I dont think it would be "better". I think it would be more enjoyable though for those of us that can hold a conversation and whos status isn't based on a join date or collection threads. Jsp is a place where a certain type of people seek a certain type of attention to achieve a certain status and a place where you will get a warning if your opinion goes against the grain. The people that would enjoy the old style of trading have simply grown up and moved on OR join jsp and put up with the communities politics so they can carry on with what they have going on, in game.

good question

There isn’t a very good medium of exchange in the game itself. People tried with runes but those can be duped. Jsp provides the people with forum gold as the medium of exchange, which makes it easier to obtain items. It would take forever to get items with the shitty barter system. Therefore D2 would not be better off without jsp.

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Need shacko Offer ist rune
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Spam this in trade channel #4 until someone wisper you.

Idk. But all I know is that the stigma that pvp realms are trash should stop. Not everyone has time to farm gear and using a realm with perf gear doesn't make anyone any more or less skillful.

if people tried to trade items for fg from here on the current official b.net forums en masse, would they do anything about it?

Fg ruined d2 and it is also reason why ppl have 400 bots.

See I feel like it definitely has added to the amount of botters on d2. Although I think people would have found a way without jsp.

Would be nice to see boycotting of anni farmers and things like that, but it would take a community that stands together, in which JSP falls flat in that department.

Unless they lifted the restrictions to battle net jsp has saved the game

Bold assertion. For this to be true, you'd expect bots to be useless and mostly non-existent before jsp. Which they weren't, you had thousands of them, and people sold items for real money.
Forum gold is a currency, just the same as dollars. And if there was no jsp, you'd have other sites using other currencies to exchange items.
So if in all situations selling items for currency is going to happen, what does jsp bring which we can critique?
I'd say that's the way people trade using jsp, which is far better and convenient compared to waiting ingame for trades.

Short answer: No jsp didn't ruin d2.

hahahaha

do you remember when you wanted to trade tal-rasha armor and someone tried to trick you by changing armor to rattlecage?

happend to me...