When you open a trade with someone, say something relevant in the chat, they look at the trade and say nothing and just let it sit there.

MAN that is frustrating!

I can't be the only one that is annoyed by this.

I check their activity and how many trades they have open... if it's too many i usually don't' even offer. You'll notice that some people on here are pretty high traffic traders.

Agreed, that does happen on occasion as well, but for the most part I try to avoid those traders. For example: I cancelled 4 trades today because the other person hadn't responded. One of them hadn't been on since February so I wasn't really expecting that one to happen. The other 3 have 109, 35, and 41 trades respectively, they had looked at the trade I opened several days ago, and have logged into deckbox everyday since I started the trade.

I'm writing from the perspective of someone who was actively trading every week, but then life happened. Now I may be logged in regularly, but only to manage my inventory. I kept intending to trade, but have had limited time and even less money. That's why I took a break from trading last summer, then tried limited trading for a number of months. Most recently, I've switched to local trades only. Maybe someday I can get back to regular trading. That's one example of why some people are seen as active by their last logged on time, but they are not actively trading.

I've requested a feature to let members set their trade status (beyond local or country/region specific preferences), but it has not made Sebi's to-do list. I think every member should have the option to check a box that says "not trading right now" or "on vacation". We need some sort of control of our status so as to not to frustrate the active traders like you. And, hey, I get it--I had the same frustration during my first year or so around here.

For me, I have two kids that have rare genetic disorders, and now I've had two of my sons diagnosed as having Asperger's Syndrome. My wife and I have gone through the financial wringer in the past 15 months. Life just sucks sometimes. Perhaps someday I will be able to get back to regularly trading by mail, but for now I'm just an occasional poster in the discussion forum and am working to keep my inventory current. I hear your frustration, but try to feel a bit for the other guy (or gal). Someday you might find yourself in a place where you need to take a break, by choice or necessity.

Best of luck to you. I hope you can establish some good trade partnerships, and that the number of active members you find will exceed those like me who would love to be active, but just can't be right now.

Cheers!

@HikingStick

Minnesota ftw!

First of all, thank you for the well thought out and written response. You are the kind of person I would LOVE to trade with. :)

I completely understand and sympathize with where you are coming from. I thoroughly understand that life is more important than trading cards with random people online. I myself started trading here on Deckbox right after I got married, when I was working full-time and when I was still going to college full-time. I understand what it means to have to do some prioritization.

The thing is, the people I had opened trades with were not only logging on everyday, they were actively accepting and completing trades while mine was just sitting there being ignored. Also, I could see that they had looked at my trade, because the little "new message" flag had been cleared. It just amazes me that they can't even bother to type a quick sentence about what they're thinking. Even something as simple as "No thanks," or "I don't actually need that anymore. Thanks," or "Let me think about that for a little bit" or even just cancelling the trade is infinitely better than letting it sit there and not responding at all. Is it too much to ask for a tiny bit of communication?

Now I admit that sometimes I can get a little bit impatient, but should I really let a trade sit there for 3-4 days after it has been looked at it just waiting for them to respond?

About the status flag you mentioned, I think that would be a fantastic idea! Being an application programmer myself I can see how it shouldn't be all that difficult. Thought I'm sure, like you said, it would be a bit low on the priority list.