Being from neither Europe nor the US then my selfish interests will not be served by separating the trading communities. It will lead to fewer sellers seeking an international sale.
Regardless of what you do, I would prefer it if Audiogon's classifieds were searchable on whether the seller will sell internationally. No doubt Europeans/Americans would like to search on whether the seller is local. Searching by US zipcode is not going to work.
Currently the site is frustrating to use because searching by item description is the only choice. It can be reasonably quick to find what you want, but usually only to find the seller will only sell in the USA. By comparison, eBay makes it easier, but they don't really have it right either (don't copy from them - learn from them).
So in my view, a single trading community with good filters on location, and enabling the seller to be specific about where the seller will sell to, would be great - otherwise the bigger the market the better place it is to go. I cannot see the point in separate discussion forums.
I personally don't have any problems about the apparent US-centric nature of Audiogon, I don't think it is necessary to have a distinct local flavour. But I suspect local promotion of Audiogon is in Audiogon's interests.
You might want to think about authentication issues a bit better - so that you can verify someone other than Americans only, but this does not require local separation - quite the reverse. I need more verification about someone from a foreign country than I do about someone local.
Regardless of what you do, I would prefer it if Audiogon's classifieds were searchable on whether the seller will sell internationally. No doubt Europeans/Americans would like to search on whether the seller is local. Searching by US zipcode is not going to work.
Currently the site is frustrating to use because searching by item description is the only choice. It can be reasonably quick to find what you want, but usually only to find the seller will only sell in the USA. By comparison, eBay makes it easier, but they don't really have it right either (don't copy from them - learn from them).
So in my view, a single trading community with good filters on location, and enabling the seller to be specific about where the seller will sell to, would be great - otherwise the bigger the market the better place it is to go. I cannot see the point in separate discussion forums.
I personally don't have any problems about the apparent US-centric nature of Audiogon, I don't think it is necessary to have a distinct local flavour. But I suspect local promotion of Audiogon is in Audiogon's interests.
You might want to think about authentication issues a bit better - so that you can verify someone other than Americans only, but this does not require local separation - quite the reverse. I need more verification about someone from a foreign country than I do about someone local.