A rant about BUMPING in the Adverts section

DeBurca

Has any body noticed the epidemic that is BUMPING that has spread through the adverts forum?
Over the last few week it has gone out of all proportion
Comments like 135 viewing and no reply or anybody 5 hours after the last reply, inane comments all to keep ones add at the top of the pile,
Other methods are post a new thread, 4 hours late add extra photos 3 hours later will consider trades and then a whole 4-5 hours later the BUMP and the day after BUMPY BUMPY or is it BUMP
Another poster and this is genius as he deleted his post 5-6 hours later, he was able to do this because nobody had posted in the mean time and then posted the very same post but because it was now a new post in theory with a new time index went to the top of the pile this was done on 3 occasions, I wish I had thought of that one myself as I said genius some real lateral thinking (yes you know who you are)

The most blatant case so far happen today a wee while ago a poster advertises a sale at 17.40 he is answered at 18.11 and replies at 18.17 which gets an answer at 18.20and replied to at 18.25 which is further answered at 18.29 and then the OP goes Bumety Bump a whole 6 minutes later at 18.35 to really keep at the top of the pile
On the many occasions that I have sold stuff on this forum I have abided by both the rules and spirit of this forum as I saw my add go from page 1 to page 2 but I still did not engage is this shameless BUMPIMG of my own thread, I have to admit I would have loved to have done so but so far I have resisted the temptation to do so
It is hard to resist as others do it and are not halted in this practice by the powers that be
But for now I will bite the Bullet and obey the rules

Here ended the rant

MerryDespot

Just out of curiosity DeBurca, why does this get to you? Aside from the rules I mean.

For me I don't see it being a pain (again, rules aside) as long as it's not the same person posting the same thing (or bumping the day it's posted or posting "there's got to be someone?!" on a want thread a couple of hours after posting).

As long as it's not overdone I don't find it annoying.

swiftblade

I don't find it too bad either but what i don't want to see happen is people competing for the top stop. Sort of a "bumping race" .That would be hell :eek:

MagicIRL

I can't help but read "Another poster and this is genius as he deleted his post 5-6 hours later, he was able to do this because nobody had posted in the mean time and then posted the very same post but because it was now a new post in theory with a new time index went to the top of the pile this was done on 3 occasions, I wish I had thought of that one myself as I said genius some real lateral thinking (yes you know who you are)" and think me!

I dont see it as a problem - Bumping been around for as long as forums. Alls fair when trying to sell and item. To be fair - Bumping your thread to hope to make a sale is doing nothing but increasing your chances since most people wont look past the first 2/3 pages of the Adverts section anyway.

Edit: I bump my current VFC AK74N advert every day, since it drops to the 3/4th page over night. I dont see it as being wrong when all Im trying to do is make some money and help a boardsie get a lovely AEG out of it

Blazer

adverts rules are one bump per 24 hours...unfortunately not everyone plays fair in life

MerryDespot

Personally I tend to ignore any threads that are bouncing the the top thanks to bumping - if I see lots of new posts by the OP I just ignore it and skip past it....
Right - I'm just off now to bump my wanted thread for a helmet!
(the irony is not lost on me )

DeBurca

To those fo you who may now have read the charter let me quote it to you

11.No "bumping" - Bumping is keeping your own sale thread active at the top of the thread list by posting empty or non-informational posts. Some bumping will be tolerated, e.g., where it would conflict with the reposting rule above. An AMod may choose to ignore you bumping your thread, or they may not. If they do not, your thread will likely be locked, preventing further transaction, so it is recommended not to bump. We have prevented the Original Poster (OP) of an advert from replying to it for 24 hours UNLESS someone else has replied first. This forces no bumping for the first day. Please do not continue to bump your own thread every day. You may be banned for this.

I abide by the rules that are in force here,I dont like them but I will abide by them

J.D.R

I admit, I do like to bump, but the only time I do it in 6 hours is when I post an advert late one evening, and the next day it's disapeared to page 5.

Once you don't take the mic, I don't really mind it but, that might be because I do bump. If you don't I could see how infuriating you would get to see your post go lower and lower, and then 8 months later have a newbie post "Is this still available?" because he searched for an MP5

MerryDespot

J.D.R wrote: »

I admit, I do like to bump, but the only time I do it in 6 hours is when I post an advert late one evening, and the next day it's disapeared to page 5.

