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Auction Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to any members participating in a SitePoint auction, including sellers, commenters and bidders:

Guidelines for sellers

  1. Linking to or providing the URL of pages containing explicit, obscene or vulgar language or images is not allowed. Auctions or classifieds that advertise or link to such material may be removed without refund. Adult and/or pornographic websites may not be sold at SitePoint.
  2. Auctions may not be used to sell: access to services, memberships, subscriptions, leased services, or discounts thereof. Such services should be advertised in the "Advertise Your Services" Marketplace category. Auctions must be used to advertise items for outright sale, rather than temporary, non-exclusive or leased licenses. When selling domain names, the buyer must be given full control and ownership of the domain name, including the ability to transfer the domain name to another registrar.
  3. Sites containing pirated or copyright infringing material or sites based around linking to pirated material (eg: pirated software torrents) are not allowed to be sold on the SitePoint Marketplace.
  4. The seller must provide full details of the item for sale (including a URL if they are selling a website) in the auction. Sellers may not intentionally hide information from public view. This includes the use of statements such as PM me for more information. This also includes obfuscation or abbreviation of URLs using services such as tinyurl. If a moderator sees evidence that the seller is not publicly disclosing information, the auction may be suspended pending changes.
  5. Sellers may not list an item for sale via any other channels whilst conducting an auction on the SitePoint Marketplace
  6. Linking to external sites is restricted by SitePoint's self-promotion policy, which states that Linking to your own web pages or pages from sites which you are affiliated with (including affiliate links) will be deemed as self-promotion and could result in the loss of your membership. However, sellers may link to the site for sale if they are selling a site, or to web pages which solely contain information about the item they are selling. In particular, sellers are not allowed to link to other items for sale which are not a part of the auction.
  7. Sellers must ensure that they place their auction in the correct category, according to what they are selling. See also Definition of Startup Web Sites below.
  8. If you accept a bid equal to or higher than the reserve on your auction, you are obliged to sell.
  9. SitePoint auctions are open and transparent, if you involve yourself in private offers outside of the auction system for an active listing, including, but not limited, to via private messages (PM), instant massaging (IM) or email, your listing will be removed without refund and your account may be suspended. SitePoint will not assist with any issues that arise from activity conducted outside of the official auction platform, including the ability to provide buyer/seller feedback.
  10. Sellers may not create an auction if they have no intention of selling (for example, if they only want a valuation). If an auction indicates or implies that the seller does not intend to sell, it may be suspended or removed by a moderator. A seller is allowed to change his or her mind and decide not to sell after the auction has started, provided that no bids have been accepted.
  11. SitePoint does not oversee the process of money changing hands and is unable to offer assistance in cases where the sale does not go as planned. All sellers should take due care when selling any item.

Guidelines for buyers and participants

  1. Comments should be made only by those who are seriously interested in buying the item for sale. Frivolous comments, even if they are well-intentioned, are discouraged and may be removed by a moderator.
  2. Negative comments about or criticism of the seller or item for sale are strictly not allowed. This includes accusations of fraud or theft, even if they are well-intentioned (for example, to warn others). If any member has a dispute with a seller, it must be solved privately, and not be referred to publicly in auctions. A member who posts negative comments or accusations about a seller may have their posts removed, or may be banned permanently.
  3. SitePoint does not oversee the process of money changing hands and is unable to offer assistance in cases where the sale does not go as planned, or the item is not delivered as described. All buyers should take due care when purchasing any item.

Definition of Startup Web Sites

This section describes what is considered a Startup Web Site. Startup Web Sites must not be listed for sale in the Established Sites For Sale or Premium Sites For Sale categories; likewise, established sites must not be listed for sale in the Startup Web Sites For Sale category.

Startup Web Sites are sites which do not yet earn any revenue. Content sites without complete content and ecommerce sites without any products also qualify as Startup Web Sites.

If your site meets the following criteria, it is not considered a Startup Web Site and must be listed in the Established Sites For Sale category:

  • The site generates a reasonable amount of revenue, ie. enough to cover the cost of hosting.
  • If it is a content site, the site already has enough content to be reasonably useful to a visitor.
  • If it is an ecommerce site, the site already has one or more products for sale.

However, if your site meets any of the following criteria, then it should be considered a Startup Web Site and should be listed in the Startup Web Sites For Sale category:

  • The site is less than 30 days old, even if it's generating revenue
  • The site generates no significant revenue — not even enough to cover hosting cost.
  • The site is in an unfinished state such that it is of no use to visitors yet.
  • The site is based on a commonly available script or piece of software and does not contain any unique content.

Reporting offenders

A team of SitePoint advisors and mentors regularly view the auctions, however they may not notice every guideline violation immediately.

If you notice anybody breaking these guidelines, it should be reported to a SitePoint advisor privately. Please do not complain about a member breaking the guidelines publicly in a comment. Your comment may be removed and you may receive a warning.

SitePoint's Role

SitePoint does not enter into monetary transactions or business dealings between marketplace buyers and sellers. SitePoint is a neutral facilitator only, and will not be responsible for the failure of either party to follow through with their obligations, agreed or otherwise. The content of a marketplace listing is the responsibility of the respective sellers including compliance with all laws and not engaging in misleading and/or deceptive conduct and therefore SitePoint is not liable for any violations of rights of a third party, in particular intellectual property rights, trade mark rights, and copyright resulting from a marketplace listing. SitePoint reserves the right to remove any auction, listing, bid, or comment from the system at its own discretion.