This server used to be made great by the people who played it and few originals are left. No one trades anymore and people like to jack prices up for personal profit therefore clogging the trade aspect of the economy.
It's true I don't know if you could consider me one of the originals (since I started in August 2012, but didn't really start talking until June 2013) but I remember people being a lot nicer with trading before.
It is more of rares being traded than useful items that players will actually use (For example, Dragon Eggs, most of the time the player will have it just to have it, they will not place it or use it towards their island).
Plenty of trades occur. I am almost constantly in trades for normal, everyday items. (not rares) Players utilize /msg to communicate with me. It's quite profitable.
Have you been to hellblock the trades there are good when a lot of players are on and when fewer players are on MA J is always good but the arena is much harder in hell then the other servers but the rewards are great
I dont trade anymore. I see no point. I get my goods from warp grass where I cant be scammed, and I have all the rares I need. This is why there was not meant to be an economy. Because prices for most items were defined at the start, and we just started adding all these odd rules to suit how we wanted things to be priced. So now when people want to sell things for grass, people cry rip off and find a better deal because people think grass is now rare. I mean if this is net we are talking about then I always like to say this: We made the economy. So we made a trade system and we broke it. If it wasn't for the many rules we put on the items, we would still be trading.
Once you build up a network of known good traders (Eg. megador for wood) you don't really need to spam in chat for much more Unfortunately rich players come in and completely skew the economy by doing crazy once-off deals that then set precedent for others who can't afford those prices. Eg. A desperate Skygod pays 10 diamonds for a DC of Oak Logs to a random 50 donor. As a result? That 50 donor decides never to sell wood for less than that again.
Thats basically over paying because they need someone to trade. People usually state if they are over paying, but sometimes people need common sense and remember that they were over paid. Usually a rich donor wouldn't put crazy prices on low cost items like saplings... they over pay on grass, diamonds and ridiculously large amount of building materials. Remember that this is what i mean when i say influential player made the economy and people like me who chose to become on of the higher ranks is being blamed for the destruction of an economy that wasnt meant to exist. All I can say is majority of the players want to trade and cant due to rules that were set up by influential players
It's all about greed though, in my example above, the lucky player who got 10 diamonds is likely to want to "hold" their next DC of logs incase another 10 diamond deal comes by rather than sell it for the going rate, thus preventing trades. If they weren't that greedy and just decided to make a fair profit on their effort, then we wouldn't be in this situation. It does take 2 hands to clap.
I agree that we made the economy but I also think that the economy and community is what makes the server fun. I personally for a long time considered it as an economy server. That's also why they made the kits. To get a boost in this playermade economy. So it may not have started like this but it sure evolved into it.
To add on to what I said before, the server is just aging and evolving. Over time there is more players, more donations being made, more items being given because of it, and all of that influences the trading system dramatically. (Knowing this will not happen, and also partially not wanting it to happen myself) I think if the server were to reset (Ignoring the fact that many players may leave), the economy would be back to the way it used to be, where trading is active (The way you seem to prefer).