Once you don't take the mic, I don't really mind it but, that might be because I do bump. If you don't I could see how infuriating you would get to see your post go lower and lower, and then 8 months later have a newbie post "Is this still available?" because he searched for an MP5

This - more than bumping or any other rubbish - drives me crazy. Necro threads. Most are even obviously gone!

bullets

I've never sold or bought anything on adverts, but
people sure are lazy and dont take the time to browse when
looking for stuff. I will happily browse to several pages
just checking out what people have up for grabs and seeing
how deals are going and looking for bargains.

The only minor annoyance for me is when you get these poeple that desperetly want to sell but refuse to post the goods anyplace, or people that say "can meet ya in town"
for some reason assuming that everyone lives in Dublin City.

(Its a bit like back in the early days of BBS boards and IRC
where every American asked what state you were from not realising there was a world outside of of the USA)

~B

johnboyire

bump

MagicIRL

DeBurca wrote: »

To those fo you who may now have read the charter let me quote it to you

11.No "bumping" - Bumping is keeping your own sale thread active at the top of the thread list by posting empty or non-informational posts. Some bumping will be tolerated, e.g., where it would conflict with the reposting rule above. An AMod may choose to ignore you bumping your thread, or they may not. If they do not, your thread will likely be locked, preventing further transaction, so it is recommended not to bump. We have prevented the Original Poster (OP) of an advert from replying to it for 24 hours UNLESS someone else has replied first. This forces no bumping for the first day. Please do not continue to bump your own thread every day. You may be banned for this.

I abide by the rules that are in force here,I dont like them but I will abide by them

"Some bumping will be tolerated, e.g., where it would conflict with the reposting rule above." is in relation to the following:

10.Multiple threads / reposting - Do not post multiple threads offering the same item,no matter how long it has been since your last sale attempt. Do not post in multiple categories even if you feel that it belongs there - choose the single most relevant category.

If your bump means you don't do the above then its ok. So Im still abiding by the rules, as are you, even though I'm bumping my original topic daily/every 2 days. It just means I dont need to recreate a thread everytime my advert seeps into the depts of the Adverts back-log.

Lemming

MerryDespot wrote: »

This - more than bumping or any other rubbish - drives me crazy. Necro threads. Most are even obviously gone!

No account for users inability to read threads. But having said that, if something wasn't sold; it's a coin-toss based on how old the thread is really as to whether or not to post.

In the last year of my moderation of airsoft adverts, I came into a variant of "Oh noes, I'm on page two! QUICK!!! TO the BUMP-mobile!!", namely creating a whole new thread because users couldn't "find" their own thread (i.e. it wasn't on page one).

Tbh, I'd view bumping just because you're on page two after 24 hours to be a warning flag as a moderator. I used to be more lenient with people bumping say three/four times in a week for the first week, and then sliding the scale downwards after that, but users keep failing to grasp a really, really simple point * ...

..... if people are interested, they'll post. Further, if people are interested, they'll scroll past page one and perhaps page two and find your advert - and post.


* In fairness, this point is more addressed to serial-bumpers from week two & onwards

MerryDespot

True Lemming - but what really drives me cracked is a thread that has something like "sale agreed, to PMs" as the second last post followed six months later by Johnny Numb Nuts posting "offer asking". As you say, no accounting for people reading the thread. Does bug me though - but then again, I've never been reknowned for patience.

Lemming

MerryDespot wrote: »

True Lemming - but what really drives me cracked is a thread that has something like "sale agreed, to PMs" as the second last post followed six months later by Johnny Numb Nuts posting "offer asking". As you say, no accounting for people reading the thread. Does bug me though - but then again, I've never been reknowned for patience.

Sales do go south, and I'd consider it good practice (and avoiding necro posts), to say whether or not somethign was sold/picked-up/whatever by either the seller or buyer. It gives a very definite end to the matter. It's not mandatory, but there ye go.

