Rules for classifieds... do you want them?

velocio whats it gonna be?

Continued indecision.

make a decision and stick to it. nothing worse than a fence sitter. this forum has always been forward.

I'm putting some stuff up for sale today.............which way should I go?

I really like the 'one post then PM' idea, might just try that out (though obviously people could still post on it)

Everybody could make their own rules: If you don't want people posting in your For Sale thread why don't you just say it. Something like "PMs only".

On another note: I'm planning to do my CompSci summer project on the forum. I will write a natural language parser that scans the Classifieds section and will spit out an eBay style listing of each item for sale rather than a list of threads. Users of the forum wouldn't need to do anything to be listed; the goal is that the program can understand what you have said and will extract all the information and categorise the items.

make a decision and stick to it. nothing worse than a fence sitter. this forum has always been forward.

Doing nothing is still a valid decision, it may not have been your choice but it's still a decision.

And contrary to belief, my every waking moment is not consumed by thinking about the best way to run the classifieds. I also do not like to be rushed into anything. I like it sitting in the back of my mind whilst I ponder all of the possible pitfalls and shortcomings.

None of the proposed options look like they fundamentally solve the numerous concerns people have with the wild west system we have. But a few help a bit. As for the one post and no-one can respond... I'm not really in favour of that at all, questions should be able to be asked, discussions should be possible... we are a forum afterall, more than we are eBay or something.

I'll continue to think about it, and that is a decision for the meantime.

I'm reminded of an economics essay I read entitled, "Doing nothing is an option". It's a good read, if I had the time to go find it for you I would.

"it's easy to do nothing!"
DB '09

how about a guide to posting a For Sale ad (that pops up automatically when ppl go to post). Its all well and good having Sticky's but lots of ppl don't read them.

...I'll continue to think about it, and that is a decision for the meantime.

And so it came to pass...V is right, he is consulting. The length of the consultation wasn't specified.

For now... the only change is this:

Some extra items of information will appear alongside the user profile of the first post of a thread within the classifieds section.

A minor change. But the major decision is to decide against dogsballs idea. I don't agree with the view that to police classifieds we should remove the ability to the forum to constructively criticise or question in public anything. To me that goes the wrong way, and places an unnecessary burden on me to act on reported items, and takes us a step towards moderation and the site being a "published" entity rather than a "communications service".

I do like the idea of meta-data... such as "£ (or O.N.O)" and even things that help people search for things and get a better idea of what they're expecting.

I also like the idea of a more formalised dibs system. Something that is meaningful and provides notification and feedback to both seller and those interested... on an opt-in system by the seller of course.

However both of those ideas require coding, and the way that they need coding has a dependency on something else I'm thinking about for the reviews stuff... which means it's a big pile of code that can wait until I've coherently thought it all through.

investigation of these users pls

http://www.londonfgss.com/search.php?searchid=2527757

http://www.londonfgss.com/search.php?searchid=2527761

oh and long live the bump, its perfectly fair thing to do but only once a day max. i hadn't seen this thread and it was four days old as i wasn't on when people were posting

Those links have expired for me. Who were they about?

one post, people can update info on thread if people pm the person.

I like this idea.

Oh and delete "Classified" threads which just link to someone's fucking eBay auction.

good move velocio and +1 pifko

I like this idea.

Oh and delete "Classified" threads which just link to someone's fucking eBay auction.

Report shit like that and I will.

I don't proactively monitor or moderate anything... if something is amiss then report it.

Personally I'm getting fed up with the growing number of "fishing expeditions".
The current Hetchins frame sale being a case in point.
Are these kind of sellers hoping a forumger will offer them something ridiculous?
Or do they genuinely not know what it's worth?
I suspect the former which is why I think it should be stopped if possible.
All classifieds should have a price or invite offers above a certain price.

Personally I'm getting fed up with the growing number of "fishing expeditions".
The current Hetchins frame sale being a case in point.
Are these kind of sellers hoping a forumger will offer them something ridiculous?
Or do they genuinely not know what it's worth?
I suspect the former which is why I think it should be stopped if possible.
All classifieds should have a price or invite offers above a certain price.

Hmm yes, that is worrying.

For me, classifieds were always friends selling to friends. When it's beyond that, go use eBay.

I feel inclined to add another nursery type obstacle for new classifieds threads... say 50 posts and 3 months membership... would that work?

Hmm yes, that is worrying.

For me, classifieds were always friends selling to friends. When it's beyond that, go use eBay.

I feel inclined to add another nursery type obstacle for new classifieds threads... say 50 posts and 3 months membership... would that work?

i think we should have a rep system in the classified section,

is there a way that it can be done?

Not really. Either rep system is on everywhere... or it is off everywhere.

Currently it's on everywhere, but only the sender and receiver sees stuff, and you can't see someone else's history.

It may very well be worth considering resetting the entire rep system, making it visible to all, and then re-opening it to everyone. But this would work over all posts and not just classifieds.

Not really. Either rep system is on everywhere... or it is off everywhere.

Currently it's on everywhere, but only the sender and receiver sees stuff, and you can't see someone else's history.

It may very well be worth considering resetting the entire rep system, making it visible to all, and then re-opening it to everyone. But this would work over all posts and not just classifieds.

so theres no way of doing a star stystem like on ebay then about efficiency of delivery and pick up or quality of the product being sold or bought and how close to its description it was......although it should be quite rightly an open market, there should still be some sort professional outlook to it as well shouldnt there?
This regulatory process neednt apply to stuff outside of the classifieds section as this would change the nature of the forum and end up like a silly popularity contest as it was before when i first come on here. It should exist only within the area where money and promise is being exchanged.

I don't want rules for classified. Makes it to complicated. Except the bump for a price drop maybe.

Does anyone know the b3ta rules for noobs? Pretty sensible, everyone gets an L plate for a while and can't post for the first week. Or something.

so theres no way of doing a star stystem like on ebay then about efficiency of delivery and pick up or quality of the product being sold or bought and how close to its description it was......although it should be quite rightly an open market, there should still be some sort professional outlook to it as well shouldnt there?
This regulatory process neednt apply to stuff outside of the classifieds section as this would change the nature of the forum and end up like a silly popularity contest as it was before when i first come on here. It should exist only within the area where money and promise is being exchanged.

Strangely, we're not eBay.

hmmmm was just a thought........ also thought that the classifieds would become more of a serious place to do business, rather than a casual thing....

I don't mind the idea of a review system, what I object to is the whole dispute resolution side of it.

I've found a vBulletin modification for eBay style reviews... but what to do when disputes occur?

Still on the fishing expeditions... I do like the whole "£ or O.N.O." rather than just taking closed bids or offers via PMs. People know roughly what they want, and this does open the door to the "bumps = price drops" too. Seems more natural in some ways.

So... classifieds... how do we feel about:
1) 1st post has more details.
2) No price = no advert.
3) A seller review system, but without dispute resolution procedures.

This would be a big change from what is there today, and most likely will result in people being slapped around whilst they get used to putting a price up all the time.

Quite how this works for people like me who never know the value of what we sell, well... I don't know.