warp market anymore when they see /warp everything or /warp spawner or /warp ikea being advertised.
Solution: tbh this probably goes beyond the scope of just defining “active” more specifically, not sure what a viable solution to this is

 

There should be an inactivity window,
As the one of the people doing market checks I wouldnt mind keeping track of shop activity , I can already see csn history and have log block so it wouldn't be too complicated to keep an eye on that department.

The market should be one of the main go tos for new joining players who need to get their hands on essentials (in my opinion)

At the moment we have a bit of a scenario with station2 where nothing has been restocked since last year, the owner is inactive and only logs in to extend the station time, it's almost completely empty but due to the chestshops having a sell option it's bypasses the rule regarding chestshops being stocked.

I agree that we should rewrite the market rules
Just because a shop has a sell sign aswell as a buy sign but sits empty for months just to stay within the minimum chestshop requirements isn't fair. If you cannot be bothered to run your station anymore , you should give it up, again in my opinion.

Anyways
-Coow

 

It's unfair for players to have ownership of a station and only come online once or twice monthly to maintain the station. An inactivity window is necessary to keep the market engaging for players. Not sure what the window would be, but more than a week of inactivity without notice seems like an appropriate reason to lose ownership of a station.

 

+1 I agree with something must be done to the rules to keep trade shops active in warp market.

I think maybe give a "number" of buy/sell per # of weeks ordered at these market shops.
For example
1 week you must have atleast 4 buy/sell at your trade shop for the week
2 weeks you must have atleast 7 buy/sell at your trade shop for the 2 weeks
3 weeks you must have atleast 13 buy/sell at your trade shop for the 3 weeks
4 weeks you must have atleast 19 buy/sell at your trade shop for the 4 weeks
*You can scale the numbers however you like but this is just an example.

Or a quota for the movement of ECD / Item Movement in these "trade shops" in regards to online members.

I also think one should define "active" I could be online and not fill my shop but have buy/sell chest signs too.

 

If I had a spawn shop, I would just put useless garbage that I can get from /kit starter for buy/sell so I can fulfill the quota.