DeBurca

O the good old days when Lemming was king, he may have been lousy but he was fair he was lousy to us all (no offence intended)

A person giving his thread a bump on a daily basis I can understand and tolerate, but it is the people who bump there threads either by using the BUMP method or worse the inane dribble such as anyone or no one 3 or 4 times in 24 hours are the ones that annoy me the most

I find as I am getting older I am turning in a very grumpy old man

Lemming

DeBurca wrote: »

O the good old days when Lemming was king, he may have been lousy but he was fair he was lousy to us all (no offence intended)

None taken. I consider that a compliment as it implies that (some) users could at least recognise that I tried my best to be impartial and non-biased rather than simply "out to get them". The best compliment I ever received was from Franc the manc when he said I may have been a cvnt as adverts moderator, but I was an equal opportunities cvnt

So thanks Franc & DeBurca, you did make me smile!

A person giving his thread a bump on a daily basis I can understand and tolerate, but it is the people who bump there threads either by using the BUMP method or worse the inane dribble such as anyone or no one 3 or 4 times in 24 hours are the ones that annoy me the most

I find as I am getting older I am turning in a very grumpy old man

Fixed the font colour there.

In all seriousness; bumping has been a contentious issue for all of boards.ie from day one so is not limited to airsoft adverts. There has always been a struggle to define a line between what is considered acceptable and excessive. It does come down a lot to the individual moderators at the end of the day as to whether or not five bumps is more excessive than four and the user's past behaviour and manner in which they go about it would also be taken into account.

Rule of thumb though; the less bumping the better (safer). If you find yourself wanting to post every twenty minutes, safe to say you need to turn your browser off for a while.

TheDoc

I frequently bump and I dont see a problem.

The stuff I tend to sell is good stuff and usually goes quick, but within a couple of hours I can find myself on page 2-3, overtaken by someone selling batteries while im trying to sell a gun.

Very few people actually go through the various pages, so bumping is just a necessity.

I havnt bumped my recent adverts post in a few weeks, think its around page 10-13 or so, are people honestly going to read that many pages of advertS?

I think not

ED E

Search...

DeBurca

TheDoc wrote: »

I frequently bump and I dont see a problem.

The stuff I tend to sell is good stuff and usually goes quick, but within a couple of hours I can find myself on page 2-3, overtaken by someone selling batteries while im trying to sell a gun.

Very few people actually go through the various pages, so bumping is just a necessity.

I havnt bumped my recent adverts post in a few weeks, think its around page 10-13 or so, are people honestly going to read that many pages of advertS?

I think not

Yes I too have bumped my own threads in the past and will still do, but usually after 2 or 3 days have passed
Unlike the guy today who bumped his own thread today 6 minutes after the last reply and 10 minutes after his own last post
Now call me picky but I believe this is OTT

Lemming

TheDoc wrote: »

I frequently bump and I dont see a problem.

The stuff I tend to sell is good stuff and usually goes quick, but within a couple of hours I can find myself on page 2-3, overtaken by someone selling batteries while im trying to sell a gun.

Very few people actually go through the various pages, so bumping is just a necessity.

I havnt bumped my recent adverts post in a few weeks, think its around page 10-13 or so, are people honestly going to read that many pages of advertS?

I think not

Lets look at it this way then. So you post an advert, and within a few hours it gets pushed back to page two because adverts is busy. First of all, considering what you personally put up for grabs Doc - anybody who is allergic to the [<< < > >>] buttons is an idiot - and secondly what gives you [the user] the right to insist that *your* thread takes precedence over others? The no-bumping clause is there to strike a balance for fair use, otherwise you're into the territory of unmoderated newsgroups. Do you really want to go there?

Another factor to consider is the following: everyone thinks that bumping is their god-given right and they simply have to be on top of page one because surely everyone wants what they want right? What's the upshot of that? Your thread, created that day gets pushed back because I can guaruantee that several of those other twenty bumps fall under 'excessive' or misusing the spirit of fair use.

Lets look at it another way; its' a slow day/week on adverts; you don't end up needing to bump for maybe a couple of days.

It's like watching a horde of people all wanting to get into a cinema, but everyone is pushing because they think they'll get in faster. Bumping is not a necessity; it's just another tool and like all tools can be (and is) abused. If somebody is bumping 'politely' (for want of a better term), there isn't a problem.

