OVERALL APPROACH

Our overall approach to having vendors on the site is to:
- provide members with access to products, service, advice and warranty at competitive prices on an ongoing basis that enhances their Evo ownership, and
- provide vendors with access to distribute products, services, advice and warranty at competitive prices on an ongoing basis that enhances their involvement with the Evo community.

Both members and vendors are expected to deal in an up-front, honest, ethical and business-like manner with the community generally.


VENDORS ON THE FORUM

After much consideration during 2008 and 2009, the admins and mods decided to alter how vendors interact with the site. Up to that point, the only things vendors needed to do to sell on EvoOz were to obtain approval from the admins/mods and ensure they properly displayed their business details on the site.

This was inconsistent with the site's approach to other members being allowed to sell however, where what was required from them was either a level of contribution (100 posts) or the payment of an annual $20 fee. Vendors therefore could profit from their sales without giving back to the very community from which they were making money.

Whilst it was not believed vendors were taking advantage of members in this situation, this was not a position the admins and mods wanted to retain for the overall community, especially as the site was continuing to grow and there were significant amounts of money flowing through the site, with vendors being a sizeable component of these funds flows.

From 30 September 2009, vendors were required to make an upfront contribution to the EvolutionOz community to vend on the site. Each payment will give the vendor access to the site for a period of six months (unless approved differently) and vendors will be described on the site according to their level of contribution. Of course, as their level of contribution increases, so will the access each vendor is granted to the community.

The categories of vendors, the access granted to them and the required contribution is as follows:

Platinum Contributing Vendors
By invitation only - See note 2
Labelled as "Platinum Contributing Vendor"
Has own forum (with sub-sections on approval, generally with sufficient post traffic)
Moderating capability for their own forum
Contact details in own forum (easy to access area)
Can post in all State Contributing Vendor forums but not National Contributing Vendor forums
Need to provide plan as to how vendor intends to administer their own forums
PM storage 2500
Picture/document storage 150mb
Preference for placing of advertisements on site
Preference for sponsorship for some parts of EvoOz events
$750 contribution per six months payable upfront

National Contributing Vendors
Approval required from Admins
Labelled as "National Contributing Vendor"
Can post in National Contributing Vendor forum
Can also post in one nominated State Contributing Vendor forum
Contact details in Vendor Contact Details forum
PM storage 1000
Picture/document storage 75mb
$375 contribution per six months payable upfront

State Contributing Vendors
Approval required from Admins
Labelled as (eg) "NSW Contributing Vendor"
Can post in (only) one nominated State Contributing Vendor forum
Contact details in Vendor Contact Details forum
PM storage 750
Picture/document storage 50mb
$250 contribution per six months payable upfront


ADVERTISERS ON THE FORUM

From 30 September 2009, the site will accept expressions of interest from vendors to place advertising on the site.

There will be two banner ads reserved for site vendors, one at the top of the screen and one at the bottom. The size of these ads will be 728 x 90 pixels and they will be embedded with a url link of the advertiser's choice. (This will be in conjunction with ads placed by an external advertising agency who will have an equivalent access - one ad at the top of the screen and one at the bottom).

We will be accepting a maximum of twelve advertisements to fill these two available positions and ads will be displayed on a rotational basis on each page (impression) as each page is requested by site users. As a guide to the number of times that ads will be displayed, our site currently has over 500,000 hits on the site per day, so if there are twelve ads appearing in two locations, then each ad will be displayed to members of our community a great number of times per month. This is a significant exposure to a group of persons, almost all of whom own cars (particularly Evos) and spend discretionary money on them.

Advertisers will need to commit to a six month advertising period and do not need to be vendors on the site but they will need to be approved by the admins/mods and post up their contact details as if they were a vendor.

Each advertising period of six months will require the advertiser to contribute $600 paid in advance to the community. Approval will be required by the mods before being accepted and preference for placing of advertisements will be given to those vendors who have Platinum Contributing Vendor status on the site (when competition for remaining advertisements exists).

