Tradekey.com has finaly launched Trade Forums - Tradekey Community

Yesterday on Saturday 11-Jan-2009 Tradekey.com finally inaugurated Tradekey Community by placing a small link at the footer of the homepage. A brave move by the company I would say! You'll soon know as you read this short review why I am saying so ;). The inspiration seems to be have taken from the B2B industry giant Alibaba from one of its section on the website name Resources.

The community.tradekey.com is designed stylish enough which doesn't have any resemblance with its parent website design, the Tradekey.com.

Unlike Tradekey.com, the Community section is only launched in English language and is in beta mode right now. It is mainly focused on giving its members a chance to ask questions from Tradekey poeple and other trade experts. Also the community members can share their experiences with other Tradekey members by posting their comments as what they call "Topic". They have range of predefined Trade forums to group the related discussions. Like conventional forums, Moderators are there to remind participants about the do's and don'ts.

There is another section called Articles section. I have not tried posting any article yet but it is apparent from the "Add Article" link that they don't mind anyone posting his/her thoughts. A few articles about B2B industry and safe trading tips, written by themselves maybe, have been posted to fill the empty spaces.

The last section on Tradekey Community talks about Safe Trading Tips. Here also, Tradekey invites everyone to contribute articles on safe trading tips. Right now I can see three articles posted with an emphasis on strong password and product posting policy.

For every posting members are rewarded some points. This is how the TradeKey Community Points System works:

• Join TradeKey Community and then log-in for the first time:
  
  
  
  • Earn: 100 Points


• Post a new topic / survey:
  
  
  
  • Earn: 10 Points


• Ask a question (Select points the Best Answer should get)
  
  
  
  • Award: 10 - 50 Points


• Choose the Best Answer to your question:
  
  
  
  • Earn: 3 Points


• Answer a question / topic:
  
  
  
  • Earn: 2 Points


• Your answer selected as the Best Answer:
  
  
  
  • Earn: Points recommended by the questioner


• Vote for the Best Answer:
  
  
  
  • Earn: 2 Points


• Your post recommended by a Moderator:
  
  
  
  • Earn: 50 Points


• Your Post deleted as a Spam:
  
  
  
  • Lose: -100 Points


• Your Post deleted by a Moderator:
  
  
  
  • Lose: -30 Points

The points redemption policy is yet to be announced. But what should be the points redemption policy? Maybe a Hardley Davidson for every 100,000 points, LOLz, just kidding...

The good as well as the bad part of Tradekey Community I found is that they have tried to isolate the forum section from their parent website. If any members wants to take part in the community he/she has to create a seperate "nick". Which shouldn't resemble Tradekey user name. Also there is no link between user profile on Tradekey and Tradekey Community. It can add to the badges of a Tradekey member profile if he/she can display his/her Tradekey Community Points. Just a thought.

A brave move by Tradekey. Unlike the competitors' will Tradekey allow the negative criticisms posted on Tradekey Community? Can we discuss all the fraud & scam cases we get to know on other forums? Are they willing to clarify the reason why fraudulant members are still trading? Let's see how Tradekey deals with it.