Inari

My thoughts:

If you want to bump your Advert, why not instead put the work in, and look at the other Adverts (wanted/sale), and post a link to yours (where applicable). That way you're sending traffic that's targetted.

Just my two cents. I find it preferrable to BUMP

Eo1n8wrd

Thats sort of why a sub thread for wanted ads was suggested, it would keep stuff from disappearing to page two or three because of a slew of "L96 wanted" or similar when five are being sold at that time.

Lemming

Eo1n8wrd wrote: »

Thats sort of why a sub thread for wanted ads was suggested, it would keep stuff from disappearing to page two or three because of a slew of "L96 wanted" or similar when five are being sold at that time.

No it wouldn't stop stuff from disappearing, because that's what happens to threads eventually, due to either forum activity or age.

Creating a new sub-forum because users are too lazy to read the forum is not a valid reason, and in any case it comes with a whole load of negative points which have already been mentioned here/elsewhere.

Eo1n8wrd

Lemming wrote: »

No it wouldn't stop stuff from disappearing, because that's what happens to threads eventually, due to either forum activity or age.

Creating a new sub-forum because users are too lazy to read the forum is not a valid reason, and in any case it comes with a whole load of negative points which have already been mentioned here/elsewhere.

correct it wouldn't stop it disappearing indefinately but it would mean that the thread would remain on page one for a good deal longer

thermo

in my opinion a bump is better than 5 threads all trying to sell the same sh1t sportsline m4!!!!!

DeBurca

I think most of you are missing the main point I am trying to make
The activity of a small few posters who will not abide by the rules as set out in the charter is having a detrimental effect on the other members of this forum who can follow the rules
Yes it is annoying when there are 5 or 6 of the same L96s for sale and then some twat comes in and places a wanted ad for L96, but he is at least doing nothing wrong other than being a pain in the naughty bits

My point is about those members who use the bump methods in all its many forms to keep their ad at the top of page 1 and thereby push the ads of others who follow the rules as set out in the charter and have not the cop on to see that most have seen their ad and nobody wants what they have on offer

Lemming

Eo1n8wrd wrote: »

correct it wouldn't stop it disappearing indefinately but it would mean that the thread would remain on page one for a good deal longer

This view folks, is why bumping is discouraged, as it goes firmly against the notion of fair-use imo.

thermo wrote: »

in my opinion a bump is better than 5 threads all trying to sell the same sh1t sportsline m4!!!!!

Which ain't allowed anyway thermo

You are right in thinking it's worse, since it does cause needless confusion and added clutter.

You'll find people maybe a few months later trying to sell the same thing, or other things along with it, but thread after thread because you can't "find" your own thread is a no-no and always has been.

sliabh

DeBurca wrote: »

I think most of you are missing the main point I am trying to make
The activity of a small few posters who will not abide by the rules as set out in the charter is having a detrimental effect on the other members of this forum who can follow the rules

So if you see a person excessively bumping, you report them. As it is against the charter, if nothing happens, then this means it's a moderation issue.

Is the problem here a lack of moderation activity then?

TheDoc

Lemming wrote: »

Lets look at it this way then. So you post an advert, and within a few hours it gets pushed back to page two because adverts is busy. First of all, considering what you personally put up for grabs Doc - anybody who is allergic to the [<< < > >>] buttons is an idiot - and secondly what gives you [the user] the right to insist that *your* thread takes precedence over others? The no-bumping clause is there to strike a balance for fair use, otherwise you're into the territory of unmoderated newsgroups. Do you really want to go there?

Another factor to consider is the following: everyone thinks that bumping is their god-given right and they simply have to be on top of page one because surely everyone wants what they want right? What's the upshot of that? Your thread, created that day gets pushed back because I can guaruantee that several of those other twenty bumps fall under 'excessive' or misusing the spirit of fair use.

Lets look at it another way; its' a slow day/week on adverts; you don't end up needing to bump for maybe a couple of days.

It's like watching a horde of people all wanting to get into a cinema, but everyone is pushing because they think they'll get in faster. Bumping is not a necessity; it's just another tool and like all tools can be (and is) abused. If somebody is bumping 'politely' (for want of a better term), there isn't a problem.