Each vendor will be required to send us the ad they wish to display on the site. We will accept changes in advertisements from each advertiser (if they wish to change ads) but we will ask you to be reasonable about how many you make. This permits advertisers to create advertisements for special offers or for situations where specific marketing is required.


NOTES


1. Who can become a Vendor or Advertiser?

The vendor forums on this site are strictly for legitimate Australian registered businesses with an ABN (except where admins warrant exception). If you are a vendor and you do not have an ABN ie you sell products as a business (or for profit) but you are non-Australian or you run a non-registered business), you will not be approved to post in the Vendor forums.


2. Access to Platinum Forums

Platinum Contributing Vendors have access to their own forums which are only made available when offered by administrators of the site.

When offering vendors an individual forum, the admins take into account a number of matters (but sometimes consider other factors):
* the quality of the product, service, advice, warranty and price offered to members by a vendor,
* the volume of product offered by the vendor and accepted by members,
* the previous content and behaviour of the vendor on the forum including being able to work with the forum and the community generally on a sustainable level,
* the broad reputation of the vendor, and
* the length of association with the community.

In essence, for those vendors who are offered their own forums, admins and mods believe they are quality and reliable vendors to members and contributors to the site and are displayed as such so members can easily identify them.

Under no circumstances do the admins and mods accept financial or other offers for granting of an individual forum. Individual forums need to be earned. But this is not to say any vendor who does not have an individual forum should necessarily be considered as lacking in any aspect, as all vendors offered an individual forum will (except in most unusual circumstances) come through the State or National areas at some stage.

Individual forums, once granted, need regular attention and may be assessed periodically by admins and mods against the criteria used when they were granted originally.


3. Information for Potential Vendors and Advertisers

EvolutionOz Pty Ltd will post information on the site which will be able to be viewed by each potential contributing vendor and advertiser (and all members) outlining what will be provided for each contribution to the site. It should be noted that if vendors (Platinum, National or State) additionally take on an advertising program, a 20% reduction in total contribution will apply for the period they overlap. A tax invoice will be raised, and in advance of payment, if required. Monies will need to be received into the EvolutionOz Pty Ltd bank account before access is granted or advertisements are displayed.

Payments will be payable in advance per 6 month period. ie. 1st July until 30th December, and 1st January until 30th June. Vendor payments can also be paid in 1 year blocks at the discretion of EvolutionOz. Contributions made to the site by vendors or advertisers are not refundable but our commitment to them is to supply what we have outlined in the information on the site. If we do not supply what we outline, we will extend the period of contributing vendor access or advertisements to the site as appropriate eg if the site goes down for a month, it might be appropriate to extend the vending period or advertisement for a month (or more). EvolutionOz will not be entering into agreements or requiring the entering of agreements with vendors or advertisers.

It should be noted EvolutionOz does not charge GST because it is below the GST threshold. It is also not for profit and all funds will be put back into the community.

As has been our practice, and will continue to be, all vendors and advertisers will need to be approved by the site mods and admins. The existence of a financial aspect now does not mean there will be any lowering of standards expected for businesses to appear on EvolutionOz. This is for the benefit of the entire community. We try hard to ensure that only trustworthy and reliable vendors and advertisers are given access to our site and our community.

The mod who will be administering the relationships with contributing vendors and advertisers will be Damo. Jason (EVILLUSION) will be assisting Damo with vendor management.

To become an EvolutionOz Vendor or Advertiser
Step 1. Please PM Damo (preferably, or one of the Admins i.e Turbo4, 300477 or wombata in his absence) and request approval to become a vendor of X type or an advertiser. There will be some questions asked. Once you have received approval, complete step 2.
Step 2. Deposit the required funds into the EvolutionOz Pty Limited bank account BSB 082057 Account 856666280 National Australia Bank with the name of your business in the narration line.
Step 3. Post ALL of the following details in a new thread in this area. The title of the thread should be "XXXXX Contact Details".
* ABN and (exact) Business Name
* ACN (if applicable)
* Contact Details of the business, including postal, e-mail, web site URL and street address
* Full names of Company Principals, and their direct contact details.
* Banking details
* Trading history
* Warranty policy


4. Forum Layout

The vendor forum will consist of individual forums for Platinum Contributing Vendors. Beneath the Platinums will be the National Vendor forum which will consist of the threads from the National Contibuting Vendors. The last vendor section is the State Vendors in which there is multple sub forums for each individual state.

