Yesterday, a guildmate of mine was complaining about how the trade chat on Blackrock scrolls quickly, making it almost impossible to use effectively. Hearing this, I considered how the Alliance side of Proudmoore’s trade channel has lately been dominated by idiots who talk incessantly about anything but trading and finding groups. You can’t escape it without leaving the channel, so most Alliance players on Proudmoore have done just that. As a result, it is extremely difficult to acquire services through the channel, rendering it a suboptimal feature.

With this in mind, I propose it’s time to support actual trade activity with an interface, rather than a chat channel. Something where a person can post their needed goods and offered services without having to post an advertising message once an minute (or less) between the spam.

To some degree, one could argue the auction house already provides us with the means to buy and sell products, especially now that enchants can also be posted there. But the AH is not entirely reliable when it comes to items that are difficult to create. A crafter cannot easily come across primordial saronite, so he or she is not likely to post the items that require it on the AH. Rather, the typical production process for such gear is accomplished by the customer providing rare materials and the crafter rendering his or her services.

So I am going to make a proposal to solve this issue. If you’re in a city, you should be able to post your crafting and enchanting services, or the items you desire to be crafted, using a fully featured interface to promote trade. Anyone in a city can browse this list of services and goods, enabling them to negotiate a deal. This interface should also allow people to advertise what they are charging or offering for said services, including the ability to trag their services with an “optional tip,” “free,” or “negotiable.”

If you agree, I challenge you to repeat this or a similar suggestion to Blizzard. The more people suggest it, the more likely Blizzard will consider it!