I dont think I'd dispute the point, your perfectly right and your statements on what gives me the right is also true.

However, as an internet user for a long time and a user of multiple for sale forums as such, I know to sell things, I need to keep it pecked on the first 1-3 pages, as I'm sure you well know.

So whilst the idea of self bump may be immoral or wrong, I personally am not interested cause I'm trying to get a sale.

Who here can honestly tell me that someone will search " M16VN Custom build" somehow I'd say 1 in like 2000 people.

Where as keeping it current, means the tyre kickers and browsers might just stumble on in, have a nosey and maybe buy, where otherwise they just wouldnt.

Frank the Manc

My opinion is there is an influx of too many clowns putting up useless wanted ads instead of searching so things go down to the bottom of the pile very quickly.

A lot of forums dont allow bumping unless new info is being given, I try to stick to that myself, which can be frustrating.

I know a wanted/trade subsection wouldnt lessen the overall traffic but it would make it easier on the sellers, actually trying to sell instead on people wasting space in the for sale section.

MagicIRL

Sure why not separate the Adverts into Wanted / For Sale / For Trade sub sections with another sub section for AEG, GBB, Pistol, Equipment, Other - That would allow for alot less bumping and a wider variety of sales.

Leftyflip

No no no no no no! There are far too many sub-forums already, they make my head hurt, can we just keep it as it is?

Dread-Lock

Or we could have sub forums in the adverts sub forum .

DeBurca

Lefty is correct leave it alone its grand as it is
What the forum needs is for people do obey the rules or be made do so

andy_g

I have been reading thru this thread and agree with some posts. However as a user i think we have enough sub forums but i am looking at this as constructive critisim. Remember we are here to keep you guys happy and if you want to see less bumps we will try to keep it that way to the best of our ability.
Andy

Lemming

TheDoc wrote: »

So whilst the idea of self bump may be immoral or wrong, I personally am not interested cause I'm trying to get a sale.

I don't consider bumping immoral or wrong, but it does need kept in check for the very reason you've just posted above; you're not interested in fair use or anybody else since you want to get a sale. Imagine if everyone else had the same view and bumping wasn't policed; adverts wouldn't work. Simple as.

It's all about balance.

Who here can honestly tell me that someone will search " M16VN Custom build" somehow I'd say 1 in like 2000 people.

I never said people would use the search feature. And yuo'd be right, the number of users who'd do that is slim to none. But users will navigate past page one if they've any lick of sense.

TheDoc

Lemming wrote: »

I never said people would use the search feature.

Was more aimed at lethal bullet

I hope this doesnt bring up some " cull" of bumping to a point of silly moderation. I don't think its a huge problem once its not blatantly stupid.

I would however say the following.

Users having lots of gear to sell, starting a new thread for each item. Thats epic lame and so annoying. Those threads should be merged.

Obvious bumping tactics are lame. By lame I mean if someone does it more then once a day. Every 24 hours wouldnt bother me, if anything it highlights the topic to see things that are fresh.

Another subforum for wanted gear isnt a bad idea. It lets people firstly search there as a seller to see if someone might have interest. might end up making the sale without creating a thread titled for sale.

Wanted thread posters should be encouraged to use the search function, post, wait for replies before making their wanted threads. A mod should also keep tabs, if a wanted thread poster has other threads to look at for sale stuff, close their thread, end it with some links to the for sale threads relevant and let them know next time to search.

I get serious lols when I hear people getting upset of more subforums, cant ever understand the worry.

A "Wanted" subforum would defo clear alot of the mess.

Also perhaps having ended threads deleted or locked? How annoying is it searching ads to see stuff thats sold. Adverts.ie allows a user lock when the sale is done, we dont.

Perhaps put something in place? The seller needs to pm a mod with link saying sold, please close???

Maybe reporting the post would be fasterjust saying " ad finished, close"?


As a priority I'd love to see

"Wanted" sub forum or culling of amount of stupid ones
Finished sales closed/locked/deleted

Inari

Lemming made the point that splitting wanted and for sale sections greatly reduces traffic, and is a very fair point. It means you'll get far less impulse buying which will reduce the chance of the oh so important sale.