All vendors on the site will have their vendor status identified in their title (done by mods) to provide publicity for them on the site and so members know each vendors identity when reading posts.


5. What it means to be a Vendor on the site

The granting of an individual forum is a prestigious position on the site and members and other vendors should understand these positions are not obtained without reason.

We encourage vendors to provide good advice, product, service (before and after the sale) and warranty as well as price to members. And we encourage members to understand all of these factors contribute to their continued enjoyment of Evos and that buying on price alone can be counter-productive.

While we try to take reasonable steps to have all vendors supply their relevant business information to assist members, members should still be conscious of who they deal with. The site takes no responsibility for sales gone wrong - this rests with you. These vendor forums help to connect members and vendors, and particularly quality vendors, together in a sensible way.


6. Behaviour of Vendors

When making posts, please do not post sale threads or advertise goods or services in the personal sellers area or any other areas outside of the approved vendor areas (including pms) - it will avoid the embarrassment of having your posts locked or deleted. All posts offering goods or services on the forum are, wherever possible, to include price.

Vendors are strictly not permitted to post in other vendors threads except with the prior permission of the vendor involved. This is to be obtained by pm before posting. Should permission be refused, PM a moderator with an explanation of the issue.

Vendors are expected to attend the forum multiple times every week and promptly reply private messages from members. It would also be appreciated if long periods of absence could be notified in advance so members are made aware. Lack of attendance will result in vendorships coming under scrutiny.

Vendors are expected to behave in a manner which is parallel with the aims of the forum, while also being the 'bigger man' if threads dissolve into a slanging match. If vendors are concerned with particular posts etc, they are requested to 'Report' the post to bring it to the attention of the Moderators. We expect professional behaviour from our vendors.

13-7-11:
Temporary amendment - Vendors will be permitted to reply to threads in the wanted section provided that the parts are relevant to the posters request

7. Definition of Vending

We define vending as operating a business for profit. We are also aware that some ambiguities exist when identifying who is a potential vendor and/or who is vending on the site. The decision as to whether posts/members on EvolutionOz will be classified as vending/vendors will be at the discretion of the admin and mod team.


8. General Information

The mods and admins have spent considerable time discussing vending and advertisements on the site including "whether to" and "how to". While we understand the appearance of advertisements will create a different experience for members, we also believe the new vending and advertising policies will create a significantly greater and sustainable link between those providing goods and services and those consuming them and be a net improvement to our community. Only those vendors who are committed to the community will now be posting for sale items and the new State and existing National forums, together with the greater availability of individual and self-moderated forums and advertising, gives a much broader suite of tools to a much broader range of vendors for them to communicate their offerings - which members can now identify more easily. As previously stated, proceeds will be used for the community benefit.

It should also be noted that, unlike many other forums, EvolutionOz is completely open about the prices for access to its site by vendors or advertisers. Every vendor and advertiser is treated equally and all prices above are the prices required to be paid ie there is no preference or disadvantage given to any vendors.

9. Applying to become a vendor

Potential vendors must send Damo or EVILLUSION completed information of the fields below, including a brief rundown on the company. Vendorships on EvolutionOz are at the sole discretion of the administrators. Transactions with current members will be useful as these members could be asked for feedback in relation to their satisfaction of the service they received.

Entity Name:
Trading as:
ABN:
Postal Address:
Email:
Website:
Primary Contact and contact telephone number :
Banking details; including Bank, Account Name, Account number, BSB number
Trading history :
Warranty policy :

It is also expected that company's have a reasonable trading history of at least 18-24 months prior to applying to become a vendor on Evo Oz.

Thanks

Bump for all existing vendors who are yet to apply. Less than 3 weeks left. The non-aligned vendor section will be removed as of 30 September.

Bump for prospective vendors

Bump for some vendors posting in sales/wanted