Blazer

I agree with closing off the adverts that have items sold.

Andy..is there any option you can enable where the original poster can close his thread?

Lemming

Sc@recrow wrote: »

I agree with closing off the adverts that have items sold.

Andy..is there any option you can enable where the original poster can close his thread?

Threads are not closed for a reason; which seems to escape most users. Namely if there is a problem, there is no comeback to the thread.

If threads are finished, there'll be no more activity on them and they'll fall further and further back into the forum thread-list.

Job done. No moderation needed either way.

MagicIRL

How about a grace period of a week to report an issues in the thread? That would be long enough for any user to find out that his AEG is not firing or borken in some way.

Lemming

MagicIRL wrote: »

How about a grace period of a week to report an issues in the thread? That would be long enough for any user to find out that his AEG is not firing or borken in some way.

Who keeps track of grace periods? If the feature doesn't exist, it then also has to be developed by the boards.ie dev team.

What if post is taking a while and it goes beyond the week?

What if someone simply doesn't have net access for a week for whatever reason?

Why reinvent the wheel for the sake of reinventing the wheel?

Inari

What about keeping the thread open, however appending the title with [Deal Done] at the start. That way you can ignore it, but if you have a problem you can sort it out on thread

MagicIRL

Lemming wrote: »

Who keeps track of grace periods? If the feature doesn't exist, it then also has to be developed by the boards.ie dev team.

As for keep track of the grace period, that would fall to the thread owner. After the week is up, He/She then reports it to a Mod to be locked.

The Dev. team can sleep safely knowing they dont have any work to do (My god imagine if they had to make something to improve an aspect of a forum! oh no!)

What if post is taking a while and it goes beyond the week?

A week was just a suggestion. It could be longer if needed.

What if someone simply doesn't have net access for a week for whatever reason?

Im sure that during every deal, somewhere in the middle of the transactions, mobile numbers are exchanged. Got no net for a week? Get off yer arse and ring the seller and let him know the problems.

Why reinvent the wheel for the sake of reinventing the wheel?

No-ones reinventing the wheel. That would be stupid.

Lemming

Inari wrote: »

What about keeping the thread open, however appending the title with [Deal Done] at the start. That way you can ignore it, but if you have a problem you can sort it out on thread

Editing the title requires moderator intervention at that point anyway. The point of leaving threads open is that they simply die gracefully (necro-posts notwithstanding which are fairly rare on balance)

The simplest, easiest approach to all of this is for users to post saying "deal done", "cheers for that", "I am thrilled pinkelydinkelydo", etc. so that anybody who comes in afterwards is under no illusion as to what is what. Instead of that simple idea, we have people trying to reinvent the wheel by coming up with arguably more complex processes to do the exact same thing.

MagicIRL wrote: »

As for keep track of the grace period, that would fall to the thread owner. After the week is up, He/She then reports it to a Mod to be locked.

Unworkable, unreliable. Requires moderator intervention.

The Dev. team can sleep safely knowing they dont have any work to do (My god imagine if they had to make something to improve an aspect of a forum! oh no!)

Speaking professionally, that attitude will earn you no favours and a very highly probable "FOAD, preferably painfully" as a response by any developer (myself included). You have no idea of what workload they have in front of them, nor how much change is involved. It is often the most trivial of changes "that can't be that hard to change, surely" that can cause the most grieve and be incredibly difficult to actually implement. Maybe this change would be difficult, maybe it wouldn't, but your attitude in that regard stinks to high-heaven.

No-ones reinventing the wheel.

That's what you're asking for ...

MagicIRL

I understand how the Dev team works - But Im sick of reading posts (not just on this forum) where people knock an idea away (And Im not saying you are) Just ebcause it would envolve a change from the Dev team.

But whatever, Im rather impartial to the whole adverts thing. Whatever keep the masses happy - go with it.

The_Joker

In adverts why not make the pages longer and move the inactive/finished ads/threads to a sub category?

Lemming

The_Joker wrote: »

In adverts why not make the pages longer and move the inactive/finished ads/threads to a sub category?

Users have the option to show however many threads per page that they want already and have done since way back when.

A sub-cat for finished ads is a toss up for argument. On the plus side, there's likely to be little effect on through-traffic given the ads are already finished, but you still come back to the issue of moderator intervention.

The current practice of allowing threads simply degrade 'gracefully' is - imho - the best solution/balance available with the only caveat that users should be marking the status of their adverts which they are supposed to do anyway I might point out. Thus, the users have full control (in so much as usres have full control) over what's going on with their adverts, anybody looking in is under no illusions as to the state of play, and the moderators do not have additional work to carry out.

The only suggestion I can put forward that doesn't somehow already exist within the rules and/or have any discernable effect, would be to prevent 101 "wanted AEG; any AEG" threads is to put a post count limiter on who can create threads; but that is a retro-grade step imo (and a non-runner in my eyes) as it denies genuine first-timers as well as the muppet first-timers who can't read simple instruction.

At the end of the day, if people put their suggestions to the admin team; they'll either yay/nay the request. If you've got good reasoning behind it, you'll likely be successful in getting approval for change. I'm a retired moderator so it's not my decision to make, and the points I'm raising come from a historical moderation context and likely points that will be raised for you to answer.

Flanders536

Regarding Dead threads being revived by new users.

1: I don't think it happens enough to warrant a sub forum.

2: Mods would then need to find a way to know when a thread is finished/old enough to go into that sub forum.

Question: how can they tell when a user has finished with his wanted thread or a deal is finally complete?

Answer: The user would post sale complete/not looking any more, But are they not supposed to be doing this anyway, so a sub forum just adds onto the work load for the mods with no real benefits to the users.

As for a separate forum for [Wanted] Adds, Im not sure separating the wanted from F/S would be good as we are always going to have new peopel to the forums that will not read the charter and other who will make honest mistakes. So why make it more confusing for the new comers

This is just my 2cents

Flanders536
Mark.

The_Joker

Lemming wrote: »

Users have the option to show however many threads per page that they want already and have done since way back when.

A sub-cat for finished ads is a toss up for argument. On the plus side, there's likely to be little effect on through-traffic given the ads are already finished, but you still come back to the issue of moderator intervention.

The current practice of allowing threads simply degrade 'gracefully' is - imho - the best solution/balance available with the only caveat that users should be marking the status of their adverts which they are supposed to do anyway I might point out. Thus, the users have full control (in so much as usres have full control) over what's going on with their adverts, anybody looking in is under no illusions as to the state of play, and the moderators do not have additional work to carry out.

The only suggestion I can put forward that doesn't somehow already exist within the rules and/or have any discernable effect, would be to prevent 101 "wanted AEG; any AEG" threads is to put a post count limiter on who can create threads; but that is a retro-grade step imo (and a non-runner in my eyes) as it denies genuine first-timers as well as the muppet first-timers who can't read simple instruction.

At the end of the day, if people put their suggestions to the admin team; they'll either yay/nay the request. If you've got good reasoning behind it, you'll likely be successful in getting approval for change. I'm a retired moderator so it's not my decision to make, and the points I'm raising come from a historical moderation context and likely points that will be raised for you to answer.

I agree with you regarding the amount of threads already viewable per page being an option per user I meant increase the amount from the standard allowed 40 per page to possibly 60 or more therefore having less posters bumping their threads.

Flanders536 wrote: »

Regarding Dead threads being revived by new users.

1: I don't think it happens enough to warrant a sub forum.

2: Mods would then need to find a way to know when a thread is finished/old enough to go into that sub forum.

Question: how can they tell when a user has finished with his wanted thread or a deal is finally complete?

Answer: The user would post sale complete/not looking any more, But are they not supposed to be doing this anyway, so a sub forum just adds onto the work load for the mods with no real benefits to the users.

As for a separate forum for [Wanted] Adds, Im not sure separating the wanted from F/S would be good as we are always going to have new peopel to the forums that will not read the charter and other who will make honest mistakes. So why make it more confusing for the new comers

This is just my 2cents

Flanders536
Mark.

I suppose one answer to avoiding a sub forum for dead/inactive threads would be give the OP the option to close the thread when the thread is either complete or no longer valid, similar to adverts.ie.

The header text could go from e.g

For Sale - M4 CQB SD and other bits to For Sale - M4 CQB SD and other bits